But Then The Rains Came

April 8, 2013. Woo! My Julie sandwich had different bread and different cheese this time! I asked what kind of cheese it was and she just said, queso blanco. Oh. White cheese. Okay :).
Today we reviewed the upcoming week and then met with our Spanish professors to finalize our presentations. David has a ridiculous amount of patience running through his bones, Gracias a Dios. We finished our script, poster, and power point by 12:45pm.
For lunch, I had a typical Dominican dish called, Asopao. It had rice, corn, meat, and some sort of sauce. And it was delicious! But because I got home late, I wasn't able to catch up on my novellas. Damn.
At 2, commence our presentations! We were 4th and despite not being confident in my Spanish, I wasn't nervous. I think with how much work it entailed, how much mental effort went into preparing it, and how tired I was, I was just ready to get it over with. We went through, I messed up a lot, but we did it. Then my training director decided to stand up and critique what was missing and what was wrong right then and there in front of everyone. And what was frustrating was the fact that I had asked her specific questions last week to ensure no miscommunications (which were numerous). And just what I asked her was what we did wrong despite doing what she said was okay.
Now I know I have a flaw that I need to work on. Feeling embarrassed is something that kills me and kills me fast... So on top of speaking horrible Spanish in front of the Spanish teachers and the fluent volunteers, my training director proceeded to question why we were missing parts and questioning our approach as a whole. I was miserable and just wanted to be happy that it was over and be proud of us. Which I was, but again, my intense hatred of embarrassment got the best of me. I had to escape to the bathroom and collect myself. Marcia, my Spanish teacher from before CBT noticed and actually came in to ask if I was okay. Goodness she's good. She told me how wonderful we were, I insisted that I was okay and we went back out. During the next presentation, she wrote in big letters on her paper, "I love you!" (and yes, in English!). This may or may not have made the tears return momentarily but she somehow knew I needed something simple like that... I wrote back, "Gracias Mi Amor."
Because I didn't just let my frustrations all out, I was losing composure, collecting it and then repeating the process throughout the next presentations. Haha Yay me.
But then... The rains came. And they came fierce. Perfection. It poured and poured and drowned out that little voice in my head that I was trying to get rid of. After we finished, there was cake and juice to celebrate and I took it outside and just stood in the rain...
I thought that was just what I needed but then we all changed clothes and went running in our bare feet on the baseball field. We played tag and Red Rover and did a few laps, sliding into bases that were actually just puddles at that point. We were soaked and my clothes were suction-cupped to my body haha. After a bit, we went over to the Multi Uso which is indoors and played volleyball together. Slowly, quite a few Dominican guys came in and we mixed up the teams. We played for 2 hours straight. All of that, was just what I needed.
We walked home in the rain, my host mother had made me pasta, and we watched novellas together, laughing at a fluffy cat in one of the scenes. Those little gecko things crawled all over her walls to escape the downpour outside and the tin roof made it sound like a hurricane. The presentation wasn't the end all for training. There was no such thing as failing it. Yes, my Spanish could get better but that will always be the case even after these next two years. Yes, my director could have done things a little differently but hey, this is her first time leading a CBT. And yes, the project was a lot of work but I'll have three months to do these things when I get to my site and not a week. At the end of the day, Monte Plata got the rain it needed, we got the stress reliever and workout we needed, and the geckos got the protection they needed.
Despite those damn tears, today was still a good day. Buenas noches.