Is that cockroach on the inside or outside of my mosquito net?

How many times in one’s life do they think to themselves, “Is that cockroach on the inside or outside of my mosquito net?”. The answer is 2. And the other answer is inside. Both times. Two nights in a row.

This story deserves an entire blog post dedicated to it because it has played an integral role in a very hard lesson learned that I will carry with me for the next two years: ALWAYS TUCK IN YOUR MOSQUITO NET! Alright, back to the scene of the crime.

It’s 5 in the morning and I feel something nibbling at my finger. I specifically remember in my delirious state wondering why I had “ants” in my bed. I shook off my hand and rolled over and went back to sleep (another lesson, if you feel something on you, wake up!). I didn’t fully fall back asleep yet and then felt something crawling all over me. At this moment I immediately snapped out of it and grabbed my phone and turned on the flashlight. It’s an unexplainable feeling when you confirm the suspicion and see the massive cockroach that was just having a field day walking all over you.

Here is a picture of the finger it was on.  You may not be able to see it, but yes, that pink spot on my middle finger is a bona-fide cockroach nibble mark. When I turned it to the side I could see a very visible indent of how much of my finger it….ate.

I promise I’m not exaggerating when I say I sat there with that cockroach motionless for about half an hour, both of us afraid to move, having a stare-off. I had nothing in my bed to kill it with and didn’t want to lose sight of it either, but then the flashlight on my phone went off and I was in darkness with it. Scrambled out of bed and turned on the light and there was a cockroach on the floor. Threw on some shoes and killed it and felt relieved. The thought crossed my mind that it had gotten on the floor pretty quick but I figured I was over thinking it because I had been living here a couple weeks and never saw a cockroach in the house before. Just in case, I pulled out my mattress and checked everywhere and there was no sign of anything else.

Didn’t fall back asleep after that so I looked really tired the next day and tried to completely forget about the incident, especially when I got into bed the next night. I spent some time tucking in my mosquito net alllllll the way around. Pulled the mattress out again and everything, re-tucking in every single side. Right as I was trying to rid my mind of it, and convincing myself I did an amazing job with the net and that nothing could get through it…I look up and see another cockroach above my head of the inside of the net. I actually just laid there and laughed for a good minute before I slowly got up to grab a shoe. Thankfully, I knocked it down and killed it quickly.

After the ordeal was over, I went back to bed and laughed some more realizing what happened. The cockroach I had just killed was really the one from the night before, it had just hid somewhere in the bed after the light on my phone went off, and the cockroach I killed on the floor just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The best part is all the time I spent in my bed afterwards thinking I had taken care of it when I really didn’t. What a lucky cockroach, it just gets discovered and is about to die but then another one shows up and takes all the blame while it hides away for a bit longer. Ha. It’s all part of the experience, right? 

10/5/13- La Ceiba!

10/5/13- Site assignment!

I got my site yesterday, and I’m going to La Ceiba! I wanted to know but sort of didn’t want to know because if I wasn’t happy with it, it would be a rough last couple weeks of training. But I am happy! It’s a very rural site with one 2 kilometer road that they’re “starting” to pave and about 1,700 people. I’m pretty sure I’ll have some sort of running water, but I don’t know about electricity or toilet yet. There were some sites that Peace Corps has never been before, so the community has never had a volunteer, and mine is one of them. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, but I’m ok with it. Not only will I be the only white person out of everyone, I’ll be the first one! Wahooo, setting first impressions for America! *Written in on 10/19- Hillary (PCV) went to visit my site today to make sure I had a door (I do, now) and she said that my new family told her to tell me that I'm already family to them. Awh, shucks.

 

I’m especially excited about being placed near my friends, I’ll have a good 4 or 5 people I’m close with here near me, about an hour or two bus ride away. La Ceiba is in/near the Monte Plata region, and really close to the airport and Santo Domingo, so trips to civilization will be easy. I also have a PCV who has been leading our training living in the town over from mine, and she’s awesome so I’m really really happy about that. It feels good to have some information about my future, makes me excited about the next 2 years. I was told they’re super happy to receive me and that they will be really patient with my Spanish.

