This one time I almost died hiking...but really.

My faith in wanting to be a volunteer has been renewed. I have been getting quite bored of training everyday from 8-5. Getting too much information but not enough hands on activities. Until now. And by now I mean Thursday morning. Thursday morning I woke up a took a guagua to the city to catch a bus to Santiago. In Santiago I was greeted by Stanley, a current CED (community economic development) volunteer. We wandered around Santiago for awhile. Picked up some groceries (aka not Dominican food!), ate some NY style pizza and then took another guagua to his community of Pedro Garcia.  

Pedro Garcia is a town of around 6,000 people but it is located near the mountains, so the nights are a little cooler. Thursday we went to various neighbors homes and I saw most of Pedro Garcia. The next morning we awoke early for the "death hike".

The "death hike" is what I am calling it because there were parts of the hike that I felt like dying (this may or may not be an exaggeration). Stanley and I had two joven (joven meaning young and young meaning 20 aka I'm a joven) boys hike with us as well. The hike was literally 5 miles of very steep hills, forests, and cattle pastures. To make matters worse, I fell twice and ended up with cuts on my leg and forearm. Yes, I am still a clutz. We then hiked through a cave and back. The cave was full of clay and every rock was slippery so of course I came out of the cave covered in mud (somehow the boys did not?). And of course they teased me them whole way back for being dirty. The hike down was a bit easier but still quite tiring and we had run out of water. But eventually after 5 hours of hiking we made it back!

After cleaning up we went over to one of the girl's homes who is trying to sell coffee. It's a project that Stanley is working on with a Japanese NGO (Becky come here!!!). We made a fire and roasted coffee beans over the fire for a few hours. Pretty hot and time consuming..Haha. We then returned to Stanley's host families house to make burgers for dinner! AAAAMERIKA. I'm seriously sick of Dominican food and it's lack of spice and flavor.

This morning I woke up early to go horseback riding on another trail. But unfortunately the man who was going to take us didn't show up. (To be honest my legs are so sore I'm not sure I could've gotten on a horse). Instead we went to a neighbor's to get internet (so I can post this!), and so Stanley can work on a grant.

Currently I'm sipping some fresh pineapple juice and talking about being a volunteer. This weekend has been a reminder to why I am here and what my ultimate purpose after training will be. I cannot wait for my job to start and to find out where I will be placed and what my project will be. But until then I will continue to learn more about this culture, economy, development and Dominican Spanish.

Still a PCT (Peace Corps Trainee),
LJ

P.S. Here's a photo of my current view.

P.P.S. We're going out dancing tonight! I'M SO EXCITED!!!