first weeks continued

So to continue… This past Saturday I woke up and went to go do yoga at a church near one of the volunteers house. There are a couple of people here who wanted to do yoga and one of the girls leads us through the exercises. I did yoga the first time last week and Saturday was my second time. It was definitely nice and it should help me with some flexibility and to stretch my back some, as well as just be some good overall exercise. I hope to continue doing it even though I have slacked off the past two days, but I think we are going to have a session this afternoon, so hopefully I’ll get back in the groove. After that me and 3 other people went into the city to a street that a couple music stores on it, and I bought a sweet new guitar! It is a classical guitar so it has vinyl strings which should make it easier to try to learn flamenco style guitar, which I had decided I would attempt to learn a few weeks ago. I have also been trying to grow out the nails on my right hand to aid myself in plucking the strings, which has been somewhat hard since I tend to pick my nails whenever they reach any type of length. But right now they are the longest they have been in a long time so I’m doing alright. The guitar and the case costed 3000 Dominican pesos, which is a little under 90 US dollars so it was a pretty good deal. I could have gotten one for half that price but this one is better quality and has a nice sound, so it was worth paying the price for it. I had also brought a little extra money just for this.

On Sunday we went to the Ciudad Colonial where a professor who lives in the city of Santiago in the Dominican Republic, whose specialty is in the history of the DR took us on a tour around the old city. We walked by the cathedral, the fortress, old houses, the house of the Diego Columbus (casa de Colon), and other old buildings as she told us some of the history of the sites, the city, and the country as a whole. It was nice to learn some more about the history of the city especially with our guide being an expert on the subject. After the tour a couple of us ate at a vegetarian restaurant close by before returning to our barrio where we relaxed and played some dominoes.

Monday and Tuesday were pretty normal days at training, we had Spanish classes and more orientation type things. For example, yesterday we learned some more about the different regions of the country and characteristics of these regions as well as some about the diversity of ecosystems and climates that are found here. We have sunny beaches, mangrove forests, tropical forests, arid land, valleys, mountains (including Pico Duarte, the highest peak east of the Mississippi and above the equator in this part of the world, I think its like 10,000 feet above sea level), and some others I can’t remember at the moment. I am actually going to a city in the mountains tomorrow to visit a volunteer who lives and works there (all of us trainees are visiting a different volunteer) in order to see what life will be like once I am a volunteer. It is apparently somewhat cool up there as I was advised to bring long sleeves or a jacket, but I am really excited to get to see another part of the country. Today we also got issued a motorcycle helmet as I think we are the only country that PeaceCorp is in that are allowed to ride on (not drive) motorcycle taxis because for a lot of sites people work at the only way to reach them is by motorcycle. Needless to say we are required to wear the helmets at all times when riding a motorcycle, or else we get sent home. To reach the place I’m going this weekend I will not need to take a motoconcho (the motorcycle taxis) but am sure I will need to sometime in the future.

But that is about all for now, I’ll try to get up another post next week to talk about my weekend and hopefully to take/put up some pictures. So far I have forgotten to bring my camara to all of the places we’ve been, such as the ciudad colonial, so I don’t have very many pictures. Hope all is well with everyone in the states and elsewhere. Ciao