Sometimes (right now) I feel overwhelmed that I’ll be all by myself in the middle of nowhere where I struggle with the language, will stick out 24/7, won’t see my loved ones, and won’t have access to much for a long, long period of time. But then I think about life in America and how unchallenging and normal it is, and that’s no fun. Every single day here is a learning experience and I am challenged in some sort of way, whether it be trying to understand what’s going on around me or killing an insect I’ve never seen before in my life. Not many people have the privilege of waking up everyday and have something new and different happen to them. Part of life in America I hated was the monotony of a routine and the lack of difficulty everyday. Even though this is hard, I need to remember that I’m not missing anything new back at home and that it’ll be there for me when I’m done here. Takin it day by day!

10/1/13- 3 weeks into CBT

Blog Post 10/1/13

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted anything, so here is a compilation of a bunch of random DR topics:

About 3 weeks in monte plata, woah. Feels like yesterday we had only been here a couple days and I was still getting used to it. Im hoping this is a preview of how service will be once I arrive to my site and get going. So far I’m liking training here, but I’m excited to get into a more rural site. The cities here are a bit too much for me. A lot of traffic, trash and questionable people. I’ve been told I’ll be placed near the capital but it’ll be a rural community, either a campo or batey. I find out somewhat soon!

The best part so far has been becoming close with the youth volunteers here. Back in Pantoja, youth and health volunteers were mixed together and we all hung out with the same people. Now that we’re separated we were forced to hang out with new people and I’m really glad we did. It’s only been 3 weeks and I’m close with a lot of the girls already. I can’t imagine what these next 2 years are going to be like then!

My host mom in Monte Plata is amazing, I love her. It’s just her and I most of the week, and her 19 year old daughter comes home from college on the weekends. My mom’s name is Francisca and she’s the epitome of what I need while I’m here: super loving and motherly and embraces me even though we can only have basic conversation. She makes some awesome food and always has it ready at the perfect time, and doesn’t care where I go/when I come back. My real mom called me the other day and when I hung up, my host mom said “She is your mom there, but I am your mom here”. Which, now that I’ve written that out and read it, sounds kind of creepy…but it was meant in a caring way. I think.

Spanish has been by far the hardest obstacle so far. In a way it’s interesting because since Spanish is the hardest thing, nothing else bothers me but that. When I get a sort of handle on the language it should make everything else easier. Most days I’ll do ok and have basic conversation with my host mom, write decent paragraphs and have good tutoring sessions but then I go out into the real world and someone tries talking to me and I’ll have no idea what they say, even when they slow down. It’s definitely discouraging but I have to remember I’ve been here 5 weeks and there’s no way that I can go from speaking/understanding no Spanish to understanding a conversation, especially a Dominican conversation. Why do you people talk so fast and cut off words?! It’s not even a common language anymore, it’s a dialect.

New rules to tell myself and other people struggling:

1-    Take it day by day. Don’t think about giving presentations alone and such in Spanish in the future and freak out about it now. Enjoy the fact that it’s acceptable to be struggling and not know much at this point in service. That’s also another reason to stop being embarrassed and shy about making mistakes and sounding stupid. Sound stupid, it’s encouraged.

2-    Don’t overwhelm yourself with too many rules at once. Focus on the everyday rules you need to survive and nothing else yet. Past, present and future tenses, reflexive verbs, que/por/para/los/las etc. need to be your main focus. Imperfect, potential simple and so on will come later when you hear it over and over again.

3-    Listen in on every conversation until your mind gets too tired to break it down. And don’t translate the Spanish words into an English sentence structure. Just accept that that’s how it’s said and remember it.

4-    Study on your own time, but only when you’re feeling like you’re ok with life at the moment. Nothing is worse than studying when you’re not in the right mind frame, it actually does damage.

5-    DO NOT COMPARE YOURSELF TO OTHER PEOPLE’S LANGUAGE SKILLS! There are fluent speakers and people who have studied abroad before or lived in a Spanish speaking country for a significant amount of time here. You are neither of those. Understand you’re making progress little by little and eventually you’ll get there.

Since I’m making lists, here are some interesting/weird/surprising things I’ve learned:

1-    People of all ages ride motorcycles, even mothers holding practically newborn babies.

2-    Lines in the road are merely suggestions.

3-    4 people and an object of large capacity at the drivers feet is the “max” for a motorcycle. It’s amazing.

4-    Wake up feeling fresh and neatly dressed…5 minute walk outside: hair up, clothes wet from sweat, dehydrated.

5-    I don’t shower to feel clean, I shower to just smell less when I finally arrive somewhere.

6-    It’s ok for the bus driver to stop for a beer, or three.

7-    Declarations of “I love you baby!” are a regular occurrence. And greetings of “good morning” at 8PM. ‘A’ for effort.

