Meet Cohort 23–01
Education Sector — these are the funky guys and gals! What you will find are the responses to a number of interview questions asked to the newest group of volunteers in the Dominican Republic. If you’d like, you can read the interviews for CED 23–01 by clicking here.
Interviews conducted, compiled, and edited by:
Jordan Thompson, Jessica Seal, Henry Hallgren, Beatrice Mcdermott, Erin Miller, and Gavin Easley.
Special mention to Cole Christian, Palak Walia, and Molly Patten.
Aarón Carranco
Hometown: El Paso, Texas
Star Sign: Cancer
Site Province: Puerto Plata
Project Assignment: Spanish Literacy Promoter, EDU
What will you accomplish in 2 years?: There are a lot of things I hope to accomplish during these two years, but one thing I will accomplish is to transition out of the “no sabo” phase and speak Spanish fluently. This has probably been one of my hardest challenges in my life. So hopefully, by the time I come back home I can have endless conversations with my grandparents.
Weirdest thing packed: The weirdest thing I packed was a FUNKO POP of Nakia in Black Panther. I’m not exactly too sure why or how she got into my suitcase, but she has always been one of my favorite characters in marvel. The actress [Lupita N’gongo] that plays Nakia also happens to be one of my longtime crushes. So naturally of course I had to bring my wifey with me Haha. She represents standing up for your morals no matter what. Holding on to your strength, and giving help to all who need it. And I wanted to have a lil reminder of her everyday to keep going.
Funniest experience so far: I think the funniest experience so far has been seeing the reactions of my family when I give them salsa or candies from Mexico. Dominican cuisine isn’t the most spiciest food out there. When they see red it puts THE FEAR OF GOD in my family😂. Especially in my little brother, who slowly backs away from me when I bring the Valentina to the dinner table.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: It’s hard to see myself going on any dates in the future mostly because of two things. First, because it irks me how “important” it is to be with someone here in the DR. If you are a certain age and not married with kids or even dating someone, then there must be something wrong with you. For that reason, I rebel by being single and proud of it. There’s also the other factor of me being Bi. Sometimes the conversations can get really awkward and uncomfortable and I avoid it by changing the conversation and putting the bar high. I like to use the excuse of, “if she can eat a whole jalapeño then hell yea let’s go on a date.” If not, sorry maybe next time HAHA. Then, we change topics and laugh bout how much Mexicans love picante and I’m in the clear.
Disease most afraid of contracting: I’m not really sure if there is a disease I’m afraid of contracting. There’s also not a lot of diseases to contract here in the DR. But, if there is something I hate is the irritation of a dry mouth that won’t leave and will somehow fuck you up mentally and physically. That is probably one of my most feared symptoms I have.
What do you have to say about plato del dia: It’s personally not my first choice in the menu. Since I eat Dominican food everyday with my family if I do go out I try to get something a little different if possible.
#1 item on the PCDR bucket list: I want to go to Barahona and get myself sum good quality Larimar, I used to collect rocks as a kids and still have that collection today. One of the first things that struck me was these unique rare rocks that can only be found here in the DR. That and probably cliff jumping HAHA.
What do you miss from home?: I miss my car, the freedom to be able to drive whenever you want and blast songs on the highway. There is something therapeutic bout slow drives with no destination in mind and singing your heart out. Also, my moms cooking id kill for some of my moms homemade enchiladas HAHA.
Biggest fear in service: My biggest fear is losing the support system I have. I am grateful to be in a family that treats me like their own son and having the liberty and the safe space to be able to talk to them about everything. Also, my friends that I have made here who are always ready to help and support each other.
Why are you serving?: As someone who grew up around parents who are educators, I knew the importance and the value of education at a young age. Furthermore, I am one who has struggled with learning to read. Had it not been for the strong and amazing teachers I’ve had in my life I would not have made it to where I am today. This being said I serve to inspire and motivate my students to be the best person they can be and give them the tools to find what they are passionate about. Another reason is to learn and dive into a different culture and see the world thru a different lens. Doing this leads to a better understanding of the world we live and a deeper appreciation of who we are and this beautiful world we share:)
Advice to a new trainee: Find your people! When asked to try something new, always say yes. Believe in yourself you got this🙏🏼Push yourself out of your comfort zone, the reward is worth it.
