Hola from the Dominican Republic!
I am finally here and safe. Here at the Peace Corps training center I have internet but its slow since all 59 volunteers in my training group are trying to use it.
Last night I met my host family. They are incredibly warm and patient with my not so strong Spanish skills. I have a host mother, father, brother who is about my age, a small puppy named Snoopy, and a bird. I'll only be living with them for 4 weeks though and then I will be sent to another site for technical training. I am very very lucky to have running water and sporadic wifi in a part of the house. Most volunteers take bucket baths, which apparently is not that bad. I wasn't expecting to but here we take malaria medication and also must sleep with mosquito nets (mine takes up the grand majority of the room). Volunteers occasionally get Dengue so we are supposed to always wear repellent and take care.
Our training schedule sounds very interesting and thorough. It includes learning when and how to bargain, how to build ovens, how to bleach vegetables, how to handle social interactions and much more.
More to come later...
Alyson