8-    The stray dogs here are extremely patient. Witnessed a small child with a large stick poking the dog in his penis quite hard and he didn’t give a poo about it.

There’s more to this list, and I’ll remember later and tell myself to write it down….and I won’t. Thanks fo' readin!

2 months later....

Whoops....last blog post was 8/30 and it's 10/19. I was told this would happen. Re-reading my only 3 posts since I've been here and it's pretty funny remembering how I felt back then even though it's only been about 2 months. Especially about the part where I thought my bus ride to Pedernales was only going to be 5 hours, ha. Oh yea, it was 10.

Speaking of my trip to Pedernales, it was amazing. I love Erin and Tyler so much, theyre the best. I watched Erin give a charla to her chicas group when I arrived and the next day we went to the Haitian Market and shopped around. We made dinner and went to the beach, etc. After that I went to another volunteer's house and stayed there for a bit and went to a big party at a house PCVs rent out, known as the San Rafael house. Met up with about 15 other volunteers, went down the the beach, came back, made burritos, drank a lot, danced all night, didn't sleep, and watched the sunrise on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Not bad, not bad at all.

Next came CBT, I'll be posting some blogs I wrote on my laptop now that I couldn't post due to lack of internet. But it was awesome, became very close to a lot of people in my group and I couldn't be more thankful for the relationships that formed during those 5 weeks. And learned a ton. I'd like to think/convince myself I learned more Spanish....but really....

Right now, it's currently my first day back in Pantoja. Left Monte Plata at 8:30 in the morning, got back here around 11, went shopping around 2:30 with Aimie and Lauren and got back around 7:45. It was quite the adventure and I am exhausted. Timeline for the next week and a half: leave Tuesday the 22nd for La Ceiba for a site visit to meet my permanent community (eeeek!), come back to the capital on the 27th, give a 15 minute presentation and attempt to pass the language evaluation, hopefully get sworn in, attend the swear-in/halloween party, recover for a day, and then permanently move to La Ceiba on November 1st or 2nd!

What time is it? Wait.....what day is it?!

So I definitely know when it's during the week and I have training, and I know when we start and get out....but that's pretty much it. Dominicans don't believe in clocks! I have a wristwatch but don't wear it anymore because the safety and security session freaked me out too much and I can't really look at my phone during work. It's actually very nice not worrying about what day it is, when something is starting, counting the minutes until the next hour, etc. You just go when it's time to go! Whatta concept.

It was pretty funny, last weekend about 10 of us got together and someone asked what the actual date was and not one of us knew! It went something like this, "Well I know it's Sunday....and Tuesday was the 20th? Wait, was that Tuesday? When did we get here? Today is Sunday, right?". Eventually we figured it out (after looking at someone's phone), but it was nice to know that everyone else was on the same page as me.

I've officially been here for 10 days, but it feels like it's been at least 3 or 4 weeks. I'm starting to get used to living in Pantoja. I feel more comfortable walking around and talking to the kids playing in the street, and the roosters/dogs at 5 am don't even wake me up anymore! Spanish with my host mom has gotten a ton better, she has slowed down a lot and now points to things and helps me understand when I look confused.

Earlier this week we were assigned site visits to current volunteers, and I am visiting the wonderful Erin and Tyler Kesler in Pedernales! When I got my invitation, I stalked Peace Corps Dominican Republic hashtags and found Erin's instagram and she gave me her email. She's helped me tons in figuring out what to bring/how to prepare these past 6 months and now I get to finally meet them! I leave Thursday, and it's about a 5 hour bus ride by myself, but fingers crossed I'll be ok.

I'm missing America a ton, and I'm hoping that once I get into a routine and I'm placed in permanent housing that will go away a little bit. We lost another person this week, they're dropping like flies! Hopefully after we go to the campo for 5 weeks we won't lose anymore, but some people may not like campo life and want to leave. So scary to think that it's possible to make that life altering decision to leave, I'm praying to God that I'll be strong enough to handle everything and hang in there!

August 19, 2013: Day before staging

'Twas the day before staging, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring.....just kidding, I'm going CRAZY! No matter how much one prepares for leaving the country for 27 months, there always seems to be something else to do up until the minute you leave. Format/load hard drive, shop for last minute clothes, cancel phone service, straighten out loans, bother people for that check they were supposed to send you months ago....hard to believe I've been working on these things all summer and they're still not done!

