4. My placement!!

Hola!!!

I have some news to share with you all....I found out where I'll be spending the next two years in the Dominican Republic!  I'll start by giving you a run down about how they told each of us.  This past Friday was an extremely long day.  We had spanish class, then found out our placements, and after lunch we had a test, we had to give feedback, we then had a few lectures from a current volunteer and then we had to meet with our nurse.  The day started at 8am and we did not finish until about 8pm, after our meetings we went to a volunteers house to have dinner for her birthday, it was a LONG day!  Back to our placements - the youth director, Adele, came up the mountain to tell each of us where we will be living and a brief overview of our projects.  The process was a bit nerve wracking.  There were chairs set up in a circle with one in the middle.  Whomever was in the middle was told where they will be going and each person was given two minutes to receive as much information about their site as possible.  They then put a tac on the map and the person in the middle then picked a star that had another persons name on it.  We did this for all 25 people.  I was second to last so it was a long hour waiting to have my two minutes!

Adele, the youth leader, giving placements.

Your one and only hearing her placement.

My name and site.  R is for RURAL, N is for NO PREVIOUS VOLUNTEER, 50/225 is for 50 HOMES and 225 PEOPLE!

The map w/ my tac, top left!

I am going to a place called Los Vasquez.  Below is a picture of my tac on the map but it is difficult to see, I am the white tac in the upper left corner.  Los Vasquez is in the East, I believe it is around an area called Hato Mayor.  I've tried to search for it on the computer but have not had much luck.  This is what I do know in terms of location: it is about an hour, hour and a half, North of La Romana which is on the Southern Coast.  I am about two hours from the capital, Santo Domingo and I believe I am about an hour and a half to two hours from Punta Cana which is on the East Coast.  I hear Punta Cana is a great place to vacation for all of you who are going to come visit me!!  Either way, the country is small enough so nothing is too far!  As you can see from my picture of the map (kind of), I am a little isolated from some of the other white tacs.  The white tacs are only people in my group that are also in the youth sector.  I am not sure how close I will be to another volunteer but I would guess about 30 minutes away via bike - if and when I get a bike.

Here are the few details I know about my site, I am doing a bit of speculating because as I said, we were all only given about two minutes of information.  Los Vasquez is an extremely small community which they call a "campo".  There are only 50 homes and 225 people, I keep trying to compare this number to something but I am having a difficult time.  I am thinking the town itself is a little bigger than the cul-de-sac I live on in St. Louis, it has about 40 more people than my graduating highschool class, the whole campo could fit in a SMALL lecture hall at KU and it is probably about the same size as a few of the parties we threw at my college house, 1212!  It is hard to put into perspective and I am juggling these numbers but either way, it is tiny!  I believe I am in one of the smaller placements so each volunteer will have a different experience.  My community has been promised a volunteer for three years, that is a tall order!  I can picture it now,  my community will be soooo excited for me to arrive and little do they know, the volunteer they are 

getting will barely be able to communicate with the..."hola, me llamo Libby"...silence, more silence and more silence!  It will be interesting to say the least!  Good thing I have gotten my practice with awkward situations!  Although my introduction to all 225 people in my community may be brief, I will have a big smile on my face and I know they will be so excited to have me there for the next two years!  Ok, moving on, I got the impression that my project will have a lot of opportunities to work with sports.  I was told that they really want to build a sports facility and just recently they bought land for this.  At this point I would like to share a phone conversation I had with my beloved mother when I was telling her about my placement and this newly purchased land!

Me: I guess they bought land in the past few months and I am supposed to build a sports facility or just lay a concrete slab for a basketball court or something, I don't really know...just a place for them to play soccer, volleyball and basketball or something.

My mom:  Ok great, we can do that!  Let me know when to send the brothers down - They can knock that out in a week!

Me:  Mom, I think I am supposed to build it with the community and it will take a while.  I don't think I hire a construction team or my brothers to come to the DR to knock it out in a week!

My mom:  Ok, either way, we will make your campo just perfect!

I have no doubt about this, especially with all of the support from all of you back home!  Hopefully over time I can start a sports team or two... perhaps a girls volleyball team and maybe a boys basketball team if I can gain their respect by draining a few three pointers....only time will tell and I would not put money on that happening!

