I'm Becoming a Dominoes Master!

I am currently living in the mountains in the north for the next 4 weeks of training, and it is so nice. I’m living in a decent sized campo, mostly based in agriculture, and my host family is great. We are in a very active community, they have a few associations we can learn from, and even a softball team for the men that have games with other nearby towns every Saturday, last Saturday we got to drive like an hour away for the game, super fun and a beautiful drive through the mountains. It’s also an interesting community since almost everyone is dependent on their land for food and money, they all have similar lifestyles and are very much a sharing community. If someone ever needs a banana, yucca, etc they just ask their neighbor, they would never buy something that is grown in the area because someone is always willing to give it to them, not sell or trade it, just give it. It’s a really refreshing concept to be around. And it doesn’t pertain just to food, they literally act just like one unit all the time, which is great. It also means I’m familiar with most of the community and always have people to say hi to and look out for me.

My most exciting news is definitely that I am working hard to become a dominoes master. It’s practically the national pastime, so it’s really good that I am learning the strategy now, it’s actually really intense. But every time I play with adult Dominicans they comment on how I am learning and how good I am, which is always nice to hear. Right behind my house they play for hours every afternoon, and if I get out of training early enough I play with them, and my host siblings are always excited and willing to play as well (my 6 year old host sister is seriously a dominoes shark, it’s ridiculous how good she is). So, I feel pretty awesome about that because they are genuinely excited and respectful that I am a competitor =D

Most of my time though, I’m training with the 19 other CED (Community Economic Development) volunteers. We have Spanish class almost every day, and then will often meet as the large group for technical training, so sometimes I’m not home till like 7, it’s a stretch, but we are learning a lot so I never feel like they shouldn’t be having a session, which is good. It’s draining but I appreciate it because I am definitely starting to feel more prepared to do specific tasks and know what resources I have rather then just this vague concept of what I will be doing.
Also, they have us divided up into 5 different communities, so I actually only live close to 3 other girls. It’s a really good system because then when I am in my own community in November, it won’t be as much to adjust to.

For those of you that know my eating habits, I actually had some sort of crab, twice, and enjoyed it. Crazy I know right? They were still alive when they came home and were cooked with a lot of flavors so I didn’t taste the fishy-ness, but I know a few people will be proud. I don’t expect much more progress in that area. I also feel bad because my community has like 5 different varieties of bananas, so my family is constantly eating them, so my host mom is constantly looking for substitutes for me, but there’s definitely a lot of variety so it’s been going well.