Monday, March 10, 2008

I am alive

Hello from La Republica Dominicana, people. I had a couple of posts all typed out but the wifi se fue (went away) before I could post. So I will have to make do with this.

I feel as though I am in a time warp. It is as though I have been here for months rather than just under 2 weeks. I have become acclimated to temperatures in the 80s, medium humidity, and almost guaranteed sunshine. There are frequent afternoon downpours, which keeps things green and the flowers and fruits blooming. There are many huge and beautiful bouganvillas, plants that bear passionfruit, papaya, mango and coconut, and of course many varieties of plantain and banana. My doña, Posada, bought me a large sack of guavas, which I am enjoying immensely, now that I have stopped eating the bitter skin. (My host brother delighted in enlightening me.)

Right now we are mainly training in Language and PC policy, as well as Dominican cultural assimilation. The Dominican accent is both very different and very similar to the Andalucian accent, but I´m communicating sufficiently and learning some slang. The people are all quite friendly, open, and willing to talk to me. Baseball is the national religion, practicially (they even postponed carnival for it) so I can talk to people about something. I´ve also learned to dance the bachata, which is the national dance, and a useful social skill. I hope it helps me in my community.

This Thursday, I am off to the other side of the country to visit another environmental volunteer and see how he works with his community. It should be a good opportunity to a) get out of the capital and see some other stuff and b) test my solo skills and c) see a volunteer in action. I´m excited.

Maybe I´ll be able to post those other entries before I leave, but if not, I´ll definitely write about the trip.

Hasta luego.

1 comment:

Eddy R. Matos said...

Hi Laura and welcome to the 2nd room of the heaven, just to teach you more of my country the national dance is Merengue, Bachata is the 2nd or maybe the 3 place, because now the regueton will be pass thought

The baseball as the same of the North American people is the passion sport and the catholic the religion, once again welcome to DR were is all began in this new world.

Ed