Here are a few other projects that were mentioned in my two minutes: 

Escojo - Escojo is a youth group that focus' on sexual education.  Peace Corps started this years ago and it is one of the most popular projects and there is a lot of support through Peace Corps.  The point is to give informative charlas on different topics to the group in hopes to graduate all of the members and they will then become "multipliers" of the information.  Escojo is one of the few projects that recieve funding and the Peace Corps puts on both a regional and a national conference!  It is very clear that the kids here are hungry for the information.  Speaking of Escojo, our last spanish presentation was based on an Escojo charla.  My group did our presentation on gender vs. sex, we did it for our community and this past Monday we went to the highschool and presented it to the students (all in spanish)!  It was really fun and they seemed to love it!

Ok, back to my placement.  There was also brief mention of a Sala de Tarea which is sort of an after school program.  It is a chance to get a small group of children and teach and work with them using alternative ways of learning (something different than copying words off the board) by doing arts and crafts, playing games etc.
 I was also told that the first lady opened a technology center in a neighboring pueblo which may be a good place to do computer classes and of course, use the internet.  

Here are a few last details... I was told that there is a river at the edge of my campo, this makes me a bit nervous because I am thinking they may have told me this because it will be my source of water...I just hope I have a toilet, knock on wood!!!  A current volunteer also told me that they have an extremely strong dialect.  Basically she said that they will be using words that don't exist and that I will not be able to find in the dictionary.  The advice I was given was "try not to pick up the campo dialect because when and if you go back to the states and get a job where spanish is involved, people will ask where the hell you learned spanish".  Great!

So that's the news about my project site!

I am still in Constanza for training.  We have about two more weeks left here.  I leave Constanza Saturday, October 16th and go back to Santo Domingo...that Tuesday, October 19th, I go visit my project site (alone) until Sunday.  I will bring all of my belongings and move into my third host families house.  Sunday, I return to Santo Domingo and we swear in that Wednesday, October 27th and then the real deal starts!!

Here are a few odds and ends:

-It has rained everyday for the past two weeks.

Me, Sara and Claire getting ready to go out in the rain!

Sara, Me and Stacy on a bola (hitching a ride in the back of a truck) in the rain.

-My spanish class is now on our fourth teacher.  I am still struggling a bit but it is coming along slowly.  I am going to have to fend on my own soon enough so it will come! 

- Speaking of Spanish, I am also struggling with my English these days.  I think my mind is so confused it is having a tough time deciphering which language is which.   Somedays I intermix both languages, it is weird. I would guess you may be able to tell from this blog post.

-I have recieved two cards!  It was great to get something from home.  I got them right after I found my placement so it was perfect timing!  Thanks June!!!

-My group went on a hike last weekend.  We hiked up the mountain and then hiked down to a river and swam.  It was freezing!  I did take a little tumble, I think it lasted a full minute.  I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants, it was a close call!

GuaGua ride to our hike.

Sara and I at some point of the hike.

Zach, Sara and I in the river. 

Myself and some other volunteers on our hike!

-I have spoken to a few people back home and there were some questions about my address.  My address is posted on the right hand side of my blog.  The packages will be sent to this address even when I am at my permanent location so that is the one to use.  If there are any changes, I will let you all know.

-I've been helping my Dona learn English.  It is kind of refreshing because it is a good way for us to relate considering neither of us can remember or pronounce the proper words in the others first language.  I am also grateful I am learning Spanish rather than English, English has to be impossible to learn.

- The other day I was given bacon for dinner.  I was pretty excited but then I saw this spikey hair all over it.  It was awful and then I had to try to explain to my Dona that it is not her cooking, she is a great cook, I am just not very hungry etc. etc.

Lastly, I would like to wrap this up by telling you ten things that have gotten me through training (thus far):

1.)  Watching and borrowing stupid movies including:  It's Complicated, Music WIthin, French Kiss, Iron Man and Marmaduke.  I personally bought Marmaduke on itunes.  All of the volunteers gave me a lot of trouble for this but hey, It did provide me an hour or two of relaxation.  Money well spent!

2.)  Feeding/sneaking my host dogs, all four of them, my food/meals. (Spike, Ernie, Princessa and Lassie)

3.)  Taking walks to get tostados, pizza (with corn), and/or hamburgesas about once a week to have a little break from rice, beans and salami.

4.)  The other Peace Corps volunteers and my trainer.

My group, youth volunteers.

5.)  Casa de Maria - This is the woman's house down the street where we all use her wireless internet, play cards, hang out and play bananagrams.