Bea
Hometown: Bethesda, MD
Star sign: Cancer
Site Province: Monte Plata
Project Assignment: EDU literacy
What you will accomplish in 2 years: Hopefully teach some kids how to read
Weirdest thing packed: MP3 player
Funniest experience: Accidentally joining a travel volleyball team
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: Abysmal
Disease most afraid of contracting: Parasites
What do you have to say about plato del día: Enough is enough
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Hike pico duarte
What do you miss from home?: My dogs and bagels
Biggest fear of service: Cacatas
Why are you serving: Because I always knew I wanted to volunteer before I start a career
Advice to a new trainee: Take time for yourself and self care. Pack more weather appropriate clothing, it’s hotter than you think it will be
Bri
Hometown: Chicago, IL
Star sign: Sagittarius
Site province: Hato Mayor
Project assignment: Educación
What you will accomplish in two years: I will accomplish being fluent in Dominican Spanish
Weirdest thing packed: Didn’t pack anything weird
Funniest experience: Funniest experience would be seeing a lizard taking a nap on my fan in my bedroom.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Love life doesn’t exist here for me haha
Disease most afraid of contracting: Any disease I can catch from a mosquito bite
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: To visit Samana — a lot of PCVs tell me to visit
What do you miss from home: I miss my family and my nail tech
Biggest fear of service: Not feeling like I made a change in the community.
Advice to a new trainee: bring more lounge clothes than you think you will need. It’s hot here
Candice Partlow
Hometown: Mishawaka, IN
Star sign: Leo
Site province: Independenica
Project assignment: EDU
What you will accomplish in two years: Motivate and teach students to read
Weirdest thing packed: My shoe cleaning kit
Funniest experience: My host family thought it was hilarious that I thought “berenjenas” meant “remolachas”. I mean, both purple, right?
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Will be as single as a Pringle
Disease most afraid of contracting: I’m more scared about being pinched by a scorpion or bitten by a centipede than getting a disease.
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: It’s cheap but not a foodie meal
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Ride a horse in my site
What do you miss from home: My CrossFit box and A/C
Biggest fear of service: That my Spanish will never advance
Why are you serving: I love to travel and experience different cultures from a non-tourist perspective
Advice to a new trainee: Stay positive and don’t compare yourself to others. You deserve to be here, and you’ll discover how to accomplish tasks in your own way.
Cole Christian
Hometown: Encinitas, California
Star sign: Taurus
Site Province: Bahoruco
Project Assignment: EDU
What you will accomplish in 2 years: Improve literacy rates and my ping pong skills
Weirdest thing packed: tiny hands!
Funniest experience: This week I believe I contracted some type of mosquito borne illness and my family happened to decide it was time to replace the door of our one shared bathroom. For two days there was no door while I had constant diarrhea, you could see from the toilet to the kitchen.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: survive my LDR and get wifed up si Dios quiere
Disease most afraid of contracting: malaria or HPV
What do you have to say about plato del dia: pretty yummy
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: surf in Cabarete
What do you miss from home?: Target, Amazon prime, cvs (corporate America lol)
Biggest fear of service: ETing
Why are you serving: I met a Peace Corps volunteer in high school who really inspired to be here and be my best self.
Advice to a new trainee: send it
Dianne
Hometown: Chicago
Star sign: Pisces, Scorpio rising
Site Province: Monte Plata
Project Assignment: Education, promote literacy
What you will accomplish in 2 years: In my pueblito’s school, all 1st — 5th graders with the capability will be able to read and write and that some will discover or enhance their love of reading. More importantly, a culture and practice will be developed for systematic, scientifically based approach to teach literacy in the primary grades. Also, I’m especially going to work alongside the hembras to remind them of their power in those cases where they may have been told otherwise.
