Just an update

Hi everyone who reads my blog. Thanks for visiting again!

So since the last time I posted, which was right after my IST in La Vega, not a lot has happened, and yet plenty of stuff has happened. Funny how things go like that, right? Well, between the end of my IST and this past Sunday I was having a pretty hard time. Nothing happened, but I was feeling stressed out, overwhelmed and generally anxious. About lots of things. Of course work and projects (or lack there of at this point) is difficult, but through the patience of a few great folks here I think I've decided that the main source of difficulty is that I'm still living with my host family (and all the privacy/personal space/control of environment issues that entails). Now, I want to be very clear that my host family is pretty top-notch--they respect me, my space, my American oddities. They are nice to me, they are nice to each other. They love their kids. Stuff like that. But for me, the very nature of host family life makes me bristle. So, don't think bad thoughts about the host family.

Anyway, yesterday I presented my community diagnostic (this is the thing I also presented for Peace Corps at IST) to my community. It went pretty well but it was lucky that we scheduled it during the weekly meeting of the women's group at Fundelosa (the women who will be working in the cacao processing facility when it opens) because even though I invited 16 community groups/organizations/the school directors, etc. maybe 3 of those groups sent 1-4 people (closer to 1). So there were a total of about 40 people but 30+ of them were already there from their other meeting. Oh well, I actually was happy with how it went (although they were kind of bored) and it was an opportunity for me to be in front of the "community" and show them what I've been doing. I've been trying to find things I can say "yes" to and build up some momentum and confidence. I'm also holding an informational meeting about a short, basic English course on Monday, so we'll see how that goes. I wouldn't be starting classes until April though because the world stops in the DR the week before Easter (Semana Santa).

I also got an opportunity to have a couple good talks with my counterpart to plan some focused activities to help me get directly oriented to the office activities, rather than kindof being there and trying to learn by osmosis. We also got to talk about how we will try to work together and our system for that which was very helpful. We are going to start by meeting weekly away from the confusion and hubub of the office to make sure I know what activities are going on and what we want to accomplish. So I feel good about that for now too.

A couple of fun activities are coming up. Tomorrow I'm meeting with Dan to begin the process of doing a birth certificate campaign (this is work but I'm really excited about it); Friday I'm going to a gardening workshop and on a hike with the youth group; Sunday Dan and I are having a pot luck at "our" house for the volunteers in our area. These will all be fun. I hope!

Anyways, I'll be in touch soon!
Thanks for visiting!
Kira