Mi primera semana

I’ve been in Santo Domingo for tres dias now. The vida here is much slower, the traffic is more rapido, but the people are just perfecto!

Wednesday, I flew into Miami to meet 35 other Peace Corps Volunteer hopefuls and we had orientation from 3-7 pm. After a group of us decided to eat at a restaurant that was suggested to us and we were told that it was in walking distance. 45 minutes we arrived! It was a Cuban restaurant called Versailles; I don’t know if it was worth the trouble but it was very good.

Thursday, we woke up about 6:30 in the morning to get to the airport. The plane left about noon and we arrived in Santo Domingo, la Republica Dominicana about 3:30pm. At the airport we had a welcoming committee of current volunteers and staff members which was very cool.

Then it was off to a retreat at a rented religious center on the other side of Santo Domingo. The center was right by the ocean and was very beautiful. At the center we had another welcoming session and then the first of possibly 11 shots. After we were given mosquito nets and sent to our rooms. The rooms weren’t designed to hang mosquito nets so we strategically and creatively hung them up. Before bed we talked, some people pulled out their guitars, and tried to speak some Spanish with a staff member, Juan.

Friday, we had more orientation stuff and some sessions on safety and rules. Then in the evening we got to go home with our first host familia. My host madre is very nice and owns a colmado next to the house. They have mango trees in the back (like everyone else) and a Chihuahua named Mickey.
A colmado is like a convenient store where pretty much everything is behind the counter and minus the gas pumps. It has normal convenient store food like chips, drinks, candy, etc. but it also has things like fruit and vegetables. Also, some things like sugar, oil, noodles, hamburger buns are bought by how much you want instead of pre-packaged. Another interested thing about un colmado is that you don’t stand in line at a colmado. You usually just come up next to the person already ordering.

Saturday, during the morning and into the early afternoon we spent at the training center. We got a huge medicine/ First Aide kit and two more shots (Three down eight more to go.).
Afterwards, a handful of us walked (for Kiri and me it was like a 45 minute walk) to a baseball diamond. Soon after we got there, a huge group of kids swarmed to the outfield to play a game with a kickball. It was a lot of fun and even more so knowing that baseball (o beisbol) is the most popular sport in the Dominican Republic.