Weirdest thing packed: a pharmacy of essential oils, teas, and spices to use as medicine (and flavor)
Funniest experience: so many due to my language insufficiencies. Yesterday, I told my Doña that for her special day, a single mom on Father’s Day, I added “mosca,” her favorite, to our coffee. Only realizing 5 minutes later, I meant to say “nuez moscada” We were cracking up!
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: My prognosis: nada, just me and whoever I’m dancing bachata with in that moment, ay papi! Nothing more.
Disease most afraid of contracting: Dengue
What do you have to say about plato del dia: Depends who made it- it can be a 10 or a zero (within the same family!)
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Make at least one, real, authentic new friend in my community.
What do you miss from home? Food — homemade corn tortillas, tacos al pastor, The diversity of the world’s people and water that flows regularly and that I can drink. And my daughter, yes, my daughter too.
Biggest fear of service: Nothing sustainable will be generated from my service.
Why are you serving: To learn a lot of new things; I want to grow and develop. And it may sound weird, but this country has been calling me for several years. It seems like I need to learn something here and / or offer something. Probably both. I listened to my heart.
Advice to a new trainee: Strive to be flexible and humble and endlessly patient, with yourself and everyone else. Not a platitude, for real.
Erin Miller
Hometown: Bainbridge Island, Washington
Star Sign: Capricorn
Site Province: San Cristóbal
Project Assignment: Education: Literacy Promoter
What will you accomplish in 2 years?: I hope to help some kids, it doesn’t have to be all the kids, to be able to read and to like reading. That’s the big goal for the two years. And personally, for myself, I would like to become part of the community in which I live and create something that is sustainable — something that will help kids be able to read and like reading even after I leave.
Weirdest thing you packed: I don’t know if it’s weird, but I packed a little stuffed cow.
Funniest experience: A time I really wanted to giggle was when I was interviewing a tiny student about if he wanted to go to the library or read, and he replied “fi fie fo fum” very seriously. It was so funny.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: I’m in a long-term, long-distance, low-commitment casual relationship
Disease most afraid of contracting: Oh, did I take [REDACTED] pills this morning? I think so. But honestly scabies scare the shit out of me.
What do you have to say about plato del dia: I friggin’ love the plato del dia. I think it’s got everything you need and it has great flavors. It always hits the spot for me. And don’t even get me started on tostones. I seriously think I could just eat those for the rest of my life.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: I want someone to seriously tell me that I am officially “aplatanada.”
What do you miss from home?: I miss my dog and my family and friends, even though I’ve made new family and friends here. I really miss going for nature walks in the forest.
Biggest fear of service: That’s a hard one because it’s not something I’ve really thought of. I think it’s not being able to accomplish my goals in two years. But maybe if I don’t accomplish them, something new that’s just as worthwhile will come up.
Why are you serving: Service has always been important to me. I was fortunate to grow up with a good public education in the US, so I’ve always felt this internal drive to try and provide services to others, especially in education, and make education accessible for everyone. The literacy promoter position really called to me because reading and writing are some of my biggest passions — becoming a reader can help you learn more about the world and about yourself and change your life. To be able to help promote that anywhere is a dream of mine.
Advice to a new trainee: Be patient with yourself, in everything you do. Be patient with your mental state because you’re going to have good days and bad days. But remember what brought you here and remember that when you’re having a bad day. Give yourself space to be who you are and shine the way you shine. It’s all worthwhile but sometimes you just have to be patient.
Gabrielle Thompson
Hometown: Columbus OH
Star sign: sorry I don’t believe in star signs
Site Province: Hato Mayor
What you will accomplish in 2 years: hopefully to successfully help at least one child learn to read but if anything grow as a person and leave a positive impact on my site.
Weirdest thing packed: aloe Vera juice
Funniest experience: the first week of training with everyone.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: a lot of piropo but nothing more😂
What do you have to say about plato del dia: depends on the day
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: horseback riding
What do you miss from home?: the food, my friends, and my family
Biggest fear of service: it gets so bad that I go home.
