Sunday, August 22, 2010

Mosquitos Everywhere!!!!

Hello friends and family I have arrived safe to the Dominican Republic.
Woohoo!!!
To get here was no easy feet. I will tell you the story...

Left to DC on the 18th, was awake by 5 a.m. Spent all day at a training!!! Everyone was falling asleep but all the volunteers were-are super nice. Its not like FIU where no one wants to talk or know your name. We are all here for mainly the same reasons and everyone is very open to converse with eachother.
After training i went with a group to have some Etheopian food.
AMAZING!!!!! What better way to get to know a person than to eat with your hands with them.
Hands in ladies and gentelman, if you havent tried it then start now. B´c you are in the U.S and you can do it!
Well i took a slight nap, i say this b´c i had to wake up in 3 hours. We all woke up at 130 a.m to take a 7 am flight! Brutal. Flew back to miami where i had a 2 hour lay over and then flew into DR.
Finally we all arrived, we wizzed by immagration.
What a relief bc i vacumn sealed my pillow and if they would have checked my bags then it would have been over. I was carrying a lot of weight folks.

They then proceded to blind fold all of us and take us to our retreat center. hahaha just kidding!!! They took us to some catholic church that had many rooms where we had more orientations. Remember we have been up since 130 am!!!
We got more information, mosquito nets, malaria pills, and the rabbies vaccine. Awesome!!! haha

I tried going to sleep at 9 pm, you heard it right. I spent 3 hours tossing and turning bc of the heat. I should be used to this having lived in miami all my life. But we must remember that Miami has AC!!!! hahaha

The next morning we went to ENTRENA for another 8 hours of schooling. But i will say this, our training center is very beautiful and i consider myself very lucky.

Around 5 pm all of the DoÑas came to pick up their new children. What craziness. My DoÑa has been doing this for years. She has 9 kids...whose kids have kids... whose kids have kids.
They all live together on a dead end street. And if they dont live on the block they are always there. Its cool because one is never alone.
Reality set in that i was in country when i rode to my house in a small car stuffed with 7 people. hahaha Wake up Christine were not in Kansas anymore.

My house is nice. Its just very hot and hs lots of mosquitos everywhere. My DoÑa is very loving and treats me well. I cant complain.

All that i feel... loneliness, uncertainty, eagerness, awkardness is part of the process.
I find myself spending lots of time rocking on the rocking chair.
This is how we pass our time.
I need to buy some dominoes or jacks or something for entertainment.

But... I do have a mosquito net and my own fan and I have taken a bucket bath!!!

I miss my family and friends like crazy. I have not allowed myself to break down and become emotional. I am too scared i wont be able to stop. Those of you that know me know how emotional i can be. So this is a triumph for me. But i do shed tears here and there. But i hope to madurarme. This journey will be hard but it will have lots of rewards.
I ask God for strength everyday and I feel my friends and families love all the time.

Thank you for all your love and support. It is much needed.
Know that I am well and as happy as i can be.
Im taking this journey one day at a time.