I think I´ll survive

Today was our first at the Pantoja Training Center and it was chock full of information. A lot of what we did was more introductions to training and such, but we really got into it toward the end of the day. I’ve already spoken more Spanish today than probably in my entire life, and while my verb tenses stink, I seem to be getting my point across for the most part, which is extremely reassuring.
We had our first immersion Spanish class this afternoon; there were four people plus a language facilitator in my group. No problem with the content of the class, but Dominican Spanish sure isn’t like Spanish at Parkrose High School… no offence Profi. I also had my placement test for my language class, which uses the ACTFL international scoring system. We’ll see how I did on Monday, but in order to swear-in in November, we have to score at least Intermediate Mid, so stay tuned for my results. Then it was off to the host families, and what an ordeal that was. Imagine 53 donas trying to find “their” child, in a sea of 53 gringos they’ve never met. It took a while for my dona to find me – a little like being picked last for the dodgeball team. It’s cool though, she’s great. Another volunteer is living with my donas sister and we are only about 5 minutes away from each other. I think there are several other volunteers in our neighborhood as well.

The house I’m living in isn’t what you’d expect in a country that needs the Peace Corps. The family has two cars, a three bedroom house that has (count em) THREE bathrooms, electricity, running (not very warm) water, a tv/dvd/vcr, a TV IN MY ROOM (don’t know if it works), two dining tables, two seating areas (one inside, one outside on the terrazza). Etc, etc etc. Like I said, I think I’ll survive. Hehe.

I’ll live at this host family for three weeks, then another one in the interior of the country for 5.5 weeks after that. Then, we find out our site and project assignments and head out for a week long site visit. Upon returning to the capital, we swear in, celebrate Thanksgiving in the capital and head back out to our sites for good, were we live with our third host family for three months.

We already had our first person change his mind and go home today though, which was quite a bummer. They say it happens sometimes like that though, and being here is a huge decision, so he really needed to make the right decision for himself. It was sad to see him go, though.

Ok, more later!