Why are you serving: upon graduating I didn’t know what my next step was aside from business school. I knew that I wanted to do something that would allow me to help others and get a priceless life experience. peace corps was the best fit now I’m here!
Advice to a new trainee: 1. Leave your expectations in the U.S. 2. When they say “ this is the hardest job you will ever love” believe them emphasis on the hardest. 3. Peace Corps or even life in general is like a heart monitor. Without the highs and lows you will flatline. you have to enjoy life when it’s good, and when the lows come just know you can’t get to the highs without them and keep pushing.
Henry Hallgren
Hometown: Omaha
Star Sign: Aquarius
Province: Bahoruco
Future Accomplishments: I’d really like to change the literacy approach at my school to focus on phonics and decoding. I’m aware that I’m basically asking my teachers to take on a whole extra style of teaching beyond MINERD’S requirements, but the upside for the kids is something that compels me to be that ambitious.
Weirdest thing packed: I brought a Liverpool jersey (favorite soccer team) that was basically cursed. The player on the shirt had been injured all season, and it was an away jersey and the team was terrible away all season.
Funniest experience: I’m probably the only one who thinks this but me talking about how rough things were with the program director and a couple other people at my site with me laughing hysterically and them trying to comfort me.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Did you ask the other volunteers that? But on a serious note, I can’t fathom dating at the current moment. It’s not like it couldn’t work, it’s just that my site is small and remote, and other options don’t look great either.
Disease most afraid: Chikunguya
What do you have to say about plato del dia: honestly, with wet beans and lechuga like we get at the Peace Corps offices I love it. Huge upgrade from what I’ve been getting fed here at site
Bucket list: I want to ride a [REDACTED] and I want to go to [REDACTED]. Basically the two cool things on our forbidden list. If you think PC staff are gonna read this though, I want to climb Pico Duarte.
What do I miss from home: I miss watching soccer games at the bar. That was a big social outlet for me.
Biggest Fear: getting separated or moved out of site for doing something wrong at site.
Why am I serving: honestly, the Peace Corps DR ticked a lot of boxes for things that I wanted to do in the next couple of years. Go abroad, work in a job that directly helped people, learn Spanish, set myself up with some future opportunities.
Advice for new trainees: advocate for yourself and keep doing so if you get the cold shoulder at first. Host family situations are always tougher than you’re told they’re going to be. Run your own race. Everyone’s experience is going to be different so don’t go crazy comparing yourself to your fellow volunteers.
Jessica
Hometown: New Orleans
Star sign: Aquarius
Site province: San Cristóbal
Project assignment: Literacy promotion
What you will accomplish in two years: I want to see improved literacy rates in my kids, by doing tutoring sessions with primarily 3ro, but also with any kids who need extra help.
Weirdest thing packed: my archery whistle, it’s like a normal whistle but fun, I’m archery certified and it’s a really nice whistle and it’s actually been very useful at camps.
Funniest experience: I went to buy a treat for a friend’s birthday to surprise her, but we didn’t clarify with what we were looking for, only meaning to buy one slice, but she made an entire cake and personally decorated the entire thing. But a bigger cake is not a bad thing.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: based on the experience so far it looks like I’ll be rejecting tigueres for two years, so a lonely prognosis for them. But my relationship with peanut butter is very strong.
Disease most afraid of contracting: honestly malaria
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: it’s solid, you’re gonna get sick of it, I eat it every day and it’s fine, but if it had more variety I wouldn’t be mad.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: climbing Pico Duarte, and doing all of the adventurey things in general. Also scuba diving.
What do you miss from home: White cheddar popcorners, but my sister sent me some in the mail. I also miss having the freedom to cook whatever I want to cook for myself.
Biggest fear of service: feeling like I’m not accomplishing what I want to accomplish, or not seeing markers of progress in my students. I’m confident things will work out, but there’s always that fear when you start a new job.
Why are you serving: I was a Spanish major in college with plans to study abroad, but the program was canceled because of COVID, and I didn’t really know what to do after graduation. I wanted to become truly fluent in the language and was considering a few different international experience options, but the mission of the Peace Corps really resonated with me, and the job of Literacy Promoter is really important.
