I've finished my three weeks of initial language and cultural training and am now about to embark on six weeks of advanced language and technical training.

I'm currently right here. It's a small town in the eastern Dominican Republic called El Seibo, out in cattle and cane country. I'm here because El Seibo's real claim to fame is that it's the only place in the entire country that has "twenty-four hours" of electricity, which actually translates into having eighteen-to-twenty hours of electricity each day, which is still unheard of here. This enables we in the IT training group to be able to work on the projects we need to work on and not have to design our plans around six hours of electricity available in the middle of the night like we'd have to in Santo Domingo.

Right now, I'm sitting in what's called a CTC, a Centro de Telecomunicaciones or Telecommunications Center. The First Lady here wields a surprising amount of power in the DR and, perhaps more importantly, a budget bigger than the entire Department of Education's. The CTC's are one of her personal pet projects, trying to put very nice, modern buildings with lots of donated PCs in otherwise rural or underprivileged communities. Sometimes there are a few misses, like when they build a CTC in a town which has never been wired with electricity, but usually they're a pretty good resource for a community which otherwise really wouldn't have much more than sugar cane or coffee beans. The El Seibo CTC is especially nice because this is a wealthy enough community that they can afford to subscribe to satellite internet and get relatively reliable, fast service.

I also want to apologize to anyone who may have read my previous post. It was hurriedly put together from three different posts which I'd been writing at different times and I didn't leave myself the opportunity to proofread much.

My first three weeks here were spent in the capital, Santo Domingo, in a neighborhood in the northwest of the city called Pantoja. I actually lived a little farther west in a neighborhood called Los Alcarrizos, but Los Alcarrizos is the largest neighborhood in Santo Domingo; over a million people live there, one-third of the entire population, so that would be about as specific as saying in New York, "I live in Brooklyn."

My house was pretty well-off by Dominican standards, thanks to the mistress of the house having many, many children abroad in the US and Spain sending back remittances. That's actually the primary source of income in the DR these days. It's not known for sure exactly how many, but it's estimated that anywhere from 40-60% of the adult population is unemployed and entirely reliant on money from relatives abroad to survive. Tourism takes a distant second in terms of importance to the country's economy.

The house had running water for most of the night; it was a real luxury to take a real shower in the morning, rather than just a bucket bath as so many had to. They could even afford to buy an inversor, a battery that stores electricity when it's available in the middle of the night so that cultural necessities like fans or TVs could be run during the day. Telenovelas (Mexican or Venezuelen soap operas) are serious business here and most people are prepared to go to lengths to be able to watch TV in silence for a few hours every day.

The family was warmly welcoming but not very talkative. I had meals waiting for me when I woke up and came home from school but the evening was TV-watching time, so I was mostly able to read quietly in my room, as much as that's discouraged as not conducive to cultural adaptation. I wasn't sure how much adaptation I could have been accomplishing by watching three or four hours of soap operas in silence every night, so I usually opted to follow my own judgment and take advantage of the light to read.

My school was a special Peace Corps compound in the small neighborhood of Pantoja. You can walk east for about forty minutes from Los Alcarrizos, across the smoggy Duarte Highway, and past rundown neighborhoods of old, concrete block houses (actually a mark of moderate wealth here) and ramshackle wood and iron huts with palm fronds for roofs (not a mark of wealth here), then take a right down a long dirt road (most roads are still unpaved), past the sprawling public school which children attend for three hours each day (with one hour of recess), past the the little old man who makes iron pots in the middle of the creek behind the school (conveniently, the creek carries away not only all the chemicals he uses to he-knows-not-where but also all of the school's trash too) and you'll suddenly find yourself in a hidden garden right in the middle of Santo Domingo.

The Peace Corps school, called Entrena (He/she trains, in Spanish) maintains the beautiful garden and hosts all of our initial language and cultural classes in charming little, wall-less huts with palm-thatched roofs that dot the grounds. It's really a beautiful place to study and learn and, despite the questionable disconnect between the locals living around us and the conditions we enjoyed at Entrena, it was a really nice transition from the comforts of the States to the less accommodating setting of the DR.

I've heard from several of the other volunteers, and the Entrena staff kind of shyly admits it too, that the Dominican Republic program is the Peace Corps's flagship delegation, that almost every other Peace Corps mission in the world tries to model itself on the DR's example.

It's also said, and I'm more hesitant to repeat this without better support, that the PC's best and brightest applicants get assigned to the DR. Entrena states this very proudly and, to be honest, I have difficulty second-guessing it. The caliber of the other volunteers is really astonishing. I've rarely been in the company of so many highly accomplished, highly motivated, highly committed individuals in my life.