6.)  Becoming friends with the local colmado owner.  The colmado sells everday items - bread, avacado, doritos, coke, cheetos, rum, presidente (the beer here) and crachi bars.

Me with a Presidente.

7.)  Wearing my clothes inside out.  

The reason my clothes are now being worn inside out, the blue sweatshirt (I am wearing it as I type, inside out).

8.)  My rain coat

9.)  Deodorant - the showers are freezing, I dread taking them.

10.)  Internet, speaking and hearing from my family and friends and reading the comments on my blog!  The more comments, the more motivated I am to write :)

Thanks to everyone reading!  I hope I am providing some good information, shoot me any questions or anything you all would like to know about.  Love and miss you all everyday.  Also, start getting passports and/or visas to come visit me (even if it is in a year or so), don't wait until the last minute (friends, this is directed to you)!, Mom, Dad and brothers, tell Harvey, Wilson, Norman and Larry I said hello!!  FYI -  I might get a puppy when I have my own place - nothing like adding a street dog in the mix!  

xoxoxox

3. One Month!

I have officially been in country for one month, 26 more ahead of me.  There are a lot of things I have and have not done in the past month.  Here is a short list of both.

Things I HAVE done in the past month:

Eaten Avacado every day

Danced Bachata & Merengue

Played Dominoes

Slept in a Mosquito Net

Eaten mysterious meat

Showered in the pitch black

Worn the same clothes two days in a row

Hiked

Yoga

Missed family, friends & my dogs

Made friends

Gotten Sick

Been awoken by chickens

Bucket showered

Things I HAVE NOT done in the past month:

Cooked 

Flushed Toilet Paper

Felt clean

My hair

Worn heels

Washed my underwear in a washing machine

Watch TV

Driven

Gone shopping

Bought clothes

Read the news

Before I give an update, I would like to say a few things in regards to some of the comments from the past post.  First and foremost, I know you all are going to be disappointed, but I DID NOT get my hair done with my Dona.  There was no electricity that evening so we had to cancel, I was so relieved.  She really wants to go though so I told her we could go when I come back from Constanza so if/when we do, I will take some pictures.  

Second, I mentioned how I did a horrible job packing...this is true.  There is not anything I desperately need but I wish I had done a better job selecting clothes and just brought a lot more in general, especially more casual clothes.  I am short on shirts and wish I had brought another pair of jeans and or pants of some sort.  I also only brought one sweatshirt, it has THE NORTH FACE written across it in huge letters and I have worn it every single night for the past two weeks...I wouldn't care if I ever saw it again.  I am worried the people in the community might start calling me THE NORTH FACE because it's all they see me in and because the writing is so big.  My shoe packing has been the worst though.  I have no clue how I chose which shoes to bring but they are the most random selection.  Dominicans think it is weird that we wear flip-flops, regardless of the condition of them, they consider them shower shoes.  I somehow forgot to put my Chacos in my bag so my "go to" pair of shoes are flip-flops.  I am in the market for some Birkenstocks with the back strap and I am hoping my loving parents will send my Chacos along with them ;)  One thing I really need are pens, paper, index cards and really any school supplies.  We do so much writing and have so many projects.  I think I have lost all of my pens already and nobody ever has any.  Feel free to mail anything!!  Pens, Uno, old DVDS (it's a real treat to watch a movie in English), other small games, peanuts, candy, gum, trail mix etc. etc.  I have added my address to the right.  I believe it takes a while for things to get here, but they do make it.  A group of volunteers got packages our third week so I think it takes about a week and a half - three weeks to make it, the key is the packaging.  Anything sent should be in one of those yellow padded envelopes from the post office, you just handwrite my address and such and off it goes!  Anything would be much appreciated, I would even love notes or pictures!  It is just fun to get mail here so feel free, I would love it!!!

So.....

I am in Constanza for CBT which is Community Based Training.  Constanza is a campo surrounded by mountains.  It is really pretty here and definitely cooler which has been awesome.  I believe the population is about 130,000 people, it has a main street and it is easy to walk everywhere so that is nice.  My new host family is good.  I have a Dona and she has a daughter that lives with her.  Her mother and sister come by for every meal along with another girl who lives with her sick grandparents.  There are officially 3 of us living in the house but there are always way more people around and they scream a lot.  My Dona is nice, she is a teacher and works everyday from 1:30-9:30 so I do not spend as much time with her.  She is very well respected in the community and rather serious.  All 25 of the volunteers are living in the same neighborhood so that has been really fun.  In Santo Domingo, I was a off the beaten path a little so I wasn't doing too much after training but here I can walk out my door and see another volunteer so I have been running around a lot more.  

