First Days in the DR: Navigating New Territory or Finding Common Ground?

August 25, 2008
Santo Domingo

¡Estoy aqui!

And now, without further ado, what will perhaps be the most highly anticipated post in my two years of service…drum roll please…my first entry from my host country, the Dominican Republic.

Ok, for the record, I do realize that an “international” flight that lasts all of two hours is reason enough to assume that I most likely made it to my destination unscathed. However, a more reasonable question might be how I am holding up thus far. What follows is a summary of some of the ways in which I have found the initial adjustment both easier and more challenging than I might have predicted.

Pan comido… (piece of cake)

- I’ve done this before…to a certain degree. Although this is my first time committing to something as long-term and life-consuming as the Peace Corps, I have spent a lot of time abroad. From staying with one friend’s family in India to sharing meals with another friend’s host family in Senegal, I have previously interacted with local families in other countries. I have also both studied and volunteered abroad for extended periods of time, ranging from five weeks in Spain as a junior in high school to six months in Brazil as a junior in college. From the level of discomfort that results from having to adjust to a new environment to that that comes from living in a foreign language, I’m familiar with a lot of what overwhelms a person when she or he dives head first into a new culture.
- Hablo español…mas o menos. “Speaking” of language, my Spanish is holding up a lot better than I expected. Although I will go so far as to brag that I’ve already been asked if I am Latina, I certainly have a lot to review and to learn. This ranges from the more general (e.g. forgetting how to say “to brush” as in “to brush my hair”) to the Dominican-specific (big mistake using the alliteration “Airplane Alanna” in a name game; apparently the Spanish word for airplane, avión, is slang for prostitute here). With all of the unknowns we will have to endure, though, it is comforting to know that not everything I am saying and hearing is lost in translation.
- I have another great host family. After clicking so well with my families in Brazil and Spain, I had convinced myself that I was in for an unpleasant surprise. I am happy to report that this is not the case at all. My host family in Santo Domingo, a doña with adult children, has already reached out significantly through long chats and exciting adventures. What have we bonded over thus far? My host brother has even been to the town next to that where I attended high school, and his sister’s husband works for the same company as my mom. Oh yeah, and they’ve already taken me to McDonald’s.

Um, ¿Cómo?

- What was I thinking when I packed for this? One of the first shockers in meeting up with my trainee group was the realization that I might have brought a lot more stuff than I could possibly need for rural development work; apparently I really did try to pack two years of my life into two suitcases. If the thought of scaling a mountain on a moto with two bags the size of me isn’t motivation enough to make some donations before I leave the capital, the fact that we receive a new binder or kit almost everyday will be. Something’s got to give to make room for additional “essentials,” but it will be hard to guess what should go and what will actually be useful for my work, my interaction with my community, and my sanity.
- You know you’re not in Massachusetts when…you’re evacuated from training because of a tropical storm. Or, when you find your BostonIrishCatholic self accompanying your new friends to an evangelical service. In previously stating that I am familiar with living and traveling abroad, I by no means wished to suggest that everything about this experience will be predictable and mundane. On the contrary, I have already been thrown into new situations head first that have opened my eyes to other ways people think and behave by choice or by necessity.
- Can something be both structured and unstable? The paradoxical nature of this combination is hard to wrap my head around, but it is nonetheless something I cannot push by the wayside. On one hand, the regimented nature of our training schedule leaves something to be desired; that something is a bit of free time to better acquaint myself with Santo Domingo and to get to know the other PC trainees. On the other hand, I find myself also starting to wrap my head around the extent of the flux we’re going through. Because training occupies the first ten weeks and keeps us busy in the city and the countryside, it feels like the friendships begun with other trainees and Santo Domingo residents are misleading; will we be able to maintain these connections when we’re sent off to live in alone in more remote communities? For that matter, we also know that the luxuries we currently enjoy – such as TV, frequent contact with other Americans, and being told what to do – will soon disappear. The very exciting and very overwhelming reality in the distance makes it hard to take our day to day life in the capital at face value.

In essence, I suppose it’s starting to hit me both how long I will be here and just how much I am going to experience within one small island. I guess that’s the fun that comes with the initial adjustment…