So far, this has been a really amazing experience, on every level from the simple sights seen, to the ideas and concepts of development work and intercultural interaction I've learned, to just the cool, powerful personalities I've met in the teachers and other volunteers.

The second phase of our training has just begun but since this CTC is available to me now, I should be able to post much more regularly and stay in closer contact with events in the rest of the world as well.

For now, all is excellent for me and I wish every good tiding to all of you in the United States. Hasta pronto.

I've just now been able to find an internet café which has a reasonable going rate in-country.

The flights down were comfortable and enjoyable. I never get tired of seeing the landscape from the air. There's an incredible optical illusion that starts to happen for me when we get to about three-thousand meters, where even the largest malls and factory complexes and institutional compounds all start to look like micro-machine dollhouses. My mind just refuses to comprehend the distances that it's seeing and tries to equate the massive scale of these human structures to something more understandable, like a residential neighborhood from the top of a distant hill. Thus I turn huge malls into small ranchers and Mack trucks into kids on bikes to try to make sense of the vistas out the window. Rationally, I know exactly what it is that I'm looking at and yet my brain holds onto all its little doubts and in the space between there's an enjoyable sensation of floating, of not being sure exactly what kind of reality I'm falling through, just like driving until getting lost for fun. The short story is that the flights from Baltimore to Atlanta and then to Miami were fun.

I did one day's Staging at a luxury hotel in Miami. Basically this was a couple of old volunteers who happened to live in Miami asking me and the other thirty-five volunteers in my training class to introduce ourselves through several "dynamics" (team-building exercises) and discuss what we were looking forward to and what we were afraid of. The most common answers for hopes were "learning about Dominican culture" and "practicing Spanish" with the occasional "helping people" thrown in for good measure. The most common fears were "disease" (malaria and dengue at the top of the list) and "being ostracized."

The staging representatives then proceeded to both soothe us and, at the same time, confirm that all of our fears were justified but said that it'll be cool and we'll have a good time anyway, as long as we just keep in mind that this isn't a Spring Break jaunt and that we're going to be in the Dominican Republic for two years. If we ever moved anywhere in the US for two years we wouldn't say that we were just visiting, we'd admit that we were living our lives there and they told us to just keep that in mind.

They've emphasized that idea at several points throughout the training, actually, and to pretty good effect: Almost any action we take, at almost any point, is always going to affect at least two lives, our own and that of the Dominican(s) with whom we're interacting, so we must take heed before making any decisions which might bring about more resounding repercussions than we might think.

After one day's staging of equal parts ominous reminders to be self-conscious and much more aware than we have in the States and reassurances that it's actually really fun and safe in the Dominican, most of the volunteers went out together to eat at a Cuban restaurant in Little Havana that was recommended to us. Another of the Corps's subtle team-bonding tricks.

The next day, our flight touched down in Santo Domingo where our Country Director (ranking Peace Corps officer in the country) met us at the gate and started to lead us through customs. This was made vastly easier because Dominican customs seems to mostly consist of a guy on a stool taking a look at us, mostly white kids in their early twenties, taking a look at the country director leading us, shrugging and nodding us past. He only looked at our passports if some of the more eager volunteers sort of forced them upon him and even then only reluctantly. I don't even remember seeing the capacity for baggage to be examined.

So far, this has been the basic pattern that has been repeated for me just about anywhere that I've gone in the country. There's a concept in ethnic studies in the United States called the invisible knapsack of privileges that comes with being caucasian in many parts of the world. Better security when among police, less suspicion when shopping in public places, things as simple as finding bandaids which blend-in with your skin-tone and on and on. It's definitely there in the US but it's subtle.

In the DR it's so blatant it's almost nauseating. There's a general consensus among the rank-and-file of Dominican society that having children early and often isn't just a good idea, it's an absolute cultural imperative. If a woman hasn't had a child by the age of twenty, people start asking her what's wrong with her and whether she's a lesbian. If she hasn't had a child by the age of twenty-five, she's an unmarriable old-maid and, in some ways, a disgrace to her family. The gentle expression used to describe the twenty-five-year-old single woman is "jamona vieja," an "old ham," with all the connotations that that entails in a hot, tropical country.

Added to this cultural demand to have children is the idea of "mejoración de la raza," "improving the race," which basically means trying to have as light-skinned children as possible to make the Dominican people smarter and more beautiful.

