Consuelo, San Pedro De Macoris, Republica Dominicana

Hey guys,

So right now I´m a day into my 4-day volunteer visit. Basically I´m hanging out with a volunteer (mine has been here for two years and is about to finish up her service) from the business sector for four days to find out what life is really like, in once instance anyway, for a real volunteer. The volunteer I´m visiting works with an NGO called Esperanza International, and that´s where we are at now, and they offered me a few minutes of free internet to check email and hit the blog and such, so aqui esta.

I came out yesterday on the guagua, but by some miracle it was like the rolls royce of guaguas. Air conditioning, plenty of room, leather seats, etc etc. It cost 80 pesos, which is about $2.50US and it was an hour and a half trip. Can you imagine!!! We visited a couple of bateys yesterday with Esperanza, which is a microcredit lending institution, and that was interesting. The bateys, I think, originated along with the cultivation and farming of sugarcane here, and they are usually hard to access, really poor, and predominantly Hatian. These are all gross generalizations, since I´ve only been to two so far, but Alexis (my volunteer) said that those things, in the general sense, are fairly accruate.

This visit here has been three significant firsts for me... first bucket bath, first night without lights, first time without water. The reason is my house at training is a bit of a luxury for this country, and the volunteers live a little more grounded in reality. It´s not so bad though, I survived. And I only used half a bucket of water for my bath, which is pretty good! ... thought I´ll admit I didn´t take on the challenge of trying to wash my hair.

Ok, I think my free internet time is up. I´ll write a full debrief on Sunday when I get back to Pantoja and put it up here when I can.

Take care!!!
Kira