USAID

Today turned out to be quite the interesting day. The other 5 trainees and I arrived at the training facility prepared for a long day of Spanish class, but before class began we received a call from our program and training officer (PTO) asking us if we would like to help USAID load helicopters with supplies to assist in the relief effort of the recent storms. We gladly obliged since that would be a lot more exciting than a whole day of Spanish.

We took a taxi to the Peace Corps office in Santo Domingo where we met Richard Goughnour, the mission director of USAID in the Dominican Republic and Jeff Cohen, the program officer. We then went to the Las Americas airport where we had to pass through security in order to get onto the tarmac.

We arrived at the destination and probably waited an hour before we actually began to load stuff. We were loading blankets (why I don't know because it's really hot) and toiletries for the refugees. We loaded up 3 U.S. Coast Guard helicopters and one cargo plane. Most of the time was actually spent making an obstacle course and shelters for shade out of the bags of blankets, because there were hours inbetween each loading. Unfortunately we did not get to take a ride on this helicpoter.

I did not have my camera with me since I wasn't expecting to do anything exciting today, but another volunteer had his, so when he posts his I'll link to it.