I've gone to visit my real life volunteer in Perdernales and visited the beach. She is running 2 youth groups and a women's computer class and since she is on the haitian boarder she speaks creole fluently. My first time traveling on my own in the D.R. The only thing that went wrong was a very sketchy guagua (overly crowded public bus) ride in the end. I'm pretty sure it was not a legal guagua- the windshield was held together with clear tape- you couldnt even see out of it and once the driver found out i speak english he had me sit in the front of the bus for the rest of the time. But I made it home alright. Yup- pretty amazing. Beyond that I have had more training classes and yes more vaccinations.
Some sad news- My neighbor and good friend here has decided to early terminate and return to the states. That makes 4 of the group of 56 (?) that have left. So Jeff if you found this- a group of us had a presidente in your honor the other night and we all hope the required stool samples went well.
Some good news- Tommorrow I am moving to a small town close to Nagua on the Northern Coast. There will be four of us volunteers living there right on the beach and working with the town's youth group. We will be there until mid november and if you want the number to call me you can get it from my parents *just call my old cell or home #*. one thing when you call ask for Rebecca not Becky. The sad part of this is that our training group is spliting up. We've gone to the carwash to drink dance and celebrate. It feels like the ending but really we have not even begun our service. I am stuck with these people for the next two 1/4 years- thats a good thing.
I am also going to miss my family here- they have been so nice to me. I am their first volunteer and they treat me amazing.
I am trying to get photos posted- i will post as soon as possible (think 2 or 3 weeks maybe).
Thank you for all of your emails. You'd better believe that I talk about all of you. I just recieved the first letters from mom and grandma on tuesday- so it takes around 3 weeks for mail to arrive.
Laura congrats! Welcome baby Gus!

Tommorrow is Daniel's second birthday. Daniel is mi sobrino (my nephew) and we are celebrating with a massive party that my family has spent all day preparing for. there will be plenty of dulces and beer (at least so i've been informed) for the adults. i cant wait! im having sugar cravings like no other! in fact i wouldnt have had any sweets since i left wichita if it were not for the surprise party for another volunteer tuesday night. his host family is apparently related to mine and when we (the two other volunteers who live with my family) got home from training we were informed we were attending. The cake! oh the cake and pop! i can not tell you how sweet it was. yes sugar cravings...
so next week i have my volunteer visit. i get to visit a current peace corps youth volunteer. she is stationed in Perdenales a six hour bus ride to the southern coast on the haitian boarder. i'm stoked to get to go so close to haiti and get to spend a day at the beach (im getting quite tan- jealous?). plus there is a saturday market with haitian vendors that i will get to go to.
the reggaeton is blaring right now (if you don't know reggaeton think sean paul or daddy yankee) as it always is and i am sweating as i always am. my arms are sore from vaccinations and i noticed there are more schedualed for monday. the water has been gone for the past three days but im stoaked for the party tommorrow.
went to the outdoor market today with my host sister. the poverty and crowdedness reminded me of tanger. i suppose this is the picture of developing countries.
i spend my days in training. its a lot like being back in school 4 hours of spanish then 1 hour lunch then 3 hours of country training where they scare us with medical talk or discuss what development means. im finding that im really interested in development *duh* i guess id have to be to be here. well se fue la luz (electricity just went out ) luckily the computers here are on a generator. the electricity is almost like a game. when it goes out everyone announces it- as if everyone else was blind. then when it comes back everyone announces it again- ahh, la luz! its really quite fun. sometimes the luz will flash once or twice like its going to come back and everyone gets really excited and says "uhhh.... uhhh.." but then it doesn't. maybe the second national sport should be luz watching. oh good times.

First off- Ive arrived and I am very much so alive! This experience has been so incredible so far. Peace Corps really works us through baby steps and our trainers are AMAZING! The d.r. clearly has one of the more organized and better peace corps programs.
I arrived last thursday and the 50 of us were rushed onto buses and taken to a Catholic retreat center for our incountry orientaion. There we were given our first tablets of aralene (malaria meds) and informed we must never drink the water, we must sleep under our mosquito nets, never drink the water, we must wear deet bug spray, never drink the water, not eat certian foods (namely lettuce) and never never ever drink the water. The next day we were shown to our training center which is this amazing botanical safe haven for volunteers! The land is beautiful and well kept with tropical plants and gazeebos where we have class. We recieve our many immunizations here as well. They prepped us on the culutre and then set us free with our first set of host families. Mine is AMAZING! I'm not quite sure how many people I live with but heres the general make up of the place- It is on a family lot with five different houses, around 15 family members, 3 volunteers (including me), many roosters, chickens, 2 dogs, 6 or 7 cows, several pigs, ducks, and a car break repair shop- this is all right of the main highway in the city!!! Great combo of the perks of living in a major city (constant highway noise music and activity) along with the perks of having chickens walk through my kitchen in the morning!
I am being treated like american royalty- this is right i live with the same family that the kennedy kid did. well actually he lived with mi tia (my aunt) in one of the other houses on the lot but i have definatly sat on the same throne (in the bathroom sense). Dominicans have so far been extremely overwhelmingly loving and caring. My family here is extremely protective and proud of me. I am shown off alot and expected to talk a lot. I feel a little embarrassed by all the accomodations they have to maek for me (special water, special food, mosquito net, my own room) but they understand and care. They won't even let me in el sol during the day. They tell me my skin will turn red IMMEDIATELY!
My spanish is improving 10 fold every day and I cleared the language requirement for swearing in the first day easily. I have not stopped sweating from the moment i arrived but i love this country- the people, the latin culture mixed with african roots, the family, the collective nature. I have electricty and water in my house SOMETIMES, but when i don't i get by. when i have water i take a drip shower from a faucet, when i dont a bucket bath. when i have electricty i read from a light, when i dont an oil lamp. I am learning the ways of the national sport- 'chisme' or gossip, how to dress in humidity, use public transportation, and stayw ith in social norms.
This last is by trial and error as i attended a cock fight on sunday with another volunteer (who lives with mi tia) and our brother in law. When i arrived i noticed i was the only woman there. Apparently it is looked down upon for women to attend such things and they could even be looked on as whores for doing it. Luckily they know i am just a silly american and it was an experience of much learning.
Well my mosquito net is calling and my time at the internet cafe is running up!

rainy miami

so i made it. miami's rainy and entertaining. yesterday when i arrived my roommate- stephanie age 28 from california arrived soon after. we soon met up with about 12 of us early arrivers and went to dinner then to south beach- miami's night scene. well... south beach is expensive and fun. it's quite a ways away from my hotel so we ended up riding in the cab of a semi. see one of the volunteers has a cousin who drives a truck and was making a delivery in miami last night (crazy latino disco and scantily clad women dancing very provocatively). i'm not sure if you've ever ridden in the cab of a semi but they are quite nice. leather walls and seats. a t.v. a microwave and spacious seating for the 8 of us that went out. the other volunteers are interesting of course we all have similar interests and concerns. noone else from kansas is in our group of 50 but tons from california. we have $140 to spend while we are here it will go very quickly though (breakfast this morning cost me $20) well people are waiting on the computer better go.