Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Bienvenido al campo, Americano!

Hola Amigos! Well, it took me a while, but at long last, here is my blog that I promised you all a month ago. With 2 postings already! (well, the first one really doesn't count, since it was an e-mail I sent back in July).

Anyway, tomorrow marks my one-month anniversary as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Dominican Republic. The last 4 weeks have been very busy, as I am in the middle of an 11-week training period before I am officially sworn in as a PC volunteer and sent to my final community for two years of hard work.

The first three weeks of time in country I spent in the capital, Santo Domingo. Training to become a PC Volunteer is serious business - I really felt like I was back in college. There are 51 potential trainees in my "class" and we would have classes all day ranging from Spanish (obviously), DR history and politics, to merengue (yes, I have become a pretty good dancer so far) and dominoes (the national pasttime second only to baseball). We learned these last two activities in order to better integrate into our host culture - nothing like a good game of dominoes with members of a small town to break the ice and start a conversation about health issues.

I am now in a smaller, more rural village about 2 hours by bus outside Santo Domingo. I will be here another 4 weeks for on-site training, then return to SD for a few more days of final preparations, then swearing in as an offical Volunteer.

I am loving the country. People are very friendly, the food is great, and my Spanish has never been better.


I was hoping to post some pictures, but alas, I am unable to at this particular internet cafe. I will try in a few more days so you can see how beautiful this country really is.

More news later, amigos!

5 comments:

egan said...

Great to hear from you friend. It's awesome to hear you're feeling good about things. Using your Spanish skills to help others has got to be so awesome. I'm really happy for you and how things are going.

You can email me photos Téo and I can post them here if you need any help. Adios amigo!

Tim said...

I'm tuned in now with RSS readers, awaiting more posts! :)

Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you're enjoying it. And I'm glad you took the time to give us an update. It sounds like they are keeping you busy, although I gotta say, I wish law school included classes like merengue and dominoes. I think it would be a better experience.

I can't wait to hear more!

Anonymous said...

Tod, glad you joined the blogosphere and I'm really looking forward to hearing all about your experiences in the DR. All the best, amigo!

Unknown said...

Señor Flanders, great to hear things are going fantastic for you in the DR! I had the chance to spend one day in Santo Domingo on a HVTN trip in Aug and enjoyed taking in the tasty rum and good looking and friendly locals (my hotel bartenter looked a lot like a guy I dated in Jamaica - muy sabroso!)Anyways, stay out of trouble and post more photos when you can.
PS. I just got back from Peru and it was amazing!

Te extraño y te deseo todo el suerte en el mundo.
Hasta entoces!