La Planificación y el hospedaje

It's been a looooong week already, and its only Wednesday. Week One has been so much more than cultural and linguistic adaptation. We have done so much leg work for our project this week. Working with the budget to figure out how many research assistants we can afford to hire, how we can manage transportation to far-off field sites logistically and financially. We have been meeting with people at the university, the local ministry of health office. Formulating our project summary to communicate it the 'Dominican way' has taken up the better part of the last couple days.

Next steps in la planificación involve meeting the Haitian and Dominican research assistant candidates, spelling out our expectations in contracts for them to sign, training them in our research protocol, involving them in the translation of our survey materials and piloting surveys, interviews, etc. in communities similar to the ones in which we'll actually collect data.

Beyond work, there hasn't been much. We're planning to go out on the town on Friday to despedir (say farewell) to the Emory nursing students that have been here for the last two weeks. Hearing bachata blasting from all the colmados (corner stores) and restaurants has made me so antsy to dance, and busting a move in the middle of the street would definitely draw more stares than I'm already getting here as a rubia with ojos azules. My blue eyes seem to be quite the novelty here. Dancing on Friday por fin. Excited to learn from some of the best dancers in the world.

Home stay accommodations are pretty basic, but good. Its a crapshoot whether water is running in the house. If the toilet doesn't flush, just pour some water in it. If water doesn't come out of the sink, fill up a glass of drinking water from the botellón (the big bottle) and brush your teeth and wash your face. I have so far had luck with the shower, so I don't yet know how to shower when the water isn't running, but I'll cross that bridge when I get there.

My host mom is really sweet. She was very reserved at first, but has warmed much in the last couple days. I'm sharing a room with another American student (E) who is doing a nursing internship at the local hospital. We went out for a beer last night, and our host mom (A) came into our room, took one look at my roommate's outfit and said 'No. Espérate' (No. Wait.), and ran into the other room to grab more tight-fitting shirts for E to try on. A also went through all of E's clothes to see if she had brought anything appropriate for going out and proceeded to brush her hair as she dressed herself. It was pretty funny.

My initial impression of the house (the water situation, the size of the house, etc.) made me think that the family was of pretty limited means, but today I learned that my host mom sends both of her kids to private school. My naïvete, I guess. Wealth is all relative, really, and I get the sense that the use of bottled water (as well as the unreliability of piped water and electricity) is pretty pervasive here. There's a truck that goes by everyday, blasting some crazy song about agua, with a bed full of bottles, delivering them to houses and taking empty ones away. 

In summary, I'm doing well, acostumbrándome, and excited to dig deeper into our research as well as Dominican culture. Operating in Spanish gets easier with each passing day, and its thrilling to be learning and improving again. We'll see how long it takes for me to consistently start dropping my S's (an important aspect of the Dominican accent) and pick up the local vocabulary. It's all very thrilling and exciting!