Hotel Palacio Santo Domingo

... pilgrims were not exactly eager beaver learners but they did have moments of curiosity here and there.  We saw the oldest cathedral in the "New World" (which I have so say seemed to me eerily out of place here... particularly knowing that all the native people who were being "evangelized" were wiped out) and Christopher Columbus' brother and son's house and other ruins around the city.  They boys seem to be making some connections with ...

... fans." Getting into the stadium definitely put the loco into the experience. It was a crush of cars turning into the stadium and then an absolute free-for-all to park. We just found the nearest empty piece of territory and parked there. This involved four-wheeling over the median and across the oncoming traffic to beat other cars to it. Since the open space wasn't really a parking space but rather just a raised piece of sidewalk between roads ...

... toilet stalls, sinks, and showers. Each house has 3 "tias" or "aunts" that look after the children - there are always 2 there at all times, and they rotate their days. And then there are the children...although some do have a hard time adjusting (the most recent entrant has been acting out - throwing the food away, crawling onto the roof, etc. However, he came from a place where he was dragged to the bar every night with his father, and ...

I am in the Dominican Republic. This is still such a shock, yet even now, almost a normalcy. It seems like I've been here for ages even though it has only been over a week. In the words of Will Smith "Bienvenidos a Miami": We had our two-day staging event in Miami where they oriented all 47 of the new volunteers to the Peace Corps and its intricacies. Here, we learned about general safety, the mission of the Peace Corps, and each ...

Wow, what a way to end our stay in the Dominican Republic! Today was our last day in the DR and we checked out the Santo Domingo Carnaval (Carnival) Parade. Check out video here. When we arrived in Santo Domingo around noon, we saw many people crammed in cars with costumes or walking down the street towards the Malecon. The event started at 3pm and was dedicated to the "Los Lechones de Santiago" (the ...

... the sparkling water immediately captured your attention. Picture postcard stuff. Especially with the light fading and the street lights taking over in the twilight. It took 35 minutes to reach our new digs, a hostel run by an elderly American woman, Bettye. She´s a bit of a character too and has lived in D.R. for a long time. She looks a little like Angela Lansbury from Murder, She Wrote. Yes, I am showing my age but it´s who she looks like! With big square glasses and a ...

... weeks of realizing all of this I have decided to move. I am just waiting for the peace corps okay. I already found a house and it is right next to some really nice people. So I am excited to move. I will be in a quiet village that doesn´t party...which fits better to me since I have long left my partying days. So I feel a lot better knowing that I will be moving this week and hopefully it will make me look at my work with more optimism. I was shocked when I had 30 kids show up ...

Whooftah! There is so much to write and am not sure where to begin. Well, we all went on our volunteer site visits last week, and I had an awesome experience(and not everyone did, so I'm really thankful that I had a good person). But the girl I went to see is also in Spec. and Basic Ed, and she is in my exact same group, but just came a year before me, so last Feb. She lives in San Jose de las Matas, which is in the mountains ...

... find it...regular mosquito repellent would be appreciated as well. The stuff peace corps gives us is a joke, and to buy it in a store is expensive! Well, that is really all the news I have for now. Next week my boss is comming to have a meeting with me and 3 of my community representatives. After that is when my real work will begin. I need to start interviewing people for my community diagnostic so that I can figure out what the communities necessities are.

I just wanted to let you all know that I made it safely to the DR. Life here is a lot better than I expected, then again I am in the city, and I am sure that the country will be a lot poorer. Don´t get me wrong, it is still poor here. I live with a dona in a suburt of Santa Domingo called alcarrizos. She lives alone, and both her kids live in the US. I am lucky because I have an air conditioner in my room, and we have a back up generator, so we ...