Looking Forward by Looking Back

Trip Start Aug 19, 2008

Trip End Oct 29, 2010

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Flag of Dominican Republic Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic
Wednesday, September 2, 2009

BEST FRIENDS + DR = PANDA? : My anticipation was killing me as I was waiting at the airport to pick up George and Eric. Finally they arrived and we immediately piled into our rented car, a Fiat Panda. It really was as big as it sounds, meaning the size of a shoebox. We drove up north to stay at my girlfriend's house for the first night. Some of us (Eric) had too good of a time so we had to change the schedule around a little but that was fine. My birthday, August 6th, was amazing. My birthday consisted of soaking up the sun during the day and a really nice sushi dinner on the beach. After jumping off of waterfalls at an ecotourism spot, we made the long drive back to my site. Getting through the capital took entirely too long and at one point during the ride a motorcycle hit us from behind. Everyone was okay so we continued our journey and we were very happy to arrive in my site. Many volunteers came down to celebrate my belated birthday, so it was great to have everyone together

. I was sad to see George and Eric leave, but the best end to the trip was that the rental car place didn’t charge us for the damage to the car (we turned it in at night…).

HEADACHES, STOMACH PAIN, & VAGINAL DISCHARGE: I helped translate at an 11-day Medical Mission in the north where I and 8 other Peace Corps volunteers worked with nursing students from 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 had to translate for middle-aged women. To say the least, I learned a lot of new medical vocabulary, some I didn’t necessarily want to know (or thought I would ever need).

JUGAR PARA VIVIR: YOUTH SPORTS CAMP: I was able to take two kids to the youth sports camp that was over the last weekend in August. After going to three other conferences/camps this summer I was a little burnt out, but this one ended up being my favorite. I don’t know if it was because we were outside doing physical activity, but the camp was really fun and the kids learned a lot about the rules of certain sports, nutrition, and taking care of their bodies

. One of the sports we taught the kids was soccer because this is the only Latin American country that does not play it (lame). The best thing about these conferences is that they always have coffee for the volunteers. Without it I don’t know if we would even function with tons of screaming, energetic Dominican children surrounding us.

GREEN LIFE: At the end of the youth business course that I gave, the teenagers that I worked with have the option of making an actual business plan to enter it to the national competition for a chance to win money and start their business. I had a group of 3 jovenes (teenagers) make a plan for a vivero (plant nursery) that they are calling Green Life. After a painstaking day of typing up the 18-page business plan, we sent it in and our waiting to hear back to see if we made it in the national competition in October where they would present their plan to a panel of judges. They’re really passionate about it so I think that they have a great shot at winning.

ONE YEAR: I have officially been in La Republica Dominicana for more than a year. To think that just one year ago I just arrived to this country, eyes wide open, nervous for my two year journey to begin. Now, I’m a seasoned veteran. My Spanish is at the point where I am still learning new words but conversations come easy, my projects are in full-swing and I am always working to better them, and I have great friends, both American Peace Corps Volunteers and Dominicans in my community. It is hard to believe that an entire year went by so quickly and that this last year is supposed to fly by as well. Last week the new group of volunteers came to country and part of their training is to visit a current volunteer who has been in country for more than a year. I remember thinking that the volunteers who have been here a year knew so much and seemed so confident, which is crazy to think that it is me now. I’m excited to talk to the new volunteer that visits me (and I guess he’ll be happy to visit a volunteer that lives on the Caribbean Sea).