This is one of the biggest challenges to any development worker in the Dominican Republic, trying to get around and beyond the conception that foreigners are good for one of two things: Monetary handouts and making babies. The idea of teaching Dominicans to teach other Dominicans how to improve each others lives and eventually let foreign aid completely disappear is as alien a concept for many here as the idea of eating dirt with a little bit of hot sauce for flavor would be in the United States. For a huge percentage of the men here, the end all, be all of life is getting to Nueba Yol (New York, the generic Dominican label for all of the United States) and then taking it easy and letting your wife or your eight children foot the bill. For the women, it's normally getting a maid in Nueba Yol, then letting her and your eight children foot the bill. These are the proudly proclaimed cultural values that I've found so far and it's seemed pretty uniform from the other trainees' stories of the people they've spoken with as well.

These are gross exaggerations, of course, but even our trainers, Dominicans themselves, albeit mostly from the nation's minuscule middle-class, many of whom have been training Peace Corps volunteers for ten or fifteen years, sadly relate the same stories.

Accordingly, development work is kind of an uphill battle and skirts the very fine line of trying to stimulate economic and health development, while at the same time trying not to make missionary-like demands for cultural change in the name of salvation from Uncle Sam.

That being said, it would make it a significantly easier to work with a lot of the children in this country if the average sixteen-year-old girl weren't under a lot of pressure to start providing grandchildren for her parents.

This is already long enough that a majority of people likely won't be able to read it all, but I haven't even gotten through one day's story in the DR yet, so I'm torn between whether to continue or not.

Right now, I'm participating in what's called my Volunteer Visit. I've completed the first three weeks of my enculturation training in the capital, Santo Domingo, and am now visiting a pair of volunteers who've been at their official work sites for a couple of years now. They've gotten me access to an internet connection through some of their work for the Dominican government and that's how I'm able to write this right now. I'm only going to be here one more day, however, so I'm not sure whether I should take advantage of this opportunity to keep writing everything now or wait and try to make more manageable installments later when I can find another connection again.

I should actually get back to talking with my host volunteer about some of his projects anyway, and attempted brevity may be an attempted virtue, so I'll close for right now.

For those of you who have continued until now, just know that I am well and am fascinated by the challenges posed here. The countryside is beautiful and, if I can, I'll try to share some photographs when possible.

I just wanted to post those pictures of the lyre my father and I built together.

I'm quite proud of the results but most importantly really enjoyed making it with my father.

I'll be getting on a plane for Miami, where I'll be getting on a plane for Santo Domingo, in about six hours. I hope that I will serve both my communities, here and abroad, well.

Everything's going forward at the expected pace. Except, apparently, for my airline tickets. I've received four different airline ticket receipts replacing each other in about a week and a half. They all cost the same and are all on the same flight, so I'm not entirely sure what it is that makes it so much more important that I'm sitting in seat 18C than 30F or 46D than 18C.

All of my supplies are ready and about half are already packed away. The only thing that I'll be bringing which might be a last-minute affair will be the lyre that I'm building with my father.

Occasionally, my family is a strong believer in the medieval education paradigms of the trivium and the quadrivium. My father has always urged me to practice music for many different reasons but I've always resisted because, one, I'm not terribly motivated to be a musician and, two, because it always seemed somehow inappropriate for me to practice on any instrument which I hadn't built myself; it always felt like I wouldn't really have committed to the art unless I had been with the instrument since its birth and knew all of its component pieces.

Well, since the Peace Corps experience is about self-discipline and commitment, I thought what better accompaniment than to finally finish my family's formal education and try my hand at music. I've always liked the sound and æsthetic of the lyre and enjoy its relative obscurity these days, so I found some rough plans online and asked my father if he would be willing to work with and guide me in its construction.

So far, we've finished sawing and sanding the body of the instrument and are about to drill the tuning peg holes. Once we're done, I'll post a picture of the finished project.

The rest of this entry will actually consist of a letter sent to me by the Peace Corps. It's a pretty rough overview of what my first three months in the Dominican Republic will look like. I know that some of my friends are interested in how the Peace Corps works in-country and this is as complete an explanation of to what to expect as they've sent me so far. This particular letter is specific to the program in the Dominican Republic but I suspect that the orientations and traning structure in other programs is pretty comparable. It's relatively long, so if you're not interested in Peace Corps orientation details, the rest of this entry is probably not worth your time.

