A Day To Remember

Quick note before reading this! My mom asked me to break up my blogs so they don’t hurt her eyes trying to read them all in one sitting so I went ahead and wrote my longest blog yet…sorry Mom but you can print them out and enjoy them on paper. However my mom had a great point and after this blog I will keep them shorter and trimmed to a single subject or experience. I will also be including pictures so that you can not only read all about my time here but see some of it too! Thanks for all the comments by the way!

A Day to Remember

When you start missing home you begin to think of every fun time you ever had …ever. Then you start to compare your past memories to the time you are currently having wherever you maybe that is not home and the comparison is a resounding victory for past memories. If you spend enough time in one place and around the right people, some of those past memories are of times in the place you are now, and if you really do it right home is no longer that place were you once lived but the place you made a new home of.
It has taken a lot of me to cut some strings from the comforts of home but with every memory I create here I feel more and more at home here in the Dominican Republic. Today was a day I will always remember. It would be better to say that the last 24 hours has been memorable. Okay actually I should rewind the tape a little bit more to tell you about a time I hope I never go through again. I awoke at two thirty in the morning with the strong smell of garlic as if someone was cooking a huge caldron right outside of my room. Since it was the middle of the night I thought it was a bit odd but after some of the things I have seen here I didn’t second guess it. I remember prior to consciousness I was dreaming that I shaved my moustache. Waking up to such a strong smell was displeasing but I thought I would be able to ignore the smell and get back to sleep. About a minute later things were escalating and I thought I may be experiencing what people call nausea but having only thrown up twice in my entire life I was not entirely sure. I got up and opened the creaky door that wakes up the entire household of six other people who share a single room and creped into the bathroom. There is no running water so the toilet was completely wet from the back splash of the previous person who flushed it using a large bucket of water. I thought about how pleasant it would be to vomit into the white porcelain toilets with plush shag rugs I am accustomed to in the States but was grateful for a toilet in this time none-the-less. Nothing was happening. I must have surely been mistaken and I was not sick just upset by the strong garlic smell. I sat down on the floor and a wave of discomfort and pain over came me and the feeling was unbearable. The thought of all the horrible viruses they warned us about in training flashed through my mind and at that point I knew I needed to reach out to someone. I stepped out into the hallway and said in my best Spanish, “soy enfermo”, if I was taking a Spanish grammar test I would of failed because I used the wrong verb for a temporary physical condition which is estoy, but it was also a possibility that my body was trying to tell me that this was not temporary and it could very much be something permanent. After the words left my mouth I heard nothing. No voices of confusion or disgruntled muffles but silence. So I tried my Spanish again and as I thought of the words to say I began to lose conscience and fell to the cold stone floor. The next thing I remember is my host Dad helping me off the ground and they quickly got my director who speaks English. While I was waiting for her, I took my own temperature from my medical kit provided by the Peace Corps and it read 93 degrees Fahrenheit. I wrote that down next to the time. 93? There is no way that could be right. I took my temperature again and this time is was 92. I shrugged it off since I did not feel any temperature discomfort. My director showed up and she was shivering. That’s the moment I started to believe what the thermometer had read. I told her my symptoms and she called the Peace Corps doctor immediately. As it was ringing I asked her if she could smell the garlic and after a couple sniffs she said there was no smell in the air at all. Uh oh. The doctor was unsure of the situation as well but was as thorough as one could be over the phone. My director decided to clean the thermometer and take her temperature to see if it was broken. Her temperature was a normal 98 degrees. Now I was really freaked out. I went back in the bathroom after warming up a little and began to make myself vomit. I think it was a good decision on my part because I began to feel a little more grounded. The doctor made sure that my director could stay the night in another room if things got worse. If I was still feeling as bad as I did then we would leave in the morning on a bus to the capital where I would receive full treatment in a hospital. Lucky for me my temperature balanced out but I was drained. I found enough strength to do my first presentation in Spanish that morning in front of my class and returned to my bed to sleep almost 24 hours straight. It was a scary experience to go through but I feel stronger and more prepared for anything that may come my way in the future. In some weird way I think it was all part of my training and something everyone should experience while surrounded by a great support system.
