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
9.26.2007
A bit of a rough day
Nothing really happened today, but it was slightly excruciating. I thought I was on a role avoiding the mosquitoes yesterday and the first half of today, but then I got absolutely eaten alive this afternoon and evening. I think I got seven or something new bites in this one afternoon. What a bummer.
Also, it was bloody hot today. Today was the first day since I’ve been here that I actually thought I might overheat and spontaneously combust. It was so uncomfortable.
The day got off to an excellent start… I finally got to sit and stare at the wall for an hour while drinking my morning coffee in perfect quietude, eating breakfast at my leisure and taking my time. It started going downhill as it got hotter and hotter and hotter, and then really annoyed me when the mosquitoes decided I was lunch, dinner and dessert.
Tomorrow for training we have to go into Santo Domingo for a guided tour of the Colonial Zone, and I’m a little worried because I’m not sure how to get there by myself, and I haven’t heard from the people I thought I was going to head down there with. Hopefully we manage to get in touch with each other in the morning, or else I’ll just have to leave plenty early to get down there and get it figured out in time. Good thing I didn’t sign up for the 9 am trip, huh?
Anyway, as I’ve been saying, things are going well here. I just needed to bitch and moan a little today. I tried to explain to my Dona that while I’m doing ok at communicating the necessities and asking questions and stuff, I really can’t express myself yet and I don’t have enough Spanish to vent yet.
Someone has been trying to call me at my host family’s house, but the only messages I’ve gotten was that the gringos are calling. I’m going to try and work out a better solution for coordinating so I can talk to someone at least before I head into the interior in about a week and a half/two weeks. Probably I’ll go buy a few minutes of a phone card so I can call and say “call me back” and then we can chat for a few.
Ok, bedtime. I’m pooped from my boring day.
PS. Can someone pretty please send me some books to read? I finished the book I brought already and am having trouble locating English language novels here… go figure. Thanks a bunch! The address is on the right.
Also, it was bloody hot today. Today was the first day since I’ve been here that I actually thought I might overheat and spontaneously combust. It was so uncomfortable.
The day got off to an excellent start… I finally got to sit and stare at the wall for an hour while drinking my morning coffee in perfect quietude, eating breakfast at my leisure and taking my time. It started going downhill as it got hotter and hotter and hotter, and then really annoyed me when the mosquitoes decided I was lunch, dinner and dessert.
Tomorrow for training we have to go into Santo Domingo for a guided tour of the Colonial Zone, and I’m a little worried because I’m not sure how to get there by myself, and I haven’t heard from the people I thought I was going to head down there with. Hopefully we manage to get in touch with each other in the morning, or else I’ll just have to leave plenty early to get down there and get it figured out in time. Good thing I didn’t sign up for the 9 am trip, huh?
Anyway, as I’ve been saying, things are going well here. I just needed to bitch and moan a little today. I tried to explain to my Dona that while I’m doing ok at communicating the necessities and asking questions and stuff, I really can’t express myself yet and I don’t have enough Spanish to vent yet.
Someone has been trying to call me at my host family’s house, but the only messages I’ve gotten was that the gringos are calling. I’m going to try and work out a better solution for coordinating so I can talk to someone at least before I head into the interior in about a week and a half/two weeks. Probably I’ll go buy a few minutes of a phone card so I can call and say “call me back” and then we can chat for a few.
Ok, bedtime. I’m pooped from my boring day.
PS. Can someone pretty please send me some books to read? I finished the book I brought already and am having trouble locating English language novels here… go figure. Thanks a bunch! The address is on the right.
9.21.2007
Tidbits, in no particular order
- On Monday, my dinner was: Three pieces of fried white cheese, an entire boiled plantain and a quarter of an avocado.
- I have almost gone through an entire bottle of bad-ass bug repellent AND I’ve been using my mosquito net, but I have at least ten mosquito bits right now, and probably five of them are from today.
