Hola everyone,
It seems like my latest fuzzytravel entry didn´t even get posted so I´ll try to recap everything.
We`ve gone to several of the neighborhood basketball games which are pretty fun. All the teams are pretty equal so it always come down to the end which makes it more interesting when you really don´t have a favorite to cheer for. Honestly though, I think a group of Americans showing up to the game is more of a spectacle than the game itself. If you ever want to feel famous, come to the Dominican Republic.
Two weekends ago I went to the river with my Doña and three of her grandchildren. They brought a bottle of rum with them and laughed at me when I finished my drink in 15 minutes. Most Dominicans actually can´t swim. Dominicans are nearly obsessed with their cleanliness and won´t go in the water at all. Most shower at least twice a day. Whatever, I´m getting in the water whenever I have a chance (as long as its moving water of course). Before we left we helped bush a truck out that was stuck in the water.
On Sunday we went to the most gorgeous beach I´ve ever seen. The sand was white, the water was clear, and much of the beach was shaded by beautiful palm trees. We ate some of the fallen coconuts with lunch. That day was the first day I´d even taken out my camera. I´d been relying on everyone else, but mine goes under water so it worked really well here. I found my own spot for a while to meditate and contemplate for a while. I got a little burnt on the shoulders but I did pretty well for a white boy like myself.
On Wednesday last week we had to give our first class. We spent Monday and Tuesday night coming up with our plan and making some visual aids. If you´ve seen the lack of knowledge in the lab we´re in, you´d understand why I thought teaching them some things in Microsoft Word seemed a little ambitious. When the day came around we had a hard time getting some of the kids to even highlight some of the text. Overall, the whole class went really well though, even though I realized I need to pick up a lot more computer lingo quickly.
On Thursday night we went out for a little bit to a local Colmado and did quite a bit of dancing. Sarah, one of the other volunteers, has taken a lot of latin american dance classes and is a really good dancer. She´s trying to show me some stuff, but she´s better than most of the girls here so its hard to get a lesson when every Dominican guy wants to dance with her. Eventually they stopped playing salsa, merengue, and bachata music though and played some reggaeton. For those of you who know what this means, the Prickel came out that night.
Just so I don´t sound like I´m having too much fun for a Peace Corps experience, you should know I´m in Spanish or technology classes for 7 hours a day, and even 4 hours on Saturday. That just isn´t the interesting part.
On Saturday night a bunch of current volunteers who were teaching our classes were in town and wanted to go out to the major discoteca here. It was packed and was a lot of fun. However, one time when I was dancing with another trainee, we were seperated by a Dominican guy and girl who we then started to dance with. When the night was over I realized that I was missing the 300 pesos that I had remaining. When I asked my compañera about it the next day, she was missing money too. Sly. That´s why you quickly learn not to carry around more than you plan on spending. (By the way 300 pesos is the equivalent of about $9.00 USD, no worries.)
Some trainees are finally getting sick for the first time here. One has common strep throat, but another one has a parasite in their digestive system which is a long process to get rid of. You have to be really careful about what you eat and drink around here.
We have to give another class this Thursday. We´re going to try and show some very, very, very basic operations of Powerpoint, but I really don´t know how that´s going to go. Oh well, everything is an experience. We only have one more week left here in CBT. Two weeks from now we´ll go to our permanent project site for the first time, meet the family we´re staying with, and meet some key community members. We`ll swear in as volunteers in Santo Domingo shortly after that. I think everyone is a little tired of training and ready to get to actual volunteer work.
Take care everyone.
Man, you have some awesome experiences! I imagine the Dominican beaches as spectacular! White sand and aqua blue water - sounds like a post card! LOve to talk to you when you call - hope we can continue once you get to your sight. Hopefully, you'll have more computer access and we can email more often. Te Amo!