Advice to a new trainee: pay attention during training, but take everything with a grain of salt, because real life as a volunteer isn’t necessarily the same as during training. And talk to current volunteers because they will help you understand more than is possible in the normal classroom.
Jordan Thompson
Hometown: San Bernardino, CA
Star sign: Cancer
Site province: Monte Plata
Project assignment: Education, Primary Spanish Literacy Promoter
What you will accomplish in two years: Maybe I will figure out what the vaina is.
Weirdest thing packed: My spondonicle. If you know you know.
Funniest experience: This isn’t really funny, but an extremely messed up goat was brought to our back yard to “sanar”. They told me not to look at it because of how bad it was, but against better judgment I looked. Then they sprayed something that looked like chrome spray paint on it. I still think about it to this day. But the goat is kind of getting better now.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Married to an amazing woman named Molly.
Disease most afraid of contracting: Dengue fever
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: Fantastic, but needs aguacate.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Go to [REDACTED]
What do you miss from home: High speed internet and cold coffee
Biggest fear of service: Community members having the wrong idea about me or why I’m here.
Why are you serving: To learn Spanish and do something that matters.
Advice to a new trainee: Make sure you are here for your own reasons. Question things that the office tells you. Spend all of your energy making friends at site. And before departing, unless you are a Spanish native speaker you should study Spanish as much as you can.
Lucy
Hometown: Cazenovia, NY
Star sign: Taurus
Site Province: Bahoruco
Project Assignment: Spanish Literacy Promoter
What you will accomplish in 2 years: Hopefully, I will teach lots of kids to read! And provide some ideas and strategies for teaching literacy to teachers that’ll last long after I leave. I will learn a lot about this country and its culture and hopefully form strong relationships with people who I will continue to visit after 2 years. Lastly, I will learn every unique Dominican word, like tacano and paloma.
Weirdest thing packed: Marcus Smart Celtics jersey. Traded 4 months into service.
Funniest experience: I feel like every day something ridiculous happens (my host mom trying to give me bras that are 4x my boob size, waking up every morning to a symphony of goats screaming at each other at 6am, my 3 year old host sister trying to teach me to dance like Karol G) but they tend to be “kinda need to be there moments”. But I will do my best to choose one experience that may be relatable and funny just through reading about it!
I don’t know what I ate that morning, but I was in the middle of singing Sonidos Iniciales (a little song to teach kids that letters have names and sounds!!!) with 8 kids when I immediately had to shit. We had just gotten to “r” and had 3 more columns left of letters. But there was simply no way I was making it to “w — wifi”. So I told every kid to sit down and write every letter they see on the Sonidos Iniciales poster in their notebooks, sprinted to the bathroom, made it happen, and when I came back, every kid was still just sitting calmly, writing the letters in their notebook. Thank god the school system here has drilled into these kids how to copy down things they see on the board because I did not have one more second to spare explaining what they should do during my absence. All worked out!!
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: None
Disease most afraid of contracting: Ummmm i don’t even know if this happens here but I’m afraid of swimming in some body of water and having a parasite enter my body through my vagina….
What do you have to say about plato del dia: Feels like every restaurant in the world should have one.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Lameeeee but Pico Duarte obviously. ORRRR I cook for some Dominicans and without me asking for it they hit me with “ya te puedes casar” even though it’s obviously very sexist … I think I would feel I’d feel pretty good about the food I cooked.
What do you miss from home?: Family … friends … my dog … the ability to cook eggs on low heat … throwing all of my clothes regardless of color into a washing machine and 45 minutes later throwing it all into a drying machine … the ability to understand what everyone is saying … the ability to walk outside without being catcalled (#subtlebrag) … drinking water from a sink … washing one dish at a time … throwing everything on my bed without having to move a mosquito next first … wearing contacts … existing between the hours of 11–4 without sweat dripping down my back …
Biggest fear of service: Ummmm death ? I am not sure. That is obviously a dramatic fear but if I really had to share my biggest fear it would be that????