- On Sunday, another volunteer came over to visit. Her dona and my dona are sisters. Anyhow, Don Francisco (my host dad) came home and was out compartiring (visiting) with us on the back porch (terraza). I went to get us some juice and when I came back he had her reading from the bible. I have NO IDEA why, other than the Don and Dona are Evangelical Christians, but really… That was pretty funny.
- The national dish in the DR “La Bandera” is habichuelas, arroz, pollo y vegetales (beans, rice, chicken and veggies). Can I just say “Beans, Beans the Musical Fruit”?!?!?!?!??!?
- I have no idea how it happened, but through some very weird twist of fate I have tested into an advanced Spanish class. I am the least advanced speaker and am concerned about holding my class (of four in total) back, but I think I worked out a system with them and the instructor so that I can stay and keep being challenged – essentially I’m right between two levels and I’d rather be a bit high that be bored. Anyhow, isn’t that crazy? I’ve never even been in a Spanish-speaking country before! Oy ve!
- Today we went into the downtown part of Santo Domingo to learn how to use the public transportation system and find some important places in the city (like the PC office and the medical clinic, etc) and we also had lunch. Would you believe that we had FIVE lunch specials, including tip, and the total was SIXTEEN US DOLLARS, nada mas? We all had La Bandera (rice, beans, chicken, veggies) and it was quite a good amount of food for essentially $4 US per person.
Ok, that’s good for now. There’s too much to write about without making gross omissions or writing a novel, so ask me questions or something until I figure out a good system for this blogging business, okay? Hope you guys are all doing well, send me some news!!!!
I’ll be in touch. There’s an internet café about two blocks away from me here, but I’ll be gone for Thurs-Sun next week and then about a week after that I go to CBT for 5 weeks and might not have internet the whole time I’m there. It’s going to be a little hit and miss until I get to my site in late November, so please bear with me!
Also, the phone number if you guys want to call me at my host family’s house (which is totally fine and free for them to have incoming calls) is: 809-372-6886. You’ll have to do research and find out what comes before the 809 part, but that’s the country code and everyone uses it. When you call, say:
“Hola. Puedo hablar con Kira, por favor?” (but they say my name Keeda here).
Ok, that’s all I got for now!!!
Take care!
Me
- I have almost gone through an entire bottle of bad-ass bug repellent AND I’ve been using my mosquito net, but I have at least ten mosquito bits right now, and probably five of them are from today.
- On Sunday, another volunteer came over to visit. Her dona and my dona are sisters. Anyhow, Don Francisco (my host dad) came home and was out compartiring (visiting) with us on the back porch (terraza). I went to get us some juice and when I came back he had her reading from the bible. I have NO IDEA why, other than the Don and Dona are Evangelical Christians, but really… That was pretty funny.
- The national dish in the DR “La Bandera” is habichuelas, arroz, pollo y vegetales (beans, rice, chicken and veggies). Can I just say “Beans, Beans the Musical Fruit”?!?!?!?!??!?
- I have no idea how it happened, but through some very weird twist of fate I have tested into an advanced Spanish class. I am the least advanced speaker and am concerned about holding my class (of four in total) back, but I think I worked out a system with them and the instructor so that I can stay and keep being challenged – essentially I’m right between two levels and I’d rather be a bit high that be bored. Anyhow, isn’t that crazy? I’ve never even been in a Spanish-speaking country before! Oy ve!
- Today we went into the downtown part of Santo Domingo to learn how to use the public transportation system and find some important places in the city (like the PC office and the medical clinic, etc) and we also had lunch. Would you believe that we had FIVE lunch specials, including tip, and the total was SIXTEEN US DOLLARS, nada mas? We all had La Bandera (rice, beans, chicken, veggies) and it was quite a good amount of food for essentially $4 US per person.
Ok, that’s good for now. There’s too much to write about without making gross omissions or writing a novel, so ask me questions or something until I figure out a good system for this blogging business, okay? Hope you guys are all doing well, send me some news!!!!
