site visit

Saludos!

Having visited and returned from my new, permanent site, I thought I’d give a little insight into what my next two years might be like. Which is of course total speculation because there is no way 5 days of a visit can indicate 2 years of living in a community, but this is what I have to go on so here it is.

The community:
Bajabonico Arriba is a sector of the municipality of Alta Mira, in the province of Puerto Plata. It is comprised of about 7 subdivisions, but I will be spending my first three months with a family that lives in Bajabonico Arriba proper. In all, there are about 3000 people (so I’m told) in the community as a whole. The only way to get into the town is by motorconcho, and it’s 50 pesos and about 20 minutes. There’s a road but none of the transport vehicles come in… it’s only if you have a private vehicle you can drive in. Once you get to the road where you can catch a guagua, it’s about 5 or 10 minutes either way, either to Imbert (another volunteer is there) or Alta Mira, and it’s about 35 minutes to Santiago, the nearest major city.

My counterpart:
My primary project is working with an organization called Fundelosa (Fundacion Desarollo Loma y Salud) and they have a bunch of pretty big projects, namely a solar panel project, a bakery, a cacao processing facility, a youth group, and a microcredit loans program. My counterpart is 26 years old and has a 12 year old son. They start early here. Everyone wants English classes, which scares the bejebers out of me cause I’m no teacher, and there is a lot of interest in what I might be able to do there, although I’m trying to not get ahead of myself.

My host family:
Yes, I have electricity (most of the time). Yes, I have running water and a flush toilet (all the time, so they say, but it’s not as glamorous as it sounds). My “dona” is 28 and my “don” is 36 and I put that in quotes because they aren’t hardly older than me, but they have a 12 year old son and an 8 year old daughter and oh what a difference a couple of kids makes. The family is wonderful, and although I have no idea where I can go to get a few minutes of alone time to be quiet and mellow, they are so happy to have me it really touched my heart. The room they had for me only had a wall to about 4 feet high and no door, and when the volunteer who checked them out told them those were problems they built me a door and the rest of the wall because they so wanted to have a volunteer stay with them. They already asked me if I’d stay with them after the three months, but I don’t plan to. It was a little awkward, but I like them a lot. And I don’t think they’re going to make me eat stuff I don’t like, which makes me really happy.

The quirk:
There’s another volunteer in my site. Technically I am following him up but he ended up extending his service for six months or something so he’s not leaving until April or May or something. This is extremely uncommon and I have mixed feelings about it. No matter how it goes or how you slice it, having another volunteer in my community changes my experience. I think it will be fine, and Dan seems really nice (although we scarcely had a chance to say hello when I was there). I’m looking forward to getting to know him a bit better. He’s a health volunteer, but he actually started a youth business plan group last year that won the competition and their business is going to be my main secondary project, so he and I will probably collaborate on that as I get up and running. I don’t know anything about him or his service or his projects or anything yet, but as I find out more I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

Being on my site visit was definitely an eye-opening experience. Like everything in Peace Corps, it had it’s highs and it’s lows, but overall it was great. And exhausting. This being my first time totally immersed in Spanish was definitely hard. My host family yesterday and today was convinced I was sad, but really I was just tired and worn out and needed some rest. It was nice to get back here today although I got caught in a horrible downpour and was soaking wet.

Okay, this is kindof a lame entry but I’m tired and I need to go to bed. I’ll try to write more when I get to the internet place and do a second entry then if I can think of anything more to say that is interesting. Don’t forget to write! I miss you all!!!!!!!

Love,
Kira