My New Life, Punta Cana, Domincan Republic

Well once again I have packed up my life to start all over again…this time I have landed in Punta Cana, Domincan Republic! Well I don’t actually live in Punta Cana, I just work there. I actually live in Pueblo Bavaro a small town where most of the population who works in Punta Cana lives. I have been here for four days working at my Dolphin Explorer as the first ever full time Education Officer. Which is my dream job, and I’ll tell you all about that! But first let me take you on my journey to get here! It basically started in the end May when I was offered the position! Yes I said May, it is now December and I’ve just gotten here! It took months and countless hours to get all of my documents for my visa so I could work it this country. That was very stressful and left me almost wanting to give up and continue my life in Portland, Oregon. However I finally received my visa the last week of October and quit my jobs and left Oregon a few weeks later. Now 6 whole months later I am finally here and have begun my new life! For those of you who knew that story sorry! I left California Tuesday Dec. 3rd after first driving 3 hours to the airport, then taking three flights and quite a few hours sitting and sleeping on the floor got here on the 4th. After waiting an hour for the Dolphin Explorer driver to pick me up finally got picked up and then some how made it to my apartment! I am living with my friend Veronica from Hawaii and am so grateful that she is here! For the time being there are three of us living in a 2 and a half bedroom apartment in Pueblo Bavaro. It’s quite nice and though there are a few things that need to be fixed, and a lot of bugs it’s home!

After traveling for two days and getting no sleep I have to work in the morning, getting my paperwork done as well as a few other things! Naturally I’m exhausted but oh well I might as well just jump right in and get going! Since my first day was spent driving around doing Human Resources stuff I really didn’t start my job until the next day! Friday I had a meeting with my boss the director of the zoological department discussing what my job entails! Which is quite a lot more than I expected! As I said above I am the first ever, full time Education Officer here so the job description is a work in progress! So I have a ton to do and almost no one to help me, but that’s okay it just means I wont me bored with my job! The job is not only running the children’s program for visiting schools it also includes maintaining all the education resources for the whole park i.e. signs, brochures, materials. Trainer education, developing an outreach program for local schools, developing a kids program for children who come to the park with their families and keeping records for the trainers! As I said a big job because the park is quite large! The park has 30 Atlantic Bottle-nose Dolphins, sea lions, Fur seals, nurse sharks, stingrays, exotic birds, and a large snake (don’t know what kind because I haven’t seen it)! There are plenty of activities to do including a sailing expedition, kayaking and paddle boarding! You can see all this on our website at dolphinexplorer.com.do (which needs a lot of improvement, which might also be considered my job)! As for life in Pueblo Bavaro and the neighboring towns life isn’t too bad! There is a major shopping center we can go to that includes a small Ikea! And restaurants and plenty of beach resorts to go around! Fortunately we have transportation to and from work that will drop you at the shopping center on your way home so you can go shopping! So for now that’s all I can think of! I miss everyone so much! Buen dia!