Hello all,
I finally made it to a computer to give an update. I am in the capital today because I needed to come to the medical office for a day. Nothing serious, don't worry! But it was my first experience traveling alone. I got on a bus in Santiago, and rode about 2 and a half hours to the capital, Santo Domingo. Then I had to take a taxi to the Pension, which is a place that volunteers can stay for really cheap. It's like a hostle, but for volunteers. But the cab driver didn't know where it was, so in my broken, still learning spanish, i managed to find it, but way overpayed the driver, who told me he wanted to "know me" Creapy! But I finally made it, took a nice "freezing cold" shower, and went to bed. That's one thing I should let you all know. No shower here is a hot shower. Nor does it always come from a shower head. We like to call them bucket baths. When you take a bucket and dump the water on your head, and Scream cause it's so cold. But one nice thing is that my host mom in La Cumbre, where I am living during this stretch of training, heats my water on the stove before i take a shower. I'm not going to lie, it's the greatest feeling, and I relish in it for as long as I can. You really do learn to appreciate the little things.
I am enjoying Community Based Training (CBT). This is the part of training where I am learning all of the hands on things that I can do in my community. This week we are learning to build ceramic, energy efficient stoves, and last week we learned how to make compost piles, and prepare garden beds. Next week we will plant vegetables. My spanish is improving, slowly, but surely. And soon enough I will be fluent. I still do not know where my permanent site will be, they tell us at the end of training, after a final interview. I hope that everyone is well. I miss you all, and would love to hear back from you. XOXO
