Staging and Training

Though I am writing this post several months after both Staging and Training have concluded, I’m going to try and maintain some sense of chronological order (i.e. I’m reading back through my journals right now to do a bit of catching up). I’ll first begin with a brief description of my job here and the primary goals of the Peace Corps on a wider scale. The three goals of Peace Corps are to provide countries interested in specific sector assistance with trained individuals, to promote a better understanding of Americans, and to promote a better understanding of the people from the countries volunteers are serving in (cultural exchange is SUPER important). I am serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Education Sector, specifically as a Primary Literacy Promoter. Essentially, my fellow EDU volunteers and I are working with teachers, students, and communities to promote literacy and educational development through the Spanish language. Additionally, Peace Corps encourages each volunteer to utilize the individual skillset they bring into the job to better serve as a resource for their community. As I have a background in Biology and the natural sciences, I am excited to pursue secondary projects in these fields as well!

Staging is the event that Peace Corps has for each cohort to formally meet, have a few whirlwind lectures, and receive other last minute important information. I vaguely recall having a flight from Boston when it was still dark, a tearful goodbye in the airport, arriving in Miami, having several hours of lectures and ice breakers, eventually making it out to dinner with several of my fellow trainees, and wanting to fall asleep on the dinner table from exhaustion. The next morning was the flight to Santo Domingo, where my group of trainees began our two and a half month process of moving from Peace Corps trainees to Peace Corps Volunteers. A line from my journal after we landed – “during landing felt a bit nauseous but I think I’ll try and attribute it to turbulence.” A few emotions and thoughts were racing through my head, to gently understate it.  

Training consisted of living in the capital of Santo Domingo and later the province of Peravia, where we had full days of charlas (lectures/lessons) on just about everything of the utmost importance - health and our soon to be BFF mosquito nets, a (brief) history of the Dominican Republic, how to use public transportation, cultural differences between the United States and the DR, and later on technical training for each sector. As an education volunteer I spent a little over a month living in a campo in Peravia training on literacy techniques, classroom management, potential secondary projects, and anything else that time allowed for. Oh, and three hours of Spanish class daily. At the conclusion of training, we all partook in a whirlwind of tests, presentations, more formal paperwork, and received our sites (!!!), which is the location in country each volunteer has been assigned to serve in for the next two years. We then had Swearing In, moving day, and now use the acronym PCV instead of PCT (Peace Corps is all about the acronyms).

This time consisted of a lot of firsts for me – my first bucket bath, speaking a language other than English for extensive periods of time, and learning the steps to bachata and merengue (note that I did not write “dancing” – I’ve equated my style of dancing to the inflatable plastic tubeman often found in front of car dealerships). I’ve also engaged in countless conversations on differences between my experiences in the US and in the DR, co-taught classes of second graders, lead a camp for girls’ empowerment along with some of my other trainees, traveled on public transport, and learned A LOT. Of course the charlas were very informative, but I have learned just as much from my fellow volunteers. Everyone provides interesting perspectives and comes from unique backgrounds with a variety of languages spoken, countless talents and hobbies, and represent not only locations throughout the USA but the world over. I feel fortunate to have such a phenomenal group of people to work with, and (sappy alert) to have as friends. So much happened in those first three months that it is nearly impossible to do it justice in several hundred words, but here’s to hoping that I can write a bit more regularly from here on out (claro, si Dios quiere).

Swearing In (Photo Credit: Peace Corps social media)

Our entire cohort with both EDU (Education) and CED (Community Economic Development)
 (Photo Credit: Peace Corps social media)