Peace Corps Dominican Republic Bridge to Pre-Service Training Welcome and Introduction On behalf of Peace Corps Dominican Republic, we would like to welcome you to the Dominican Republic and congratulate you on your decision to accept the challenges of Peace Corps. ENTRENA, the local Dominican company contracted to train all incoming Peace Corps Volunteers, also extends a warm welcome. Peace Corps and ENTRENA staff will be working with you throughout your 10 weeks of pre-service training and during other training you will have once you are sworn-in as a Volunteer. Although you will receive an extensive orientation upon your arrival in country, this information packet will give you a general idea of what you can expect during your training and as you settle into your new country. In the DR, Dominicans use the term “vivencia.” “Vivencia” refers to a situation or activity that really cannot be completely described. You have to have actually experienced, lived through, and been a part of it. Any outsider who has not been a part of the “vivencia” would have difficulty understanding what happened and why. During the next 27 months, first as a Peace Corps Trainee and then as a Volunteer, you will be going through a “vivencia.” It is a great deal more complex than a simple job or assignment. This experience may test and even modify some of the personal and professional behaviors and skills you have developed over the years. Our goal in training is to readily prepare you for this and to help you to produce positive results in accordance with the three goals of Peace Corps. We see you as a development professional that is working as part of a team consisting of Volunteers, community partners, and Peace Corps staff promoting sustainable community development. It is a hard and long task to bring about some of the key community and personal behavior changes to improve people’s opportunities, but is extremely rewarding in the end. We hope that by the end of your two year service you will feel satisfied with the work you have done and that you will have formed friendships that will last a lifetime. As a result, you will have contributed positively to world peace and understanding by bringing together the peoples of the Dominican Republic and the United States of America. On behalf of the training staff, we heartily congratulate you for making the decision to dedicate the next two years of your life to Peace Corps Dominican Republic, and we look forward to working with and helping you prepare for your long awaited “vivencia.” Romeo Massey Jennifer McGowan Country Director PC/DR Training Director Lillian Nuñez Rosanna Rosario Language Coordinator Family Coordinator And our Administrative, Technical Training and Language Facilitation Team Arrival In Dominican Republic Suggested Dress Upon Arrival "El pasajero se conoce por la maleta" (The Passenger is known by his/her luggage). "Un roto significa abandono, un remiendo humildad" (A tear means carelessness, while a patch means humbleness) The Dominican Republic has a tropical climate with average temperatures near 85 ºF. Temperatures vary little during the year; however, lower humidity in winter months is usually refreshing following the hot and sticky summers. Given the relatively even climate, most clothing is used on a year-round basis and might be a bit more formal than what many people would expect. In the Dominican Republic what you wear means a lot in the different activities of daily life. For instance, if you visit an office looking for information, people there will examine you carefully and will treat you according to the way you dress or the way you look. If you look like a professional in your dress, you will be treated as a professional. The challenge is finding a balance between expressing your own personal style while respecting and showing a willingness to accommodate Dominican cultural values. During your training we will discuss in further detail guidelines for dress/appearance but in general the dress is professional/casual. We do ask that you not wear shorts while at any training activity. More casual clothing may be used while at home with your Dominican family. In addition, we request that you do not wear body piercing due to the cultural stereotypes that they represent in the DR. In addition, males should not come with long hair and/or ponytails. Trainees and Volunteers are seen as role models by children and youth in the communities where you will live, therefore we ask that you try to refrain from drinking or smoking in public in your community. Dress guidelines have been developed by the Dominican programmatic and training staff. We strongly believe that your cultural sensitivity to the dress issue will greatly enhance your ability to work productively and socially interact with the people of our country. Logistics You will be arriving at the Aeropuerto Internacional Las Américas/José Francisco Peña Gómez to the east of Santo Domingo. At the airport you will be greeted by Peace Corps staff who will help you through customs and out to the parking lots where training staff (ENTRENA) will be eagerly awaiting your arrival. In preparing for your arrival, we ask you to please take care in reading the following: 1. Packing for the Retreat: When you arrive in country you will be transported directly to a retreat center where you will spend the rest of the day. Please pack a light backpack, duffle bag, or suitcase with clothing and personal belongings for the retreat (including soap, shampoo, a towel, other toiletries, WHO card or immunization records, and your address book or emergency contact information) that you will need for the first night in country. This is the only bag that you will have access to during the retreat. We will send the rest of your bags directly to your host family’s home where they will await your arrival the next day. From the second night in-country on you will stay with your host family. 2. Airport Arrival: After leaving customs you will pick up your checked bags and go through immigration. You will pass through the glass doors to the outside where you will be greeted by training staff who will direct you to the vehicles (truck and busses). 3. Luggage: First, take your bags to the truck where training staff will give you luggage tags with the name of your host family and barrio. Attach the luggage tags only to the bags that you will NOT take with you to the retreat center and load them on the truck. All bags loaded on the truck will be taken by our drivers and delivered to your host family’s home. You will not have access to these bags for at least a day. 4. Transportation: From the truck, training staff will show you to our busses. Please make sure that you have your personal belongings for the retreat. You should take these on the bus with you or put them in a trailer attached to the back of your assigned bus. Arrival at Retreat: The retreat center is located approximately 1 hour from the airport in Santo Domingo. Upon arrival, you will be met by administrative staff who will give you your room keys. Please take your belongings to your rooms, settle in, and meet at the cafeteria for a snack. Please make sure to remove all belongings from the busses – these are rented vehicles and do not belong to the training center. Retreat Activities: You will have training retreat activities for the rest of the afternoon and early into the evening. Your vaccination program will begin this evening with the first of three Rabies vaccinations. Please take with you to the retreat center the following documents (you will need to access them during the first 2 days of training): medical information including vaccination history, prescription medicines, passport, your address book or emergency contact information. Breakfast will be served at between 7AM and 7:30AM the next morning; we will leave for the ENTRENA Training Center by 8:15AM. You will be given an agenda upon arrival to the center. At the end of this day, you will meet your host families and spend your first evening with them. Some Important Peace Corps Staff Romeo Massey, Country DirectorJohn Seibel, Training Management Consultant, President of ENTRENAJennifer McGowan, Training DirectorAlberto Rodríguez, Associate Peace Corps Director-Natural ResourcesDomingo Valerio, Associate Peace Corps Director-Education · Miguel León, Associate Peace Corps Director-Health · Adele Williams, Associate Peace Corps Director-Youth, Families and Communities · Joy Jacobs, Associate Peace Corps Director-Community Economic Development

