3 Month In Service Trainin

Friends,

Its been a while since I have written and I do want to apologize for it. My first three months have been pretty secluded from outside contact but I believe there will be less of that from this moment on. Tomorrow is my In service training (3 month-IST) in Santo Domingo, where I and fellow business volunteers will be presenting our community/organizational diagnostics.

I have really gone in hiding this last month simply to prepare all the data for this presentation so I must admit I am pretty nervous. I will be attaching bits and pieces of my work (its all is Spanish; sorry for those who may not understand). I hope you all like it!

I have also been busy decorating and painting my new home for my move(Pictures attached) . As soon as I return from my 3 month training I will be moving in and leaving my dear host family. I am actually very sad about it and know I may find myself lonely after getting accustomed to all the noise and busyness of the house. Its not too bad though considering I will only be a few houses away ;)

I have really bonded with my host family and community these months. I feel like one of them (especially since a good portion of the community shares my last name). They include me in everything and really make sure they know they love me and need me. Its so nice! I have made a few trips to the city and I must admit I definitely do not like leaving my community no more than a few days. Its partly because the city is a drag: Tiring, dirty and noisy. But its also cause I really miss these people.

As soon as I return from this training I will be officially allowed to begin executing a few plans for the community, the association and the Eco-lodge project itself. My first plan of action is looking for money of course. As I have mentioned before 3 of the 5 lodges are about complete but there isn't sufficient funding to complete the rest nor to construct the restaurant/office from the original project proposal. I will probably be very busy the first few weeks just writing out solicitation/grant letters and submitting them to different organizations.

While I wait for responses I hope to begin plans for building a library for the local high school. I am not 100% sure how I will be going about all that but that will be discussed during our 3 month In service training, so I will fill you all on that later.

My English class is going steady. I seem to have 2 groups of students though. One group shows up one Sunday while the other group shows the following. I tend to repeat the class twice and when they return it is as if I haven't taught anything at all. I do blame myself right now because I have not confronted the situation but I do plan on doing that as soon as I return next week to my project site.

I recently began dedicating a few minutes every morning to my neighbor, a little boy who is way behind on his reading. He currently is learning the first few letters of the Spanish alphabet although he should be well on his way to reading chapter books. His attention span is also very short, so classes can not go on for too long since he tends to drift away to another dimension. I am happy to say however that he is showing some progress although it is very slow.

For those curious to know, My little girl LULU is doing well. She is getting big but she is a doll. I love her to bits.

For those who have inquired about visiting, you are more than welcome to now. My house is now ready to be broken in.

Love you all,

M