I haven't written on this blog in a really long time and I don't know that anyone really reads this anymore but I've found myself with some internet time and thought I'd send an update to....whoever.

I have about 6 months left in my site and have a lot I want to accomplish beforehand. I don't know how this happens but time flies in the Peace Corps. Some days after you've done everything you've set out to do or can't do anything because the luz (electricity) isn't on and your laptop isn't charged, life in the campo along the Caribbean can be a little sloooow. During those moments, I try to do a lot of reading and go hang out with Dominicans in my town.

Been keeping busy lately with several different projects I have on my plate.

1) A latrine project. A group of university students are coming in July to help build latrines in my town so before then I am trying to organize the families selected for the project, get the funding from the NGO donating and find good deals on the materials we need. The families are now digging their holes and we will lay the cement floors all before July when the volunteers will help us construct the houses in the 4 days they will be here. This project is a lot to organize.

2) Just recently started a tinaco (water tank) project, as well. Sometimes the water will go 4-5 days (or longer) without being pumped to my site so this project will help families store the water they need to last during the shortages. Up to this point, I've been trying to raise money and investigating different prices. Hopefully, we'll get a good amount of money in.

3) I am finishing the upgrade to the coffee coop's office and hopefully this week will be installing the batteries and inversor, fans and buying the rest of the supplies we need. After finishing that I plan to sit down with the accountant and secretary to work on organizing their bookkeeping. It's hard to transfer that to their computer when the working conditions (were) horrible and the electricity is only on during certain parts of the day. Now, with the inversor they will always have electricity.

4) Next week I am starting my business course. This is a course designed to teach younger people about starting and running a business. There is a competition in October where the kids in your class can actually win money with their business plans. I am hoping to take some of my students to this competition at the end of the year

Lots to do and time is already running out. I end my service in October and am not exactly sure where I'll be or what I'll be doing afterward. I am looking into work opportunities here in the country (specifically the capitol) and hope to find a job doing more development work (but with higher pay!). We'll see what happens with that...well, until next time (whenever that is)

It’s hard to believe I’ve been living in the D.R. for about 7 months already and have been here in my site for 4 of those months! Even though the pace of life here is much different, time is really flying.

Mom and dad recently came to visit me and we had a great time. I met them at the airport and it was so great to see them after such a long time. They were immediately met by the warm, balmy tropical temperature (which I think I’ve become much more accustomed to). We hopped in a taxi and they experienced their first ride in crazy, Dominican traffic. It was pretty funny to see their reactions to the traffic, the people, the sickly animals and everything here that I hardly notice anymore. They handled everything very well considering this was their first time visiting a developing country. You never really know how different a developing country is until you go and visit one.

We had a nice time staying in the capitol for a couple days. I felt like a “rich” American again (getting to eat out and take hot showers again was really nice!). We visited the colonial zone, the Peace Corps office and the American Embassy. I was able to show them a lot in a little amount of time. We stayed pretty busy and were usually wiped out in the evenings.

We then headed to the south to stay at my site in Los Blancos for the next few days. We rented a car from the capitol and dad did a very good job driving through the city and down to my site. I was impressed! It was nice to ride in an air-conditioned vehicle again. Dad quickly learned how to drive like a Dominican- basically, whichever way you need to take to keep driving down the road is legitimate to take…rules hardly apply. I’m sure mom was cringing in the backseat most of the time J.

It was fun to show mom and dad around Los Blancos and have them meet everyone here who is apart of my life now. I was always busy translating and keeping the lines of communication flowing between English and Spanish and vice-versa. I introduced them to so many people. I’m sure they were a bit overwhelmed like I was my first time here at my site.

They got to see a local woman make “café de pilon” which is hand-roasted and hand-ground coffee. Mom and dad got to take back a bag of 100% organic, homemade coffee made right here in Los Blancos. Very strong and very good!

We also visited Bahia de Los Aguilas which is the most beautiful, pristine beache I have ever seen. It is completely undeveloped and the only way to get to it is by boat or in an off-roading vehicle. We chose to go the off-roading route and it was quite an adventure. Mom, dad and I (along with the rest of a group from Los Blancos) hopped into the back of a truck and headed out to the beach. The “road” was really bad and on one part we basically drove down the side of a cliff. It was pretty amazing (I’m always amazed when the vehicles here somehow successfully manage to get around).

