Por Fin!

Ask me again! Where are you going to live in the Peace Corps?
Well, For the 1st time I have an answer for you.
A tiny little campo pueblo smack dab in the middle of the country, se llama Las Uvas. It lies in a lush region of the Cibao, right north of La Vega. Right around the same area I did my volunteer visit. I absolutely loved it there. Hills, mountains, waterfalls, agriculture, pigs, sunny days, cool nights and not in a direct hurricane path. What more could you ask for? Nada. I´m looking forward to all the fruit and vegetables that will be available at every corner and on most trees.
From what I´ve read, Las Uvas is very small, only 3,000 people, but has a few larger towns within 20 minutes away. Sound like just what I wanted. I´ll be working in an AVE at an small Elementary School. The AVEs are trailors that work as computer labs. There are 10 computers, air conditioning, and Internet. Sweet. Many of the Labs around the country don´t have internet, so I feel pretty fortunate. I´ll be working with 2 other women in the Lab who I guess already have a pretty good base in Iformatica. So, in addition, they placed me in this site to help out with pedagogy in the regular classroom. Art projects here we come!
A large focus in almost all PC project is creating a youth group and doing various teambuilding, confidence building, and community based activities.
I´m leaving tomorrow for my site with my projects partners, the 2 ladies with whom I´ll be working. This will be a previsit, a chance to check things out, check cell phone coverage, absorb some of the community and then on Sunday we´ll come back to discuss our first impressions.
Tomorrow morning we do a little cultural training with our project partners, then create an action plan for this week. After lunch I´ll head out to Las Uvas for 5 days. Volunteers explain this day to be one of the most awkward of the entire 2 years. We meet our partners, with whom we´ll be working with for 2 years, whether we like it or not, then try to make small talk with limited language skills. HHHHmmm. Sounds Painful. Supposedly upon entering the town, we´re treated like somewhat of a celebrity. A new face and an American. Everyone wants to meet us and talk to us. Many volunteers are paraded around town and asked to give speech after speech to various classrooms and community groups. Ay Dios Mio. We are all quite nervous. Some volunteers are greeted by a huge fiesta of like 500 or more people. Talk about needing to make a good first impression.
So I´ll get back to Santo Domingo on Sunday and then just 2 more days of training. We swear in as Volunteers next Wednesday, all 32 of us. We´re supposed to be at our sites by next weekend. Then for 3 months we are expected to remain in our site and get to know our pueblo, it´s strengths and weaknessess, the community, the people, the culture, the youth, and create a community diagnostic from all the gathered info. These first 3 months are known to be hard and awkward. For this I would appreciate as many packages, letters, and emails as possible. To be honest I´m feeling a little package lonely. I have yet to recieve a special treat. I feel kinda like the scrawny kid who gets picked last to play dodgeball.
I could use a really good tweezers. Dark Chocolate. Wash cloths. Orbit, bubble gum flavor. Smiley faces. Drawings. Something North Dakota for my Family. CDs. DVDs. Spanish childrens books. Crayons. colored pencils. Fun games. Teaching tools. Anything that you think would make me smile. Packages are a great morale booster!
My address is posted on the top of the page. Thanks.
I´ll write more once I know more. Wish me luck. Think of me tomorrow and just how awkward you know I´m feeling, then laugh as I will when the day is finally done.