week 1: immersion (june 15-21)

hello all! well here i am... i have survived my first week in the dr! i arrived in santo domingo (the capital) on sunday night. i have been staying with a nice family in santo domingo and going to language school. on friday, david (nph volunteer coordinator) came and picked me up to go see the orphanage for the weekend. the orphanage is just outside a town called san pedro de macoris, which is about an hour east of santo domingo. and that is where i am right now. i head back to santo domingo on sunday for one more week of language school. i'm going to try to update this blog at the end of every week if my schedule allows and if we have internet! here are a few stories from my first week....

santo domingo: santo domingo is a very interesting city. its kinda crazy. there are a ton of people and there's always a lot going on. the most interesting part of santo domingo has been the public transportation. the family i'm living with lives about 30 minutes away from the school i got to, so i've had to learn how to get around. my first day i took a taxi. taxis here are different... it's just a flat rate of $150 pesos (about $5) no matter where you go. so, that worked fine, but is definitely an expensive way to travel everywhere. so, there is another form of transportation called a "carro publico". these cars are everywhere. they basically drive in one direction and have different routes. so, you just get on the side of the road that you want to go on and you hail one down, similar to getting a cab in the states. however, everything else is totally different! carro publicos only cost about 12 pesos (not matter where you go), so they try to pile as manny people in as possible. they are just normal sized cars, but they aren't considered full until there are two people crammed in the front passenger set and four in the back. so basically you are just really close to people and really hot and really uncomfortable, but it seems to be the cheapest and most popular way to get around. and there aren't stops, so you just tell the driver "aqui" and they stop and let you out. sometimes it's hard to know where they are going though, so i've gotten lost pretty much every time. the other form of transportation, which is what i have to take home from school, is called a "gua-gua"... basically like a city bus. except they cram as many people in as they can too. and just when you think they can't fit anymore people, they squeeze more in... it's kinda crazy. and they're like carro publicos in that there aren't any regular stops... people basically just get on and off wherever they want. and the driving here is insane. there are no rules, no lines on the road, and there are some traffic lights, but i'm not really sure why because except for the really big ones, no one pays attention to them anyway. basically when you get to an intersection you honk your horn so people know you're coming and that's about it. cars weave in and out of traffic, drive on the wrong side of the road, and all the cars look like they get in car accidents everyday, however i have yet to be in or see one (knock on wood). the whole experience reminds me of the seinfeld cab routine, "no matter how dangerous it seems, it's all quite amusing from the back of that cab. he's flying around the road, he's doing 90 up a one-way, and you're going, 'i'd never try that in my car'... it's your life and somehow it's just all happening on tv there... it's not quite real..."

other than that, santo domingo is sooooo hot. and everyone keeps saying, "but aren't you from arizona?" and i keep saying "yes, but this is sooo different!" first of all its very humid... all of you in arizona know that we always say we have a dry heat... and let's be so thankful, because i am missing the 110 dry days right now. you feel soaking wet all day. so it's really interesting. i have basically worn skirts every day because i can't even imagine wearing anything else! and the other thing is there is no ac anywhere. so in arizona, we go from our air conditioned cars, to our air conditioned jobs or houses, but here.... no. there are fans some places, which is nice, but for the most part i have just come to terms with the fact that i am just going to be hot... always. the good thing is, it makes the cold showers feel good :)

the only place i've really gone to in santo domingo besides school is a place called "zona colonial". it's basically the historic heart of santo domingo. (fact of the day: "hispanola" is the island of the dr and haiti, and was the first piece of land discovered by christopher columbus on his journeys to the americas). so, zona colonial is about one square mile and has the old cobblestone streets and some of the oldest colonial building in the western hemisphere. there are tongs of shops, street vendors, restaurants and cafes. there is also the "catedral santa maria de la incarnacion", which is the oldest cathedral in all the americas.

