WOW. Lots of things have changed in a fewer than 2 weeks. I am no longer a Peace Corps trainee, but a full fledged Peace Corps Volunteer. For me, this means that I have arrived in my permanent site, where I will be living for 2 years. For my parents, this means that the 2-year countdown has begun.
The last two weeks in my training community were eventful. I had a nice bout of parasites, which is a pretty common issue and something that Peace Corps Volunteers chat about openly. One of the volunteers, on his blog, felt free to draft a letter to his stool sample… sexy things go on in this country. We had a goodbye fiesta for our families in the training community, and two of the kids there kept repeating “wassssuuuppppp” and “son of Michael Jackson” throughout the entire day. I reckon that it was the extent of their English, however, I have no idea where they got “son of Michael Jackson”.
After the party, I went with my family to the beach, and rode in the back of the pickup like a true Salvadoran. My face was numb for a really long time.
I said my goodbyes to my family in the training community and headed off to the capital for the swearing in ceremony, where I met the ambassador to El Salvador, which was pretty exciting. I first asked him if I could put his photo on my blog, he said of course…. Then when I was taking a photo of the ambassador and another volunteer, I said “hey boys, look over here”…I called the ambassador “boy”…he didn’t seem offended or he just didn’t notice, oops! A party followed the swearing in ceremony, where we got to meet other volunteers in the country. We also received superlatives from our fellow trainees (I´ve included a photo of me receiving my superlative)... I got ¨most likely to receive remittances from home¨...i.e. everyone thinks that I´m the most likely to get my parents to send me money... how I wish that was true...feel free to make that dream a reality though mom and dad...
I was more than bummed about leaving my casa in my training community, however, I am now in my own community! Saturday was Mother’s Day here, and the mayor’s office had an activity for the mamas in town. I arrived in the office to help prepare for the celebration and when the room was packed with about 200 people, my counterpart tells me that I will be making a little presentation in front of everyone, to get to know the community. EEEEEK! Sink or swim (in Spanish)…no complaints though, I’m really excited about getting to know the community and seeing where I can help, since I am an official volunteer and everything. Oh, side bar to my very unorganized entry this week, the first night I was here, there was a major downpour with thunder and lightning, and I was running to get back to where I was spending the night and I was sort of attacked by a dog, no blood though, I´m fine. I didn’t tell my parents about this on purpose, love you!
The last two weeks in my training community were eventful. I had a nice bout of parasites, which is a pretty common issue and something that Peace Corps Volunteers chat about openly. One of the volunteers, on his blog, felt free to draft a letter to his stool sample… sexy things go on in this country. We had a goodbye fiesta for our families in the training community, and two of the kids there kept repeating “wassssuuuppppp” and “son of Michael Jackson” throughout the entire day. I reckon that it was the extent of their English, however, I have no idea where they got “son of Michael Jackson”.
After the party, I went with my family to the beach, and rode in the back of the pickup like a true Salvadoran. My face was numb for a really long time.
I said my goodbyes to my family in the training community and headed off to the capital for the swearing in ceremony, where I met the ambassador to El Salvador, which was pretty exciting. I first asked him if I could put his photo on my blog, he said of course…. Then when I was taking a photo of the ambassador and another volunteer, I said “hey boys, look over here”…I called the ambassador “boy”…he didn’t seem offended or he just didn’t notice, oops! A party followed the swearing in ceremony, where we got to meet other volunteers in the country. We also received superlatives from our fellow trainees (I´ve included a photo of me receiving my superlative)... I got ¨most likely to receive remittances from home¨...i.e. everyone thinks that I´m the most likely to get my parents to send me money... how I wish that was true...feel free to make that dream a reality though mom and dad...
I was more than bummed about leaving my casa in my training community, however, I am now in my own community! Saturday was Mother’s Day here, and the mayor’s office had an activity for the mamas in town. I arrived in the office to help prepare for the celebration and when the room was packed with about 200 people, my counterpart tells me that I will be making a little presentation in front of everyone, to get to know the community. EEEEEK! Sink or swim (in Spanish)…no complaints though, I’m really excited about getting to know the community and seeing where I can help, since I am an official volunteer and everything. Oh, side bar to my very unorganized entry this week, the first night I was here, there was a major downpour with thunder and lightning, and I was running to get back to where I was spending the night and I was sort of attacked by a dog, no blood though, I´m fine. I didn’t tell my parents about this on purpose, love you!
2 comments:
Hey, just thought I would drop by and see how your experience has been going. Isn´t it great how helpful these people are, I can´t find that type of service in the States. It´s been kind of lonely with out the big crazy group we are. But I live next to Joe and he´s been fun to hang out with. How do you like the Hotel Lenka, pretty sweet right? Good luck, and see you in July.
Hey Linsey,
How are you? Sounds like you're having a lot of fun!
Luv & miss ya,
Valarie
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