Emergency Contact Info Peace Corps Office Mailing Address: APDO 1412, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Street Address: Ave. Bolivar #451, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic Tel. 1-809-685-4102 (24 hours) Duty Cellular Phone: 1-809-224-0396 Training Center Tel: 1-809-561-3149 or 1-809-561-2430 Training Director’s Cellular Phone: 1-809-723-9828 During your pre-service training, you will receive emergency cards with telephone numbers of staff members and the local hospital. As a Trainee and Volunteer, you should keep this card with you at all times in case of an emergency. Orientation Accommodations At the end of your second day in country, you will meet your host family. This is your host family in Santo Domingo for the duration of your 10 week training period. Although you will travel to the interior of the country for an extended period of time, the majority of your belongings will remain at the host family’s home. Vaccinations Your vaccination program will begin the first day. Although most of the vaccinations will be received during the first 3 weeks of training, vaccinations continue throughout training. Upon arrival in country, you will be given the exact dates of your vaccinations. The following is a list of vaccinations given: DT and Rabies 1 MMR and Polio Rabies 2 and Hepatitis A Typhoid and Meningitis Rabies 3 and Hepatitis B1 Hepatitis B2 Influenza Communication Your training will be carried out in a variety of communities throughout the country. Although you will be based with a host family in the Santo Domingo area, you will also be traveling for a good portion of the 10 weeks of training. All of your mail will be sent to the Peace Corps office that is located approximately an hour from the training center. While you are in Santo Domingo, we will bring your mail to the training center at least 2 times a week. During your stays in other communities, you will only receive mail during specified, pre-arranged visits. During this time, please understand that you will NOT receive mail on a daily or even weekly basis. This will be true during training, and especially once you become a Volunteer. Given that your training will be based in the community, you will quickly learn to use the communication resources available on a local level. Most communities have post offices where you may purchase stamps and mail any correspondence. Although the country does have internet access, these services are not provided at the training center and are not available everywhere in the country. You will find internet and E-mail services at phone centers or cafes in the larger cities around the country. If necessary, please let your family and friends know that you may not be able to access your e-mail regularly, especially during training. Your most reliable and available form of communication may be the telephone. The Dominican Republic has some of the best telecommunication systems in Latin America. Don’t be fooled by international calling cards sold in the United States; although they may include the DR on their access list, many of these do not work given that you must dial a 1-800 number (which is not free) to access an operator. You may purchase phone cards once in the DR. Each card may cost you between $100-$250 pesos ($3 – 7 dollars) and allow you several minutes of phone conversation. These are sold in various stores and pharmacies in a majority of communities (large and small) and can be used from any telephone to call outside the country. The purchase of an occasional phone card is a feasible cost within the Peace Corps Trainee’s budget. There are also “phone centers” where you can make international calls from one of the many phone booths for a slightly lower price. You may receive phone calls from your family and friends at your host family’s home (if they have a telephone), but once again, remember that you will be traveling extensively which may make it more convenient for you to call them. Collect calls from a private telephone can also be made by calling 0+area code+number, and speaking to an operator. Although you may have somewhat regular phone service while in the Santo Domingo area, this will be quite limited during weeks 4-9 of your training program while in the interior of the country. You will be able to determine where you can make and receive telephone calls once you arrive to your host family’s home at the end of the week. If necessary, please notify your family and friends PRIOR to leaving the states that you will not have access to a telephone immediately. The Peace Corps/Dominican Republic web site, http://dominican.peacecorps.gov, contains a number of presentations that you, your family or friends can view to see more about Peace Corps Dominican Republic and the typical work and living conditions of our Volunteers. Local Currency/Money Matters You will receive an initial walk around allowance of $DR 45 within the first two days of training. This stipend is for your personal use. Other expenses such as food, lodging and transportation will be covered in separate payments by the training center. Since you will be provided with local currency, we suggest that you avoid bringing a large amount of US cash to the Dominican Republic. However, for future travel purposes or unexpected expenses during your service, you may want to consider bringing some US dollars in the form of traveler’s checks. When you arrive to the training center, after the initial retreat, you will have an administrative overview provided by the Peace Corps Administrative Officer. Peace Corps will not store any valuables including cash, credit cards, driver’s licenses, travelers checks nor passports; these must be maintained by the Trainee/Volunteer. Local Conditions – Personal Safety The Dominican Republic is a poor country. Although you will find international reports of high national growth, the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots” is growing, driving the majority of the people further into economic hard times. No “safety net” exists for these individuals. Unemployment benefits and welfare programs do not exist and there are little or no opportunities for many young and/or unskilled workers. Crime is ever more frequent and threatens all people, foreigners and Dominicans alike. As a Trainee and Volunteer, your personal safety is a primary concern of Peace Corps and ENTRENA. Your personal safety, however, is ultimately your own responsibility. Each of you will need to make conscious decisions about daily activities and cultural cues that may affect your own safety. In the Dominican Republic, our most prevalent crimes are petty theft – i.e. a stolen purse, wallet, bag, or piece of jewelry. More violent crimes and assaults do happen, but fortunately they are not as common. Pre-Service Training Training Site Your training will be carried out in at least two training sites – the Pantoja training center near Santo Domingo, and one of many rural or semi-urban communities in the interior of the country. During the first three weeks of training you will live with your host families in communities near Pantoja and will travel to the training center on a daily basis where you will receive instruction in Spanish, Dominican culture, safety, health, and development. During the first week of training, you will learn how to use the public transportation system (busses and public shared taxis) to get to and from the training center. Following the initial three weeks of PST, you will begin what is referred to as Community Based Training or CBT. During CBT trainees are separated according to their project assignments and move to another community in the interior of the country. This is where your technical training will be carried out. During the five weeks of CBT, your technical trainer and language facilitators will live in the same community with you and provide you with specific training according to your technical project. Vegetarians The local diet is high in carbohydrates and consists of rice, beans, starchy vegetables, and a small amount of red meat or chicken. Fresh vegetables, salad, and fruit are available in certain areas of the country, must be prepared with care, and can be expensive depending on variety and availability. Your host families have been trained in the preparation of fruits, vegetables, and vegetarian meals. We generally find that in our CBT communities, fruits and vegetables are available, but limited in variety. A vegetarian diet is possible in the Dominican Republic, however, until you are settled into your assigned project community, you may find that your diet is much more limited in variety than you are accustomed to. You will be provided with local nutrition and dietary information during the first three weeks of your core training. Married Couples Although you and your spouse will be serving together in the Dominican Republic, you may have separate training programs. As outlined in the training agenda, all trainees will be together at the training center for the first three weeks of training. If you and your spouse are assigned to different programs – i.e. Community Environmental Development and Information Communication Technology, or Community Economic Development and Water/Sanitation or Youth Development - you will participate in different CBT (weeks 3.5 - 8) portions of the training program. Your CBT will be carried out only with other trainees in your same program. During this time period, you and your spouse will be apart. However, depending on the locations of your trainings and the activities, we will do our best to help you arrange at least one weekend to see each other. While you are in the Santo Domingo area you have the choice of staying with the same host family or living separately. This decision is left up to you as a couple. When trying to decide whether you should live together or separately, we ask that you consider your language acquisition. We find that trainees that are in the beginning stages of learning Spanish learn best when they have quality time with a host family or community and are not speaking English with other trainees. If you feel, as a couple, you will be disciplined in speaking Spanish and taking advantage of learning the language by participating in Dominican activities, we suggest that you live with the same host family.

