Trainee Visit

A new group of youth volunteers (well, as of now, they are just trainees) arrived in the Dominican Republic two weeks ago, and as part of their 3-month training, all of them went to spend 4 days visiting one of us old volunteers. The purpose of the trip was for them to learn how to use public transportation, and basically just to find out what youth volunteers do and how we live.

Andrew showed up at my house on Thursday afternoon. I had been eagerly awaiting his visit, as had every single teenage girl (and some of the adult women- one woman told me that she would ditch her husband and marry Andrew) in Baoba. Up to this point, I have only had girl visitors, which made all of my teenage boys happy. But now the roles reversed, and it was my teenage girls who had the opportunity to flirt with an Americano.

It took only a few minutes after Andrew’s arrival for the visitors to start arriving. First came all of the little kids, ready to play with the new kid. And then came the teenage girls, eager for me to introduce them.

Basically I used the weekend to show Andrew how extremely tranquilo my campo life is. We sat on my porch and chatted; then we went to the neighbor’s porch to sit and chat some more. On Thursday night, we went over to Sandy’s house (the lawyer who is helping me lead the Escojo group) and he cooked dinner for us us and all of the Escojo kids. Andrew was a hit that night, teaching all of the kids a new game called Zoomie Zoomie.

On Friday, we went to the high school in the morning and wrote a few country names on the map mural that the kids and I did earlier in the summer. Andrew got to hear the school principal basically ask me for every single technological thing he could ever want. (“Lauren, could you ask America if they could send me a laptop and a printer and a scanner and a copy machine and a projector and big screen.”) In the afternoon, we met up with some other volunteers and their trainees at DuDu, the freshwater lagoon that is close to Baoba. The easier way to get there is by motor, so I asked Yan Carlos, a 16-year-old kid to take us there. He had never been, so I paid the 50 peso entrance fee for him, and he was happy to hang out with us for a couple of hours. And then on Saturday, Andrew and I trekked down to the beach with all 15 of the Escojo kids (and about 6 dogs because the boys wanted to wash them in the river/ocean), which was a TON of fun. I was a little hesitant to take all 15 kids and be responsible for all of them down at the beach, but it was definitely one of the most fun things I’ve done here in Baoba.

I don’t really work on weekends, but about 80% of my job is just hanging out with the people in Baoba, especially the youth, so I’m glad Andrew got the opportunity to see that aspect of my job. Although I think after 4 days, he was probably getting pretty bored. He said he would prefer to live and work in a larger city, and while I feel that the slow campo life is perfect for me, I definitely understand how someone else might need to live at a little faster pace.

Unfortunately, I got a stomach virus on Saturday night before Andrew left (Brandy, the 8 year boy who I shared my birthday with later told me that he had the same stomach virus on Friday, so I’m pretty sure that’s where I got it.) And Andrew called me on Sunday night to tell me that he was sick with the same stomach flu. Poor kid. But I guess I gave him a pretty accurate description of my life here – sit on porches, visit with neighbors, go to the beach, hang out with teenagers, and get the occasional illness.

And of course now I’m getting the aftermath of my first male visitor. Lots of questions about if Andrew and are dating or even married, and lots of gossip about where he slept those three nights (on a borrowed mattress on the floor in a totally separate bedroom). Pero así es la vida.