Goodbyes and Hellos (MY SITE PLACEMENT!)

I arrived back in Pantoja on Saturday from the campo (Peralvillo). Currently it is Monday evening and it has been an emotional past few days. On Friday night, all of the CED volunteers in Peralvillo had a going away party at Kate’s house. Her family (my second family) made sopau—it had rice with red salsa and chicken (so delicious)! We danced the night away, spent time reminiscing about our experiences in Peralvillo and stayed up way too late! Saturday morning came far too quickly, and before I knew it I was hugging Majalin (Kate’s host sister) and felt tears streaming down my cheeks. We had lived with these families and spent all of our time outside of training with them for the last five weeks. I was going to miss them. I had become part of two families in Peralvillo and saying goodbye was something I had not expected to be so difficult coming into training. I tearfully then said goodbye to my host mother Cecilia and my host niece Jade.

The most difficult goodbye was to my host sister Rudy. We had literally become sisters, as she hugged me, she started weeping and did not want to let go. She had never had a sister—only brothers. All of the time I had spent with her, we treated each other like sisters. We teased each other, fought like siblings, had our inside jokes, went out dancing, and stayed up late at night talking about our lives—sharing secrets and dreams. I will truly miss her. She took me in, didn’t judge me, or gossip about me, she was the first person I met in Peralvillo who I could be real with and who loved me like family. And for that I will miss her.

I arrived back in Santo Domingo and was greeted by Dulce. I have missed living with her and coming back here has felt like home. And she even bought me a cake to welcome me home! On Sunday a group of us went to a beach nearby called Juan Dolio. We soaked in the sun and swam in the warm Caribbean water. It was beautiful and very relaxing. Although I applied sunscreen many times during the day, I still managed to burn…dumb sun, but it was worth it!

And now I’ll talk about today, because that’s probably why you are reading this post. Today I found out my site! I will be living and working near Cotui, Sanchez Ramirez. I will be living with a host family in a smaller campo town called El Limon and I will be working in La Colonia. My job is the best part about my site placement. I will be working with a group of 25 women who crochet purses out of recycled plastic bags. At first, I thought they would look cheap, but they actually look really nice. They solicited a volunteer to help with marketing in the DR since the market in the U.S. has become saturated. They also want to be taught more business skills because most of the women in the group only have a 8^th grade education. They could not have found a better site for me! I am so excited to go and visit. I meet my key community contacts tomorrow and then I go and visit for 5 days to check out my site and host family. I will then return to the capital to be sworn in as an official volunteer! It is finally real.

And now that you all know where I will be you can all buy plane tickets to come and visit me after August!

Moving for one last time,

LJ