So this past week has really been my first week as a volunteer at the project site. Was having some problems with my laptop earlier and spent a good hour or so completely disassembling the thing. Still no luck. However, this morning I was messing around with the memory and something seemed to fall into place. That was a relief, but now all I need is the new keyboard so I can stop using copy, paste for the n´s. Actually, my host dad sort of made fun of me about my keyboard and computer not functioning, like ¨hace falta...blah blah, laugh..¨Si, siempre is my standard response to that one.

Actually, I had one of those cross cutting realizations that distill several experiences or situations into some sort of lesson learned or wise saying. I´m really happy when I make such realizations it gives me hope that I am doing the right thing with my life or at least learning to do so. I thought being in a large community would be completely unworkable and I was dreading my project site selection. However, it´s starting to grow on me each day and I am now feeling more fortunate. For the last few days, I´ve been taking crash courses that will prepare me for my community diagnostic. I´m still in the process of reading through hundred reports of mainly ICT and development that I have collected over the years. Hoping to gain some valuable insight into past failures and successes in the field. I don´t want to cheat too much though, heh. Anyway, I had to form a survey to find out the needs of the community, which will help explore the potential of classes and projects. I was able to actually pull together a survey fairly quickly, but the daunting part is getting introduced to the community. So for the past few days, thanks to help from my host father and project partner I´ve been able to get connected with a few ppl who can take me around to homes in the community. Everyone I´m sure would be apprehensive about a lone gringo asking questions. The other day I walked around to about 15 or 20 houses in the barrio around the center. Today I was fortunate to meet up with an organization who is undergoing their own assessment of the community´s needs. I´m really hoping that we can work together to make this a bit more relevant and manageble. I´m also quite interested in seeing the results of discussions with 16 or so of the barrios in the pueblo. There seems to be an extreme variety of living conditions, which can probably be modeled on Washington, D.C. I thought I had read awhile back that D.C. had the statistics to support developing nation status, but trust me when I say I´m definitely not there right now. If you really wanted to be thorough there are about 6 bateys and 57 campos that surround my pueblo. Hopefully, I will get an opportunity to make some visits or at least work on some projects with those communities. I was also introduced to a high schooler here who speaks an impressive amount of English and has an interest in organizing community volunteers. Things are sort of starting to come together. So back to the results of my first interviews. It´s quite unimaginable seeing how some people are able to live in certain conditions. For instance, the people told us about how there is now sewage system, no potable water, awful roads, flooding, and that they technically don´t own their houses, but that the government does. However, there is electricity. My project site is one of the only places in the country to almost always have electricity. I definitely saw the road conditions as not being ideal due to heavy rain as of late. The roads are literally half lakes with mud where there is not pools of water. Apparently, in one part of the barrio a lagoon forms during the rain, which ends up flooding ppl´s homes.

Basically, flooding is a problem everywhere here. I was driving out in the campo the other day to due an errand with my host dad and we crossed a bridge where water had already crested. I had the feeling it wasn´t even raining that hard and was then told by my father that the water usually reaches way up the road. Actually, a bridge went out last week on a major road basically making it impassable between two fairly large pueblos. I was told that ppl were driving up to each side of the road and dropping passengers off, so they could cross the road and get a ride. I´m not exactly sure how they ended up crossing, though. There was actually another bridge that we crossed that wasn´t in the best of condition either and was in bad need of repair. Debris would get caught in the base of the holes for the bridges´s drainaige system causing it to turn into more or less a dam that would flood. After the dam experience, we visited my dad´s uncle and chatted a bit. I realized today too that people seem to correlate being cold with drinking Brugal aka its a type of rum here. This blog would actually be more effecient if I could codify the sentences into the phrases and acronyms I usually use. Anyway, we were driving along the road and it was raining and we saw a man drenched walking along the road carrying a bottle of rum. My father turns to me and says, ¨He must be cold. I was later asked if I was interested in a drink because I appeared cold. I´ve also been offered a drink because the general concensus was that I needed to relax. I´m glad ppl are so thoughtful here. After we left my uncle´s house we headed down the road past a large building that is apparently a chuch organization started by Jimmy Carter called MGM. Apparently, gringos come down and visit and then work on community service projects around the country. My luck being what it is today I met another person who actually helps organize the projects for that organization. He also speaks very good English. So after we drove past the MGM we stopped at a friend of my dad´s. Actually, it was really interesting experience because it was the home of a Dominican who is married to a Frenchman. He was quite an interesting guy to talk to considering we were really bridging languages with Spanish because I don´t French and he didn´t speak English. He had these two really cool paintings of Mont Saint Michel, which ended up reminding me of how much I wanted to visit. I can´t really describe the origin of my fascination with this historical figure. I know it wasn´t from attending Sunday school, bible lectures or church. After we chatted a bit we headed out to his backyard, where there was an endless variety of fruits and vegetables. It reminded me of how much I want to own my land and grow interesting things on it like tropical fruits and varieties of garden vegetables. After eating a guava, we talked about garlic, ginger and varieties of cabbage. I had not seen Italian cabbage, until now. And then finally, he cut down some sugar cane for us, while I drooled over the lime tree. By the way, fresh lime juice is amazing and a good ailment for vomitting.