As I briefly mentioned earlier, I was a little sick.  I think I just had a virus but I am all better now.  I missed a day and a half of training because of a fever and I am still having some stomach issues but I think the worst of it is behind me.  It was not fun.  I wasn't eating much but I needed to stay hydrated so I lived on gatorade for 3 days...it isn't cheap, especially when I am living off less than $1.00/day.  I am a little sick of the food but I guess there is not much I can do about it so I just have to keep eating it.  They give the largest portions and they are tough to eat.  This is a standard day of meals for me: 

Breakfast - Cornflakes with boiling hot milk.  The cornflakes aren't bad but the milk part is not my favorite.  The cereal gets soggy twice as fast so I usually just have a few bites until its mush.

Lunch - Rice, beans and chicken.  There are a few different ways they prepare this and sometimes they throw me a curveball and give me lentils instead of beans but its pretty much the same every day.  I also sometimes get a little salad which consists of lettuce drenched in oil, I also try to shy away from this.  I then get homemade juice which is my favorite part and it usually varies.  I had really good carrot and lime juice yesterday.  Lunch is the big meal of the day so I usually eat with everyone: dona, sister, grandma, aunt, friend, cat that sits on the table and stares at me until grandma hits it and then 217 flies.

Dinner -  Yuka and Salami.  It is a chore to get this down.

We have training, in english everyday from 8:30-12:00 in this preschool a street over from my house.  The children just aren't going to school for the 5 and a half weeks we are here.  This training is way better than the previous.  My trainer is really cool, she finished her service about a year ago and came back to train us so she has been in our shoes and makes it fun for us.  I now have Spanish class from 2:00-5:00 everyday.  My spanish is still struggling but I know more than when I walked off the plane so that is all that matters.  It is tough to understand the people in Constanza.  They talk so fast and have a really strong dialect.  They drop all of their "S" so I have a hard time keeping up.  I still have to translate each word in my head to understand - it makes it pretty hard to translate a word when it really isn't a word.  For example:  Donde esta?  sounds like   Ande ta?  Even the people with strong spanish have been having a difficult time with the dialect, I didn't even know they did this until a few days ago, I just thought they were saying stuff I just didn't know and I just do my standard grin and nod and say si.  They are catching on though, my Dona told my trainer that she can tell when I actually understand her or if I'm pretending...she did say it was improving though but maybe I am just becoming a better actress.

We have been split into groups of 4 or 5 and each group is working with a different youth group.  My group is working with an enviromental group that has been around for some time.  They are probably the most active group so we have had it a little easier than the other volunteers.  We did a trash pickup in their neighborhood Saturday morning at 8am.  It went well and it was really nice because all of the Peace Corps Volunteers came to help even though it wasn't their group.  We gave a Community Diagnostic on our group last week and from here we have to come up with an activity they would like to do and then plan events to fundraise for the final event.  The last week of training we all just go and participate in eachother's activities and celebrate our work for the past five weeks.

I find out where I will be placed in about two weeks.  It is exciting and nerve wracking because it is where I will be spending the next two years and the decision is out of my hands.  I am excited though.

That about wraps it up!  Shoot me any questions and I will get back to you.  I have easy access to the internet as of now so I check it often.  Hope all is well with everyone and I miss you all each day!  Take care!

The Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo

Colonial Zone

The Flag of the DR

Constanza

Constanza

Friends

My room in Constanza

Me with my host sister Perla (far left) and her friends, Pamela & Jennifer

Youth group and Chritsy

My youth group and Peace Corps Volunteers in Constanza - After trash pick-up

Food - That is the salami I eat (woof) and some chicken feet

Market in Constanza

Training center in Constanza

2. Update!

Hello Again!  Thanks to everyone reading, I LOVED the comments so keep them coming!

Here is a brief rundown of what I have been up to...

