Consolidation

A few days after cholera training and the robbery we were consolidated to San Juan because of the threat of Hurricane Tomas. Everyone in regions 1 and 2, which means everyone in the southwest of the country, was required to come to a hotel in San Juan until the danger of the hurricane had passed. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and were there until Sunday. Luckily for us, the hurricane moved farther west and we didn’t see much of anything except some light, but steady rain for about 24 hours. We had all seen worse rainstorms in the past. The rest of the time was sunny and beautiful. It was particularly amusing to those of us who live close to San Juan because it felt like we would have been fine in our homes, but Peace Corps has a better safe than sorry policy which is probably a good idea. However, spending 6 days in a hotel, particularly when you aren’t supposed to leave the hotel at all for a couple of those days gets exhausting. In the beginning we were all excited. We had nice air-conditioned rooms, cable TV, free wireless internet, and free meals (admittedly mediocre Dominican food), and San Juan to wander around in when we weren’t required to stay in the hotel. Also, there were a bunch of new volunteers that had just sworn in, so it was fun to get to know them over the course of our stay. However, even with all these perks, six days of hotel living and never being alone takes its toll. I think we were all relieved when we got the okay to return to our sites.