To start, last week for Thanksgiving a lot of volunteers came into the capital to celebrate together, because feasting by yourself just isn’t as fun. There was a group that organized the dinner, complete with turkey, potatoes, gravy, and plenty of pie to go around. It was good timing since I had been at my site for about a month, so I was definitely starting to miss my friends from training. And also it was a good opportunity to get to know some of the other volunteers (there are 200 in country). We spent the day at a country club in the capital, so we also had a pool, basketball court, volleyball, and areas to hang out for the day. Definitely fun and a good break from my site.
This is all the food that was prepared:
And look at this ridiculous amount of pie:
After Thanksgiving and a weekend in the capital I headed back to my site. Unfortunately, I got back and was sick the next day. After a few days of denial and trying to let my body take care of itself, I headed back to the capital to visit the doctor and get some antibiotics, and I’ve spent the weekend resting and waiting for the pills to kick in. But now I’m starting to feel better and will finally be heading back to my site in the morning.
Now, I realize I’ve failed to mention what I am doing at my site. Technically, my first three months of service are dedicated to doing an organizational and community diagnostic. This is basically looking at what are the strengths and weaknesses and then also the community resources and what opportunities I can see for future projects. But also while doing the diagnostic, I am just trying to learn about everyone in my community, and just start the process of becoming part of the community. Dominicans really value having people of “confianza” (translated to trust more or less) in their lives, so it is important for me to go around and make those relationships and show I am a “mujer seria” (serious, professional woman) in my community. I’m not even allowed to go on a moto if it isn’t a muchacho de confianza, someone from and trusted in my community, so in order to get anything done in the future, it’s important to invest in the relationships now. And also, I just want to have friends where I am going to live for the next 2 years =D.
So aside from constantly wearing pants every day because the bugs still love my new blood, I am attending any community meeting being held (at least a few every week), and going around to make visits, along with doing my scheduled activities with the tour organization (we are starting to look into promotion). And then I also roam around. Sometimes I just sit by the colmado, a very basic neighborhood store, watching people come and pick up whatever ingredient they need for the next meal or go to the “play” to watch some softball which they seem to be playing almost every day now. I also really enjoy just watching peoples’ everyday chores like being impressed by their ability to lift huge bags of cacao when bringing it over to sell, or shaving the bark off logs with their machete for the roof of their house.
Also, I’m starting to work on my “make Alanna more of a campo” project, which is just a list of things that everyone else in my community has been doing since they were born, that I need to catch up on. So far, besides many cooking lessons I have:
1. Learn how to ride a horse really well
2. Harvest cacao
3. Milk a cow
4. Mastering the machete
5. Possibly kill or at least feather a chicken (my host brother says I’m doing it during Christmas break)
And I’m sure the list will continue to grow : )
Anyways, I'll try and get some pictures once I start to complete the list, maybe not of the chicken though... so now I am going back to my site to continue working on my diagnostic and also starting the Christmas celebrations. My host dad has 8 kids, many of whom will be coming by with their kids so it should be a packed house. And apparently we are roasting a pig at some point, so pretty exciting =D
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