Well it's been a while since I last updated, but that's not for a lack of stories to tell! The past couple weeks have flown by, mainly because I moved out of my host family's house, my mother came to visit, and I had to go to a week long In-Service Training that Peace Corps provided to prepare us for the next year's work. Let's go step by step as I explain these three events:
New House:
First, as most PCDR volunteers do, after living with my host family for three months I moved out of their house and into a little place of my own. Because Peace Corps does not allow us to live in houses with tin walls, and there are no houses available in my community that are made out of block or wood entirely, I cannot at this point live completely on my own. However, the two Canadian nuns who live here part of the year have been nice enough to offer me the apartment that is attached to the side of their house to live in. The apartment is pretty basic (it used to be a garage) but I do have my own INDOOR bathroom (though I kind of prefer a latrine because you don't have to clean it or worry about using too much water) and I have my own separate entrance. I have two rooms—one for my bedroom and the other as a living area/kitchen where I have a small stove and keep a bucket of water near it to wash and cook with. Though it's not very lavish, according to Peace Corps living standards it is a very nice place!
Moira's Visit:
Yup, my mother came to visit for almost a week and got to see my entire town and meet practically everyone in it! She arrived on a Tuesday and I went and found her at the airport and we spent a day and a night in a small hotel near the beach. We enjoyed the sunshine and water, but my mom was swimming in the water and got caught in some coral, which put a damper on things because little coral pieces were stuck in her feet and hands and we had to treat them the entire time she was here in order to get them out.
After the beach we took a bus and then some motorcycles into my town. My mom was worried that the motorcycle drivers wouldn't be able to carry her suitcase and my backpack on their motorcycles, but she soon saw that it was no problem at all (the trick is to set the suitcase on the front of the motorcycle and the driver simply has to balance it while he is driving). We arrived in Las Pajas and for the next four days our days mainly consisted of meeting people and visiting with them. I think some of the highlights for her were the warm bread that a woman in my site backs nightly to sell, and getting her hair braided into cornrows (she has a couple pictures you should ask to see if you can!).
The people in my community loved meeting my mom and ever since I got back from my training they have been asking when she is going to come again and when the rest of my family will come (the boys in town are particularly interested in when Rakaia—my 15 year old sister—will be coming to visit)
In-Service Training:
At the end of my mother's visit, she and I as well as my two “Community project partners” traveled into Santo Domingo. My mom went to the airport and my two project partners and I went to a hotel for the night before we took off for another city in the morning. For our training, all the youth volunteers and their project partners, as well as our bosses and trainers, met at a retreat type center in the mountains. For the past three months each volunteer and their project partner had been preparing our community diagnostic to present at the training, and so for the first day we all presented our diagnostics and discussed our plans for the future. The next day was full of planning projects and doing “teamwork” activities with our project partners. It was nice to be able to spend some time with my project partners outside of Las Pajas, because we all had time to discuss our projects without interruption. We now have lots of plans for the future, but the projects that we are going to begin this month are:
English classes
A girls' volleyball team
More activities for the recently formed youth group
An event in a neighboring community for International Women's Day
After our project partners left us volunteers stayed for several days to do more trainings specific to Peace Corps and to talk about projects that other previous volunteers have done. It was great to be able to chat with my friends about their communities and swap ideas, however I returned rather overwhelmed with all the information and plans that had been discussed. The days following the training have been for planning and sorting through all the information we got.
This month I will also be traveling to the capital for “Committee Weekend” which is where all the volunteers meet and form committees to work on certain projects. I will be helping to plan several weekend camps for youth (one is a tournament for volleyball teams, another is a sports/nutrition camp and the last, a diversity camp) as well as checking out what other committees do. This month is a short one, but it is certainly chock full of plans!