Bahia de Los Aguilles (Bay of the Eagles) is a huge bay with soft, white sand and turquoise, crystal clear blue water. There are no hotels or developments along the beach. You feel like you are the first person who ever swam there. It was incredible! We had a couple snorkeling masks and so were able to explore and see down the 20-foot deep shoreline.

We did a lot in the short amount of time they were here and mom and dad got to experience everything from sipping pina coladas at a nice resort with a beautiful ocean view to sipping hand-made coffee (cooked over an open fire) inside a palm-covered, wooden shack/Dominican home. These are the types of extremities one experiences in a developing country.

This month I am working on developing several different ideas and potential projects. My friend, Mirkaya, plans to attend the university in Barahona and I am working with her on submitting a grant application to help fund her tuition. I will be her sponsor and send in progress reports to the organization donating the money. Also, I am thinking about beginning a month-long, intensive English workshop for the students I have in my adult class who are the most serious and interested. I would offer the class 3 evenings out of the week and at the end of a month they would take a test and receive a certificate showing how many hours they attended and their grade. I just need to figure out what month would be best for that and where to hold the classes.

During my time here I would also like to start a latrine project. I need to take a census to find out how many homes need a latrine. Then, I’d like to organize a group of Americans (maybe even from my hometown) to come down and stay for about a week and work on constructing the latrines. I need to investigate the process more as I don’t know anything about building latrines.

I also need to be available for the work in the cooperative. They need a design/logo for their coffee sacks and I am working on coming up with a few ideas for them. We also have a meeting this Friday to discuss their accounting and how I can help them with that. With about 4-5 months here with the cooperative, I am still piecing things together. It helps a lot that my comprehension of the language improved but I’m still confused at times as to what they are discussing in some of these meetings.

I really hope to accomplish a lot in these next 2 years. Sometimes I feel like it’s not enough time. One thing that I’ve had to get used to and accept is that progress here is just more difficult than it would be in the States. Working with the limited resources I have is a challenge. If only I could drive around and have access to the internet I’m sure I could be more productive. At the same time, part of being productive in this work is establishing myself in my community. I should see that as one success completed so far. I love being here with these people and they have accepted me as one of them calling me a Dominicana all the time and one of theirs. J The relationships I’ve established here are really special and something that I’ll never lose even after my work here is done, however much or successful that turns out to be. To be continued…

P.S. I just recently got a kitten!!! (named her Bella)

Already the New Year…January marks the start of yet more changes for me and the continuation of this interesting Peace Corps experience. The past two and half weeks have included the following:

-Sick in bed with diarrhea and a fever

-Moving into my house

-Meetings with the cooperative

-Finishing up my diagnostic report and PowerPoint presentation

-Playing a lot of dominoes

-Began my first English class last Saturday

-Cooking for myself again and learning how to make Dominican food

I guess I’ll begin with the diarrhea and fever. That was the first time I’ve come down with a fever here. I think I contracted that because a virus was going around. The diarrhea was completely separate. I believe I got the diarrhea around the same time because that’s when we ran out of bottled water here and I realized later that my jug of “special water” in the fridge wasn’t from the bottle but from the tap with a little chloride in it. Must not have been enough chloride to kill whatever was in the water. After about a week I am pretty much back to normal.

Moving into my house came at a good time, actually, especially after feeling crummy the week before. I am finally now comfortably settled into my own space after living out of my suitcases for the past 4.5 months. That gets a little old after a while. I have been in my house for exactly a week now. I wasn’t sure when I was going to be able to move in but the Italian who owns the house left for Italy early and then it was quickly cleaned out and I moved my things out of my tiny little room and am now happily spread out.

The house is made of cement with tile floors, a front and back porch with a front gate. It has nice landscaping with grass and different tropical plants. I have a few palm trees right in front and then the street. Right behind me is my host family’s house and I can call over to my host mom from over the fence. Before coming here I’d prayed that I would have a place to live close to my host family and that is an answered prayer. I feel very safe and hardly have the opportunity to feel alone or isolated as my neighbors are always around and making a lot of noise. With that said, I’m able to shut my doors and have some privacy and quiet when I need it- which is something I’ve missed these past 4 months.