I feel like I have so many similar random stories and incidents that have happened to me. There was a point where I became apathetic about writing and sharing my experiences. That time has passed, but it will come back. Va a regresar. En todo caso, I was looking through my journal the other day where fortunately during the first few weeks I made it a point to write down anything that seemed appropriate for writing down in a journal. Unfortunately, some of my writing was completed in a bit of a hasty fashion. However, I would like to open up my archives to you.

¨It´s clear everyone is excited, but also have reservations about what exactly they are getting into. It´s refreshing to see so many people who are taking a risk leaving their job prospects and families behind.¨

¨Ironically, one volunteer is from Cody, WY, which is not too far from where I grew up. We about how we are the only WY volunteers in our group. However, I later find another WY connection via a girl whose father grew up in Laramie, WY.¨

¨Sitting in Miami I´m reflecting about how foolish it would be to leave the United States if the sole reason was to learn Spanish.¨

¨I was reflecting about a story that happened on my flight into Miami. I met this older woman who was from the Dominican Republic. She told me all about her life and how she has lived in the D.C. area for sometime, but was going back to her home country to visit her family. Anyway, she told me this chilling story about this woman she knew who one day invited all her friends over for dinner. The woman that invited everyone over insisted that noone help her with anything and that she serve them everything, including dessert. Unbeknownst to anyone, the woman had been suffering serious health problems and was not in good condition. The woman I met told me that her friend ended up dying right after dinner, while everyone was there at the table. She said she was convinced that she knew she was going to die, but wanted to make one last meal for all her friends.¨

¨I was actually really scared that I had too much stuff for my trip to the DR, so sitting in the Miami Airport I left a backpack, pair of jeans, hiking boots and a copy of Thucydides.¨

¨Arriving at the airport and loading my luggage on the truck my hand is shaking. The Dominican helping load the luggage tells me not to be nervous. I smile and say I¨m nervous, but excited!¨

Dogs everywhere, lots of dogs. Lost dogs.

I think I read it was William James that said by age 25 a man will have decided what his views are on the world. After this age it is extremely hard for man to change his views on things.

Goals and objectives of the ICT Education program are to train teachers, youth and community organizations on how to utilize technology to better the quality of their lives. Im goin to be working as an ICT Education volunteer in one of the community centers run by the Despacho de la Primera Dama aka Office of the First Lady here in the DR. I will be teaching classes, training teachers and working to improve the business strategy of the center in the community. I will also likely be teaching english and organizing other programs in the community like computer clubs and environment groups. The center had requested a volunteer to help make it more sustainable and for help teaching classes among other things. Interestingly enough, I forgot to mention that we had gone to the capital to meet people from the Secretary of Education who are involved with the schools in the country. We also toured the headquarters of the Office of the First Lady which is the headquarters of all the country´s community centers. Some of the volunteers are going to work in the schools, while others will be working in the community centers.

http://beta.ctc.org.do/

Im still trying to learn to dance merengue and bachata. Its actually a lot of fun but a bit difficult at times because Im not coordinated like that.

So I was in Hato Mayor for five days and my head is heavy with thoughts about the experience. I keep thinking there was a big mistake and I should have been placed at the beach or in a tiny mountain village. Hato Mayor is somewhat urban, but the roads are terrible. Some are paved but there are holes everywhere. There are some cars but everyone drives on motoconchos. To get from my house to my project site I pay someone to take me 10 minutes on the back of their motorcycle. Peace corps makes us wear helmets though, which is a very good thing. I´m actually in the process of befriending motoconcho drivers. I´m leaning towards the driver with the Harvard baseball cap. I´ll get back to the details about Hato Mayor shortly, but after coming back from the five day trip there were just a few days of training left before being officially sworn in as volunteers.

