It is amazing how quickly a person can adapt to new surroundings. Take for instance the public transportation system in the DR. At the end of the first day of training I was picked up from the Peace Corps training center by my host mother who would be my example of Dominican culture throughout core training. We walked out to the street to pick up a guagua (mini bus) or public car to take back to her house. I was in a group with 2 other female volunteers who lived next door to me. We found a vacant car, and all six of us proceeded to hop into a dilapidated compact car- 2 people in the front seat (not including the driver) and 4 people in the back seat. It’s easy to begin to break down barriers when your first experience with someone is being crammed in the back of a car together for a somewhat awkward 15 minute car ride. There was little conversation but lots of smiling back and forth from volunteer to host mother.
The next morning one representative host mother took the three of us girls to our training center. We hopped on a guagua (they are somewhere between the size of a minivan and a bus) and waited to for driver to begin the route. We began our journey- stopping sometimes every 20 or 30 feet to let another person on the bus, and while the “cobrador” or cashier of the guagua hangs out the doorway calling for people to get on the bus. My Dona was sure to remind me to pay attention to the bus route for I was soon going to have to get myself to and from the training center on my own. After trying to memorize “left, then right… then left… then left…” soon we were driving down my very street and I see my Dona sweeping the front porch. Well…. Scratch that route. All the while us PC volunteers are trying to contain our astonishment for the puzzling route and haphazard bus stops. (The appropriate way to request a bus stop is to yell “Let me out!” to the bus driver- this can be difficult because most will be playing Merengue or Bachata music as loud as the stereo will allow.) It was, in retrospect, a great introduction to the Dominican Culture: there is little to no personal space, things often lack American organization, but at the same time the Dominican People are always willing to chat with you, they are ready to lend a hand in yelling at the bus driver to stop, as well as helping you find your stop. As far as our first guagua experience, it took us 2 guagua’s and about an hour to get to the training center. After three separate Peace Corps activities geared to help us familiarize ourselves with public transportation in the DR a group of 6 or 7 of us realized we lived about 35 minutes away from the training center if we walked...