As of now, my group is still in training.  Training is good overall but the days are extremely long.  I do not think there is one subject they have yet to cover: tarantulas, Dengue Fever, politics, history, food, music, baseball, dominoes, EVERY medical issue known to mankind etc. etc. etc....you name it and we have been trained on it.  I think I have learned more about the Dominican Republic in the past 3 weeks than I have about the United States in the past 26 years, or maybe I am actually listening for once because most of the lessons are in english so it's nice to understand something!  We then have Spanish class at some point in the day.  The time varies, some days its for an hour and others it is from 1:00 - 5:00, I then come home and attempt to speak Spanish until I go to bed and then wake up and do it all over again!  My brain hasn't stopped hurting.

This past weekend I went to visit a current volunteer's project site.  It was nice to get out of Santo Domingo, have a little freedom and get the lowdown about the Peace Corps...not in a classroom setting from someone who served 40-some years ago.  I was visiting a volunteer in Imbert which was about a 3.5 hour bus ride North from Santo Domingo - but not for me!  Everyone in my group was assigned to different places so we were all traveling somewhat alone.  Anyways, my bus went cruising by my stop.  I guess the bus driver asked numerous times if anyone needed to get off in Imbert and I must have missed the memo - 3 times.  Again, that's my spanish for ya!  I finally arrived and met up with the volunteer I was visiting.  It was nice to ask questions and get honest answers, see the living conditions and relax a little.  We did have to kill a rat in the first few hours of my arrival - I did not do the killing, I just filmed it.  All in all, I would say it was a successful weekend.

This Thursday I depart for Constanza for 5 1/2 weeks.  My large group breaks into smaller groups based on the sector they will be working in.  I am working in the youth sector so 25 of us will be living in the same community and doing more training.  From my understanding, the training is more focused and we will actually be working with youth groups and the community.  Constanza is in the mountains so I hear it gets "chilly" which is exciting because I haven't stopped sweating.  I am also looking forward to getting to know a smaller group of people and having a little more freedom to go out and such!

Thats my life as of now...there are sooo many things going on and I still never know what to write about!  Here are just a few random thoughts...

-I haven't had a cold drink since I have arrived.  They don't even chill milk.
-I have had Ramen for breakfast three times...imagine waking up sweating and having to eat a massive bowl of hot noodles.
-I have made some awkward translations, for example, I read my paper out loud today that stated that I was "aroused" all weekend.  I have laughed sooo hard at some of the things I have said once someone tells me what it really means.  I have for sure kept my spanish class and host family laughing as well.
-My Dona (host mom) is taking me to get my hair done on Wednesday...I am a little nervous because I never know what is going on and I just say "si" to everything.  Could be a recipe for disaster.
-My feet are covered in mosquito bites.
-My host family still is feeding me the largest mounds of food although I have yet to finish an entire plate.
-It has rained everyday the past week because of the hurricanes.
-I did a horrible job packing.
-I have a big spanish test Wednesday.  The test is oral so I am sure that will be interesting.
-Whenever I tell a Dominican I am from St. Louis, they ask if I know Pujols.  My answer - "si".
- I have heard little girls singing Justin Bieber in some of the most rural parts of the country.
Young Dominican Girl: "do you know Justin Bieber"
Me: "si".
-I am on my fourth book (any/all suggestions are much appreciated)!
-My host brothers take guitar lessons once a week and a bunch of boys in the neighborhood bring their guitars over and play together.  It's great.  I have heard the same song from them everyday...they are improving though and I'm considering making them the next Menudo.
-I still love my host family.  I am going to miss them, they have been great.


That's it for now!  I will post pictures soon....I have yet to take any, sorry!  Also, please forgive my spelling and such, I am not even going to reread or spell check what I just wrote.  My brain is too fried to even attempt to make corrections.  Thanks for understanding!

Until next time!  Miss you all xoxox

1. My First Blog Attempt

Hello from the Dominican Republic!

I am going to make this short for now but I am attempting to figure out how to actually get this up & running.

I made it here safe & sound. It was a long trip but over all it went pretty smoothly!

I am living in a community about 20 minutes from Santo Domingo. I will be here for three weeks and I am living with a host family. My host family is wonderful! They have two boys (13 & 11) so I pretty much feel at home...they are great! My host mother is the sweetest lady and she is soooo patient with me and my host father basically just feeds me as much food as possible and thinks it is hilarious!

I have training everyday and we are having loads & loads of information thrown at us. My Spanish is pretty much awful, I just hope I will be able to communicate somewhat by the time I am finished with training. It has definitely been comical though and I am keeping my host family laughing so thats a plus!

That's all for now. I will write again once I confirm I am doing this properly!

Miss you all!!!