Updates Part 2

So the luz is still here, and my familia aqui has graciously allowed me to continue to use their computer...so we shall continue with the updates. I'm currently in my site so I'll give a little backdrop on that.

We actually found out our tentative site placements 3 weeks ago after the YD team, our Manager, PC Vol Leader, and Extreme Needs Specialists interviewed more than half of us a second time. I was one of the people who was reinterviewed which I was thankful for because I don't even remember what I said in the first one. The second time around, I was much more open to whatever placement they had in mind, as long as I didn't have to take a motoconcho (I'm listening Mom!) Anyways, on Monday we got our official site placements. I know that community based training allowed me to see the total beauty of the Dominican Republic and gave me the confidence to realize that this experience would be amazing regardless of where I went. Additionally they only gave us tentative sites because they ahve always had someone who decided that this experience was not for them and they choose to go home. So far no one in our entire group has said that... We came into the country with 32 and we are still 32 =)

Entonces I've only been in my site 2 days and I already know that this is the perfect place for me. (Someone remind me that I typd this when I go through the ebb and flow of the PC Volunteer experience.) I was placed in an Extreme Needs Site which means that the PC DR YFCD [program has defined the youth in this community as some of the msot at risk in country because of several factors they may encounter in their community]. When I first got to my site it reminded me of D.C and the stark contrasts within the city. There are some beautiful parts of D.C. where everything is beautiful (streets, houses, etc. and I saw that here because I live on the outskirts of a city) and when you go just a little farther within D.C. you get a totally different experience...poverty can smack you in the face. That is what happened to me here. Then I went to the community center where I will spend the next 2 years of my life working alongside jovenes. Its a beautifully built and very new structure that is designed to be a huge resource to this community. I'm so excited to learn more about this community and initiate projects that they feel they need, and prayerfully when I leave, numerous juventud leaders will step up and continue the projects. There are so many opportunities to do exactly what I'm skilled in and passionate about. (more on all of this 3 months from now) Hats off to Peeace Corps YD team, they really did find me the perfect placement. City life but with a campo/family style feel working with youth who need this the most. This is exactly the experience I came here to get.

Now my family here is also amazing. I really prayed for a family as amazing as the family I had in CBT (who by the way still call me everyday) and I believe I have exactly that within my host family in my site. Thanks to my sister for taking pictures of us through facebook chat and putting them up so you can go look and see them. Their family is huge and everyone is so lovely and caring. Everywhere I go in this communtiy, I have an aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, brother, sister. It is an amazing feeling...they hav FIVE generations of the same family living here...its breathtaking really. They have truly embraced me, calling me their daughter, sister, cousin, etc. I feel so loved and warm here, just like how I felt in community based training. While  I know its very early on, and the honeymoon season has not even started, I have an amazing feeling about this. Gracias a Dios!!

I have not really said that much about other trainees in my group, and that is not because they are not very special to me. I have developed some amazing freindships that I had hoped for but didn't necessarily expect. It is wonderful to have a amazing core group of friends/family within Peace Corps to share this experience with...all of the triumphs and disasters, and know that they support and love me. My friend Rachelle told me that I would develop friendships that would last a lifetime, I haven't even been here 3 months and I already know that to be true. Its wonderful to have a support network in country because I truly want all of my friends that I started with here to finish the journey with me.

But let me not get too far ahead of myself. We go back to training next Monday and prayerfully, all 32 of us will swear in next Wednesday and officially become Peace Corps volunteers. And then the next part fo this adventure begins. I'll try to post another blog before that happens thats more reflection focused on the past 2 months...si Dios quiere =)