Tuesday was project partner day, where all the trainees met their new work partners! The word I’d use for this would be “awkward.” It was like a blind date workshop—we had on name tags, and were matched up with people who a few minutes ago we were politely smiling at (is he the one?? or that group with the matching shirts? why’d we have to do this outside, I’m sweating like a whore in church). I got to my site Tuesday afternoon after a two-hour car ride, one hour of which was just trying to get out of Santo Domingo. I fell asleep in the car, and was drooling when I woke up. Because I like to make good first impressions. The car pulled up to a tiny tin-roofed house, and I was greeted by a very quiet man and a very large woman, my Don and Dona, Euclides and Santa.
My project partners, Onally and Sugeidy, took me by the CTC, where about 20 three-year-olds and the entire staff were waiting to greet me. I stammered through some unconnected Spanish words thanking them, and then we were off to visit about half the residents of the town.
The town is a small, happy, rustic community set in the loma, which is Dominican for “scorching hot rolling hills filled with mango trees and chickens.” A lot of my volunteer friends live within 25 minutes of each other up in the north, in the cooler rainforesty area that looks like Avatar. My closest volunteer is in Santo Domingo, about 2-2.5hrs from here.
Should be fun!
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