The house is fully furnished which has been an incredible blessing. I have a living room with a wicker sofa, chairs and table, a kitchen with fridge, stove, cabinet and sink (with cooking ware, dishes and silverware (I even have a blender!), there are two bedrooms with a bed and dresser/mirror in each and an extra room with bunk beds and a wardrobe. There’s even a small charcoal grill that I hope to use some time. I haven’t had to buy anything for the house which is really nice. I even have a small t.v. in my room. I had no idea that I’d be able to live this comfortable in the Peace Corps. Many volunteers have a hard time finding a secure place to live and when they do they usually have to make repairs and buy all their appliances and furniture. I am so relieved that I don’t have to mess with that.

It’s been fun to make this my own space. I still have a lot of books and stuff thrown into one room but will get to organizing that when I feel like it. Having this personal space makes living here so much easier and normal. When I was in my host family’s home I had the urge to “get out” and take a bus to the next town over or something. Now it’s easier to stay in my site because I feel less overwhelmed, I guess. Granted, I had a great host family (probably one of the best).

My host mom still invites me over for lunch. She says she misses having me there to cook for. I go over there and visit with her a lot. She really made a special effort to make me comfortable in her home and she’s a good friend. All the people here are very generous with me. I pretty much eat lunch at other people’s homes every day and usually only make breakfast and dinner for myself. They’ve also given me a lot of food items to stock my bare fridge. So far I’ve received: fruit juice, a papaya, an avocado, beans, potato and yucca bread (which is kind of like banana bread) and an auyama (?) which is kind of like a sweet potato.

I’m learning how to make Dominican food and have already mastered the art of Dominican-style coffee (I was told that now I am ready to marry because I know how to make coffee). They drink their coffee here like the Italians and Spanish do- a little cup with very sweet, very dark coffee. They tell me I’m becoming more Dominican as I learn their customs. For example, it is their tradition to serve coffee when a group of people are together. So the other day I made coffee and brought it down to the park where a group was sitting. You make the coffee in a big tin cup and serve it around to people in little cups. Then, when one person is done you take the cup and fill it up for another person. You wait around until everyone is done and make sure to take their empty cup from them. You want to have enough for everyone- even if it’s only a little. This is definitely a sharing culture/community and I’m growing more accustomed to that. Now when someone tells me to sit down or offers me something I take them up on their offer. At first I felt like I needed to reject the offer to be polite but really it is more polite to just take what they are offering. It is also just as important to share whatever you have. I’m looking forward to cooking more and bringing food to my neighbors.

The start of the New Year means the cooperative is back in action now (after the long Christmas holiday). We’ve had quite a few meetings already. They’ve been meetings about a new project the cooperative is starting as well as a meeting about their annual business plan. They are starting an organic fertilizer project. The cooperative is going to sell organic soil to the 170 farmers in the organization (for a cheap price) as well as to farmers outside of the coop (for a higher price). They are in the process of obtaining land to build the structure where they’ll produce the fertilizer.

I usually feel a bit lost in these meetings as I’m trying to understand everything they’re doing and what they’re saying. So far, during the meetings I’ve been in charge of working on the Excel spreadsheet with all their data. This gets a little complicated as they rattle off to me in Spanish what to type out…in Spanish. I’ve never done secretarial-type work in another language before. It’s interesting. I will be working more as their accountant during this project. I’m glad that work with the coop is picking up. I was beginning to feel a bit discouraged during December as there wasn’t much going on.

I am also working on my diagnostic report and presentation. In the first week of February I will be going to the capitol with one of my project partners to present the diagnostic and work on our two-year plan. I also have my English class on Saturdays. I had my first class last Saturday and about 50+ people showed up. It was a little crazy. I’m going to have 2 different classes on Saturday. One at 10am for younger kids and the other in the afternoon at 2pm for adults (for about 1.5 hours). Teaching them English is fun. A lot of them are very enthusiastic about learning and we had a good time. I’m hoping to really teach them a lot. English classes here are usually very expensive and are not offered in small communities like mine. I’m glad I can teach them right in their own school for free. I’ve started teaching two women some basic computer skills (typing, etc.), as well. I guess I never really considered how blessed I am to have such basic skills under my belt that I can pass along to others who cannot learn these skills as easily.