WEEK MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY SUNDAY 0 Settling- in: Introductory week: language & cultural; language testing; vaccinations. 1 Initial Community-Based Training / Barrio Setting: Trainees are in local communities nearest to the Santo Domingo training center. Focus is on development, culture, safety & health, PC policies, and language training. · Transportation competency for weeks 1 and 2 (bus stations, medical services, etc., and provincial travel). · Visit to a PCV currently serving in the field. · Interviews with Peace Corps and ENTRENA staff. · Most of the vaccination program is carried out during these weeks. · Core competency evaluations 2 3 Community Based Training (CBT) / Field Based in the Interior of the Country: · Trainees leave Santo Domingo for their CBT training sites with trainees from their same sector only. Some trainees are trained in small groups of 3 to 6 trainees in immersion settings. · CBT is immersion training in communities with host families and community members that live in environments closely related to future technical work. · CBT may be a combination of immersion – self directed training activities & technical workshops. Technical workshops are designed to transfer information or hard skills. · Language Facilitators live in community to facilitate language classes. · Monitoring is done by a technical trainer who offers individualized assistance. · Supervision is provided by the Training Director, Medical staff, and Language and Family Coordinator. · Technical groups are trained in small groups in separate communities. · Technical and language assessments carried out on a bi-weekly basis and performance results reported to Peace Corps. 4 5 6 7 8 9 Settling-In and Final Assessment: Final assessment, exit interviews, and swearing-in Assigned Project Sites: Trainees receive project assignments, meet their project partners, and visit assigned community. 10

