First weeks

So I finally got around to making a blog today in order to keep everyone updated a little easier instead of trying to write tons of emails. So i arrived in the Dominican Republic on the 5th of this month. The first night we went to a retreat (i think it is usually a place nuns/priests go for a break) and had some orientation information given to us, met our nurse here at the training center, and then blayd a dinamica (ice-breaker) in order to get to know each other a little better. Then next day we all came to the training center here in Santo Domingo which is gorgeous. There is a lot of open space, its nice and quite which lends to the learning atmosphere, and there are lots of fruit trees all around the yard including a giant mango tree in the center. Sadly though they will not be ripe untill june, which is after training will have finished. We have our classes (spanish and more technical type training) in these enramadas ( gazebo like things) outside which is super nice. All the locals here think it has been unusually cold the past two weeks but i think its the perfect temperture right now, i'm defenitly enjoying the more mild tempeture as i know the summer will be extremely hot.

Later in the day on that first friday our host family's came to pick us up from the training center and bring us to our main home for the next 3 months. My Dona is super nice and lives with her niece in a nice little house about a 15 minute walk from training. The niece is in school and works so she isn't at home a lot but one night we did watch "From Dusk Till Dawn" on the spanish movie channel, which is just as good as a movie in spanish. My Dona feeds me huge meals in the evening and mornings and always makes sure i have a cafecito (little coffee) when i get home. Here coffee is drinking in small amounts, about the quantity of an expresso shot, but is very strong and they put in tons of sugar. It defintly has helped me get through the day, i have coffee in the morning, with lunch, and when i get home from training. Two other volunteers live on the houses to either side of me and there are 7 of us total in our barrio. The rest of the volunteers live in other neighboorhoods that aren't too far away either.

A normal day for me is to wake up around 6:30, eat breakfast around 7, leave for class at 7:30 and training starts at 8:00. We have an hour of lunch from 12-1 which is nice to relax and use the computer (the training center has internet!) During the day we have a mix of presentations about various topics, for example development, or dominican culture, as well as spanish class which are nice because we are split up into small groups (4 people and a teacher) so i get lots of practice listening and speaking spanish. after training ends at 5 a couple of us usually walk to our neighboorhood colmado (its like a corner store where people hang out) to get a coca cola and play dominoes, which is my new favorite game. I usually eat dinner around 7 or 7:30 and then go to my room 9ish to read a little/do homework and have been asleep by 10 everynight. The only bad thing so far is that the gallos (roosters) start to go off around 3:30 or 4:00 in the morning and continue to be loud and annoying untill i should be waking up. It doesn't help that there are like 5 or 6 around my house and when one starts they all go off.

But i have to go to class now, i'll continue with another post later today or tomorrow.