I’ll be in touch. There’s an internet café about two blocks away from me here, but I’ll be gone for Thurs-Sun next week and then about a week after that I go to CBT for 5 weeks and might not have internet the whole time I’m there. It’s going to be a little hit and miss until I get to my site in late November, so please bear with me!
Also, the phone number if you guys want to call me at my host family’s house (which is totally fine and free for them to have incoming calls) is: 809-372-6886. You’ll have to do research and find out what comes before the 809 part, but that’s the country code and everyone uses it. When you call, say:
“Hola. Puedo hablar con Kira, por favor?” (but they say my name Keeda here).
Ok, that’s all I got for now!!!
Take care!
Me
9.17.2007
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!
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!
peace corps day one
Prologue (Staging)
Getting to DC on Monday was interesting. Because of thunderstorms and major rain in Dallas early in the morning, everything was messed up. Well, it just so happens that I needed to fly through Dallas to get to DC. Here’s the rundown:
- Upon landing in Dallas, there was a wait for gates because of all the delayed planes showing up at once. We waited on the tarmac for a little more than an hour.
- I got off the plane about ten minutes after my connecting flight should have departed. However, because of the delays, that flight was running late as well so I miraculously made it.
- Upon landing in DC, there was a wait for gates because by this time, the screwed up weather had affected airports across the country. We waited on the tarmac for half an hour for our turn at the gate.
- HOWEVER, when we got to the gate, a lighting storm started and the ground crew wouldn’t come out to deplane us. We waited another half hour.
- In the airport, the shuttle folks told me I might have to wait up to TWO HOURS to get in the shuttle (it was certainly 11 pm by then and I was at the Portland airport at 630 am, so this was not an appealing situation.)
Blah blah blah… I eventually made it to the hotel and got checked in without further problems, other than I had had zero real meals that day and all the food options were shut by then. I was so hungry that when my roommate at the hotel offered me her doggie bag from dinner, I took it! IT WAS A TUNA FISH SANDWICH. Point One for the Kira-Eating-Weird-Things Contest.
Alright, so staging was essentially four 3-hour sessions sitting in a meeting room at the hotel. We talked about safety, security, policies, logistics, our aspirations and fears, medical concerns, the Peace Corps mission and so on. Since I was an early arrival I had Tuesday morning free, and then we all had Tuesday and Wednesday free from dinner onward. Not too much to say about staging other than it was a lot of good information, if a bit overwhelming. And learning 53 names and faces at once is impossible.
The Good Stuff
Here’s a rundown of today (FYI: current time: 820 pm)
145 am: Wake up, shower, pack up, etc.
230 am: Hotel checkout and baggage dealing-with
330 am: Board busses and leave for airport. Check in, go through security, wait at gate.
715 am: Leave DC for Miami. Take off with ALL airplane blinds closed for some reason, and become rather motion sick. Stinky airplane bathroom makes problem worse.
10ish am: Bond with Emily in airport bathroom because she’s in the stall next to me and knows I’m yaking, and is extra nice to me. J
1010 am: Board plane for Santo Domingo
1 pm: Arrive Santo Domingo. Go through Immigrations, Customs. Board teeny bus with lots of people and stuff and drive to where we spend our first night, at a retreat center outside of Santo Domingo (probably, oh, 4 pm by now).
4 pm: Snack, dibs rooms at the retreat center. Get THREE mosquito bites in first 3 hours in country.
4.30-6: Listen to PCDR staff talk and tell us stuff. Pick up mosquito net. Pick up mosquito repellent. Get first RABIES shot. Take first dose of ARALEN (for malaria. If you have any questions about this, ask Dan Beigh).
630-8: Hang mosquito net. Find first COCKROACH UNDER BED while doing so. Eat dinner. Take first cold shower. Immediately slather myself in mosquito repellent again.
8.10: Spend ten minutes trying to get into bed with the laptop, water bottle and other end-of-night entertainment.
Haha… that’s all. I’ve been up since before 2 am today. We are exhausted but happy to be here. Tomorrow they take us to Pantoja, which is the town outside of the capital where we will be having the urban part of our training, and we’ll see the training center and meet our host families, and tomorrow is our first night with our host families.
