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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ September 09, 2008 }
Consolidation
The Peace Corps has an emergency action plan (the EAP). The EAP is used in weather, political and other emergency type situations. Stage one is Standfast; you are not allowed to leave the town where you are at. Stage two is Consolidation; the volunteers by region are consolidated in a major city in their region in a hotel. Saturday my region was consolidated. It has barely even rained and Ike has long since passed by the island of Hispaniola yet we are still here in the Hotel Aloha Sol. At least there is air conditioning, free wifi, hot showers and cable but it is completely unneccessary.
Posted by katie at 11:57 AM | Permalink
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ September 04, 2008 }
Not MIA
Despite my lack of communication throughout most of the summer, I am alive and well. None of the hurricanes, tropical storms, disturbances or whatever you would like to call them has really affected me either; it has been rainy and windy but fortunately we don't get hit too badly in Juncalito because we are in the middle of the country and on a mountain so all the water runs down.
What have I been up to? After my last entry, there was a lot going on in my site, however, like all Peace Corps volunteers have happen, several of my projects fell apart or hit road blocks at the same time, which was frustrating. Fortunately, shortly after that happened, I was scheduled to help translate for a medical mission. I spent 8 days with several other volunteers and many nursing students from the University of Southern Maine attending people in campos around Las Lajas, which is in between Santiago and Sosua. Medical missions are great because you can see tangibly that you are doing something helpful so it was a nice uplift after one of the more difficult times with regards to work that I have had in my site. The missions are enjoyable but it is also a lot of work to go between languages so frequently so the last day we were with the nurses we went on a beach trip to Cabarete to unwind after a long week.
After the medical mission I went to the capital and took the GRE. I did well enough not to ever want to take it again and now I am starting to get all my information, resume, etc. together to apply for graduate schools. Fortunately I have a lot of time because I'm not planning on going until next fall. On my way back from the capital I got to go on another beach trip; this time to Sosua. I had planned it with friends and youth in my site, some of whom had never been to the beach before. We had a fun time and lucked out that it didn't rain as predicted.
There isn't much else going on. I have been trying to resolve some issues with a few of the exporting documents now that both shipments have finally gone out. After being out of site for a while and now knowing that I only have a few months left it is hard to be motivated but I am hoping to get a few more projects done before I finish in December. In two weeks I have my PC Close of Service conference where they talk about ending your service, the future and I imagine get touchy feely. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone but not talking about leaving because I know it will be hard.
How do I know I've been in the DR for a long time? I have started to like reggaeton.
Posted by katie at 05:05 PM | Permalink
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