 It seriously feels like last week I had just graduated from City Year Orlando and I was gearing up to enjoy my summer of travel and relaxation before heading off. Actually, feels like last week I was reading the email with my invitation and everyone in the Walker Middle School team room was singing the "Megan/Spongebob" song and celebrating. HOW WAS THAT ALMOST 5 MONTHS AGO?! Trying to wrap my mind around the fact that this is really happening tomorrow. I vividly remember hearing about the Peace Corps for the first time when I was 15, one of my friends explained the program and was considering it when she got older. I was immediately intrigued by it and went online to read the requirements and current PCV stories. Better question: How was that 8 years ago?? I guess some ideas never go away. 

Currently, I'm on a bus from NYC back to Washington, D.C. and I'm thinking back to the very beginning of my summer. I did a TON of things from May- August. Brief outline: Ocala -> Orlando -> Rhode Island -> Miami -> North Carolina -> South Carolina -> Washington, D.C. -> New York City. I traveled a bunch and saw many important people in 3 months, it was wonderful! 

However, throughout all these adventures, I will never forget the Medical Office ordeal I went through around May/June. Quick overview: I was in the process of getting physical exams, vaccinations, and whatever I needed to be medically cleared and hit a major road bump. I have a slight peanut allergy and the medical office in the Dominican Republic told me that peanuts were "unavoidable" and that my application needed to be "put on hold until I was able to be relocated". WHAT?! I can't even begin to explain the panic that ensued. I had turned down jobs and basically turned my life around for this, and it was going to be taken away all because of peanuts (for perspective, my allergy is less than a class one out of six, I eat peanuts all the time). After much time spent in doctor's offices, I received and submitted a doctor's note to my medical portal with a bunch of prayers they would lift the hold....and obviously they did!

You know those huge ordeals you go through and you tell yourself you'll never forget how hard this was, etc, and then you kind of move on and forget after it's all said and done? Not this time. I'll probably remember the feeling of this email just as much as I remember reading the actual invitation. Now for the fun stuff:

Bristol, Rhode Island the night before July 4th. Not bad RI, you exceeded my very low expectations of a good night out. Now if only we had taken that picture with Brad Marchand instead of talking to him about the spaghettios with hot dogs we were going to eat when we got home. Seriously, that happened. 

Blount's Market, Water Street, Warren Rhode Island. 

Next stop: Miami with my number one! Every time I come here and see this girl it's the time of my life. We've been doing this since high school and every time it gets better and better. First flight back from the DR will be stopping in Miami first :) 

So very obviously killin' it in the DJ booth. Professional enough someone put headphones on me!

After the chaos that was South Florida, road trip with my parents to North Carolina to see my grandma. 12 hours in a car there and back with my parents: not nearly as hard as expected. 

Hit up the zoo in NC and my dad wanted to go through the dinosaur exhibit, but they only come in a ticket package that included a carousel ride. Give the ticket to a kid or ride the carousel myself? RIDE IT! I'm going to be a wonderful youth volunteer. 

Spent the day/night in Charleston, SC. Deceivingly awesome aquarium, but everyone there is ridiculously nice. It's weird. 

Mr. Leo on one of the many trips to Orlando <3 you know those nights that were meant to be low-key and definitely weren't? Yea.

Last night in Ocala with who else but my BFF, Kyle Anderson. Last caption, times 5. 

This doesn't even begin to do justice to what packing was like. Spending 27 months out of the country with very little idea of what people wear or what your everyday life will be like? Sure, just go with your gut on what to bring. 

Last thing to do before leaving Ocala: chop off 7 inches of your hair! Range of temperature in the Dominican is 65 to 95, short hair it is.

How lucky am I to have staging in DC and have Peace Corps send me up a week early to spend some time with my lovely sister? Jazz night in the National Sculpture Garden with some awesome friends.

One of the best things about Washington, D.C. is being in an amazing city but also being able to do things like kayak the Potomac River. Best of both worlds!

Last weekend in the states, why not go to NYC?

First part spent with sister and friends, last part with Carvajal. Biggest (not really very big) accomplishment: NY subway and navigating my way home in the wee hours of the night.

I've got the best friends ever! Love you Natalie :)

Topping off this massive first blog post with this. With everything that's running through my mind right now, I'm so excited to embark on this adventure and learn a ton about myself and another culture. I'm imagining all the good I accomplished with City Year and I'm hoping to do the same/exceed that expectation of myself. Adios America!