I’ve been honing my Dominican dominoes skills quite a bit lately, too. I usually plan with my neighbor next door and some of the neighborhood kids. My neighbor is an older guy from Italy who lives here 10 months out of the year. Some of the local Dominican boys help him out around the house and yard and in the evenings we’ve started playing. Occasionally I play with a group of guys who play in the afternoons, as well. Women don’t play dominoes much but I enjoy playing with them- even though half the time I have no idea what they are saying around me. I didn’t like the game at all when I first got here but now that I’m learning more of the strategy it is actually really fun. It’s also a good way to build “confianza.”

Well, every week is different and I hardly ever know what it will be like from one week to the next. In general, though, I feel so much happier now to have a “home base” to operate from. I feel more energized and prepared to get to work now. It is different living in a house. I’m still getting used to it. To be continued…

I can’t really say that Christmas is over here because they actually celebrate Christmas for about 2 weeks. Their “Dia del Rey” (Day of the King) is the 7th of January and this is the date that they give gifts to each other (mostly the kids receive gifts). They pretty much celebrate Christmas, the New Year and Dia del Rey in the span of two weeks and that’s their Christmas.

Experiencing Christmas here was…different and interesting, to say the least. On the 24th, families got together for a big lunch or dinner or both. My “community partner” and friend (Negra) and her husband (Ulysses) invited me over for dinner with their family. They asked me to come at 6:30 and to bring some coke (for rum and coke after dinner). I showed up around 6:30 with the coke in hand. None of the family was there yet so I helped Negra with some of the food. She prepared enough food for an army (or a whole neighborhood). Actually, what they do is prepare tons of food and then give a lot of it to their neighbors.

I was impressed with the dinner. Granted, it wasn’t the healthiest but it was good. We had potato salad (ensalada rosa), spaghetti, bread, a really tasty roast beef with onions, and some empanada-type things but I forget the name- their tasty, too. I was pretty full after that meal! We had beer with our dinner and then afterwards we drank some rum and coke (if you haven’t noticed by now, they like to drink a lot in this culture!).

After dinner, we went to a nearby bar/dance club and stayed out until 2am dancing meringue and bachata. It was a fun (and different) way to spend Christmas Eve. The next day I met another volunteer in his site, about 30 minutes away on public transportation, and we headed up to a nearby, small resort to meet another volunteer there for lunch and some swimming. We had a great time! The resort is located up on a hill with a beautiful view of the ocean and mountains. They have a really nice outdoor pool and outdoor restaurant. We were all very American and bought cokes and burgers for lunch (for about $6 which was feasible on our meager budgets). The nice thing is the people who work at the resort know us and let volunteers hang out there to swim. It was interesting. There were about 5 different nationalities present at the pool that day (Americans, French, Italian, Dominicans and Germans-or at least some people who spoke something that sounded like German).

Later that afternoon, I headed back to my site and cleaned up because I was told there was another fiesta to attend. More dancing! No wonder I’m feeling a bit tired today. I stayed out with Negra and Ulysses and some relatives and friends of theirs until about 1:00am. The interesting thing about their dance clubs here is that their not just where young, college-aged people and teens hang out. All ages are present. The majority of people are older 20-50+. Then, you have some young kids hanging out, too. The night club is kind of a family affair here. Everyone drinks and everyone dances (but not many people get really drunk). By now, I’ve become pretty good at bachata and meringue dancer (granted I’ve had a lot of practice).

They have another big celebration over the New Years. Relatives come and go from the capital to stay with their family in the country. People are doing a lot of traveling right now. I will be leaving on the 29th to go to the capital (need to go to the Peace Corps office to pick up mail and drop off an order of Negra’s cards at the embassy’s gift shop). Then, on the 30th I’ll head up to meet a friend in Santiago. She and I are going to then head over to nearby Moca and stay with the host families we stayed with during training. We’ll stay with them for one night and then go farther north to Cabarete where a bunch of volunteers get together for New Years every year. I’ll probably stay there a couple of nights and then will head back down south to my site. It’ll be a lot of traveling (and traveling completely on public transportation here can be exhausting).

January will be a pretty busy month, as well. I’ll be working with my projects partners to finish my diagnostic. I have to write up a report in Spanish on my diagnostic findings and also create a presentation to present with my project partner at our IST (in-service training) workshop in the beginning of February. I’ve started a PowerPoint for our presentation and an outline for my report. I’ve planned with my project partner to visit another coffee site (called Polo) where they have more infrastructure for preparing the coffee in this region.