my dominican family and dominican food: i am very glad i opted to stay with a host family while taking language school. first of all, i think it would have been a little scary staying in santo domingo alone and it has also been nice being able to practice spanish with them at home. the mother's name is gilda and she has a husband and a 42 year old daughter that also lives in the home. they are all very nice. it's kinda strange though because my spanish is still very limited, so i don't understand half of what they are saying and i don't know how to say half of the stuff i want to say to them. but, it gets a little better every day. the other good thing about living with a family is they cook for me! gilda makes me breakfast and dinner every day. the food here is pretty good, better than i expected, but definitely not what i'm used to. the main national dish is called "bandera dominicana". it is basically red beans, rice and some kind of meat, usually chicken. there are also a ton of fruit and vegetable stands everywhere, so people like pineapple, mango, melons, bananas and there are also a lot of avocados and limes. oh and they also really like bread... you get bread with everything. and it's really soft... i can already tell that one of the things i'm going to miss the most is crunchy bread! some of the breakfasts i have eaten have been interesting... i've eaten some weird cereal/oatmeal things that are really sweet. gilda feeds me a lot of food, and for someone who usually doesn't eat breakfast, it's a lot to handle in the morning. also, the juices here are really different.... they are sooo thick! i'm not a huge fan so far. the dinners have been really good. all the meat is really good and there is this other thing called "queso frito" which is... fried cheese! yep, just a huge hunk of deep fried cheese! really good, but i can't even imagine how bad it is for you! and there is another thing called yucca that they seem to eat a lot... it looks like sliced up pineapples, but then it tastes starchy like a potato. it's very interesting, but pretty good. overall the food here seems to be a lot heavier than what i am used to. they really like butter and cooking everything in oil (but i'm sure all this will be different at the orphanage) and it's all really filling. however, it was really exciting when i finally found the supermarket because they do have some of our american foods. i have never been so excited to buy a can of bbq pringles! oh and i almost forgot the most important update... as i suspected, no mountain dew here :( they do, however, have pepsi pretty much everywhere, so it has been an acceptable substitute.

language school: language school has been good, i'm learning a lot. well, sometimes it seems like all i'm learning is that there is so much i don't know! but, overall it's definitely good that i'm doing it. i have gained so much respect for anyone who speaks more than one language. it can be really frustrating knowing what you need to say, but having no idea how to say it! the school is nice, there have only been two other people in my class so far, but it changes all the time because people come and go. we take two 1 1/2 hour classes in the morning and we're done by about 12:30 p.m. it doesn't sound like a lot, but by that point my brain is usually ready to explode so that has been plenty. i think part of the reason this blog is so long is because it feels so good to write in english! i don't have to think about every single thing before i say it!

nph: like i said, on friday after school, i headed over to san pedro to check out the orphanage for the weekend. getting here with my luggage was quite challenging. luckily david was there to help me and i only had my backpack and two little suitcases. i left my big one at the family's house, so getting back with that next weekend should be very challenging. anyway we took a gua-gua from school to the bus station and then a bus to san pedro. once in san pedro, the orphanage is still about 15 minutes away, which is when i discovered that there is an even scarier form of transportation than any of the ones i mentioned above... "motoconcho"... basically motorcycle cabs. so when you get off the bus, there are all these guys on motorcycles waiting to take you to where you need to go. i guess the cheapest way is to share one, so that's what david and i did (sorry dad!) so, i sat behind the driver and held my backpack (which had my wallet, computer, i-pod and pretty much everything important i own in it) at my side, and then david sat behind me with one of my suitcases on his back. then, the driver held my other suitcase on his handlebars and proceeded to drive us to the orphanage. i know it was only about a 15 minute drive, but it felt like an eternity! i definitely thought i was going to die! they drive really fast and the roads are bumpy and have cracks and pot-holes, etc... it was really crazy. so basically, i just just closed my eyes, said some prayers, and told God that i really hoped he didn't bring me all the way here to die on a motorcycle! but, obviously i made it and i'm alive!

after the crazy trip, i was starting to wonder what exactly i'm doing here. but once i got into the orphanage, all that changed. i had an overwhelming sense of peace come over me when i walked in the gates. i could just tell that this is really amazing place and i started to get really excited. i got to my room, which is nice. i have the top bunk and share a room with a girl named kelly, who is also here for a year. she is going to teach esl. in the other room are the guy volunteers and then there is a kitchen and living room area that we all share. there are also five volunteers who are just here for the summer. they are going to help with the summer program, which is activities for the kids to do since they aren't in school. there is going to be one other year long volunteer coming in august i think.