Whatelsewhatelse. Still doing great. I was a little under the weather today for a while but since I’m feeling all better I think it was probably more motion sick than nerves getting to me. I’m so excited and looking forward to this experience, and I’m excited to be able to share it with all of you. We’ve had so much information thrown at us in the last 72 hours that we feel a little muddled, but we’ll sort it out.
The other people in my training group are great so far. I’m looking forward to bonding with them and really getting to know each other and building the support system that we all know we’ll need while we’re here.
More later!
Oh yeah, can someone look into getting me something (a chemical, probably a spray bottle) called Permethrin? The info they gave us says that clothes treated with it provide maximum protection from the DENGUE and MALARIA infested mosquitoes, which, incidentally, take shifts preying on us and are on duty 24-7.
Another thing I’ve heard of is a supplement called Vitamin B Complex,
which is apparently very helpful in deterring mosquitoes as well. I’d love a bottle!
Thanks, love you!
Kp
…. Off I go to my vivid, technicolor dreams… wish me luck.
Getting to DC on Monday was interesting. Because of thunderstorms and major rain in Dallas early in the morning, everything was messed up. Well, it just so happens that I needed to fly through Dallas to get to DC. Here’s the rundown:
- Upon landing in Dallas, there was a wait for gates because of all the delayed planes showing up at once. We waited on the tarmac for a little more than an hour.
- I got off the plane about ten minutes after my connecting flight should have departed. However, because of the delays, that flight was running late as well so I miraculously made it.
- Upon landing in DC, there was a wait for gates because by this time, the screwed up weather had affected airports across the country. We waited on the tarmac for half an hour for our turn at the gate.
- HOWEVER, when we got to the gate, a lighting storm started and the ground crew wouldn’t come out to deplane us. We waited another half hour.
- In the airport, the shuttle folks told me I might have to wait up to TWO HOURS to get in the shuttle (it was certainly 11 pm by then and I was at the Portland airport at 630 am, so this was not an appealing situation.)
Blah blah blah… I eventually made it to the hotel and got checked in without further problems, other than I had had zero real meals that day and all the food options were shut by then. I was so hungry that when my roommate at the hotel offered me her doggie bag from dinner, I took it! IT WAS A TUNA FISH SANDWICH. Point One for the Kira-Eating-Weird-Things Contest.
Alright, so staging was essentially four 3-hour sessions sitting in a meeting room at the hotel. We talked about safety, security, policies, logistics, our aspirations and fears, medical concerns, the Peace Corps mission and so on. Since I was an early arrival I had Tuesday morning free, and then we all had Tuesday and Wednesday free from dinner onward. Not too much to say about staging other than it was a lot of good information, if a bit overwhelming. And learning 53 names and faces at once is impossible.
The Good Stuff
Here’s a rundown of today (FYI: current time: 820 pm)
145 am: Wake up, shower, pack up, etc.
230 am: Hotel checkout and baggage dealing-with
330 am: Board busses and leave for airport. Check in, go through security, wait at gate.
715 am: Leave DC for Miami. Take off with ALL airplane blinds closed for some reason, and become rather motion sick. Stinky airplane bathroom makes problem worse.
10ish am: Bond with Emily in airport bathroom because she’s in the stall next to me and knows I’m yaking, and is extra nice to me. J
1010 am: Board plane for Santo Domingo
1 pm: Arrive Santo Domingo. Go through Immigrations, Customs. Board teeny bus with lots of people and stuff and drive to where we spend our first night, at a retreat center outside of Santo Domingo (probably, oh, 4 pm by now).
4 pm: Snack, dibs rooms at the retreat center. Get THREE mosquito bites in first 3 hours in country.
4.30-6: Listen to PCDR staff talk and tell us stuff. Pick up mosquito net. Pick up mosquito repellent. Get first RABIES shot. Take first dose of ARALEN (for malaria. If you have any questions about this, ask Dan Beigh).