The cooperative also has a meeting with all the associates (about 150 of them) in January where they work on their annual business plan (and analyze the past year’s coffee performance). I’ll be helping them with this and also doing a presentation of a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) of their cooperative (which I’ll include in my diagnostic). I’m also contemplating starting up an English class in January (I might move that to February, though). I think I’d rather start a class when I actually have a better environment to prepare the lesson. Right now I’m operating out of a small room with all my stuff crammed into it. It’s not the most conducive.

At the end of January I plan to move into my house! Hopefully by my birthday I will be settled in. It’ll be weird living in a house to myself but also a welcome change. It will be nice to have some more personal space and live a bit more comfortably. So, yeah…January will be a pretty busy month.

I can’t believe I’ve been here for 4 months already. It has gone so fast and has also been full of so many new experiences and meeting tons of new people- no wonder I feel like my head is spinning on my shoulders. It is starting to settle down a little, though, as I become more confident in things like getting around on public transportation and being able to understand conversations around me better. Every day I feel a bit dazed, though, and think to myself, “Wow, where am I again and why am I here?”

These past 4 months have been challenging but also full of some rich experiences, too. I think the nature of this work overwhelms me with so many types of emotions (and all within the same day at times): excitement, peace, anger, sadness, confusion, frustration, happiness- the whole works! These two years will fly. I think by the time I’m done I’ll feel like I’ve sprinted a marathon (some parts will be downhill and faster while other parts will be uphill-slow and grueling). To be continued…

I cannot believe Christmas is in a week. Without all the usual signs of Christmas that I’m accustomed to in the states it hardly feels like December (granted the temperature hasn’t changed much either). This will be the first time in my life that I’m not home for Christmas. It will be interesting, though, to experience la Navidad in another country. Last year at this time I had no idea I’d be in the Dominican Republic for Christmas.

Christmas is definitely hyped up to the max in the States (which is something I realize I miss). The Christmas season bombards every aspect of life (commercials, songs on the radio, plans with family, parties, sending hundreds of cards out to friends and family, etc). Here Christmas is a bit more tranquil and different. A few people have Christmas decorations (which is weird to see when the temperature gives you a constant sweat), occasionally I’ve heard a Christmas song or two on the radio, and overall the seasonal change varies so little that it feels like I’m stuck in time and it’s still August when I arrived. It’s a strange feeling.

A lot of people have relatives in the capitol working who take off and head to the countryside and small pueblos. We are expecting a lot of these family members here in Los Blancos for Christmas and New Years. A few people hang up Christmas decorations and occasionally you hear Christmas music. From what I gather, there will be a lot of food and dancing and drinking. I’ve also heard, however, from other volunteers that Christmas celebrations here can be disappointing. We’ll see. I believe they celebrate more on Christmas Eve than on Christmas day.

I plan to stay in Los Blancos on the 24th and then on the 25th other volunteers in the area and I are planning to get together and make dinner and try to put together something American, as much as we can. I know I will really miss home knowing that everyone will be together there. I plan to go home next year for Christmas, though. Quite a few 1 year volunteers left for home and talking with them about their plans made me jealous and excited for them, too.

Anyway, it’ll be an interesting experience (to add to the list of interesting experiences). These past 6 days I was in the capitol with Negra (the woman from Los Blancos who has a small card-making business). I had a good time. The city is always VERY noisy and definitely dirtier. [My new favorite Dominican word is “buya.” This word means noise. It’s not in the dictionary so I’m assuming it’s one of the many interesting Dominican words]. Anyway, one of my first impressions of this country is that there is a lot of buya! J -especially in the capitol.

I stayed with Negra and some of her relatives who live and work in the capitol. It seems like everyone has family in the capitol. This is true because the capitol is the easiest place to find a job, especially if you don’t have a college degree and need a minimum-wage job. So many of the younger people leave home and move to the capitol to work. Sometimes they manage to work and go to school but this is usually very difficult.

We did a lot of walking! I’d rather walk, anyway, than ride public cars or buses. Those can be really crowded and nasty (I call it germ transportation). Sometimes you’ll see a bus go by that’s completely full-packed-and they try to keep filling it up. It gets pretty crazy sometimes so, yeah, I don’t mind walking. Also, there is the risk of getting robbed on the bus which I’d rather avoid, as well.

