Dominican Mother's Day

I've been in my site officially for only a week, but already, my views on a lot of things have changed. I'm not sure if teaching tech classes in the CTC would be really sustainable in any way. I'm actually pretty interested in working with the adult literacy projects, after sitting in on a few classes and talking with the students and the facilitator.  They actually WANT to be there.  Most of the people who start the classes finish them, with at least a basic reading and writing level.  Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday I'll be covering the first half hour or so of the adult literacy classes in my CTC.  I've gotten a lot of help from other volunteers (Natasha, Chloe, Jessica, thanks!), and have been reading Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed just for good measure.  I've requested a bunch of resources from the Ministry of Education (MEE), which I should get... sometime.

Life in site is going well.  I bought a fan, which increased my standard of living significantly.  I found a good place to go running, met some new people, and last night went out to the Discoteca and park with my project partner, Sugeidy, and her husband, Cristian.  They are pretty great, and like parading me around the town, introducing me to everyone they know.

The other day, we went to a big cooperative/microfinance bank, and I talked with one of the bigwigs in an air conditioned office.  He happened to have been another Peace Corps volunteer's project partner back in the 90s, and told me about how that volunteer taught them how to use computers, and was pretty critical in the early success of the coop.  Now, they have something like a billion pesos loaned, and three branches.

I've started looking around for houses to rent in the coming month or two, and so far, nothing.  Phillip, the business volunteer who lives nearby, said that, when he was looking for houses, the few he found all went for 6,000 pesos or more a month.  WE ARE ONLY BUDGETED FOR ~1,200 PESOS A MONTH in housing costs. That could get me a one-room, wood-slat house with no water (or power) outside the town.  We are also on the second-to-lowest pay bracket, even though everything in this town is really expensive because of the proximity to the capital.  I'm hoping that I'll get lucky!

Happy Dominican Mother's Day!