Meet Cohort 23–01
Community Economic Development edition!
Now THAT’S CED! 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 EDU 23–01 by clicking here.
Interviews conducted, compiled, and edited by:
Gavin Easley, Jordan Thompson, Jessica Seal, Beatrice McDermott, Erin Miller, Palak Walia, and Meg Cirii.
Big chelle
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Star sign: Virgo
Site Province: Monte Plata
Project Assignment: Community and Economic Development
What you will accomplish in 2 years: I think something I will accomplish in 2 years is understanding how I learn and how that will affect other people in making more positive outcomes for them. The only way you can teach if you know your own way of learning. Also, the main reason I’m here is to help my community get from A to B. I will accomplish how to learn — what that looks like for myself in order to help others. I am excited to accomplish learning how I learn so I can grow and adapt to my new life.
Weirdest thing packed: I don’t think I brought anything weird but I wish I brought my teddy bear. I’m 24 but I am dependent on that teddy bear and I regret not bringing it. I also brought black pepper with me. Someone told me that bringing your spices from home makes you feel like you’re bringing home with you, so I brought spice. I also have a full-on makeup kit.
Funniest experience: When we were at the ranch with the pool (during training) I was walking around with this giant hole in my pants and you could see my entire butt and no one said anything. I was just walking around all day with my whole butt to see.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: Shambles
I am a hot commodity. I can’t go anywhere without someone asking why I don’t have a boyfriend or I’m not married. It’s just the hottest topic of conversation.
Disease most afraid of contracting: Cholera. Oh yeah, I am terrified of that because I already have a diarrhea problem. I once pooped myself on the plane coming back from India. So my biggest fear is cholera.
What do you have to say about plato del dia: I eat so much rice and chicken. I’m going to be fat, that’s what I think, I’m going to be fat. You’re going to see my face next to “gorda” in the dictionary.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Ride a horse through a campo.
What do you miss from home?: FOOD. I am craving some curry chicken real bad. I also miss my mom and my dog a lot. I didn’t realize how dependent I was on them. I call my mom like 4 times a day just to check in with her and the dogs. Does that mean I don’t love my dad? No, I do, but he’s not as fun to talk to. I love him though, he’s a good guy.
Biggest fear of service: Failure, honestly. Not just personal failure, just to know I didn’t reach one person in my community. Outside of my community and my job, my biggest fear is spiders. I make my doña kill them. It’s a bonding experience. They’re so scary.
Why are you serving: I have always been very interested in human services, so social work and things like that. I have always been very passionate about that, and getting that human to human contact all the time. So I went looking for it and the rest is history! I wanted to serve others and I wanted to travel and now here I am!
Advice to a new trainee: To always be very open to the changes that you’re going to be going through. Always stay open-minded, as open-minded and flexible as you can be. Being here is not 123, it’s always a roller coaster and very abstract. Also, tranquilo.
Brandon Massey-Wilson
Hometown: West Philly
Star sign: Virgo
Site province: Azua
Project assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in two years: Advance my Spanish
Weirdest thing packed: Voodoo doll
Funniest experience: College
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Married with kids
Disease most afraid of contracting: HIV
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: 🤷🏾♂️
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: 🤷🏾♂️
What do you miss from home: XBOX 1
Biggest fear of service: Not finishing
Why are you serving: To give back and enhance my career
Advice to a new trainee: Take advantage and talk to everyone
Carolina Velez
Hometown: Los Angeles, CA
Star sign: Scorpio
Site province: El Seibo
Project assignment: Community Economic Development
What you will accomplish in two years: If I can make one persons life better before the end of service that’s enough for me. I’m not here to save the world.
