Al fin!

At last, I received the much anticipated site assignment, followed shortly by the equally anticipated site visit. I am now preparing to return to my training town for a few short days filled with paperwork and such. Then, swearing in! a few days to relax in Antigua before returning here. Where is here, you ask? For security purposes, i'm not allowed to say exactly. I'll give you a few hints. Its in the western highlands, near Xela (Quetzaltenango), and the town is a major producer of milk, which is processed in xela and readily available here as mozzarella and cheddar cheese (!) as well as yogurt. I'm in big trouble....
The town itself is pretty quiet. I haven't heard one Evangelical church service, the roosters are far enough away to be charming, there is a park forest with trails like a block away from where i'll be living...... oh and my other site, an aldea of the municipality, is a rural community with their own hot springs !
My job, environmental interpretation for the trail that is still in construction, finishing the trail, environmental education in the schools and community, and trash management. Could I ask for anything more?!
To top things off, the volunteer who is here now has extended her service so i get to grill her for my first two months here and learn from her experiences. Also, had dinner (lasagna!!) with my future host family last night and they're great too. All in all, I feel very fortunate, and am so excited to begin my work here.
Stay tuned.....

what doesn´t kill you....

again, i know. but it might kill me waiting any longer for my site assignment! enough already! i´ve jumped through the countless hoops, gone through most of training, been a very good little trainee (in my opinion). But alas, we still wait with bated breath until friday, at 2 pm... be expecting an (hopefully) exuberant post sometime over the weekend as my fate for the next two years is bestowed upon me. Then things should progress rather like a whirlwind again until i get to my site and.... ?????? They weren´t kidding when they advised us to get comfortable with the ambiguity of the job.
Oh, I did get the opportunity to stretch my legs a little bit in the kitchen... i´m hurting to cook again. I´m praying i´ll get a little more control over my diet once the big move occurs. Not that the food is bad.. my host mother is a wonderful cook. But i haven´t had to just eat what was put in front of me since i was about 12 (sorry mom...) ish? at which point i started cooking for myself at least some of the time. oddly enough, i truly do want beans and eggs a lot of the time... i guess i´ve gone native in that respect. At any rate, we got the awesome opportunity to learn to make fruit jam from a local woman here who sells her product at the peace corps office. Can´t wait to eat it. Also hope that i have the opportunity to pass on the knowledge to others. There is so much fruit that is cheap and delicious when in season, its great to have another way to save it.

Anyways, if the anticipation doesn´t kill me, there will be news forthcoming on my new ´home away from home´ in the near futue!!!

get ér done...

Work! so we finally got to do some manual labor, or in PC terms, ´hard development´. We are encouraged not to get swept up in this type of project as the main focus of our service because, as our tech trainer says, its infrastructure work, and that can rot in 3 or 4 years.... sigh..... so its better to work with people, leave something sustainable, etc etc.
But lets face it, building something with your hands is just way more satisfying =) i guess i´ll enjoy it while it lasts. Our training project was constructing signs for the local municipal park, corazon del agua, which is gorgeous! Here are some pictures... i´m still battling this blogspot formatting ..... there´s a view from the park, me and tara painting the signs we made, me routering... and some local fauna... a lizard...er...anole?? that i chased down at steph´s house.

Crazy little thing called.... confianza

It's strange, I finally am starting to feel comfortable in my training community- and alas it is nearing our time of departure. My spanish took a huge leap forward this past week-i think this had something to do with my falling asleep to the Reggaeton station here, which is of course in spanish. I could actually understand the dinner conversation when my family was talking at 'full speed' the last couple of nights, which is huge for me. I think that this in turn caused some subtle change in my dynamics in my host family... hello, confianza. or at least the beginnings of the much sought after 'confianza' or confidence that equates to acceptance and trust from guatemalans. As an example, I helped my sister out with roasted corn on the cob over the grill last night... I was a happy camper. It's amazing how a little taste of home, like grilling outdoors over a little grill, can make me feel at home. I was also reminded of all the rockin barbecues we had in my backyard in slo, and reflect on the charmed life i've lead so far, and solidify the commitment to trying to 'give back' or give forward some of the blessings i have in my life.
Reflecting on all of the wonderful experiences i've been fortunate enough to have, and remembering all my amazing friends and family definitely helps me to fortify my commitment to serving here.
So thanks to everyone who has shared some good times with me, here's to more to come. especially if you come visit me down here =)