Why are you serving: I believe in the power of education to help change lives. I want to understand what international development through education looks like on a realistic day-to-day basis and learn how I can best spend the rest of my life working to improve the lives of people around me.
Advice to a new trainee: Enjoy every mango
Mari
Hometown: Arlington, Va
Star sign: Capricorn
Site Province: Independencia
Project Assignment: education
What you will accomplish in 2 years: learn everyone’s names. Teach kids to read. Organize the books at the local community center and hopefully get it running as a library.
Weirdest thing packed: 5 pounds of dried mango (yes, there’s plenty of fresh mango available too, but you never know)
Funniest experience: I lost my voice for a few days and the kids forgot that I could still hear even if I couldn’t speak. We played some very funny charades where no one understood anything.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: in real life, zero. But ask Zoe for the stories.
Disease most afraid of contracting: dengue
What do you have to say about plato del dia: como poco
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Isla Cabritos or Pico Duarte
What do you miss from home?: circus
Biggest fear of service: the centipedes
Why are you serving: I wanted to live somewhere else, improve my Spanish, and I’m very passionate about literacy.
Advice to a new trainee: Tell everyone you go to bed at 8pm. And then either actually go to sleep (at 8pm. Not kidding.) or take some much-needed you time. It’s worth it.
Matthew Mason
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Star sign: Cancer
Site province: El Seibo
Project assignment: EDU
What you will accomplish in two years: Aside from the literacy objectives, my goal is to always be approachable and encouraging with the students I work with. I want to ensure that the students know that I won’t shame them for wanting to learn.
Weirdest thing packed: I brought a Panda Express gift card with me. Why? I have literally no idea. There is not a Panda Express in this country.
Funniest experience: One of the funniest things that’s happened was during training when I was giving a presentation about our observations of the school in Doña Ana. At the end, one of the evaluators asked me what I would do if I was a teacher in the school. My response that I would find new ways to “engage” the students. Now this presentation was in Spanish, and in a moment of panic, I assumed the Spanish word for engage was “engañar.” As I now know, engañar means “to trick” and so my response was that I would find new ways to trick the students. When the Spanish teachers told me what I had said, we could not stop laughing.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Love life prognosis? Complicated til 2025 baby!!
Disease most afraid of contracting: Forgetting who I am!
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: I actually love the plato del día. Especially when it’s served with an ensaladita and a few tostones. Count me in!
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: I want to hike Pico Duarte while I’m here.
What do you miss from home: I miss my family/friends, driving, and going to Waffle House at 2am with my siblings.
Biggest fear of service: My biggest fear is that I won’t appreciate my time here. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in deadlines or completing tasks without stopping to enjoy life for what it is. So that’s something I am being more conscious about.
Why are you serving: I am serving because I believe that the ability to read is one of the most powerful skills someone can have. Being here is an incredible opportunity to not only contribute to these students’ ability to read Spanish, but to contribute to their ability to learn and question and argue and write and criticize in the future. I believe the world will be better off because of that.
Advice to a new trainee: My advice to a new trainee is to cherish the friendships made during training. When you go to your permanent site, it helps so much to have those friends you can send voice notes to when you are having a tough week or just want to hear a familiar voice. It makes a world of difference.
Mike
Mike, an invaluable member of the team and a rock for the EDU sector has passed on to join his family in Scranton Pennsylvania. — Henry
Molly
Hometown: Bedford, NH
Star sign: Virgo
Site Province: Monte Plata
Project Assignment: Education
What you will accomplish in 2 years: The dream is to be fluent in Spanish and support the literacy abilities of students at the school. I’d also love to travel as much as I can in the DR.
Weirdest thing packed: Muscle Roller, no regrets on this, it folds in half so it was easy to pack.
Funniest experience: There are so many moments of crying laughter during this experience, but none of them sound remotely funny now. All of the hilarity was fueled by exhaustion and delusion.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: Fingers crossed, still fake married (maybe real married, idk ask Jordan?).
Disease most afraid of contracting: Malaria, anything chronic scares me.