630-8: Hang mosquito net. Find first COCKROACH UNDER BED while doing so. Eat dinner. Take first cold shower. Immediately slather myself in mosquito repellent again.
8.10: Spend ten minutes trying to get into bed with the laptop, water bottle and other end-of-night entertainment.
Haha… that’s all. I’ve been up since before 2 am today. We are exhausted but happy to be here. Tomorrow they take us to Pantoja, which is the town outside of the capital where we will be having the urban part of our training, and we’ll see the training center and meet our host families, and tomorrow is our first night with our host families.
Whatelsewhatelse. Still doing great. I was a little under the weather today for a while but since I’m feeling all better I think it was probably more motion sick than nerves getting to me. I’m so excited and looking forward to this experience, and I’m excited to be able to share it with all of you. We’ve had so much information thrown at us in the last 72 hours that we feel a little muddled, but we’ll sort it out.
The other people in my training group are great so far. I’m looking forward to bonding with them and really getting to know each other and building the support system that we all know we’ll need while we’re here.
More later!
Oh yeah, can someone look into getting me something (a chemical, probably a spray bottle) called Permethrin? The info they gave us says that clothes treated with it provide maximum protection from the DENGUE and MALARIA infested mosquitoes, which, incidentally, take shifts preying on us and are on duty 24-7.
Another thing I’ve heard of is a supplement called Vitamin B Complex,
which is apparently very helpful in deterring mosquitoes as well. I’d love a bottle!
Thanks, love you!
Kp
…. Off I go to my vivid, technicolor dreams… wish me luck.
9.12.2007
The next steps
Ok... So staging is over. It was, well, in a word. Long.
There are 54 people in my group, about 18 in my same sector (Community Econ Dev).
We check out of the hotel at 230 am Thursday (as in 7 hours from now).
We leave for the airport at 330 am.
Our flight is at 715 am.
Our first two days (only one night) will be at some sort of retreat. Then we meet our host families and begin three weeks of training at the training center outside of Santo Domingo. (host family #1)
Weeks 4-8 we are broken up by sector and sent into rural communities in the interior of the country to do hands on technical and more language training. (host family #2)
Around the end of week 8 we find out our sites.
Swearing in (official date of the beginning of my two years): Nov. 21.
Thats all i can think of now and i really have to pee and go to dinner.
I don't know the next time I have internet, so until then, no news is good news, ok? It could be a week or longer... or less... we don't know.
XOXO!
kp
There are 54 people in my group, about 18 in my same sector (Community Econ Dev).
We check out of the hotel at 230 am Thursday (as in 7 hours from now).
We leave for the airport at 330 am.
Our flight is at 715 am.
Our first two days (only one night) will be at some sort of retreat. Then we meet our host families and begin three weeks of training at the training center outside of Santo Domingo. (host family #1)
Weeks 4-8 we are broken up by sector and sent into rural communities in the interior of the country to do hands on technical and more language training. (host family #2)
Around the end of week 8 we find out our sites.
Swearing in (official date of the beginning of my two years): Nov. 21.
Thats all i can think of now and i really have to pee and go to dinner.
I don't know the next time I have internet, so until then, no news is good news, ok? It could be a week or longer... or less... we don't know.
XOXO!
kp
9.10.2007
In DC
GRR. I made it, i just wrote a big thing but it deleted it. Internet is expensive here. gotta run. xoxox!
9.09.2007
Goodbye!!!!
My flight leaves in 11 hours. I fly Portland to Dallas to DC, and will arrive there tomorrow (Monday) evening around 8 pm local time. I'm meeting Espie, one of the other volunteers in my group, in the airport and we are going to share a cab to the hotel. We'll be on our own until 1 pm Tuesday, when opening ceremonies start. Tuesday 1-dinner and Wednesday 8-dinner are orientation events, and the evenings are free. Wednesday night/Thursday morning at about 2.30 am we check out of the hotel, and then around 3.30 we head to the airport. Not really sure how it takes an hour to check out of a hotel, but this is supposed to be an adventure, so here we go... :)
Our international flight is DC to Miami to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Once we get there we go to a short retreat (two nights, I think) before we are introduced to and sent home with our host families. Then training starts and lasts until something like mid-November. Around that time, I'll find out where my actual site and job assignment will be, and I'll also know more about my permanent communication details, like where you'll be able to send packages, how often I'll have access to internet and how you might be able to get me on a phone.
