I'm here!

Hiya!

Ok – so I’m here and safe and everything is going great. The training portion of the program is very organized and I am really looking forward to the activities we have lined up for Community Environmental Development. We do have limited internet access at the station and I’m really glad I brought my little laptop.

So we left Miami, 36 of us (about ½ girls and ½ guys all working in Environmental Development or IT education) and arrived in Santo Domingo last Thursday. The plane ride was really exciting and everything at the airport went smoothly besides one poor girl who accidentally left her bag on the plane. I’ve met everyone on my program and everyone is really nice and interesting – everyone is in their 20’s but their backgrounds range quite a bit and people are from all over the U.S.

We got to the Training center which is called Entrena and were shown around and did initial language placement testing – where I placed as an Intermediate speaker! I was really happy about this because I placed into the level that volunteers are required to meet in order to serve. I can understand much more of the Dominican Spanish than I thought I would…but I’m definitely still learning a lot everyday. I have a notepad that I carry with me for all the new words and phrases I hear. I am living with a Dominican abuelita named Dona Roma and she’s wonderfully warm and a great teacher. She lives with her son who works all day in the city. Her other son she doesn’t like much because he has got a big afro of hair haha. I met him and he does seem to be a bit of a trouble maker but he lives in the city and isn’t here often. Dona’s granddaughter is named Laura (8 years old) and she also spends a lot of time at the house – we are friends and I’m teaching her guitar. She’s mega stoked on that. I’m mega stoked to be here. The plants in the training center alone are beautiful. There are orchids stretching down the tree and zinzerbaceae on the sidewalk. I recognize a lot of the tropical plants because of my time in Costa Rica, but they all seem to have different common names of course. My host family took me to the national botanical gardens already (jealous Lea?) and it was phenomenal. I just wish I could have spent a little more time there.

I do sleep with a mosquitero – A mosquito net because they do have mosquitos w/ disease but the Peace Corps gives out a lot of stuff to protect you. I also do bathe with a cold water bucket bath – there is no reliable running water (it comes out of a faucet only at certain times of the week) and therefore water here is very precious. I feel guilty when I think of how much I wasted at home when the people here need to buy potable water to avoid dehydration. We also don’t waste food because there are kids far worse off in Africa. It was really amazing to hear my Dona say that. I’ve spent a bit of time talking to her trying to improve my Spanish.

Apparently D.R. is also the 2nd loudest country and I have to say that might be true because right outside my window are the noises of the night (past 11:00) – blaring salsa/merengue music, people talking and roosters. I am currently still orienting myself but we made it into Santo Domingo using public transportation and I also discovered a little cake shop with Laura when we were walking around. Two other volunteers, Mark and Jean, live about 3 minutes away from me and tomorrow we are going to walk to the center together in the morning.

That’s the update for now! Also – please send email to stermondt@gmail.com because I think something is up with my yahoo account. I can check email somewhat frequently during training but also – send letters if you like! I’ll definitely appreciate them.
Here are some new photos of my time so far!

Best,
Sarah