Back To Work

Since returning from the capital, I have experienced quite a few changes. All of the rest of the long term volunteers (I think there are 14 of us total) are now here and we had a week long orientation last week. Orienation consisted of a lot of information sessions, some of which was old information and some of which was new, getting to know everybody type activities, and group trips to important places like the medical clinic, the large hospital, the office, etc. (most of which I had already been to). All in all, it looks like a pretty good group of people to work with. The week was lead by the Program Director, Sarah, who was not here over the summer and arrived sometime during the week when I was gone. Sarah is in charge of coordinating all of us volunteers and making sure we have the proper support and direction during our time here.

This week, we have all started at our respective placements. I am at one of the two schools actually located in Cabarete, the Puerto Cabarete School. It is only a five minute walk from where I live and is located somewhat centrally in town, although it´s at one end of the main strip. The other school, which is where the summer camp was, is located at the other end of town in the neighborhood where many of the Dominicans live. I´ll be working at this school with Anthony and Jeff, two fellow volunteers. Oddly enough, they placed all three males at the same school. The next three weeks are meant for us to just get acclimated to our schools, see what we have to work with, and figure out a specific plan of attack for what our roles are at each location. Everything that is expected of us is a little overwhelming at times, so it´s good that we get to ease into things, as I know there will be plenty of learning as we go too.

That´s all for now, but I should be able to post more frequently now that I´m in a computer lab at the school.