Basic Methodology and Assessment Criteria For PST Your training is based on language, cultural, and technical competencies. During the first three weeks of training, you will concentrate on language and cultural elements of the program. During this time you will receive core language competencies such as purchasing items in a local store, how to make a telephone call in the case of an emergency, and how to use local transportation. If you are at an advanced language level, your program will be slightly different and will focus on the subtleties of the Spanish language as well as an in-depth look at specific aspects of the Dominican culture. As your training progresses during CBT, we combine the language and culture with technical competencies specific to your program. Much of CBT will be carried out solely in Spanish. During both core training and CBT you will be evaluated. You will receive weekly feedback on your language development and on a number of occasions be asked to perform specific tasks including public presentations and facilitation of technical material in Spanish. We will work with all trainees in helping them meet language qualifying criteria of “Intermediate Mid” on the ACTFL scale. You will be given more details regarding the ACTFL testing system and qualifications upon your arrival. Speaking Spanish, however, is not the only skill that will help you become a successful Volunteer. Your motivation, productive competence, social sensitivity, and emotional maturity play a tremendous role in your ability to carry out successful development. You will be assessed on a regular basis in the following areas: Motivation: Volunteers vary in their motivations or reasons for serving in the Peace Corps. The organization has found that successful Volunteers have motivations that balance enlightened self-interest, which acknowledges benefits to the volunteer, with altruism and humanism. Productive Competence: Volunteers offer information and skills to others and must possess the ability to educate as well as have an understanding of the subject matter. Your facilitators will be looking for your ability to set goals, solve problems, and employ effective communication. Emotional Maturity: Volunteers are exposed to unfamiliar, often stressful situations in which cultural and traditional support systems are absent. Your facilitators seek evidence of your possession of a positive self-concept and ability to function effectively within the new environment. Social Sensitivity: Volunteers manage a variety of personal, social, and cultural interactions throughout their service. These exchanges require respect for people and their customs, empathy for others, interest in learning new things, and willingness to adjust to different situations. Qualifying for Service: You must qualify for your PC service in the Dominican Republic. Qualification for service is based on a series of assessments including: Spanish – Individual interviews to assess language level (ACTFL Scale)Technical – Evaluation of your ability to facilitate training workshops in Spanish (3 presentations in total) and written exams to assess assimilation of technical information.Core – You will receive training in “core” themes, that is, topics that we feel are fundamental for all Peace Corps Volunteers regardless of their technical program. Your knowledge, skills and attitudes will be evaluated through written exams and interactive competency demonstrations. You will receive detailed information about your assessment during the first day of training at the Pantoja training center. Sample Day’s Schedule Sample Core Day Sample CBT Day Weeks 1-3 Weeks 4-8

8:00AM-10:00AM PC/DR Sector Development Projects APCD Presentations 10:15AM-12:00PM Spanish 12:00PM - Lunch 1:15PM-3:15PM Spanish 3:30PM-5:00PM Regions of the Dominican Republic APCD Interviews all day

8:00AM – 12:00PM Grafting workshop at DGDF Nursery, Dajabón All Trainees and Training Staff Participation with local community members. 12:00PM - 2:00PM Lunch with host family 2:00PM - 6:00PM Spanish Evening Assigned Association Meeting

Swearing-In Date Swearing-in will take place on May 13, 2009, on the grounds of the Pantoja training center. Good luck, have a nice trip and we will see you soon! Buena suerte, buen viaje y nos vemos pronto! Welcome to Peace Corps Training in the Dominican Republic. Bienvenido y bienvenida a su entrenamiento para Cuerpo de Paz en la República Dominicana.

