CBT

We are just over a week into Community-Based Training, or CBT.  Our group of 16 packed into a few vehicles and North we drove until hitting the quiet community of Fundación, where 9 of our 16 currently reside.  Fundación belongs to a larger region called Alta Mira, which belongs to a still larger region, Puerto Plata.  You wouldn't guess that we were near the coast while walking the single snaking road that traverses the town.  On either side green farmland rises up - partially for grazing, but with a vast majority as conuco, or mixed farmland.

My host family's house is up a steep, uneven and rocky driveway, tucked away right into the naturaleza.  Let me tell you, getting off the guagua and dragging my suitcase up that thing while wearing my backpack was no cakewalk.  When I reached the top to find no one was home, I reviewed my sweaty condition and concluded it may have been the gnarliest yet.  I have since realized that it is melancholy to reflect on sweatiness here, as it is simply part of the midday routine.  Luckily I was accompanied by a random boy, maybe 10 years old, who began pushing my bag from behind.  The help was miniscule, but the gesture grand.

Solidarity seems to be a theme here.  Everyone knows everyone, and not by their real name, but rather their apodo.  I wish I knew how they came up with those.  The residents of the community are inspiring.  They form groups, undertake projects to better the community, such as road improvement, and just genenerally are available to sit and chat and drink the occasional soda.  My doña, for example, takes care of a sick, old gentlemen who lives further up our driveway.  She brings him 3 meals a day, and bathes him numerous times a week, and all this on top of providing everthing for us folks at home too.  She is a tireless worker who asks for nothing in return and still has time to worry about my host brother and I when we get home late - a testament to mothers everywhere!

To follow up on my last post about the volunteer I visited, well, it was basically radical.  We met up with another volunteer who is intimately connected into the Dominican world, took a boat out to Cayo Levantado, a picturesque island off the Samaná coast where we soaked up sun on white sand with intermittent dips in crystal clear water bordering on bath tub temperatures.  Oh ya, and I had a delectable piña colada that just so happened to be served in a pineapple, virgen of course.  It was a much needed day of leisure.

But now it's back to the daily grind of getting up with the sun, walking around the conuco with my don if I don't have class, and then of course lots and lots of class, and lots and lots of sitting.  Beyond that things are great.  I'm slowly realizing how quickly I've become accustomed to bugs.  Bugs of all shapes and sizes, colors and amounts of legs.  It's a futile effort to bother killing any of them, but that doesn't mean I don't absolutely destroy every centipede and mosquito unlucky enough to cross my path.  Just the other night I went outside to sit and enjoy the cool breeze and clear sky, and I was glad I shined my light on my seat of choice before lowering my tush onto it.  Clumsily wiggling around on its back was the biggest beetle I've ever seen.  This thing was half the size of my cell phone and twice as thick.  I called my brother over to ask what it was and he literally just bitch-slapped it off the ledge and into the night where I heard it go 'thud'.  I went back out to take a picture of it and the thing was perfectly fine lackadaisically milling around.

All our group has a to give a persentation on a different business related skill at some point in training.  Mine just so happens to be costing and pricing, and it just so happens to be happening in 2 days, so I must go work out that 1.5 hour presentation to make it as fun as possible for my counterparts.  Price is Right sounds like a good intro to the topic...