That was a bad memory, now for the one I was originally excited to write when I began this letter. The day after being sick my sector of 16 other Peace Corp volunteers planned a team building night to learn a little bit more about each other. At 8 pm we gathered and walked into the mountains that surround the town we live in. For the first time in the Peace Corps I felt like I was not among volunteers but friends. We shared stories of home, experiences that have shaped us, and plenty of inappropriate jokes and remarks. It was great moment for me personally because I knew things could only get better and we would grow closer as times goes on. The Peace Corps allows volunteers to take rest and relaxation days to visit other volunteers or just get caught up with personal time. I have heard that this is a necessary component of service especially in the first few months after training when we are all alone in our sites. After spending some quality time with other volunteers it helped remind me that we are not just here for work but to make lasting friendships as well.
The next day I woke up early because half of our group was going to meet with our Ecological youth groups to do a reforestation project somewhere in the mountains. The fact that I had never been part of a reforestation project made me all the more excited. We met near a basketball court in their neighborhood and waited for our transportation to take us up there. While we were waiting we got a few games of basketball in and by the time everyone showed up, there were 26 of us in total. Our transportation for the trip up the mountain was a red pickup truck with a large truck bed that fit us all in including our equipment. Finally I would get some real Dominican experience. We were told that the ride would only take around forty minutes so I thought that any seat I chose would be fine. Little did I know that the ride was three hours long all up hill through winding narrow dirt hills with drops of more than 300 hundred feet. Regardless of how dangerous the ride was it was breathtaking to see some of the views as we came up the mountain. You could imagine that an exotic island such as the DR would have plenty of snakes, predators, and other things that would enjoy us as a meal but the island actually has no insects or reptiles that are poison anywhere, nor does it have any large predators. Instead all I saw was large cows and bulls munching on some leaves off to the side and an occasional horse tied to a tree. After being rattled around in the back like a bunch of Mexican beans we arrived to a national park with a statue of a pyramid. It turns out that the statue marked the actual center of the country. I was really excited to see that but even more excited that we had finally reached or destination and that we all got hats and t-shirts for the event we were participating in. It turns out that the reforestation project was a trash pickup project in an area that did not have a residential area around it for more than 30 miles away. So as far as trash went we did not have much to pick up. We spent thirty minutes picking up whatever we could find and then ate a lunch of sandwiches and Tampico which they provided for all of us. As soon as we finished a news crew with photographers and cameras showed up and we then spent an hour acting like we were picking up trash and pretending to plants trees. The absurdity of it all kept me amused. Regardless of the little service we actually accomplished it was a wonderful time to bond with my friends and the youth groups in a outrageously beautiful place that was tranquil and private. The ride down was just as great with even more amazing views. The only downside is that we had to hall the trash back with us. The Dominican youth used it as pillows, as for me I stood up the entire ride in the front of the truck so I could see all the views and not be anywhere the trash bags full of broken glass and other hazardous materials. With the wind in my face and the presence of adventure in my heart I could not believe that the government was paying for this incredible experience. It was a unique trip that I will always remember.
This next weekend just the volunteers are headed to a place called Aguas Blancas which is supposed to be some beautiful waterfalls along with some incredible sites. I hope to share some more stories and provide you with some pictures to enjoy as well. I also wanted to write that while I am making new memories, I am often comforted and warmed by past memories of home and time spent with family and friends. My most recent one was going to get doughnuts late night with Andy, Ben, and Crosby. It is little memories like those that make me smile and provide me joy in an often foreign place. The memories I struggle most with is those of my parents because it is tough not having them to come home to, but my time living at home after college was the life of a prince and I am grateful for it because it allowed me to realize my desire to serve in the Peace Corps. I do not think I will have life as comfortable as I did the two years after graduating college but I am starting to realize the amount of personal growth that can occur when you are constantly out of your comfort zone. Even though I am not surrounded by family and friends I physically can feel the power of their love and support here thousands of miles away. Well maybe a few thousand miles away. My heart is calm here and I am getting used to adapting on a regular basis. May God keep us safe so that we can speak again.