What do you have to say about plato del dia: I appreciate it, it is a solidly well-rounded meal. Once I started cooking for myself, getting a vegetarian plato del dia is such a treat.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Feeling really confident in my Spanish
What do you miss from home?: The ease of every day life. The small things (like laundry, dishes, showering) take a lot more energy here and sometimes makes it hard to feel motivated to get stuff done.
Biggest fear of service: Letting my fears/anxieties get in the way of accomplishing my goals or connecting with people.
Why are you serving: In short, my life goals aligned with opportunities in service, also I was ready for an adventure.
Advice to a new trainee: Find something you can do or someone you can talk to that makes you feel like yourself. We are asked to wear so many hats: integrating into a new culture, school, community, and family and it’s easy to lose yourself in these expectations.
Sadie Tournour
Hometown: Chicago
Star sign: Aries
Site province: Monte Plata
Project assignment: Edu volunteer Spanish Literacy Promoter
What you will accomplish in two years: I will have taught some students how to read, and help teachers at my school develop new strategies for teaching literacy, and also involve parents in their children’s literacy journey.
Weirdest thing packed: A former co-worker, as a gag gift, gave me a framed photo of herself. There was a photo of my family underneath but I just left it. So I have a framed picture of my co-worker Pam, our old office manager, and I laugh every time I see it.
Funniest experience: Crazy shirts I see people wearing in English and they have no idea what they say, they probably bought them in a PACA. The other day I had a landlord show me a prospective apartment, who was wearing a shirt that said “Local Bitch” and I had to keep a straight face the entire time. Another time when I was running I saw an older woman also working out with a shirt that said “I Get Around, Kiss Kiss”
Disease most afraid of contracting: Leptospirosis, when I studied abroad in Costa Rica I had a professor who almost died of Leptospirosis and that was really scary, and I don’t think they covered it at all during our medical training. A couple years ago in my site there was a 23 year old who died of Leptospirosis so that’s the one that scares me the most.
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: It gets the job done.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: There’s a lot of places I want to visit, I can’t pick just one.
What do you miss from home: Mexican food
Why are you serving: I’ve always wanted to be a PCV but I also wanted the experience of living abroad in a Spanish speaking country to improve my Spanish, and also do something meaningful while I was living abroad. I feel like the Peace Corps is a great platform to do that, and to make connections with people.
Advice to a new trainee: I don’t have any advice.
Zoe
Hometown: Kennewick, WA
Star sign: Virgo
Site Province: Barahuco
Project Assignment: Education
What you will accomplish in 2 years: Hopefully improve my Spanish, teach some kids how to read, and make some lasting friendships. Definitely set a world record for sunburns, eat my weight in rice, and forget what it feels like to be cold.
Weirdest thing packed: Picture printer — it uses Bluetooth to print out pictures that look like Polaroids.
Funniest experience: Once during training I was sad because I didn’t know much Spanish and it’s hard to communicate with people. My doña upon learning this called all the neighbor kids over and told them that they needed to help me learn. They proceeded to try and point at/act out Spanish words for me. They started so simple that they were “teaching” words I clearly already knew since I’d been using them. They’d shout “La Mesa!” or “el lápiz” and touch the table or pencil. They also loved “teaching” me the verb caer by falling to the ground in a very dramatic fashion (they did that one multiple times). It was very cute!
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: Provided by Kindle Unlimited.
Disease most afraid of contracting: Dengue fever
What do you have to say about plato del dia: It would be fine if it wasn’t every day.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Attend a big carnaval festival.
What do you miss from home?: My cat Bert.
Biggest fear of service: Getting on the wrong guagua and ending up in a different region of the country. And centipedes.
Why are you serving: I wanted to challenge myself, work with kids, and experience another country.
Advice to a new trainee: Don’t be afraid to ask for help and don’t forget to have fun with it!
Did you enjoy this article? Make sure to check out what other Peace Corps Dominican Republic volunteers are saying in Your Daily Vívere! You can view the cohort introduction for CED 23–01 here.
