Clarion Santo Domingo Hotel

... USM (University of Southern Maine) to help 14 different communities. I had never translated in a work setting before so in the beginning it was a little difficult but I got the hang of it towards the end. Dominicans complain a lot of dolor de cabeza (headaches), dolor de estomago (stomach pain) but some of the complaints that I was not ready for were those about the feminine region. It ended up being the running joke because for some reason I always ...

... and give me a call. I accept all types of support. While I'm talking about Christmas and non-profits and while I have you as a captive audience, I have a request to make for this holiday season. If you find yourself stumped for what to buy a friend or a family member for a gift this year, please consider making a donation to a non-profit in that person's name. This year more than ever non-profits need financial help. With our lovely recession, the usual donors ...

... the crowd to go away, that there were no more sales because it was unsafe! The people were NOT happy at all, but I got out of there...only to find that the line had dissolved after the announcement, and my people were gone! So I went to a refreshment stand and sent a text message saying where I was. I got one back, telling me to come inside the gate, and that Victoria was somewhere on the right hand side. So I went in, only to kind more chaos ...

I arrived home last night around 10 p.m .I brought a Dominican Flag to bring back to the states with me & a sarde carna dish from this local restaurant , with it the steak it had rice & beans .... Total 53 pesos. (I think im on the right track!!!!) Since I have a big day today , I ordered room service for breakfast which cost me 30 pesos . But it was worth it. A ...

So.. our first day in the Dominican Republic! We have breakfast in the hotel (Mercure Hotel - Santo Domingo) (awesome buffet.. many fresh fruits, toast, bread, cornflakes, meat,...) and then Juan comes and pick us up with the car of the company. We drive to the project El Piño. It's in the slums of Santo Domingo. First we meet the project manager José and he explaines us (in spanish... but one employee translate it to German and Juan to English) what they're ...

This was our first vacation spot and one of Simon's favorite spots. Here we spent six days and all six of them we just kicked back on the beach at an all-inclusive resort. This is where Simon and I went parasailing for the first time. We also went sailing on a catamaran over clear water that revealed the reefs below.

Hey guys! Well, the big news is that I am now an actual Peace Corps Volunteer, which doesn't sound like anything new, but we've been the "trainees" for the last 2 1/2 months, so when we were sworn in last Wednesday, it felt like a big deal! After being sworn in, we had a couple of days together as a group to hang out, SO we decided to live it up before we had to start our reality life of cold water bucket baths(if you're lucky enough to have water), rats, rice and ...

... making healthy decisions concerning wether or not to have sex or not and teaches them about STI and AIDS. Not only will the teens learn this information (which they do not really learn in school) but they will also learn how to pass this information on to others. There is a 1 year volunteer about 10 minutes from my site and her escojo youth group will be training my group starting in April. It looks like there will be about 5 or 7 youth that will participate. Not a lot ...

... could start working now... everybody in my community is already asking me when I will start the charlas. But like my boss said, we need to be patient and work on the community diagnostic until march before I can start my actual work. I have learned that in December the Colmado likes to play music...not only on the weekends, but also at 5 am during the weekdays. The last 2 weeks I have been battling the music, and I was unsucessfully able to fall back asleep over the loud ...

... the helicoptor arrived to medivac me. My counterpart, Neyhira, convinced everyone that she and her husband could take me, and that I was in-fact, going to make it afterall, not to panic. Glad to have her as my P.R. person, I finished packing and went with them to the capital, as finally my hectic day..no, WEEK would finally be graced with peace. Of course that was not going to happen. Along the way, the car made some noises. After breaking down 8 TIMES on the ...