Dec 18, 2008

Well today I´m in Barahona to do some errands. I just opened up a po box. My address is now

Laura Mollenhour

Cuerpo de Paz

Apartado #28

Barahona, Republica Dominicana

Hopefully I will be able to receive mail faster using this method instead of having my mail sent to the capitol.

I´m also going to do some shopping at the local farmers´market. This is my only method of getting vegetables in my diet. I was told that last time I was ripped off. I thought I was getting a pretty good deal. Last time I bought eggplant, tomatoes, broccoli and red peppers for $140 pesos which is about $5 or $6. Not bad! This time, though, I have a list of what prices ought to be. I won´t be mistaken as a dumb tourist this time.

I am looking forward to living in my own home soon. I´m projecting to move in the end of January. It´ll be so great to have my own space and cook food I can actually enjoy. It´s not that they don´t have the resources to make some good food it´s just that I think most of them only know how to make a certain few things. I´m looking forward to cooking for some of the people here. Some of the women are also interested in learning how to make different foods so maybe I can do a little cooking-nutrition class for them. Right now, I just don´t feel comfortable cooking a lot in the kitchen at my host family´s. I´ll just wait it out.

Anyway, Merry Christmas to whoever reads this. It´s surreal to me to be here and not at home for Christmas but this is also an opportunity to experience Christmas in another place...which is cool. Will keep you updated!

Here are some recent photos of me up in the mountains on my recent trip to the coffee farms...there are some really awesome views of the ocean from up there.

Hello to anyone reading this blog :). Just thought I'd write a bit of an update on life here in the D.R. By the way, if you regularly read these blogs I´d love to know! Please leave me a comment or something if you visit my site- thanks :)

Let´s start with the fact that it´s not the easiest thing in the world to get to internet for me, anyway. I live in a small town out in the country where there is no internet center (I´m looking into buying a wireless card subscription- maybe that´ll work). This morning I took a bus ride into a nearby town and walked to the internet center there. It was closed- why was I not surprised? I asked some people sitting around and they said it opened at 2:30. Who really knows? That´s kind of the way things are here :) SLOOOOOW. Then I got on another bus to go to the next town over where I knew about an internet center. I found it and to my utmost happiness it was open!!! I didn´t waste my morning, afterall, looking for internet. That´s probably been one of the hardest things about living here is the lack of communication- it´s no easy thing at least where I´m at. In the south here there are fewer communication towers so it´s not as easy.

Anyway, lately I have been working on my diagnostics (mapping Los Blancos, visiting and interviewing people and working with my project partner on 4 pages of questions (in Spanish) that I drafted up about the coffee cooperative. It takes a lot of concentration for me when I´m talking to him. I have a harder time understanding him when he talks than other people here. Anyway, sometimes it´s slow but I´m doing better about understanding what he´s explaining to me.

I´ve also been working with a lady here who makes cards out of recyled paper. She´s really great. I´ve become good friends with her and her family. She´s a hard-worker (about 45), is patient with my language learning (there are some who are not as patient) and I can talk with her about a lot of things (Dominican culture, the customs, colloquialisms, etc). She and I are going to the capitol this Friday to sell her products at an artisan fair in the colonial zone (which is a beautiful place). We´re also going to visit some other vendors in the area who are interested in selling more of her cards (I´ve been kind of acting as her liasson helping her reach the tourist/American market). We are currently selling cards to the US embassy gift shop and also to a gift shop (which I was pleased to find out is owned by a lady from Pigeon Forge, TN) Of all places!!! I like to talk to her just to hear the accent :) That familiar southern twang brings back good memories from home :). It´ll be a fun weekend and I think she´ll sell a lot. I´m hoping to help her "professionalize" more and am looking into getting her some business cards.

I wanted to mention something again about the colloquialisms here. I´ve been learning quite a few lately-the things I never learned in Spanish class and are solely Dominican Spanish.

-O frescome! (Not exactly sure what this means but you can say it like you would gosh! or something like that)

-Ven aqua (this is pronounced like ven aka and means something like hey! or listen here!) You here it ALL THE TIME from women telling there children to come here!