We were officially sworn in as volunteers on may 13 and they had a ceremony with DR Dept of Ed and government officials, Peace Corps officials and a rep from the US Embassy. It was a nice ceremony but did sort of remind me of high school graduation. Oh yea, before leaving for my project site last week i got pretty ill and was throwing up all day. Ironically, it was the same day of our all volunteer conference, which was the day after swearing in. All the volunteers met in the capital for meetings and workshops, so I missed out on meeting some ppl, but all´s well now. Still trying to figure out what made me so ill. Just glad I had the most wonderful, kindest nurses in the world taking care of me. I do not lie when I say that. I know from experience!! Im better again and right now, Im at my future project site in Hato Mayor. A lot of the other IT Education volunteers are in small pueblos around the country. Out of our combined training group I'm the only person in the Eastern part of the country, but there are some other volunteers fairly close to my site. I haven't decided how much i like being in a bit larger urban area. It may be a lot harder for me to fit in here than i had anticipated, but im sure there will be lots of work to do in the community. It has its perks like fairly easy internet access and there is a gym and supermarket in town. Another perk is that it is one of the only pueblos in the DR with consistent electricity. Electricity in this country can be quite unpredictable. However, I couldnt even begin to describe the contrast of things i see everyday. Its still very much developing and there is a lot of very poor housing and conditions surrounding the town and my neighborhood. My family here is quite nice and my dad is very well educated and is a director at a local school. He has quite an amazing book collection, as well. My mom here works at a small university in town. They have a 3 year old son who is hilarious, but yet annoying. big surprise. The food here is alright but not great. My host mom in santo domingo was a great cook, so maybe I was just spoiled. Mainly we eat a lot of platanos, rice, beans, yucca and stuff fried in oil like sausage, eggs, or onions. For lunch there is usually a meat like chicken or pork. I finally had to draw the line at eating something called tripe. Do your research. Generally, you eat a small breakfast and dinner and a big lunch. Usually, I have a sandwich with cheese and tomato for breakfast. Although I would eat that for breakfast and dinner in El Seibo. The fruits and vegetables are rather limited in my house, although i can buy t hem at the market. I had been eating papaya and melon quite a bit in El Seibo and the capital. I went out into the countryside behind my house with my host dad the other day and picked some mangos, sugar cane and oranges. mmm! I´m eagerly looking forward to avocado season after sampling a few from the tree in the backyard of my hosts family´s house in El Seibo. In Hato Mayor I live in a very agricultural area and there are rolling hills surrounding the town. Its quite a beautiful area. I always see horses and cows running around my backyard. There are also some bateys, which are units of housing set up for the workers who mainly immigrate from Hait to work in the sugar industry. There are many Peace Corps volunteers who have project sites at bateys around the country. Our house here is interesting. It is only partially finished so the outside is still all concrete but the inside has more or less nice living room, kitchen and dining area. My room is alright too except that when it rains hard water leaks through the floor. It actually rains quite a lot here and just the other day there was some flooding all over town. Its such a hard site to see ppl´s houses being flooded up the street from my house. My dad told me that on the edge of the pueblo there is serious flooding problems and the housing there is a bit more primitive with wooden and corrugated steel structures. Its been hard for me to adjusts with all the mosquitoes, insects, frogs and lizards in my room. I had a lizard jump through my window onto my mosquito net, which actually scared me because I thought it was a tarantula. I also saw a frog in my room the other day but when I went to get my dad to show him it was gone. Maybe Im just crazy. We dont have running water and do bucket baths but we do somehow have a flush toilet. The water sort of just drips out of the faucet and I think we have a giant bucket on our roof that stores water. I forgot to check. Shaving has turned out to be one of the more difficult tasks. I find the cold baths somewhat refreshing. I definitely have it better than some of the volunteers in this country. Joining Peace Corps you have this image that you will be living in the most extreme survivor like conditions. Part of me is disappointed that I won´t be, but another part of me still sees a situation that is still not great, if not been made worse by modern development. It´s interesting living in a world where technology like television, appliances and computers can be placed just about anywhere despite the surrounding conditions.

I think my Spanish is dramatically improving after two short months, which is an amazing feeling.