Stay tuned to the blog for arrival updates and general information, as well, of course, as updates on how I'm doing and what I'm up to. Thank you guys so much for all your support, encouragement and good wishes as I head off into this crazy adventure. You have made this such a smooth and empowering transition. I love you!!!!
Please keep in touch, and notice that there are blogs for other volunteers listed to the right of here so you can read more about the whole situation from lots of points of views, if you are so inclined. MUAH!!!
Me
Our international flight is DC to Miami to Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Once we get there we go to a short retreat (two nights, I think) before we are introduced to and sent home with our host families. Then training starts and lasts until something like mid-November. Around that time, I'll find out where my actual site and job assignment will be, and I'll also know more about my permanent communication details, like where you'll be able to send packages, how often I'll have access to internet and how you might be able to get me on a phone.
Stay tuned to the blog for arrival updates and general information, as well, of course, as updates on how I'm doing and what I'm up to. Thank you guys so much for all your support, encouragement and good wishes as I head off into this crazy adventure. You have made this such a smooth and empowering transition. I love you!!!!
Please keep in touch, and notice that there are blogs for other volunteers listed to the right of here so you can read more about the whole situation from lots of points of views, if you are so inclined. MUAH!!!
Me
9.03.2007
Packing
I didn't mean to actually pack today, but I thought I'd make sure what I want to bring actually fits. It does, but now it's all packed and it seems silly to undo my hard work. It looks like I'll be living out of the stuff from my carry-on and items that didn't make the final cut.
Notice the lovely double-backpack look. Very good for mobility.
Scary smile!
This is a bit hard to read, but I got on the scale holding ALL my gear, including two bags that will be checked and two carry-ons -- the clothes, supplies and necessities for two years and three months. WELL, me and my stuff, according to mom's scale, weigh 213.5 pounds.
JUST in case you were wondering... :-D
Notice the lovely double-backpack look. Very good for mobility.
Scary smile!
This is a bit hard to read, but I got on the scale holding ALL my gear, including two bags that will be checked and two carry-ons -- the clothes, supplies and necessities for two years and three months. WELL, me and my stuff, according to mom's scale, weigh 213.5 pounds.JUST in case you were wondering... :-D
The countdown is on
I've been keeping a countdown, as I'm sure everyone else in my group is. My flight to DC leaves in 7 sleeps (easier to calculate than "days") and we leave for DR on Thursday, September 13.
What do I have left to do?
Make sure to check out the other blogs listed over on the side of my blog. A bunch of volunteers from my training class have found each other through Facebook and Blogger, which is pretty cool. Hopefully more will turn up before we go. It will be fun to see the people I've been emailing with. I'm really looking forward to this!!! Whoohoo!!!
More later!
What do I have left to do?
- Take my car to the place to have it cleaned inside and out for storage, so the dust and dirt don't petrify.
- Go to Kinkos and copy the important medical and etc. records I'm taking with me.
- Teach my mom how to use my accounts online (she's my power of attorney).
- Drive to Seattle (where my car and stuff will be stored) and take the train back to Portland.
- Have a goodbye dinner with the family.
- See the rest of my local friends before I leave; call out-of-town friends to say goodbye.
- Pack my bags, making sure I stay within all the various restrictions and requirements.
- Call and set up my car insurance to be for storage purposes only.
- Pay the last of the pending bills.
Make sure to check out the other blogs listed over on the side of my blog. A bunch of volunteers from my training class have found each other through Facebook and Blogger, which is pretty cool. Hopefully more will turn up before we go. It will be fun to see the people I've been emailing with. I'm really looking forward to this!!! Whoohoo!!!
More later!
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