Visits and a dog

My dad just left Santo Domingo and it was certainly great to introduce him to my new home. We spent about 4 days in Bani and I showed him all around my neighborhood and the pueblo; he also got to meet tons of people in my community. After our tour of Bani we spent a couple nights of luxury on the beach and in the capital. It was great to end the vacation with some swimming and cable tv. My dad’s visit was wonderful and I loved showing him around. Like Lauren and Abby’s visit, acting as a tour guide in the DR made me realize how happy I am to be living here and how lucky I really am. I have certainly learned a lot about myself and Dominican culture in the last seven months.

It’s been about a month since I began my first project and it seems to be going well. As I said before, I decided to focus my efforts on a mentoring group at the local school in my barrio. It certainly took a while to get everything set in motion. The most unexpected obstacles arose, such as school cancellations, Valentine’s Day celebrations, and an Independence Day march around the block -- but since I last wrote I have had 3 group sessions, so overall I have been relatively successful! When I began recruiting for my group I felt like I was begging girls to come to my information sessions. I swear, I spent about two weeks talking about this service group as if it were cool and exclusive, like only a select girls could join (I guess that’s all true to some extent), but all this talk must have worked, because I had nearly 20 girls in attendance last week! We had a full session of creating the group rules, deciding on the group name ( Super Mujeres de Enseñanzas), playing a dinamica, and doing some art. If you are wondering what a dinamica is, it’s basically an ice-breaker activity. I remember hating those back in the States, but here the Dominicans eat those activities up. They just love them! The other day we played a game called Peso Caliente, where two groups compete against each other by forming two lines and each person drops a peso in her shirt until it falls to the ground. Once it hits the ground the next person must do the same until everyone in the group has dropped a peso down their clothes. It sounds weird but Peso Caliente is always a huge hit in this country.

In addition to my mentoring group I am also starting to lay the framework for my Escojo group. I am currently coordinating a sports day for youth, basically for anyone interested in Escojo to hang out and ask questions before we begin the group. A few days after the sports day I will start my Escojo group, so that should fall in the end of the month. I am definitely excited to start up another project in addition to the mentoring group.

Lately Peace Corps hasn’t felt like such a lonely experience after all. There are probably several reasons for this sentiment (for example, I spent a fabulous week with Abby and Lauren and my Dad just left), but tonight my companionship is coming from my new dog-child, Bella. I received my 2-month-yr-old Chihuahua a couple weeks ago and she has instantly become my baby. She arrived in my arms full of ticks, some balding spots on her face and a bloated belly; but after just one week she already looked much, much better. Maybe I am biased but I think she is absolutely adorable. It has certainly been worth the potty training and extra cleaning to open my home to Bella. Having a Chihuahua has certainly amplified my status in the community as well. Neighbors and strangers alike often point at me as I walk with Bella. Thanks to my new puppy I am one step closer to full Dominican acculturation.