Whirlwind

To catch you all up on life up to this point, I left for Philadelphia, PA on May 21st for training with Hope International. After experiencing the traditional philly cheesesteak (complete with cheese whiz, lol), staying in a house that can only be considered a mansion, meeting all the interns and employees at Hope, I left early morning at 4am on Sunday to fly to the DR. I can now say I´ve been to the Puerto Rico, if only the airport. I can´t begin to explain how eye-opening the training was for me and how amazing it was to be part of an entirely christian organization. Let´s just say God gave me everything I´d been searching for and researching all year on my own in one weekend. wow. Talk about extreme blessing and mental overload =).

So I arrived in Santo Domingo that afternoon where I was greeted by Lindsey and Travis (the two other DR interns with Hope), Tricia, our coordinator, her friend Martini, and Pablo and Kayla who work in the office. We went to eat at Adrian Tropical to try the traditional food. I have to say my favorite food here so far are the fruit juices. Being a smoothie fan, this is such a treat!

Travis, Lindsey and I stayed in an apartment owned by a sweet lady named Carmen. It had air conditioning and hot water and a kitchen for us to cook in. We were joined by Dios Davil, her son-in-law, which surprised us at first when we returned to the apartment and found him inside, lol. Tricia became our mom/big-sis for the few days we stayed there. She speaks fluent english, which was so helpful. She´s been to the US so she knows how to help us transition easily. We went to la zona colonial, a mini Spain, where Christopher Columbus orginially lived.

The traffic here is crazy, especially in the city. They have stoplights, signs and lanes, but nobody pays attention to them. Here, normal cars for us, like Ford and Toyota, are considered very luxurious. Like in the US, people take out loans to buy nice cars to appear rich.

Training was great, but much more relaxed. Everyone here runs on a slower time schedule and most people are late to things. The relaxed atmosphere was actually helpful to be able to adjust and have time to check our email and just chill with Tricia.

Being in Santo Domingo was the perfect transition to life here. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed up for this and I´m so grateful Tricia and Chris eased us into it so smoothly.

After training on Monday and Tuesday, Lindsey and I were taken to our respective locations in the DR. Luckily we are only 30 minutes away from eachother so we´re planning to do some weekend trips together. She´s in Hato Mayor and I´m in El Seibo. Neither one is near the water, but Travis will be in Puerto Plata right near the ocean so we can visit him (although its several hours away).

I apologize for my writing. The keyboard here is different and I´ve been thinking so much in Spanish that I have difficulty seeming smart in English. I keep miss-spelling things and having to re-type them, lol.