Weirdest thing packed: My baby blanket
Funniest experience: My host mom cooks lunch everyday and we have started a small little lunch club (my doña, her daughter in law, a couple cousins and myself) that get together everyday at the same time to eat and spill the tea. The constant chisme, bickering and bad mouthing has had to be some of the moments I have laughed the hardest since arriving at site.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Soltera y sin compromiso
Disease most afraid of contracting: Damn…probably all of them
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: Arroz blanco con habichuelas all day everyday
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Saona Island
What do you miss from home?: My family
Biggest fear of service: Being away from home if something unpredictable happens to someone I love
Why are you serving: I’m serving with the purpose to spread more love and light. Leave people a little happier than I found them.
Advice to a new trainee: Appreciate the little things. On your best days those small things will be euphoric and on your harder days they will serve as a reminder that this experience is once in a life time and won’t last forever.
Christal Ramírez
Hometown: Orlando Florida
Star sign: Capricorn
Site province: San José de Ocoa
Project assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in two years: What I hope to accomplish in 2 years is to build lifelong friendships and leave a memorable and valuable mark in my community.
Weirdest thing packed: My big makeup mirror with lights.
Funniest experience: Finding out my host mom was having an affair and the wife of the guy she was with found out and came and confronted her at the house while I was there.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Single
Disease most afraid of contracting: Any STI.
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: Still not tired of arroz habichuelas ensalada y carne I think I can live of this for the rest of my life but SOOOOOO tired of salami and víveres.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Las terrenas in Semana. But also Cabrera, nagua, sosua, cabarete, monte cristi, miches, Bahia de las Aguilas, punta rucia, puerto plata, Río San Juan, isla soana.
What do you miss from home: Being in my living room and watching tv on my couch with A/C. And my dog.
Biggest fear of service: Getting to a place where I would want to leave. Getting assaulted.
Why are you serving: To learn about the country my family is from. To experience what it’s like to live in another part of the world. To help make a difference in my community.
Advice to a new trainee: It’s very important to have patience and to be open minded. I came into this with no expectations and I think that was the best thing for me.
Don Louis Miguel
Hometown: Orlando Florida
Star sign: Leo
Site province: Seibo
Project assignment: Community Economic Development, CED.
What you will accomplish in two years: Be fluent in Spanish, be an excellent dancer of Bachata, Merengue and Salsa, and make life long friends.
Weirdest thing packed: Electric water boiler.
Funniest experience: During Semana Santa I had several host cousins offered to me as novias. I swiftly denied and fled the scene before wedding arrangements could be made.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Si Dios Quiere.
Disease most afraid of contracting: No fear of disease.
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: Tengo un caballo de buena boca.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Pico Duarte.
What do you miss from home: My dog Dover.
Biggest fear of service: Not making an impact.
Why are you serving: Service to others is the only thing that truly brings me joy, and I want to be fluent in Spanish.
Advice to a new trainee: Don’t try to rush anything, just enjoy the process.
Flynn
Hometown: Boulder, CO
Star sign: Pisces
Site province: Peravia
Project assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in two years: I’m aiming to become a master merengue dancer, domino player, and Spanish speaker. And help people with accounting or whatever
Weirdest thing packed: I packed very light and didn’t bring anything weird. Or half the things I should have brought really
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Fathering a brood of Dominican children, si dios quiere
Disease most afraid of contracting: Gingivitis
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: Honestly can’t get enough. Miss it every day I don’t get it
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Seeing DJ Adonis
What do you miss from home: Mainly not sweating through three shirts a day
Biggest fear of service: Not accomplishing anything in my community, and feeling like this was a waste of time
Why are you serving: It seemed like an adventure, and I think I would like to work in development long term. I thought it seemed like a great opportunity to get to experience life in a new country, and hopefully gain some experience and insight about this kind of work
Advice to a new trainee: Pick up bachata as soon as possible, people absolutely love to see a gringo dancing
Gavin Easley
Hometown: I have no true hometown given that I have moved states and/or countries every one to three years of my life. I have become accustomed to answering this question as: “My home is where I lay my head”.
Star Sign: Scorpio
Site Province: San José de Ocoa!
