Peace Corps Life is similar to Hollywood

Once again, sorry for any spelling erros or things that dont make sense. Enjoy!
The Peace Corps is often like every movie in the early 90’s. It starts off with someone who is having a difficult time with live; people do not understand them, they just moved to a new town, they go through a breakup or divorces, or they just lost their job, and if things get any harder they just might give up on it all…until that new girl comes along, or a voice telling them to build a baseball field and all of a sudden they have a reason to live and push on. You wake up welcoming the day with a smile on your face. Everything has purpose and it is has if you are looking through a new pairs of eyes. Of course there will come a time usually with thirty minutes left in the movie where someone tries to ruin you or everything accomplished looks as though it will come crashing but along comes a missing piece to the puzzle, or a friend that you thought you had lost and you make it through, not just make it through but you have triumphed, you are victorious, and you are celebrated. It is good to be you. Then the music begins and the credits begin to roll and if you’re lucky there just might even be a sequel to your adventure.
My movie has just begun and already I feel as though I am going through the difficult times. There are many hoops and hurdles to jump through and it has been a trying time. Sometimes I think it would be better to be a supporting cast member like Goose in Top Gun, or Ron in Harry Potter. Then again the supporting cast rarely gets the girl or the glory so I am grateful to overcome the challenges that lay ahead of me.
I am really lucky to be on this adventure. Sometimes I find myself to be complaining or comparing my situation and surroundings to the ease of life I had in the States and those are the most difficult of times for me here. Then there are times when I am too busy to think about anything with learning Spanish and working on training project. But the best of times is usually when things are winding down in the day and I look back on everything I got to do, the people I met, and the food I had on the table, and I become appreciative for the things I do have, and I thank God for blessing me with the opportunity to expand my ability to serve. If I am not able to be appreciating my time here, I will most certainly become miserable and do a poor job. One of the times I never forget to thank God for His gifts is right before I pour a freezing cold bucket of water on me to shower. I am not sure what it is but it has always made the water feel a little warmer than it really is. I have actually began get used to it but it will be nice when I move to my site I will live in for two years which will definitely be much warmer than this area.
A little more on Castanza. I moved here on Thursday the 9th, and will be here until the 17th of October. This is my community based training and their 16 people in our sector. Of those 16, I work with 2 others to put together a community diagnostic and other projects which will aid us in learning how to carryout our projects after we are sworn in. Every group within our sector receives a youth group that has already been established for some time now. Lucky for my group we received a model youth group and they have been extremely inspirational and have breathed new life into my Peace Corps training. It is always a joy when we meet with them and they continue to impress me with the organization and knowledge. This past weekend, our youth group walked an hour towards a river it was really something special. This area is a valley surrounded by mountains and they grow a majority of the fruits, flowers, and vegetables for the Dominican Republic. When we reached the river it was almost as if we were walking by one giant waterfall. There were several places that we could have stopped and swam but we decided to push on and find a really secluded spot. I forgot to mention that in order to get there we needed to cross this wooden ladder/bridge which was a bit intimidating but everyone made it safely across. We enjoyed splashing around and enjoyed getting to know each other a little better.
Now that we are out of the capital we are able to exercise a little bit more. One of the female volunteers host mom wakes up every morning and does a brisk jog for an hour and a half. We were all excited to here that one morning and we woke up at 5:30 in the morning and jogged all the way down to this electric plant were there happens to be some stone stairs. At first we started to sprint up the stairs but then realized that there were about 200 of them. It didn’t help that half of them happened resembled a latter more than they did stairs. After questioning the sanity of the host mom I realized that this was something I would not be able to do every morning. Other than early morning jogs, it is every kids dream to play sports with us. The primary sports we play with them are soccer, baseball, and basketball. The first day we were here we found a place that gives free Tae Kwon Do lessons and has facilities to box. I have not had time to take advantage of these things but I do plan on doing so if time allots. The city we are in has a lot of great features. It has a great downtown feel with plenty of fruit and vegetable markets. Kind of like a 24/7 farmer’s market and insanely cheap prices. All my meals are made already for me so I have not bought too many items other than an occasional fruit. I usually am greeted every morning with my Doña bringing me coffee and bread before eating my usual breakfast. In this part of the Dominican Republic their biggest meal comes at lunch; something I always look forward to. I am really beginning to get used to this whole Peace Corps training life and it makes life a little easier to cope with. I forgot that every morning starting at five I have a non-stop alarm clock of a group of loud roosters who try to out do each other. Hooray Roosters!
Some things I have to look forward to are a presentation in Spanish about the community of Las Flores, and a weekend project to reforest a section of the community. If I have left anything out I will include it in my next blog. Thank you to everyone who has read my blog and left encouraging comments, it really brightens up my day. Thank you.