My Site.
It's absolutely beautiful in my site. I have dirt roads, a couple small rivers, rolling hills of pastureland, and lots of rice, corn, and platano fields. My community is about 200 people, but the pueblo that's about a 20 minute motoconcho ride away has about 12,000 people. My house has electricity (lucky me), the water comes out of a faucet in the yard, and a poop in a latrine. I did finally figure out how to use the chamberpot during the night, instead of for my showers.
Everyone has been incredibly friendly. There is a group of young girls in my site that were good friends with the past volunteer, so I have an automatic shoo-in for friends. We got to my site on Tuesday night, so the last few days have been a whirlwind of meeting new people and trying to learn about my site. Friday I went to the Men's Association meeting where I gave a little introduction about myself to about 15 of the community. After I was done, one of the men stood up and told me that they are now my new family and that everyone of the men are my new brothers. Everyone is really excited for me to be there, and excited to get some things done. On one of my visits to some houses, one of the women talked to me about how they are all poor in the community, but that they are all good people. They just have such big hearts, I think I'll like it.
We also have a Mennonite community in my area. There is an American that lives in La Meseta. Apparently, he came here 25 years ago at 18 years old, married a Dominican, and now has a bunch of gringo kids running around. One of them looks almost exactly like Woodrow, it was kind of creepy. I also met a Jehovah's Witness, and there are 4 mormons in the pueblo. I was bombarded with all of this in my first day. And I thought I'd be the only American.
My project will be working with the men's association to create a tree nursery. It will be of fruit trees and some wood trees. I'm looking foward to it, but they tried before and something happened where it didn't work out. The last volunteer started a library that I'll finish up, it's just sitting there with a lock on the door. Also, I'm hoping for a stove project, all the women cook on an open fire, so I think there's potential there. But, we'll see, my projects will come as they can. There are 3 other volunteers in my area, so we're hoping to work together on youth clubs. There is one called Brigada Verde that is an environmental club for youth that we're hoping to get started in our area.
Anyway, I'll be off to my site on Sunday. I'm back in the capital for a week to finish off training and our swearing-in ceremony. My cell phone isn't working yet, but I'll get that number out soon. Also, I will be keeping the same address for the next two years:
Jennifer Bingham, PCV
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 1412
Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic
Please, please, please write me, even if it's just a short e-mail. I would love to hear from you guys back home. I hope all is going well. Keep me posted, even if it's just Brad and Angelina gossip (by the way, they were recently in the DR. Angelina is/was filming a movie here).
Love,
Jenn (Pixie)
Everyone has been incredibly friendly. There is a group of young girls in my site that were good friends with the past volunteer, so I have an automatic shoo-in for friends. We got to my site on Tuesday night, so the last few days have been a whirlwind of meeting new people and trying to learn about my site. Friday I went to the Men's Association meeting where I gave a little introduction about myself to about 15 of the community. After I was done, one of the men stood up and told me that they are now my new family and that everyone of the men are my new brothers. Everyone is really excited for me to be there, and excited to get some things done. On one of my visits to some houses, one of the women talked to me about how they are all poor in the community, but that they are all good people. They just have such big hearts, I think I'll like it.
We also have a Mennonite community in my area. There is an American that lives in La Meseta. Apparently, he came here 25 years ago at 18 years old, married a Dominican, and now has a bunch of gringo kids running around. One of them looks almost exactly like Woodrow, it was kind of creepy. I also met a Jehovah's Witness, and there are 4 mormons in the pueblo. I was bombarded with all of this in my first day. And I thought I'd be the only American.
My project will be working with the men's association to create a tree nursery. It will be of fruit trees and some wood trees. I'm looking foward to it, but they tried before and something happened where it didn't work out. The last volunteer started a library that I'll finish up, it's just sitting there with a lock on the door. Also, I'm hoping for a stove project, all the women cook on an open fire, so I think there's potential there. But, we'll see, my projects will come as they can. There are 3 other volunteers in my area, so we're hoping to work together on youth clubs. There is one called Brigada Verde that is an environmental club for youth that we're hoping to get started in our area.
Anyway, I'll be off to my site on Sunday. I'm back in the capital for a week to finish off training and our swearing-in ceremony. My cell phone isn't working yet, but I'll get that number out soon. Also, I will be keeping the same address for the next two years:
Jennifer Bingham, PCV
Cuerpo de Paz
Apartado Postal 1412
Santo Domingo
Dominican Republic
Please, please, please write me, even if it's just a short e-mail. I would love to hear from you guys back home. I hope all is going well. Keep me posted, even if it's just Brad and Angelina gossip (by the way, they were recently in the DR. Angelina is/was filming a movie here).
Love,
Jenn (Pixie)
posted by Jenn | 13:28
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