Project Assignment: Community Economic Development (CED) with Peace Corps DR cohort 23–01.
What I will accomplish in two years: In my two years here in the DR I shall accomplish: the successful facilitation of skill transfer to my students and community members, the act of inspiring the youth in my community to think big and plan effectively to achieve their goals and dreams, an in-depth understanding of Dominican culture and customs, a significant improvement in my spanish speaking and comprehension abilities, and a successful bulk.
Weirdest thing that I packed: The “weirdest” thing that I packed to bring with me is a three-way tie between my fingerboards, my assortment of tactical gear, and my steamer.
My love life prognosis for the next two years: I am currently engaged to an incredible woman who resides in the United States. Accordingly, my prognosis is: lots of phone calls, visits as often as possible, and a potential elopement.
Disease that I am the most afraid of contracting: As someone who has lived the majority of their life in Africa dodging malaria, denge, yellow fever, cholera, and giardia I am not too concerned with mosquitos or contaminated water. Thus, that which I am most afraid of, which is less of a disease and is more of a reaction (though nonetheless justifiably frightening) is culturally-force-fed wheat, dairy products, or beer. Those that know me will know why.
What do I have to say about plato del día: 1. It’s often cheap, and therefore; 2. Take what you can get, as you never know when your next meal may be or what it will consist of.
#1 Item on my PCDR bucket list: Hiking Pico Duarte!
What do I miss from home: Aside from the traditional response of family and friends, I miss my local skatepark and range, I miss overlanding and camping, I miss bumper plates and fully equipped rigs, I miss having an easily accessible movie theater, I miss my hairy kids, I miss 511, I miss Walmart, and I miss all my toys and gear which didn’t make the weight limit.
My biggest fear of service: That I’ll have to climb a high hill to access it.
Why I am serving: Person to person aid is my passion, and that which entails a focus on developing nations is of particular importance to me. Therefore, after everything that I have been given in my life simply because of my nationality, I am serving to do my part to give back in any way that I can.
Advice that I would give to a new PC trainee: I would encourage them to remember that they won’t change the world but they can change one person’s life, and that is a magical opportunity to possess. The PC is merely your ticket in. What you make of service, however, is entirely up to you. It is an immense privilege to be a Peace Corps volunteer. Recall the famous words of uncle Ben, and I don’t mean the boxed rice brand.
Guy
(My friend Guy concluded his time with Peace Corps in PST. In my few weeks of getting to spend time with Guy, walking around in circles within the walls of jesus jail no. 1, I learned about what resilience and bravery look like, and also that there’s some truly impressive and kind people out there. Wishing him the best. — Jordan)
Jake
Hometown: Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Star sign: Virgo, but I couldn’t tell you anything about them. More of a free will kinda guy. Have y’all read the poem Invictus? That shit gets me fired up
Site Province: Monte Plata
Sector: CED
What you will accomplish in 2 years: Probably a lot. Or nothing. Idk.
Weirdest thing packed: a sweatshirt 🥵
Funniest experience: Depends on who all is going to read this I suppose lol. But one time at the gym I was stung on the arm by a couple of wasps while exploring a run down cock fighting ring at the back of the compound. Before I got home rumor had spread across the community and by that time the story was I’d been stung in the eye and was gravely injured. My host mom was horrified until I assured her several times I was completely fine. The chisme is strong in the campo.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: I’m currently with a very cute, thoughtful, intelligent Dominican. We’ll see where it goes 🤷
Disease most afraid of contracting: I’ll be alright.
What do you have to say about plato del día: Yes.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: I really want to see turtles hatch. And then watch as they wobble, tumble and crawl to the ocean.
What do you miss from home: Snowboarding, friends, Mexican food, a climate controlled gym, my dad.
Biggest fear of service: Having a child.
Why are you serving: To experience a new culture. To travel. To learn Spanish. To use my education and experience to teach something of value. To inspire somebody or let them inspire me. To be constantly uncomfortable and be better for it.