I made it back from Villa Jaraguas awhile ago but haven´t really had time to post considering I just spent about a month in community based training. The trip to Villa Jaraguas was beautiful and the surrounding scenery was surreal considering I´m on an island. There were deserts next to the sea, there were palm trees where there should have been pine trees. Extremely interesting diversity in the outdoors here. One minute we were driving through flat agricultural land filled with sugarcane and the next we were in the desert hills filled with sage brush or some resemblance of it. I visited a large salt lake in the country home to crocodiles and iguanas. It was an amazing site to see a large lake surrounded by mountains. I had no idea it was possible here. I actually made it down to the Southern coast of the country to visit the beach. The beach was a bit rocky, but albeit a gorgeous and unforgettable site. What a country full of neverending surprises and adventure!

UPDATE

We were in El Seibo fixing up a high school´s computer lab, teaching classes and learning more about the education system. Overall, it was a great experience and we were fortunate to have all the ICT volunteers in one site. Anyway, on the 2nd to last day of our training in El Seibo I woke up with this terrible pain on my face. It was the most pain I remember feeling and the left side of my cheek, nose, and mouth were incredibly swollen. I had a staph infection on the left side of my face. I had to leave training in El Seibo a day early to get it treated, but managed to make my way back to the medical office in the capital all by myself. I was told the staph infections here aren´t resistant to antibiotics like some in the States. Pheww! Luckily, I´m all healed now, but my girlfriend decided we should breakup during that time which was just lovely timing. Interestingly, enough while in the capital getting treated I met a volunteer who is from a tiny town in PA just north of where I grew up. Actually, another volunteer he was with is from PA also and was just about to leave the country to see her sister graduate from the university in my town back home. Small mundo, no?

Eventually I was able to meet up with our training group just outside of the capital for a tour of a technology center, although I did miss most of it. After we got back from the tour we received our future project sites. I´m going to hopefully be living and working in Hato Mayor, which is a larger pueblo East of the capital. We then had a workshop in the capital to meet our project partners at our future sites and also to explain to them the goals of Peace Corps. Anyway, I went to visit Hato Mayor for five days and to get to know the community members and host family. There is no time to be worried about the level of your spanish skills when you´re meeting and interacting with professionals. Tomatelo con calma! Talk about trying different experiences. This has been one of the most amazing and challenging opportunities so far. I´m really excited to get there to check things out. My site is actually only 20 minutes from the city that I was staying in for the past month named. I will easily be able to visit my old host family there.

Hato Mayor del Rey, República Dominicana

Enlace:

I haven’t even done a post about the last few weeks yet, but I’ve been sorta busy!!! This coming Thursday-Sunday I’m heading off to the West of the country to a place called Villa Juaragua. I will be visiting the site of a current Peace Corps volunteer to get an idea of the types of assignment I will be working on in the future. The trip to Villa Juaragua will be quite a lengthy trip taking about 5 hours. In addition, we will be traveling in a guagua, which is probably about half the size of a regular school bus, but much more cramped. It’s quite an interesting process of cramming so many people into such a small vehicle. Obviously, I haven’t done an official post on this subject, which in my mind deserves a whole blog, but needless to say is quite an experience. I could never imagine people being forced this close to each other in the States. Just riding in the D.C. metro I’ve seen how reluctant people are to making eye contact versus actually having their bodies touching. On our way back from Santiago, I spent the whole time awkwardly standing with my head pressed up against the ceiling of the bus, while the cobrador (person who shuffles ppl into the bus and also collects money) wantonly crammed more ppl into places were no ppl could be crammed. I heard a few Spanish comments about there not being anymore space, but the cobrador has been doing his job long enough to know otherwise. Fortunately, once the bus gets going a nice breeze circulates through the bus, in addition, to the blaring (louder than loud) bachata music. I believe the whole topic of the bachata music also deserves another person. Basically, this type of music is almost a version of our “Blues” for the people in Latin America. I discovered this type of music on a visit to Ecuador and have grown to love it ever since. Anyway, back to the guaguas! Just yesterday, I was sitting next to a man who was drinking a bottle of vinegar on the bus. I thought it was some sort of clear alcohol, but the smell was unmistakable. I asked my Dona if this was normal and she started laughing and gave me a clear “No, it’s not.” We were told that “potions” are somewhat popular here in the Dominican culture and I reckon that drinking vinegar is some holistic cure that was given to that man. Regardless, the girl next to me on the bus kept laughing and covering her nose as the man took swigs from his bottle. I should probably share another story that recently happened, before it takes flight from my memory. I was sitting in the Internet café checking my email and trying to decipher the online version of Hoy (the local Spanish newspaper) when I heard the unmistakable sounds coming from someone’s computer, which would probably be deemed as “inappropriate.” Suddenly, the encargada (person in charge of the cafe) yells loudly at the boy, “Por dios, nino!” This basically translates into, “For god’s sake, son!!” I thought the whole exchange was hilarious and everyone in the Internet café started laughing out loud.

