One Month in Peace Corps!!

One month PC anniversary…it is hard to imagine we have been here that long; the days fly by so quickly, full of charlas (lectures), Spanish, incredible Dominican fare, coffee, compartir (visiting) and mountains of information.
Just a little reflection of the past month…Initially, we spent three intense weeks in Santo Domingo living with a host family in a barrio in the city and at the Peace Corps training center (Entrena) with 57 other volunteers. Entrena is a little oasis in the middle of Santo Domingo…it has every tropical fruit tree you could ever imagine on the property, and these awesome outdoor classrooms (aulas and agricolas) for presentations and Spanish class.
Everyday at Entrena, we had 8-9 hours of classes, including; Language, Peace Corps policy charlas, informal round table discussions, field trips, medical concerns, volunteer visits, and DR geography, public transportation, culture, DR euphomisms, and we played lots of initiative games. We both departed soltero after three weeks to different sites to visit current Peace Corps volunteers.
Dan went to visit a Youth Peace Corps Volunteer in an at-risk youth center in Jarabacoa. Phoebe went to visit an Environment Peace Corps volunteer working with youth and environment in San Jose Matos (Amou). The experience was helpful for both of us because, we actually got to see what a Peace Corps Volunteer gets to do here for 2 years, yay! They are doing incredible things here, and living a simple life…we were impressed.
A few days after we returned to Santo Domingo from our volunteer visit we packed our bags again and we hopped on a bus with 23 other Youth volunteers, 6 Spanish professors, and the youth and families training director. We made a trek northwest through the mountains from Santo Domingo to our new home, Constanza. We will be here for 5 weeks to complete the Youth sector Community Based Training.
A little bit about Contanza, it has a population of about 90K people. It was formed by a huge meteor, which left us a beautiful little valley south of the Cordierra Septentrional (The northern most mountain range in the DR). It is one of the most fertile valleys in the country so we have been eating incredible fresh fruit and vegetables everyday. We live with a patient, friendly, and very fun host family (three brothers and a sister). It is a refreshing change from the traffic, trash and pollution of the capitol Santo Domingo…we have been enjoying life here and in general, we have been feeling at home here. The family we live with has a huge extended family (familia extendida), there is always someone new related coming to lunch or dinner, so the house is always filled with people, food and lots of laughter.