Well it has been a little over a month since I arrived in the Dominican Republic, and I must say that everything is going great!
My life in Constanza couldn’t be any more different than my life in Santo Domingo. My house is the furthest away from the Pre-Escolar (pre-school) where we have our technical classes…which means less than a 10 min walk. I have running water, hot water, and luz (electricity) all the time because we have a ‘generator.’ My host mom here, Sonia, is more of a sister because she is young and very beautiful. She has one son, Joseph, whose 14th birthday is today (we sometimes shoot hoops, and watch movies together, he’s pretty sweet), and another son Luifer who attends the University in the capital. Sonia’s family is large, 14 siblings and 3 of her siblings are hosting other volunteers- so we get together often.
This past Sunday they took us to the campo to where another brother and his wife live on a farm that he bought from their father. It was a little bit before 11am when I heard a car honking outside and my name being yelled. So I went outside to investigate. I found Merry, Kristi (2 other trainees) and Kristi’s family in a truck telling me to get in because we are going to the campo. I grabbed my shoes and my keys and we were off. By 11:30am we had stopped at a Colmado (corner store) and were handed a beer, three glasses, crackers and cheese…all for the ride up the mountain. We were little truck fording rivers and going up inclines like they were a piece of cake. When we got to the finca (farm), we were given a quick walking tour of the local farm animals: cats, dogs, geese, chicken, ducks, fish and a horse named Peligroso (Dangerous…who was anything but). Then we got a truck ride to the highest mountain peak on the farm and we saw all of the surrounding valleys, the ring of mountains around us and Constanza in the distance. It was breath taking. I want to live there. A little later on, after more wine, we lunched on grill pork chops, vegetables, and rice with beans. A great day!
Other fun things that I’ve done these past 2 weeks are:
- Girls’ movie night at my house where we watched About A Boy (this past Thursday)
- Participated in a Limpieza (Cleaning-trash pickup) in Las Flores
- Went out dancing for 4 hours on Saturday night
- Got my first manicure, ever (yesterday)
As much fun as it sounds that we are having, it is not all play and no work. Every day (Monday-Friday) we have Technical training sessions in the morning for 4 hours. Some sample topics are community diagnostic, how to teach English, how to teach sexual health/good decision making, fundraising, etc. Then in the afternoon for 4 hours we have Spanish class. Then at night and on the weekends there are random assortments of activities for the trainees. We also have graded presentations and tests that we MUST pass (I’m going well so far!).
Also, we are divided into 6 groups and each group has a youth group that they are working with. I am working with the youth from El Chorro (the furthest barrio away from where we live, possibly the poorest). Our kids are a blast – they range in age from about 15 to 22 and they are super invested into helping their community. Each week we carry out different activities with them such as a community diagnostic (which we had a graded presentation on), brainstorming an idea of what to do in the community, fund raising, planning the project and then implementing the project.
Last night at about 8:02pm I heard Ice Ice Baby by Vanilla Ice being blared from a car driving down my street.
Our group as the luck to come into country when a certain song is at its peak of popularity, “Quiero una Americana pa’ mangar mi visa. ” Translated: I want an American (female) so that I can get my visa. A day doesn’t pass that I (or the other girls) don’t hear that song or get the lyrics yelled at me (or the other girls) on the street. It was rather annoying in the beginning, but I have decided to embrace it and my gringa-ness (plus the song is really catchy). I just wish that I had a boombox so I could walk down the street with it on my shoulder, blaring “Quiero una Americana. Pa’ que? Pa’ mangar mi visa! Quiero una Americana pa’ mangar mi visa. Pa’ mangar. Pa’ mangar. Pa’ mangar mi visa…”