Advice to a new trainee: Try everything twice.
Lauren Blanding
Hometown: Woodbury, Minnesota
Star sign: Leo
Site province: Azua
Project assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in two years: Becoming fluent in Spanish
Weirdest thing packed: Tapioca powder.
Funniest experience: On night in June, I was sitting out in my front porch with my host mom in azua and one of my students goes by in the back of the Moro and yells “teachers and I don’t see him and all I hear is “how are youuuu”
And this other time
It was a rainy day in august and I was sitting in a colmado on the corner with my neighbor and friends and it was raining so the road flooded and this guy names gray saw him walking from a ways away with a leash. He has a leash on a tub. He was floating in the flooded street in the tub. (I saw the video, he verifiably was walking his tub down the street.)
Love life prognosis for the next two years: A tigre.
Disease most afraid of contracting: The love disease.
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: I fucking love it.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: El rio tuna de cotui and surfing in the north
What do you miss from home: my sister
Biggest fear of service: Being caught on a [REDACTED]
Why are you serving: I’m serving because I feel like life should be in service to others and I want to experience a different culture and just add to my life of experience and drink a lot of presidente.
Advice to a new trainee: Shit’s hard. Give it time. And if you need anything at all, ever, I’m here, call me.
Lucy
Hometown: Edwards Colorado
Star sign: Libra
Site Province: San Jose de Ocoa
Project Assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in 2 years: I have no idea
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: Zero
Disease most afraid of contracting: Ebola
What do you have to say about plato del dia: It’s interesting
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Pico Duarte
What do you miss from home?: Hot water
Biggest fear of service: Eaten by an anaconda
Why are you serving: Why not?
Margaret “Meg” Cirii
Hometown: Sicklerville, New Jersey
Star sign: Pisces (obviously)
Site province: Azua
Project assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in two years: Hope that I make someone feel seen and heard, especially the students in my liceo.
Weirdest thing packed: salt water taffy
Funniest experience: Getting lost on our first field trip during PST in the botanical gardens, and making friends with a Dominican Soldier to find my way back.
Love life prognosis for the next two years: Hesitant because of one too many Doña warning tales, but a romantic at heart. (si dios quiere peace corps places a charming granola man as my sitemate.)
Disease most afraid of contracting: Dengue🦟🫶
What do you have to say about Plato del Dia: I wish it was more vegetarian friendly, but I think it’s delicious.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: see the whales in Samaná
What do you miss from home: My family, my friends, and sushi.
Biggest fear of service: Tbh having more bad luck
Why are you serving: I always wanted to do Peace Corps. I learned about it when I was really young and was obsessed with peace signs. But I always loved the idea of an org that represents peace and understanding. As I have gotten older peace corps has further aligned with my values and became something I knew I wanted to do young to influence my perspective and decisions moving forward. I think having perspective and sharing experience with those different than you is the greatest privilege of peace corps and I feel grateful to be here.
Advice to a new trainee: Focus! on! the! small! wins! You’ll eventually feel like yourself again here, but it takes time to figure out who you are here.
Mick Santry
Hometown: Arlington Heights, Illinois
Star sign: Capricorn
Site Province: Monte Plata
Project Assignment: Community and Economic Development
What you will accomplish in 2 years: I am going to help young people to pursue careers and start businesses, and hopefully contribute to the financial stability of businesses and homes in my site. On a personal level I am going to learn how to cook, how to dance, and a whole lot of other things.
Weirdest thing I packed: I don’t even remember what I packed. Oh, I packed a basketball shooting sleeve embroidered by my friend.
