Hello All!!
I hope everyone has had a great start to the new year. Again, sorry for the delay in posts, I was going to wait until after my 3 month IST (in service training) but I spoke to my parents and they made me feel guilty for not writing in a while so I thought I would write a quick little update.
I have been in the Dominican Republic for 5 months now and in my community for 3 months. Somedays it feels longer and some days it feels shorter. Either way, I am happy, healthy (I think) and I am feeling at home more and more each day. I think these blog posts are getting harder because my everyday happenings don't seem as significant to me anymore. Sleeping in a mosquito net, fetching water, showering with a bucket and waking up to roosters all seem like the norm to me so I am having a harder time thinking of things to write about.
Two of my friends from college, Emily & Jason, recently got married. I was supposed to be part of their October wedding but I received my invitation to serve in the Dominican Republic, leaving in August, so unfortunately I was unable to attend. Well, the two newlyweds decided to come to the Dominican Republic for their honeymoon and, well, I crashed it. Just kidding, they invited me. So I took a quick little trip to visit them in Punta Cana which is in the East, a couple of hours from me. It was so great seeing them! The whole thing was surreal, it was their honeymoon, I hadn't seen them in months, we were in the Caribbean and also on my new stomping grounds! The point of this story is that my life here seems normal, so normal that when I was visiting them at an amazing resort, I forgot that you can flush toilet paper down toilets, or even that toilets flush (I threw my TP in the trash-can). It was a perfect little getaway though and my fingers are crossed that they both don't think I am a savage. So, an amazing meal, two hot showers and a hangover later, I went back to my campo life filled with creek water, dirt roads and spanish!
Thanks Emily & Jason!
I have been spending the past month finishing interviews in my community and working on my project for 3 month IST. On February 1st my whole group will be meeting to present our communities and learn lots of other important stuff, so they say. I am looking forward to seeing everyone in my group again and getting this presentation over with. I am bringing someone from my community to present with me, her name is Mami and she has been helping me with the diagnostic. I feel weird calling her Mami, I don't even call my own mom that (obviously) but I don't know her real name and have never heard anyone call her anything but Mami. I need to figure out what to call her during my presentation, I don't know if Mami is going to fly. Mami and I have to give a 15 minute presentation on my community. It should be pretty entertaining and I will let everyone know how it goes!
More importantly, I found myself a house. I actually didn't look very hard, my Dona kind of just started painting it and told me I was living there and I said ok. It is next door to her and I had never noticed it before. I am going to move in after I get back from IST, that means moving my belongings 10 yards away and going to the city to buy myself a bed and a stove - if I'm lucky. It makes me laugh, every time I walk by it, I kind of chuckle. I think I am laughing AT it, not WITH it. It is divided into two parts, one for sleeping and one for everything else. Off the back of the house (my bedroom) I have an area to shower. I don't have a toilet/latrine so that is going to be interesting, I guess I am just delaying the inevitable. In case any of you were wondering, I have an open door policy (for Americans) and am now taking reservations, so purchase those plane tickets, I only charge $1 USD/night and you get to share a bed with me free of charge.
All of the kids are counting down the days for me to move out. As of now, my Dona does a good job at keeping the kids from charging into my room, they still throw rocks at my windows and scream my name until I come outside but I am lucky to have her. That being said, I am a little nervous about how excited everyone is and how I am going to manage it. Between my IPod, my computer and my Dr. Dre Beats headphones, I have some pretty cool gadgets they would all love to get their little hands on. I need to set up some rules. I am picturing a mad house for the first week or so and I was told I need to buy a set of 15 dishes so I can feed everyone that is over, whatever that means. Below are some pictures, they aren't that great, but they are all I have for now. I will put some more up once I am moved in.
The Front yard.
The other side.
The back (bedroom) and shower.
My modest, blue house.
I know you all want to get away from the snowy states so remember you have free lodging in the Dominican Republic for the next two years, great accommodations and clean/hot bucket showers!!
That sums it up for now, thanks for reading and thanks for the comments, I thoroughly enjoy them and always look forward to reading them. Hope everyone is well and I miss and think about you all each and every day. xoxo
