Staging and the First Days

My first day was exhausting. We had staging (training before leaving the country which now seemed kind of pointless) until about 8:00PM and then they gave us $120.00 for food, so of course we went to an expensive restaurant. From there I had to repack my bag so I could prepare a small backpack for my first night without my suitcase, as requested at staging. I got a half hour of sleep and from there left for the airport at 2:30am! The flight didn't leave until 7:35am, but as we learned it takes a very long time to get so many people through an airport.

I arrived in Santo Domingo with a few hours of sleep that I got on the plane, and they took us directly to a church that had rooms (maybe it used to be or still is a convent). We went through some more training information, ate dinner, got some shots and wonderful nightmare causing malaria pills, and then went to bed. From the very first night we had to sleep with mosquito nets, which will continue from now until I leave. I actually enjoy the mosquito nets a lot. Not only do they keep out mosquitoes, but they also keep out lizards, spiders, cockroaches, and anything else you don’t want in your bed with you.

The following day we went to the training center, which is absolutely beautiful, and had a whole day of more information and training sessions. At the end of training we were picked up by our Doñas and taken to meet our new families…….which I will talk more about soon.