Funniest experience: So, this was on the teacher’s union of my site’s end-of-the-year trip to the beach to Poza de Bojolo and I was getting ready to go swimming in the ocean, walking over there with my counterpart and we stopped by this guy who was selling oysters and he was like ‘do you want some oysters’ and I said ‘yes’ because why not and then I ate one and then my other teachers came over and said ‘Michael you can’t eat that before you go swimming, it’s an aphrodisiac’ and then I said ‘it’s okay, I know’ and then they all just burst out laughing. And then I ate a couple more. They thought it was very 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: Chikungunya
What do you have to say about plato del dia: If there are tostones — good. If there’s spaghetti — no.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Hiking Pico Duarte
What do you miss from home? I miss my friends, my dog, Chicago-style hot dogs, and Culver’s Frozen Custard.
Biggest fear of service: Getting bit by a dog, getting hit by a moto or a truck, and my biggest fear for sure is getting caught in a flash rain storm during rainy season and drowning in a river.
Why are you serving: I didn’t want to go to grad school and I didn’t want to get a job. I also wanted to improve my Spanish and learn more about myself.
Advice to a new trainee: I think I would say be ready to learn from everybody that you meet, including volunteers, staff, and especially every person in your community.
Mitchell
Hometown: Smyrna, TN
Star sign: Capricorn
Site: Los Toros, Azua
Project Assignment: CED
What will I accomplish?: I hope to teach students about to enter the workforce financial literacy and skills necessary to obtain a good job. As well, I hope to strengthen business knowledge of established entrepreneurs within my community.
Weirdest thing packed?: External hard drive with movies.
Funniest experience: Getting a ride home in a cop truck ( wasn’t under arrest just nice cops).
Love life prognosis: bleak
Disease most afraid of contracting: cholera
Plato del día thoughts: Doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor everyone has a soft spot for it.
PCDR bucket list: Hike Pico Duarte with friends.
Biggest fear of service: Isolation lack of friends.
Why am I serving: To experience new things and help anyone that needs it or wants it.
Advice for new trainee: Don’t compare yourself to others everyone brings something special and unique to their community there are many definitions to success.
What do I miss from home: my family and food
Oscar William Marchi
Hometown: Pleasantville, NY
Star sign: Cancer
Site Province: Nizao
Project Assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in 2 years: In the next two years I will teach classes at the liceo to the fifth and sixth grade students in an effort to try and demonstrate useful money management strategies, tips for employability and motivate the spirt of entrepreneurship in the youth. Along with teaching in the liceo I will work with small businesses to share ideas on how to help meet their needs. At the moment as I am getting to know the community and while school is in summer recess I am teaching English classes to students that attend the liceo. I hope to start another class for the general public as well soon too.
Weirdest thing packed: Baseball glove
Funniest experience so far: Eating fresh fish off of a trash fire made by a homeless guy on the beach at 3 am
What has shocked you most about service so far?: How much I’ve grown to do anything to avoid being in the sun
What do you like most about culture here?: Eating La bandera everyday for lunch
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Visit the peninsula
What do you miss from home?: My friends
Biggest fear of service: Not making enough of an impact in my community
Why are you serving: Its a chance to live in another part of the world, learn about another culture, practice some Spanish, gain perspective and its a great opportunity to help other people
Advice to a new trainee: Approach with an open mind and a deep pockets worth of patience
Silvio
Hometown: Newcastle Upon Tyne
Star sign: Don’t know
Site province: Santo plata I think
Project assignment: Work with cacao business and colmados.
What will you accomplish in two years: No idea what I will accomplish in two years.
Weirdest thing packed: Nothing weird packed. Brought a charger someone else left behind at hostel.
Funniest experience so far: Charades with family.
Love life prognosis: None foreseeable
Disease most afraid of contracting: Lung cancer
What do you have to say about plato del dia: It’s fine
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Hand santitizer
What do you miss from home?: Miss good internet connection from my bedroom and ample shower water
Biggest fear of service: Not doing a good enough job
Palak Walia
Hometown: Naperville, Illinois
Star sign: Leo
Site Province: Azua
Project Assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in 2 years: Building relationships that last past these 2 years.
Weirdest thing packed: A blanket to remind me of home. but I didn’t realize how hot it would be.