-Oye or mira (look or listen)

Well, I hope to keep more regular updates here (for anyone who´s reading). Gonna head out now and eat lunch (black beans and rice which I´m actually looking forward to) :)

-

Random photo: Thanksgiving dinner 2008! It was sooo good (a welcome change from the usual rice and beans) :) All the volunteers celebrated Thanksgiving day together in the capitol at a club and ate tons of American food and swam, played soccer and ended the night with a bachata/merengue contest and a talent show. It was a memorable Thanksgiving experience overall- lots of fun (we all wished we were home with family, though)

On the farm helping to pick the coffee

Raking the coffee out to dry after they've been de-pulped

Sitting in front of the de-pulping machine

The view from the mountains where the farmers in my coop grow their coffee

Checking out the harvested coffee berries and learning the "coffee process"

At the artisan fair at the US embassy with 2 ladies from my community

Working on our product (we made tons of Christmas cards and sold them all)

This is the view along the coast at my site...pretty beautiful, huh?

My new headquarters for now

Taking the bus from the capital back to my site in Los Blancos

Hey everyone, tomorrow I become an official PC Volunteer for good. As of now, I am a PC Trainee but tomorrow we have our swear in ceremony at 4:00 PM. The US ambassador and other govt officials will be attending, our host families will be attending, we take an oath, and become official volunteers. On Thursday, the US Ambassador is hosting a pool party at his home for us "newbies."

I am staying in the capital until Saturday and will leave Saturday morning to head back to my site. We had an admin workshop today about safety and security, how to contact our regional coordinators in case of an emergency like a hurricane, how to find a house when we move out after 3 months of living with our host family, etc. Tomorrow we have to work on opening up our bank accounts here.

Been here most of the day at the Peace Corps office which is a nice place to hang out. There are a lot of resources here for us. They have a library where you can exchange books, a television with US news stations, medical office for any supplies we need, and much more. I'm hoping to get my laptop fixed (since it's had a virus) in the tech office here on Friday before I head out to my site.

Friday night I am staying downtown in the capital with another volunteer at a hostel (only about $12 a night) and other volunteers are staying downtown as well before we all head out to the boonies on Saturday :). I imagine there'll be some partying going on. I intend to treat myself to a nice salad since my diet will be going down hill from there (yuca, fried salami) and I won't be seeing much green stuff :).

On November 4th, the other volunteers in my region and I are hoping to find a hotel in Barahona where we can rent a room and watch the elections. I'd really like to keep up with that.

When I get back to my site I will be busy figuring out what's where near my community. I need to locate the internet, possible post office, stores, etc. I also need to get started on my community and organizational diagnostic. I have a lot to learn about the coffee industry here and my coffee cooperative as well as my community. I feel a bit overwhelmed at this point with everything that's new. Feel like I'm drinking from a waterfall but I know that things will get easier. It's an exciting time but I've also never been challenged like this before. Okay, enough for now...more later :)

This is the view from my host family's home of the beach in Los Blancos.

I am currently living in the little yellow house farthest to the left.

This is the park in front of my house. My dona sells fruit to passersby

Our CED group after learning where our sites are

One of my other host family brothers and his girlfriend took me and another PCVT to the Hard Rock Cafe in Santo Domingo and we had a great time...went dancing afterward at a nice dance club (lots of salsa, merengue and bachata)...oh, and Presidente :)

Playing dominoes at my CBT training host family home (popular spot to master the game) I'm getting pretty good now which is nice considering I really hated the game at first :)

My host brother (Johnny) when I was at training

Our CED group the last day of training in Moca

I had the opportunity to go to the beach Saturday which was a nice surprise. I never know from day to day what may happen. We have the weekends off so I never know what they will be like because during the week we are always in training or in Spanish class or working on our projects. Right now I am working on a presentation I have to give tomorrow on costing and pricing. I also have to interview 3 local businesses and turn in a 2-5 page report in Espanol about one of the businesses. Also, another volunteer and I have to give a presentation in Spanish to one of the community groups here in our small neighborhood. We are thinking of presenting to mother's group about family budgeting or selling products. We're not sure yet. That's not for another 2 weeks. Anyway, they keep us busy.

