so i haven't been able to update my blog recently... access to internet is lacking unfortunately. Life here has its ups and downs. It can be quite frustrating battling cultural misunderstandings. For example in the DR it is generally accepted that older males would pursue relationships with young girls, some as young as 13 or fourteen. even the women here generally accept that and sometimes encourage it. I have had a number of exchanges where certian community members have tried to pressure me into some relationship or something of the sort. When I explain to them that no i can't because i have different rules they really don't understand. Some of them even call me gay if i refuse a girl, no matter what her age. I have also come to the realization that the community group that requested me does absolutely nothing. This means that i have very little leadership in my community and find myself spinning my wheels a bit. kind of frustrating...
not every thing is bad though, the people here are genuinely friendly and really try to look out for me. I am constantly invited into peoples homes, some of whom i really haven't talked to that much to share a meal or just sit and talk. this is something that you won't find in our culture which is quite sad.
I am also no more then an hour away from a beautiful caribbean coastline which i have visited a few times so life isn't all bad. anyways i have posted a few new pictures on my blog and will post more on my snapfish account if you are interested. all and all i am doing well

I hope everyone had a great thanksgiving. All the volunteers got together in the capital for a big celebration that was quite a lot of fun. I got to do a little beat boxing for the talent show, seemed like it was a big hit. Unfortunately a bunch of people from our group have had to leave for various reasons. This is always sad to hear and puts a damper on things. I am starting to get settled into my site making some new friends and improving my spanish, though i still have a long ways to go. My site is pretty disorganized, I can tell that getting people together to move forward on projects is going to be a big challenge, hopefully I am up to the task.
Life here isn't all rough, but its not all fun and games either. The community I work in is extremely poor, there isn't much in the way jobs. People pretty much live off what they grow in the farm. That being said, everyone is very happy and friendly, even though they don't have the material comforts that we have, they certianly enjoy life. I hope everyone back home is doing well, I miss everyone a lot. Send me updates even if i don't get back to you. Its nice to hear from the outside world

So I have been in my campo a bit over three weeks I guess. Everything here is going fairly well, if a bit slow. The people here are absolutely wonderful, they have greeted me with open arms everywhere I turn. I spend most of my days taking pictures of the people here. They get really excited to have someone come and take their picture, especially the children. I get asked fifteen, twenty times a day where’s my camera, take my picture, ectera…It’s great because it provides me with a way to enter their homes and gain their confidence. My Spanish is coming along slowly but surely, more slowly then anything else. It is definitely frustrating to have so much you need to communicate, but be completely unable too. I find myself in plenty of awkward situations because of my limited understanding. I know that in time this will stop as my Spanish improves but it does get to you sometimes. I need to get started on my community diagnostic, as much as I enjoy just sitting around, the boredom is definitely starting to get to me and I need to do something. Tomorrow we have a meeting in barohona with all the other volunteers in my region. I am looking forward to going as this will be my first time in barohona, and my first time seeing the other volunteers in a few weeks. It should be a good change of pace getting out of here.

