Today I leave for the campo! I’ll be in Altamira, close to Puerto Plata to the north of the DR for the next 5 weeks doing mainly technical training, I’ll only be with other CED volunteers (19 of us). I’m excited to get out of the city and hopefully our site will be great! It will be interesting to see what amenities I have and don’t have. I already know my host family doesn’t have a phone, and we have been warned that like in most the country, there probably won’t be steady access to water or electricity, but I guess I will just find out when I get there. I’m definitely looking forward to doing the technical training though and to be in the mountains. Also, I still have no idea where I’ll be placed for the next 2 years, and won’t find out till after I get back.

I’ve really enjoyed my time in Santo Domingo, starting to get to know the group better and to feel more comfortable with everything, which is good. I also visited a volunteer last weekend and it was a really positive experience. First off she lives in the mountains and it was gorgeous so that was nice. It was nice to be cold and need to wear a sweatshirt for sure, and we got to hike around, go in some rivers, and meet her community and some other volunteers. Also it was very helpful to me to talk to her about her personal struggles and issues that she has run into and how she has gotten around them. And she told me about the PC life and the events that the volunteers throw every year. I’m still excited and looking forward to everything!

Also I’m hoping to play some more dominos when I get out there, because my host family now lent their set out and doesn’t have any, and I’m hoping to become a master by the time I get back. I’m bringing my cribbage board as well though, just to have something I’m already awesome at ;) Also, something I didn’t really think about before, is that I’ll be having 3 host families here, which is awesome to have close connections in so many places, but just for a heads up, I’m just going to say host family and it will correspond to the family in whatever part of the country I’m in. But yea, I’m doing well, am still enjoying the rice and beans, yucca, fruits and veggies, and everything else they are serving me, we will also see if there is much food variety where I am going…

So I may not have a chance to update this for a while, but I’ll just be busy training, probably nothing too exciting.

And I’m off!