Back to the beach...my host mom's son and his girlfriend and another friend of their's stopped by for lunch (they're from Santo Domingo) and they invited me to go with them up to Puerto Plata for the afternoon. I had a great time! We went out for pizza afterward too which was a treat. People here are very nice and generous. When they invite you along to go somewhere with them you are their guest and they treat you like a king/queen.

As per dad's request, here are some pics of the internet cafe I use and some of the beach too (as well as other misc photos)...There's a pic here of a typical lunch I get every day...beans, rice, chicken or eggs, cabbage and avacado. Good food! but lots of it :)

Because of the hurricanes and all the rain we had to cancel our volunteer site visits. I was going to go to a small village outside of Santiago. Oh well. All the volunteers and I have been here at Entrena for the past two days just checking e-mail, watching movies, playing dominoes and reading.

I'm looking forward to leaving tomorrow for Moca. Not sure what the conditions there will be like but it farther out in the country and more rural. Although, there is internet in Moca and I think it's not a far walk into the city.

My CED group and I will be doing community diagnostics in our barrios, doing Spanish classes, visiting local businesses and also doing some fun things like hiking, swimming, etc. We'll be there for 5 weeks. After this CBT (community based training) I'll come back to Santo Domingo for a few days and then our group is "sworn in" and assigned locations and projects.

More on this later...I'm not really sure what to expect in the next 5 weeks (or even what to pack). I'll have to figure that out tonight. More later!

It has been so nice to have all the rain we´ve had. Even though hurricane Ike is coming through and I believe in the northern part of the island, I personally love the rain because it really cools everything down. It does, however, limit options. We volunteers are on standfast right now which means we can´t travel outside of this area in Pantoja. Otherwise, I probably would have traveled into the capital with some of the others and seen a movie or something. My host family was also going to take me to the beach today but we had to cancel that, as well. Oh well. It´s been nice just relaxing.

Tomorrow we go back to our training center (Entrena) at 8am and have our last language class, then we have language testing (which involves conversing with one of the other teachers about a topic), then we have an exam we have to take which covers some of the topics we´ve been talking about (such as some of the history and geography of the area, how to stay healthy, how to treat certain illnesses, etc.) It shouldn´t be too difficult. After I get back tomorrow night I´ll have to pack for my site visit no Tuesday. I´m a little nervous about getting to the right bus in Santo Domingo. I have to take public transportation to a certain street in the city and from there walk about a block where all the buses that travel outside the city are located. It´s really not very organized but somehow it all works out. I´m sure it´ll be fine. i think I´ll be able to travel with some of the other people who are going to the same area. Besides, one day last week we practiced getting to our bus stop.

I´ll be in the bus for up to 7 hours (which could be really uncomfortable). We´ll see :). I´m bringing a book so hopefully I can make use of the time and read. I´m visiting another volunteer in town on the border of Haiti (Pedernales). I´m not really sure what to expect. I´ll be staying with her until Thursday and then my CED group and I head out to a city near Santiago for our community based training for 5 weeks. I´ll be living with another host family there and I think the training will be somewhat intense but I´m looking forward to it. After that, I return to the capital for about a week or so and get a project assignment.

Anyway, it has definitely been a whirlwind of activity but I´m having a great time and enjoying getting to know the people here. My language skills are improving. I should probably work on that today :)

More to come!

I´m here in the DR and here are a list of things Í´ve had to adjust to so far:

Cold bucket baths (I can take showers much faster now)

Tons of platanos (mashed, fried, stewed- you name it)

Taking nasty anti malaria pills every Thursday

Drinking tons of water and never peeing because I sweat so much :)

Crowded guaguas (buses) with tons of people

Noise, noise all the time (people are constantly yelling to their kids in the streets, loud vehicles driving by-people don´t seem to care for mufflers, loud merengue and salsa blaring from the homes, chickens and roosters make lots of noise too and so do dogs)

Sleeping under a mosquitoe net every night

These are just a few. I´m having a great time and am excited about the work I´ll be doing soon out on my project...more to come!

The following are links to resources I've found that explain more about the Community Economic Development (CED) program I'll be working under:

http://www.fotdr.org/dnn/PeaceCorps/PCDRToday/tabid/103/Default.aspx (just click on "CED" under current projects)

http://dominican.peacecorps.gov/resources.php

The Peace Corps invited me to work in the Dominican Republic as a Community Economic Advisor. I will be working there for 27 months. More details to come!