On a side note, the journey to El Seibo was quite interesting, just like any journey on public transportation here. Basically, we jammed ourselves and luggage for 5 weeks into a taxi, then arrived at the bus stop downtown. From there a man quickly determined how many gringos could comfortably fit in the bus and multiplied that number by 2. It was quite a site to see the man shoving our luggage through the window on the side of the bus. This isn´t quite a regular bus either. It´s called a guagua, which is probably half the size of a regular bus, but much more crammed. I felt so bad for the passengers we almost suffocated with all our stuff. We actually had to commandeer a few extra seats to put all our stuff on, but don´t worry we we´re charged for those seats, as well! My host family here is a bit more laid back than the one in Santo Domingo. In Santo Domingo, I had a host mom, brother and sister. However, the sister was moved out with two kids, so she isn´t around much. In addition, the host brother is a bit older than I am and seemed to always be out and about. Fortunately, my Dona is quite social and always had neighbors over on our porch playing dominoes and conversing. I could understand maybe some of what they are saying. Even native Spanish speakers commented that they had difficulty understanding some of the people here. That means there is still hope for me! My new host family has two sons attending university in Santo Domingo and a younger daughter who is still attending school in our town. The mom usually stays at home to take care of things around the house, while the father is a director at one of the local primary schools. Everyone is quite nice and tries to make me feel at home knowing that home is much different from their country. Interestingly enough, my host dad had lived in Missouri for one year, while completing a study abroad program offered by the Secretary of Education. He had also spent about a week in Denver, so he was quite eager to show me all his pictures of his travels and of his family. The food here is a bit more bland than that in Santo Domingo. My host mom in Santo Domingo was an amazing cook. I was so surprised at all the things she could make using minimal, but always local and fresh ingredients. The key to cooking here is to master the creation of sauces and seasonings to spice up the food. I´ll be going into more detail regarding the types of food and preparations that I´ve been consuming. I will also remember to bring my camera, so that I can load off all the pictures.

It´s been quite difficult trying to find time to write everything down. Further, the posts that I due probably put up up riddled with grammatical errors and suffer from me trying to pour out thoughts without first organizing them. I´m no longer in Santo Domingo for the time being. I´ve moved to El Seibo, which is a small town about an hour and half Northeast of the capital of Santo Domingo. While I was in Santo Domingo, I was learning basics about the role of a volunteer, policies and attending language training. A typical day would start with me waking up at my host family´s house, having breakfast, walking 20 min to the training center-remind me to talk about how chaotic the streets are, full day of technical and Spanish training, throwing the frisbee for a bit, walking home, playing dominoes and gossiping with my host mom aka Dona, doing homework, eating dinner and then going to bed. My host family and neighbors in Santo Domingo were the nicest ppl you could ever meet, despite the challenging living conditions. I should say that the living conditions would be characterized as a challenge for me at first because of the use of bucket baths, dirt roads and mosquitoes. I mean in the spectrum of possible living conditions I´m sure it could be much different and consider myself quite fortunate to be in a comfortable dwelling. My Dona aka host mom in Santo Domingo works at a banca aka lottery next to our house. She is always running back and forth between the house or dominoes table when a customer stops by. Incredibly, welcoming to foreigners and quite understanding of my need to polish up my Spanish. Interestingly enough, the level of sound in the streets and neighborhoods has been quite difficult to adjust to. There is always Spanish bachata and mambo music playing at the maximum level all throughout my neighbor at almost every hour of the day. In addition, ppl are always yelling at one another, but not in a argumentative way, but more of just catching up without much time to spare.

