So I arrived in Santo Domingo one week from today.  This past week was an orientation week, where I went to the host institution everyday to learn about Dominican culture, customs, transportation, and to figure out what classes I will be taking while I´m here.

First, let me give you some background.  The Dominican Republic is in the Caribbean, on an island called Hispaniola that is southeast of Cuba.  The DR is the second largest country in the Caribbean in land area.  The weather right now is like Chicago in the summer – hot and humid.  January is their coldest month, but it wouldn´t be considered cold by any stretch of the Northern American imagination.  The city has around 1 million inhabitants, lots of palm trees, tourist hotels near the waterfront, and crazy traffic.  The majority of people are of mixed Spanish and African descent, and the country´s language is, of course, spanish.

Some interesting tidbits of information:

• Because so many Dominicans emigrate to the US and because of the country´s relative proximity to the US, there are many words they use here that are actually hispanized english words.  For instance, the word for security guard is ‘guachmén’ (watchman), the word for breakfast cereal is ‘cornflé’ (corn flakes), and the word for tape is ‘téipe’. 
• Although our host mom´s wash our clothes in the washing machinefor us, everyone, especially women, have to wash their own underwear.  Usually this is done in the shower with a special bar of soap.
• They have more kinds of fruit and vegetables here than I ever thought imaginable.  Every meal I learn about a new food that does not exist in the US.
• Because of the Trujillo dictaturship which brought on a general dislike of Haitians and people of Haitian ancestry, many people in the DR claim that Dominicans are a mix of Spanish and Indigenous ancestry and deny any influence of African ancestry, even though the native Tainos were wiped out within 50 years of Columbus´s arrival.

So, what have I been up to this past week?  Well, on Tuesday I met my host family:  I have two parents, I believe they are in their early thirties, and a 4 year old brother.  My mom´s name is Carolina and she works in a stationary store. My dad´s name is Jorge and he used to work for some company but was recently laid off.  My brother´s name is Jorge Davíd, he goes to preschool and is a whole lot of fun.  I think I´m going to learn a lot of Spanish hanging out with him.  We live in an apartment complex that is about two blocks from the ocean and four blocks from my host institution, which is called FLACSO (Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, or Latin American Fellowship of Social Sciences).  I´m going to be taking 2 or 3 classes there at FLACSO, one of which includes an internship with a social development organization.  I´m taking 1 or 2 classes at a college called Bonó, which is a Jesuit institution, its all male and they are all studying to become priests.  I´m also taking 1-2 classes at ‘La UASD’ (pronounced La Woss), which is the big public university.  It has 160,000 undergrad students, and is also the oldest university in the New World.

There are 31 students on our program, all of which attend American universities.  Most are originally from the US, two were born here in the DR, and 3 are from Jamaica.  We have spent the last few days together learning how to take public transportation, selecting classes to take, and hanging out.  The public transportation is a little crazy here, but its fun.  The basic buses are called Guaguas, and have semispecific routes and semispecific stops.  Conductors hang out the door and yell where they´re going, and try to get people on.  There are also Carros Públicos which are like taxis but have specific routes and pick up passengers along the way.  There are also normal taxis that will take you anywhere.  Finally, there are a few newer buses that are like the ones we have in the States, and there is a very new underground metro train which has one line running north to south through the city – I have yet to see or ride it.

What else?  On Saturday we went to the ruins of a colonial sugar plantation, saw where Trujillo was shot, and went to a women´s house who practices a syncratic Dominican religión that is basically the combination of Catholicism with African gods, beliefs and customs.  We then spent the rest of the afternoon at a beach, and I swam in the caribbean ocean for the first time.

This next week classes at Bonó begin, and Im going to a few of the social development orgs to see which one I want to intern for.  Classes at FLACSO start on the 18th and Las Uasd doesnt start till the 25th.

Well, that was a big blob of things I´ve done and thought about since I got here.  More later of course, and feel free to ask about or discuss anything by leaving a comment below.

Love,

Jonah