Training for....

As this is my first post and I am already in my 2nd week of service, I have a lot to talk about, but I’ll try to keep it brief. Before flying out of D.C., I took the opportunity to visit my friends Derek, Chris, Jess, Mr. Lincoln, and Mr. Obama’s house (they wouldn’t answer the door). We arrived at the airport at 2:30 am and began our journey. Upon arrival, we spent a very drowsy day and night in a mysterious place in which we are still questioning whether or not it even existed, or if that day was just a figment of our imagination. The next day we started training at the training center. We learned a lot of Spanish and a lot of factual information about the country. But more importantly, we learned that any given carwash could possibly be a dance club by night, and El President is not just a powerful political leader, but a powerful cervesa as well. We found out that public transportation includes mini busses (guaguas) that fit up to 50 people, compact cars (carro publicos) that fit 7, and motorcycles that on occasion fit 4 adults and 3 babies, or 10 chickens and a giant bag of rice, or 2 mattresses, or 4 jugs of water, or pretty much whatever needs to carried somewhere. We also learned that here in the D.R. the national religion is baseball, and the national sport is gossip (chisme), and if you’re not doing one of those two things, you’re playing dominos or dancing bachata.
After training in the capital city for a while, we went off to the middle of nowhere to start community based training. During this phase of training, we separated into our different project sectors, so I was with just five other water engineer volunteers, Gabe, Duncan, Ryan, Jen, and Amy. As you can imagine, over the next five weeks, we got to know each other very well. Throughout those weeks, we learned how to live the simple life. We were taking bucket showers, shitting in latrines, reading by candle light, and waking up every morning to crowing roosters and hyperventilating donkeys. The town was called Mancebo, and the population was just over 100. There was no electricity (luz) or cell phone service, and the closest paved road was over two hours away. Nevertheless, the two little stores/bars in town still found a way to provide us with blasting bachata music and cold beer all day. If you were ever walking down the one road, anyone you encounter always asks you where you are going, and the answer is always the same: up that way, or down that way (I guess there’s just not that much to talk about).
On my first day there, I almost had an emotional breakdown. We arrived after riding in the back or a pickup for three hours, wondering how much further from civilization we could possibly get. Upon arrival I was dropped at my new house, and instructed to get to know my new family. I then sat in the living room, in complete silence, with my new mommy, daddy and six brothers/sister staring at me, (silently, without smiling, barely even moving actually, like statues). After an extremely awkward hour of this, our trainer gathered up the volunteers from their respective houses to start the community ice breaker. He then informed us that we would be building a bed. In this moment, it hit me; I had absolutely no idea where in the hell I was, I was just introduced to my new very awkward family, and then I was told that I needed to build a bed? Wtf? I almost lost it completely and was about to pack up and leave (or at least try to leave), but luckily, the donkeys only leave town once a day, so I was forced to stay and bite the bullet.
In the end, I learned to love Mancebo and every single one of my brothers/sister (all of whom ended up having no problem talking to me, in fact they never shut their mouth or let me have a moment’s peace). After that first very weird day, things got a lot better. We discovered that we lived just minutes away from the nicest swimming hole/waterfall we had ever seen. We spent most days after class there, swimming and rock climbing with the local kids. Too much happened to write about everything, so here are the highlights of the five weeks:
Jennifer was romantically pursued by a 15 year old boy, who wrote her 3 love letters, one of which said that he loved her more than his own mother. He soon became known in the community as perrito (little dog) after Jen tried to explain to her host mom that it was just puppy love. We got to meet the notorious identical twins who live in the next town over, and who supposedly treat the male Peace Corps volunteers very well. Unfortunately, one of the twins was pregnant (perhaps from the last training group), and was never around, and without the twin factor in affect, the remaining twin just wasn’t that hot. I rode a giant pig for about 3 feet before it tried to attack me. I wore a red polka-dot dress in front of the entire community during an informational skit in which I played Maria, the responsible water committee secretary. Within the community, I had many names including Jutin, Yootin, Yutico, Jerkin, and my favorite, Maria. Amy hooked up with a 19 year old farmer boy; Jen hooked up with the town doctor (My brothers were the ones who informed me of this scandalous behavior after they had hid in bushes and spied on the two couples smooching by the river.) All the guys in the group wrote love letters to some of the other Peace Corps girls that we liked, (that’s what happens when you end up in a small town with 80% men and the two female volunteers are occupied with their Dominican boyfriends). We believe the letters are still in route via donkey postal service (DPS). We hiked to various mountains and waterfalls and posed for sexy photo shoots (all profits went to charity of course). We went skinny dipping in the river one night (the crazy ideas rum gives you) but we soon realized that the water was actually quite chilly (making the situation suddenly a lot more embarrassing) so we quickly aborted that idea and vowed never to speak of that night again (I hope they don’t read my blog). We learned how to build a latrine, a tap stand, a river crossing, a water storage tank, and a water intake works. I finally had the five brothers and 1 sister that I always wanted (I now carry their photos in my wallet). I learned that no matter how many pounds of unripe boiled plantains and bananas I eat, and no matter how much the Dominicans love them, the thought of just one bite still makes me slightly suicidal. I also learned that even though my host mom constantly forced me to eat until I was physically in pain and completely immobile, I wasn’t able to gain even one pound. I’m certainly going to miss Mancebo, everything from the 360 degree view of lush mountains to the overflowing pride that every woman has for her six-baby-producing belly.
I finally swore in on the 28th of October and have started my two years of service. My community is letting my live rent free in the nicest home in the community that belongs to a woman who lives in Norway and comes here to vacation every few years. I live in a town called Tubagua, which has a population of 900 something. I now have to figure out how to build these people a water system. But because I can’t start on that right away, I started offering English classes. In my first week I already have 80 students and teach 5 days a week (this may have been a bad idea). Thanksgiving is coming up and all the volunteers are going to party up large in the capital. We’re having a huge event with all of our favorite thanksgiving food along with a talent show. I plan on dominating the competition with the Spanish version of “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (Eclipse Total del Amor”). Vamos a ver.
I live in the beautiful province of Puerto Plata (where all the tourists go) with views of lush green mountains and beaches all at once. Anyone who once to visit for a very cool
experience, just let me know. Click here for more photos