I´ll be in El Seibo for about 5 weeks learning more about the specifics of the ICT sector, which is the sector that I´ve been assigned to. There are various projects in the ICT sector dealing with topics such as educating teachers, helping youth and offering assistance to community organizations. We will be involved with different programs that are run by the Secretary of Education and Primera Dona aka First Lady. For example, we will be helping set up a computer lab at the end of April in one of the local high schools her in El Seibo. Currently, we are also learning about how to conduct a community diagnostic, which is a process of interviewing community members and local leaders to determine their ICT needs. During this process we will be working with a local project parnter to help facilitate our integration into the community and to also offer us assistance in interviewing community members. This is very similar to a project management process where you determine the needs and desires of the community, before beginning a project. We will be responsible for our own community diagnostic once we are assigned our official sites. Right now, we are just learning about how to properly conduct the community diagnostic. Actually, I forgot to mention that I´m currently staying with a host family here in El Seibo. I´ve only been living with them for about 5 days, but it´s a much different environment from my neighborhood in Santo Domingo. It´s a bit more rural here. A bunch of us agreed that the scenery reminded us of an African plain, as strange as that may sound. However, there are beautiful mountains surround the town. I´ll try to take some pictures soon.

Unfortunately, I haven´t had a lot of time to keep this blog updated. However, I do have lots of things to write about regarding my experience in the Dominican Republic. Basically, the first 3 weeks consited of staying with a host family in the Santo Domingo area. There I would travel to the training center daily for classes, as a Peace Corps trainee. For example, everyone is required to take classes dealing with health, security and safety. In addition, I have been undergoing an intensive Spanish training regimen. I´ve only been in the country, since March 5th, so I´ve been learning little by little. I think I´ve actually made a significant amount of progress in a very short time. Aside, from a few ppl at the training center and all the other trainees almost everyone I interact with only speaks Spanish. Surprisingly, there were a few ppl in my barrio aka neighborhood that spoke very limited English. One had lived in New Jersey for quite awhile and would always respond to my Buenas Tardes in one sentence with the response-Hi, How are you, I´m fine. I would say it is almost illegal in this country to not reply to someone who says hello to you. I´ve walked by ppl who I thought were visibly angry or not too happy about me walking by their house, but once I said hello they lit up with a smile and greeting. I think this is a much different atmosphere from living in the United States. Actually, the Spanish here is pretty difficult to understand compared to other Spanish that I´ve heard. It´s spoken quite fast and certain letters dropped off of words. Albeit, it will slowly become easier for me to understand native speakers. I have found that it is much harder to understand older speakers than younger ones. I´m not sure what the reason would be for that phenomenon.

As some of you may wonder what I’ve been up to the last few weeks….

Well, I left my job working as an IT Analyst for the government to become an Information Communications Technologies (ICT) volunteer with the Peace Corps. I’m sure I will be posting more about the program and some of the goals, in the near future, just in case you’re a little confused about what exactly an ICT volunteer means. Basically, it involves teaching teachers, youth and community groups how to use IT, as well as, setting up and repairing infrastructure, such as telecenters and computer labs. Anyway, I’ll be spending roughly the next two years, as an ICT volunteer, in the Dominican Republic. Right now, I’m going through 3 months of technical and language training, right outside the capital of Santo Domingo. If everything goes well I will be swearing in, as an official volunteer, in mid-May. In addition, for the duration of my training I will be living with a host family that consists of an older female (called Dona) and her grown son.

I had tried my best to refresh my Spanish, before leaving the States. We were given an online subscription to Rosetta stone to help us out, as well. However, I think it’s difficult to become fluent in a language, unless you are speaking it everyday. On that note, all my language classes at the training center are in Spanish and everyone in my neighborhood speaks Spanish, including my host family. That basically has forced me to start using my Spanish, like every single day. Dominican Spanish from what I’ve heard and am beginning to learn is very difficult to understand. But being here only a few weeks I’m starting to be able understand more each day. The difficulty is that it is spoken quite fast and maybe not as clear as some of the Spanish I’ve heard in the past.

Anyway, I didn’t know much about the Dominican Republic, before receiving an invitation to serve in the country. I suppose the most popular things I had heard about the country were all the beach resorts and home grown baseball players. I’m beginning to learn that the country is an extraordinarily unique place, both, geographically and culturally. However, just being here a few weeks has opened me up to some of the challenges and conditions that the developing world faces. This will definitely be a challenge for me, unlike any other that I’ve faced. The purpose of this blog will be to share some of the stories, events and experiences I will encounter throughout my service. I can’t promise it will be too interesting or well written, but I’ll try to eliminate needless details in my postings. Basically, I don’t want to record every single detail of every single day because that would probably get rather tedious and boring for us both. There are actually quite a few blogs from current and former Peace Corps volunteers in the DR, so I would encourage you to check those out as well using Google.