I have come to realize I am in love with mangos, there is nothing like eating fresh mangos off the tree to make you feel better. My community is mostly agricultural, and thankfully mangos is one of the fruits they produce here. I think I ate about five of them today, man it was great. Besides eating mangos I have come face to face with real poverty for probably the very first time in my life. Some of the homes here are nothing more then wooden shacks with a little bit of electricity every one in a while. Today one of my friends was asking me to taking him with me when I leave for the United States. I was trying to explain that this wasn’t possible but I couldn’t. They don’t have to much here and as bad as the economic situation is in the states, things are a lot worse here. A few days ago one of the older people in the campo asked me to give him money to help support his sick son. I felt bad but I had to explain to him that I couldn’t give him any money, as volunteers that’s that something that we are really not supposed to do, and as a volunteer I didn’t have to much. Still I couldn’t help but realize the fact that as I was saying this my 250$ camera was hanging by around my neck. That’s more then most people make in a month here. Its frustrating that at this point I can’t do more. I hope that in the future my efforts will make an impact here but we shall see. anyways
I love hearing from home, please keep in touch.
So I have been in my campo a bit over three weeks I guess. Everything here is going fairly well, if a bit slow. The people here are absolutely wonderful, they have greeted me with open arms everywhere I turn. I spend most of my days taking pictures of the people here. They get really excited to have someone come and take their picture, especially the children. I get asked fifteen, twenty times a day where’s my camera, take my picture, ectera…It’s great because it provides me with a way to enter their homes and gain their confidence. My Spanish is coming along slowly but surely, more slowly then anything else. It is definitely frustrating to have so much you need to communicate, but be completely unable too. I find myself in plenty of awkward situations because of my limited understanding. I know that in time this will stop as my Spanish improves but it does get to you sometimes. I need to get started on my community diagnostic, as much as I enjoy just sitting around, the boredom is definitely starting to get to me and I need to do something. Tomorrow we have a meeting in barohona with all the other volunteers in my region. I am looking forward to going as this will be my first time in barohona, and my first time seeing the other volunteers in a few weeks. It should be a good change of pace getting out of here.

I have come to realize I am in love with mangos, there is nothing like eating fresh mangos off the tree to make you feel better. My community is mostly agricultural, and thankfully mangos is one of the fruits they produce here. I think I ate about five of them today, man it was great. Besides eating mangos I have come face to face with real poverty for probably the very first time in my life. Some of the homes here are nothing more then wooden shacks with a little bit of electricity every one in a while. Today one of my friends was asking me to taking him with me when I leave for the United States. I was trying to explain that this wasn’t possible but I couldn’t. They don’t have to much here and as bad as the economic situation is in the states, things are a lot worse here. A few days ago one of the older people in the campo asked me to give him money to help support his sick son. I felt bad but I had to explain to him that I couldn’t give him any money, as volunteers that’s that something that we are really not supposed to do, and as a volunteer I didn’t have to much. Still I couldn’t help but realize the fact that as I was saying this my 250$ camera was hanging by around my neck. That’s more then most people make in a month here. Its frustrating that at this point I can’t do more. I hope that in the future my efforts will make an impact here but we shall see. anyways
I love hearing from home, please keep in touch.

So we have officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers. I have seen my site and it is pretty sweet. There is quite a lot that could be done there. i am in a campo, its pretty small, around 300 people, and its very poor but the people are awesome and so welcoming. There are a ton of mosquitoes and it is pretty hot, but the area is gorgeous, there are mountains surrounding me on all sides and a river right next to my house. I will be doing quite a few things at my site, working with the agriculture group, organizing youth activities, teaching english, teaching health, learning spanish, learning how to dance, and anything else that they throw at me. It is a bit intimidating, but I am looking forward to the challenge. Unfortunately there is no internet cafe in my site and the closest one is six miles away apparently so updating the blog might be hard. The good news is i get cellphone service pretty consistently so people can call me anytime. ]
anyways, life is good i am enjoying it here and am looking forward to whatever happens next

My office

things have been crazy the past few days I am not even sure where to begin. First my friend justin and I were supposed to go visit another volunteer.We were put on the wrong bus and ended up in the wrong town in the middle of no where eventually we figured it out but it took about three hours longer then it should have. anyways the volunteer we visited has a real kick ass site. he works with an eco tourism organization called 27 waterfalls. Basically guides take you up the waterfalls and then you get to jump down them. We got to do twelve of them and it was absolutely amazing. It was a pretty intense experience. Monday I a found a scorpion in my bed, and by found i mean got stuck by it. Didn´t hurt that much but needless to say it was quite a shock to turn the lights on and find that sucker crawling up my mosquitero. Those suckers are difficult to kill too. Yesterday the whole group went on a beautiful hike up through some mountains to this gorgeous waterfall where we got to go swimming. That is my job right now, sure is more exciting then pushing papers. Training is slowly but surely coming to an end, I am looking forward to the day when we are in our sites and done with classes