One Week!

Phoebe and I have seen and experienced so much throughout the first week of our Peace Corps work, which makes it and will continue to make it difficult to choose which experiences to share. I’ll do my best to share a taste of what’s been happening over the past week.

Adjusting to life here is going well so far. Phoebe and I are both healthy, eating VERY well, clean“ish’, sweating through our clothes, learning loads of Spanish, getting pricked with vaccinations, attending continuous training sessions, learning to find our way around Santo Domingo using carro publicos and guaguas, and making as many friends as possible. Amazing volunteers, teachers and trainers with lifetimes of experience, knowledge and a desire to live and work in a completely new and different country, surround us. We both feel very blessed to be involved with such a wonderful organization as the Peace Corps and their training group Entrena. Our training program is absolutely phenomenal. We are receiving daily teachings about Dominican culture, transportation and por supuesto language classes. My language class has a grand total of three students! I LOVE IT! Our Spanish is already at the level the Peace Corps expects us to be 10 weeks from now! So, we get to practice, practice, and more practice. By no means are we fluent, nor can we understand the locals when they really get to talking, however our hard language work back in the states is paying off.

During one of our Spanish language courses, we learned about the public transportation system in the Dominican Republic. We are learning about the public transit through practical application, class discussion and getting out there in small groups. The public transportation in the Dominican Republic appears to be organized chaos. I couldn’t even tell there was such a thing as public transportation when we arrived in the country last Thursday. Now, I’ve ridden in several full carro publicos (like a taxi, but taxis here are private and cost more) and an extremely full guagua (bus) from our barrio into the central part of the city. The carro publicos are wild. You flag a carro publico down similar to the way you’d try and catch a taxi in the states. Instead of whistling, you simply stand on the side of the road, hold out your arm and point down to the ground when you want one to stop. The drivers often see you waaaay before you are able to see them coming, so often it isn’t even necessary to flag it. Most of us gringos stand out anyway, especially with our bolsas full of schoolbooks in the morning, so we can be easy to spot. Hector has been our driver over the last two days, so we’ll see if he picks us up again.

The carro publicos seat six passengers and one driver for a grand total of seven people in a 1982 Toyota Camry. I hope to get a picture up here for you. One of my new Peace Corps friends and I were talking about the messages we received growing up in the states. Our parents and teachers used to tell us, “Do not to get into a car with strangers” and “You must always wear your seatbelt.” Those rules are obviously out the window! Two people squeeze into the front seat and four into the back. I don’t believe the carro publicos even have seatbelts.

The guaguas are another experience all together. With meringue, salsa or bachata music blaring, the guagua bounces down the road stopping for every potential passenger. The cobrador (literal translation is ‘collector’) hangs himself out of the door yelling the route of the guagua. Passengers hop on, fit at least five to a row, with only four seats, and squish each other cheek to cheek! It seems as though people say, “Hey, we can fit one more booty in the seats, squish on over!” The guaguas appear to be older Volkswagen style vehicles but a little bit bigger…I was in one two days ago and the driver tried to drive us through a giant “river” in the road. He got stuck, of course, and after about ten minutes of trying to get unstuck, everyone in the guagua exited, including the group of 30 Peace Corps gringos squishing into the bus. The cobrador handed me a random child as we were exiting the bus, a brief glimpse into the culture of the Dominican people, who trusted this random gringo with their child, even if only for a few brief momentitos.

The adventure is just beginning and my smiles are getting bigger.

Staging and to the Dominican Republic

Here we are, the D.C. staging event is one day away. I'm finding myself to be much more calm than I had anticipated. I am sitting in a coffee shop in Easton Pennsylvania, while Phoebe runs some errands. We're trying to sell our car before we leave the country, which is turning out to be a last minute snafu. Thakfully Phoebes dad Cliff will be helping us take on this responsibility as our local contact. Selling the car long distance would've been quite a pain. I got a call on the car this morning and think that we may actually be able to sell it! I get to try and tie up the electronic loose ends, send out emails, update the fb status, field phone calls and enjoy listening to the Starbucks regulars chat each other up.

In these pre service moments, I find myself thinking about little details, wondering whether I'm taking too many clothes, thinking about how I may have to carry my bags all at once on public transportation in the Dominican Republic, and wondering whether or not we're wise to take a brand new computer down to the Dominican Republic. We bought a lock and insurance for our personal possessions so I'm supposed to feel better about taking the computer. I'm wanting to be hyper-vigilant to protect my computadora. Should I keep my puter on my hip 24/7? Lock it up when we're not around? Is theft REALLY going to be a big problem? We did a little research (reading our pre service documents and reading other blogs) on theft in the Dominican and found that it could be a problem.

Phoebe and I are the type of people, while living in Durango we would leave the door unlocked to our house, leave the keys in the car and moments ago I left the computer on the table while going to the bathroom, in a 'strange' city. I remember reading an article in the Durango Herald discussing the amount of reported thefts in La Plata County. The article was trying to convey something to the effect that theft was actually a major problem in Durango despite the common belief that it was the type of 'safe place' where people leave their keys in their cars. I never thought theft was much of a problem, likely because it never happened to either of us.

My question is, are people and places in the D.R. really that different than the people and places in the United States? Certainly, there are cultural, economic, language and social differences. Does that include theft? Is theft the national past time? I seriously doubt it. Although, by taking my new MacBook Pro to the D.R., I'm likely not doing much to combat the stereotype that all Americans are rich.

Reunited!

We are reunited and making our way across the country. We are spending several days in Colorado, a few days in Indy, and then over to the East coast to prepare for our departure on the 18th of August. Phoebe had an exceptional time in Mexico; brushing up on her Spanish and assisting the Mexico Teacher's Program at Fort Lewis. We missed each other in our six week absence; but, we will make up for it in our next 27 months together in the Dominican Republic. As we say goodbye to our friends and family, pack all of our belongings into 80lbs or less, and get excited for the next two years, we are so glad to have all of your support in our new adventure.