the orphanage has 162 kids currently, from age 2 to 17. they live in small houses, by gender and grouped mostly by age. there are "tias" that are in charge of each house. they basically take care of the kids at all times, except for when they are in school. they are in grades at school based on their ability, not their age. currently the school that is on the property has up to grade 6 and the kids that are in 7th and 8th grade go into san pedro for school. however, they are in the process of building a secondary school on the property right now, but i'm not sure exactly when it's supposed to be done. all the tias and the teachers here come from san pedro. in addition to the kid's houses, there in an office they just finished building, a house for volunteers (where i live), staff houses (for the directors and nuns), a basketball court and lots of open grassy areas to play. they are also in the process of building a baseball field in conjunction with the boston red socks foundation, so that should be cool. also, my room backs up to the fence that surrounds the nph property, and if i look out my window, just over the fence, i see the texas rangers training field. i guess a lot of major league baseball players are down here from october to january training before the season. they are working on a program where the players could come do a mentorship thing with the kids, so that should be cool as well.

all the houses are named after a saint, so i will be working in "casa san pascual", which is where the special needs kids live. there are nine total kids at this nph home classified as "special needs", but three of them have been able to be incorporated into the other homes for the most part. so, there will be six main kids that i'll be working with. the tias here are very loving and caring, but they don't have a lot of experience with special needs, so i guess it's kinda up to me to figure out what we are going to do. should be fun :)

i also got to meet salomon, the little boy that i sponsor. i found him playing on the basketball court (i like him already!). he is really quiet and shy, but really sweet. i asked him a few questions, but other than that i didn't really know what to say to him. but, apparently he didn't mind too much because he asked me to eat dinner with him and his house. that was fun... and a little crazy. i don't know how these tias feed and care for 12 eleven and twelve year old boys, but somehow they do! we had fun. they boys brought out a picture book they had in english and they taught me the spanish words. it was really sweet. all the kids are really great... nice and friendly. i don't really understand most of what they are saying because they speak so fast and they don't enunciate, plus they leave off the ends of their words... so i am "mega" .... and most domincans leave of their "s", so you hear "adio" and "gracia". most of the kids are really hyper and outgoing, but there are also some quiet ones like salomon. it seems like they are going to be a lot of fun. for dinner we ate bread and cheese and juice (which seems a little more like what a typical meal is going to be like for the next year).

and that brings us to today. i just kinda hung out today, walked around the place, read, etc. then i went to mass with the little kids in a nearby neighborhood. mass is always different around here, depending on if they can get a priest to come to the home. so like this weekend they can't, so the kids have to be bused out to mass. so the little kids went tonight and the big kids will go in the morning. it's really cute because they all get dressed up to go to mass. all the boys put on long pants and collared shirts and all the girls get their hair braided really nicely and put on their best dresses. (and just like back home... they come back and change the second they get home!) but mass was good, i didn't understand most of it, but that's the good thing about being catholic, you know what's going on even if you don't know what anyone is saying. i'm sure as time goes on i'll learn some of the songs and responses. (and thanks to meagan b. i know some of the prayers!!) after mass i ate dinner at salomon's house again. there are 12 boys (i think... it's hard to keep track) in the house and i am really trying to learn all their names because they get really excited when i do, but it's really hard because they are all about the same size and have the exact same haircut and just when i think i've got it, they go and change into their pajamas and i'm totally lost again. but tonight i brought paper and they all wrote their names down, so hopefully now that i have them in writing i can remember them better. eating dinner with them is really fun. they have this whole routine. certain boys set the table, others get the drinks and silverware and others bring the food down. then they get in two straight lines and say their prayers and then they all sit down and eat. tonight we had some sort of macaroni pasta and sweet potatoes... interesting combo, but pretty tasty. then, after dinner, they all go brush their teen and then they are allowed to watch tv for a bit on the little 9" tv they have in their living room. tonight we watched spanish crocodile dundee!

well that has pretty much been my life so far... this is kinda long i know... my updates probably won't be this long in the future, but the first week has brought a lot of new experiences! i am heading back to santo domingo tomorrow for one more week of language school (but this probably won't be posted until then or monday because the internet is down here) thanks for reading and hope all is well at home... i certainly miss all my family and friends and all the wonderful people at st. pats... you all are in my prayers! God bless!

"in him we live and move and have our being" - acts 17:28