Hello friends and family! I hope you all are doing well!

I am doing well here! I have been so busy I barely know where to begin in updating you…My staff and I have finally more or less set up a homey staff house. We are still working on getting some more furniture…However, we have a large shakira poster hanging on our wall which is much more of a necessity.

Just an overview of how AMIGOS works so I can better exlain what I’ve been doing:

1) Volunteers—Usually high school age kids who train over the year to spend 3 months in Central America with AMIGOS. Each country that has an AMIGOS project recieves around 50-70 volunteers. These volunteers arrive in country, receive a briefing from staff and are sent in partnerships of 2-3 to small, rural communities where they will lead youth camps covering public health topics and they will collaborate with the community to complete a small community project. In our project, we will also have Dominican vols! : )
2) Supervisors—Usually college age. These young people will be visiting 3-4 communities weekly in order to support the volunteers in whatever way they need and help them through the community project process. They will plan volunteer briefing, midterm and debriefing.
3) Senior staff—Usually college age or college graduates. There are three positions (Senior project supervisor-me, Asistant Project Director, and Project Director). As senior staff, we are the main contacts with partner agencies and we make all big decisions regarding the project. Also, we arrive a week early to set up the project logistics.

Sooo…this week Senior Staff and I planned supervisor briefing. Also, I went to the capital city to set up a briefing site. It was difficult to find, but I met a very friendly taxi driver who helped me a lot. Once I got there, I met with the nun who was about 4 feet tall and extremely kind. I hung out with her for awhile and she fed me (she was quite enthusastic about my willingness to eat anything). Then, I went to the airport to pick up the supervisors. Their plane was scheduled to come in at 740 so they arrived right on Dominican time (1230 am). We spent the night in the capital and left the next day at 5:30am to get a bus to San Juan. Anyhow, then we did briefing for the next 2 days for the supervisors and today I went to Azua to set up the medical contacts and the youth counterparts training site. It was all quite busy!

More interestingly, this place is beautiful! Every day, I look at the sharp green edges of these ancient, resting volcanoes and I am overcome with the desire to climb up into them. Everywhere I turn, there are large butterflies fluttering around gorgeous tropical flowers, celebrating color. Everywhere I walk, I see beautiful children, smiling at me with curiousity.

This is not to suggest that I am ignorant to the poverty which surrounds me as well. Some of those beautiful children beg for my pocket change.

Nevertheless, there is much beauty to be found.


I love you all and I will try to write more soon!