I just received an email roughly outlining the first three months of my time in-service.

I leave for Miami in early March and take part in a one-day orientation at a hotel there. I get to meet the thirty-five other volunteers that I'll be training with for the first three months and get my formal introduction on what to expect from an experience in the Peace Corps.

When I leave Miami, I'll arrive in Santo Domingo on the Dominican Republic's southeastern coast. From there, I'll immediately be taken to a "retreat center" (probably a small hotel) about forty miles from Santo Domingo. I'll pass my first night there getting to know the other volunteers better and meeting the Corps's local staff in-country.

After a couple of days probably doing team-building exercises, we'll return to Santo Domingo to be placed with our host families. The first three weeks are called the "core training" and I'll spend my entire time living there and attending generalized introductory classes on Dominican culture, how to navigate the country's transportation system and how to safely feed myself using local produce. During this period, I'll also slowly get a full battery of vaccinations against a number of different ailments.

From week four on, I'll be splitting my time between my host family in Santo Domingo and training stations in various different communities around the country. This stage of training is called "community-based traning" and is tailored to one's particular service specialization, in my case information technology education, so the trainees will all be split up into specialized training groups during this period. Throughout this stage, I'll be taking language exams and giving presentations on my specialization to prove my ability to teach competently and in Spanish.

At the end of the twelfth week, I'll take my final competency exam and, if accepted into the true program, will officially be sworn into the Peace Corps in mid-May.

The Dominican Republic desk at Peace Corps headquarters guarantees me that internet access will be unlikely except at small net cafés dotted around the country and that their frequent use is probably beyond the average volunteer's stipend. However, as my ostensible specialization is information technology and that might reasonably imply internet access, it's possible that I'll be able to continue with updates as frequently as events warrant. If that proves not to be the case, I'll try to make updates as often as will be possible and affordable.

My name is Geoffrey and I'm a volunteer in the United States Peace Corps. Encouraged by my parents, I've set up this weblog as one way of helping to keep the people I know in the United States appraised of events while I'm serving abroad.

The Peace Corps is an agency of the US government which sends Union citizens to other countries at their governments' requests to try to help the local populaces further develop their material and educational infrastructures.

Since I haven't yet left the country for my actual service abroad and consider most of what's happened so far to be dull, bureaucratic paper shuffling, this initial post will primarily list what little information I currently have about what will happen when I first ship out.

I volunteered in May 2008 and was formally accepted into the program in January 2009. The time between volunteering and formal acceptance was occupied by a great deal of federal paperwork and health examinations.

In early March 2009 I'll be departing Baltimore, Maryland for a one-day orientation session in Miami, Florida.

The following day I'll leave for Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic, an island nation in the Caribbean. The Dominican Republic occupies the eastern two-thirds of the large island of Hispaniola while Haiti claims Hispaniola's western third. As a frame of reference, Hispaniola itself lies just east of Cuba and Jamaica and just west of Puerto Rico.

Once in Santo Domingo, I'll be placed with a local Dominican family for a period of three months in what's known as pre-service training. While living with them, it's hoped that I'll be able to adapt myself to the local diet, climate and culture and become fluent enough with the local dialect to be of use as a teacher later. I'm already fluent in formal Spanish, particularly the Mexican dialect, and so I have high hopes for my ability to gain sufficient communications skill so as to be able to serve effectively as a teacher for the rest of my term.

After three months of pre-service training, if I'm still deemed worthy by the program, I'll be assigned to another "urban area" somewhere away from the capital to begin my actual two years of teaching service. What qualifies as an urban area hasn't been well defined yet and I'm sure that I won't have any further information until the day that I'm given the order to report to my actual assignment.

Officially, I'll be teaching "information technology education." This is also undefined for the time being and could indicate anything from teaching children how to use mice and keyboards for the very first time to helping local businesses set up online presences for internet commerce. It might turn out that I arrive to find that my goal is to set up a computer lab for the very first time. I doubt that I'll have any further information for another four months.

My time until I depart is mostly going to be occupied with gathering up the equipment and belongings that are recommended I should take with me and studying more volumes from the Peace Corps's online training library.

I'll post again as more information becomes available or significant events take place.