Funniest experience: Some of my students (but also random people) calling me Mia Khalifa. It was honestly the last thing I was expecting.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: Explore Dominican options.
Disease most afraid of contracting: Rabies, because I pet every dog. But not the ones that are too disgusting.
What do you have to say about plato del dia: I’m vegetarian so it’s hard. It’s a lot of carbs, grease, cheese, and I don’t get a lot of choice so it can make things difficult.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: I want to teach Bhangra to my community.
What do you miss from home?: My Indian food. And my dog.
Biggest fear of service: The men.
Why are you serving: Because I want to get out of the box that I put myself in for most my life.
Advice to a new trainee: Be mentally prepared to face emotional and physical challenges. Be brave.
Sophia Shearer
Hometown: Atlanta, Georgia
Star sign: Aries
Site Province: Monte Plata
Project Assignment: CED
What you will accomplish in 2 years: On official CED paper, I am going to teach the community about money management, entrepreneurship and employability. Specifically, I want to educate people about the creative liberty of being an entrepreneur while also trying to dip my toes into teaching some Sustainable business practices. (Wish me luck)
Weirdest thing packed: I brought my Greca from home not realizing that people here use it. Not super weird but I was very surprised to learn that it is such a common thing.
Funniest experience: I am stealing this story from another volunteer, Henry Bartlett, but it still makes me laugh to this day. We were still in Jesus Jail during the first 10 days of training and had just finished a lesson where we learned about the importance of teaching people to throw their trash in the trashcans. Henry, being the best, decided to start helping out when he could. He reaches down to pick up a Rica juice box, not realizing that it was spoiled, and accidentally sprays the atrocious chunky orange juice on himself head to toe. He then proceeds to projectile vomit all over the ground because the smell was so ghastly. Poor Henrys first attempt at aiding to clean up and teach best practices ended in utter defeat. Word to the wise — wear gloves, and in extreme cases a hazard suit, while dealing with trash.
Love life prognosis for the next 2 years: Already in a committed relationship with Mangos. Maybe have a love affair with a few chinolas?
Disease most afraid of contracting: Sugar Addiction
What do you have to say about plato del dia: At first this relationship was complicated, I loved it because it was a new dish to me and absolutely fabulous but then I started to get tired of having it every single day. This was until I went a week without it while I was in the capital. Boy did I not realize how good I had it, I was SALIVATING at the thought of it it by the end of the week. I didn’t realize how absolutely perfect it is. Meat, beans, salad and rice? Health teachers have been trying for years to get this gorgeously constructed plate nailed in our heads. I can’t think of something more nutritious and delicious. Don’t take this precious baby for granted the way I once did.
#1 item on your PCDR bucket list: Pico Duarte
What do you miss from home?: FLAMIN HOT CHEETOS
Biggest fear of service: Not being able to learn how to Finger snap the way Dominicans can. (I’m on a training plan rn)
Why are you serving: I’ve always valued human to human connections and have tried to yield a positive light when interacting with people. With that being said I also know what it is like to not feel supported. I am serving in order to try to bridge both together. I want to connect to a new culture and support those who have dreams of achieving something that others might deem stupid or unachievable. Also just hoping to make some people smile :)
Advice to a new trainee: Never show up on time to a Dominican party or you will set up the entire thing. But seriously a lot of service is patience. Patience with learning the culture, the language, and learning that your time isn’t always your own. Things here run differently, I once waited in a guagua, mid transit, while the driver was picking up his dry-cleaning. Another time I spent two days practicing using the phrase “bote de basura” only to learn that “zafacon” is the Dominican Spanish word. (Didn’t come in with a high Spanish level lol). You learn to roll with the punches and appreciate the journey along with its growing pains.
Did you like it? Make sure to check out what other volunteers are saying in Your Daily Vívere. You can view the introduction for EDU 23–01 here.
Are you a member of cohorts 21 or 22, and have ideas for Your Daily Vívere? Call me.
