Pictures from the end of FBT and Swearing In

The first group of pictures is all from our Swearing-In Ceremony at the US Embassy. I have many, many pictures from the day...but these are some of my favorites. They are of:
1. The Health Men
2. Me and Sarah
3. Travis, me and Swish waiting for some food
4. Krisitina and I playing behind the head table
5. The group of us who lived in Yarumela (the Yarumelons)
6. The whole health group
7. Adam and I being cheesy
8. Me, Kristina and Katie being very proud new volunteers!

I decided to include a picture of the amazing (and giant) mango that I enjoyed on my bedroom floor. Yum. Also, a picture of a poster I made to use during my hygiene lessons...Im proud. :) ha

The rest of the pictures are from my going away party in Yarumela, It was very sad to say goodbye to my wonderful family! They cooked ALOT of food and we just enjoyed being together one last time. Then, the morning when we left, the entire town (or everyone who we knew) came out to the corner in Yarumela to see us off in the bus...it was amazing.

I'm a Volunteer!

The Friday before last was the official end of the Hondu 12 training cycle (hooray!) We all went in to Tegucigalpa in the morning, (dressed up very nicely, I should add) and spent the morning at the Peace Corps office getting more pre-service information and tours. After we were done, they took us to the US Embassy where we sang the Honduran and US National Anthems, introduced ourselves, and finally took an oath and became official Peace Corps Volunteers (to summarize). It was all very exciting, and followed by some excellent Tacos :) We also got to spend a few hours at the ambassador's house, although he wasn't home, we played some volleyball and swam in the pool. It was a really nice day...
After swearing-in, all that was really left to do was celebrate and say goodbye. It was sad to see some friends go, but I know we will all stay in touch. I'm really looking forward to being able to collaborate with my friends and other volunteers on projects in the future. Some of us are already planning a project together, so I know I will see them soon!
After finally arriving at my site, it was time to get oriented. Last week, I spent most of my time being taken up into little communities in the mountains (just to get acquanted), and wandering around Gracias trying to orient myself. I also spent a good amount of time trying to introduce myself to potential community partners, or others who might have work for me to do. I am very happy with my placement here, and can't wait to become more integrated into the community and start to work with the neighboring communities. There is alot of potential work for me here, and I hope to get myself as involved as possible in already exisiting projects, while also spending time developing some of my own.
I will try and be a more frequent blogger while in site...(this is per some requests from parents!) Thanks for continued thoughts and prayers. Love to everyone at home, and Happy Mothers Day to everyone (including pregnant friends/cousins!) Miss you all

Gracias

Yes, thats right, the name of my site is Gracias! I am very excited to be passing this news along, it was a long wait, but also very worthwhile. We were all incredibly anxious on Monday morning while waiting to find out our sites, and I got the distinct impression that our supervisors like to see us squirm, and therefore dragged it out even longer! :) But, we were each finally handed a manilla envelope with our name on it, and (on the count of three) all tore into them to find out what our lives had in store for us over the next two years. I was absolutely thrilled when I saw my site; it is in a region of the country that I really like, has lots of projects that I am really excited about, and is close to where a number of my friends were placed. Although, I do want to give a shout-out to those people who were placed farther away (they know who they are), because I will miss them very much...its sad to get split up after 2 months of being together everyday...but, it is for the purpose of finally starting our work in the communities, which is why we all came here :)
I am currently in Gracias, for a short site visit, learning my way around and meeting the counterparts with whom I will work. There are a number of projects I would like to get involved in, but we will see how things start out once I officially begin my service. Everyone here has been really nice and welcoming, and I can´t wait to move here and get started! However, there are some things that we need to take care of in Santa Lucia and Teguc. before our service can officially start. This week will be full of final training stuff, and our Swearing In ceremony in Tegucigalpa (hooray!). Then, next weekend, we all make our final and permanent move to our sites. I feel very ready to start my service, which is a testament to the training we have been giving. Its hard to imagine how you can make someone feel so prepared to start working in such a foreign situation, but somehow, they do it! :) Keep us all in your thoughts this week as we close our time together and take the big leap out into the unknown!

PS. Thanks to my parents for the packages and Sara, Troy and Rishi for the awesome card. Love you guys!

more pictures!

Thought I should post some more pictures for everyone! Hope you all enjoy, I plan on writing more next week when I find out my site.

The first two are just to give a glimpse of what life looks like for us here. The landscape shot is actually from Santa Lucia (where we will be returning tomorrow!)









The picture of food is my very first hand-made batch of tortillas! (yay me!) It's also a shot of a typical dinner here. Also thought I should include a picture from our very first Honduran rain storm. Joel and Kristina were nice enough to walk me home to shut my window...but we all got drenched in the process!

The last two pictures are of what happens when you make cookies here! haha Sarah, Kristina and I made a batch a few weeks ago, and they were eaten within 15 minutes. The last picture is from my cooking for our going away party. I had a whole herd of helpers for my chocolate chip cookie making, and again, they were a big hit! :)

Waiting Game

I feel like I have alot to catch everyone up on, so I will do my best to summarize what's been happening since my last post!
Last week, we had our final Tech Interviews with the Program coordinators who will determine our site placement. This monday, we will finally know where they are sending us to live out our two years of service. I am so excited to find out my new home, and counterpart agency with whom I will be working. Its almost time! :)

As much as I am looking forward to finding out my site, I also can't believe that we are almost done with FBT. Next weekend, we move back to Santa Lucia. It's going to be sad to leave Yarumela, my family is very sweet and the town has grown on me! The trainees who live in Yarumela have gotten really close, and its going to be odd to be all spread (geographically) out again in Santa Lucia, and then be split-up and dispersed throughout the country. Right now we all live within a block and a half radius of eachother, and spend many evenings sitting on the corner just chatting. The weekend before last, we went (with some of the rest of the group) to the river outside Yarumela. It was a great day of just hanging out on the banks, listening to music and eating mango sauce. The following work week was good, we had our training and practicum in Men's Health, which was interesting. I was actually really nervous before we had to do our practicum, which was a HIV/men's health presentation in a local agriculture school. I think I was nervous because I have never worked with large groups of men before. It's usually been kids, or women... But, the presentation went pretty well, and I actually enjoyed myself! These experiences are definitely teaching me not to make any assumptions about what I want to do, or will be good at doing, until I try it at least once.

Last weekend was a nice relaxing time. Saturday a group of us from Yarumela and La Paz spent the day at a pool in Comayagua. It was a beautiful pool and we had a great time spending the day in the water and sun. Sunday was a lazy day at home hanging out with the family...And then came Monday, which was the start of our last week of FBT! Amazing how time flew by. Yesterday, Sarah and I completed our Avanzada project at the Casa Materna of the hospital. We have given a total of three presentations to the women living there. We have discussed family planning, breastfeeding, and nutrition. Also, yesterday was our last meeting with the group from the hosipital who supports the Casa. They brought us food and thanked us for working with them. It was really cool because both Sarah and I really enjoyed spending time at the Casa, and I feel like it was a great opportunity for us to practice and learn about presentations and working with a population of pregnant moms. So, it was really cool to also hear the group say that they appreciated our help, it was definitely a situation that everyone seemed to get something out of! As for the rest of this week, we have our going away party with our families tomorrow, and so have been planning and cooking the last few days. I am making some dessert and fruit salad, hopefully everyone likes it!
I think that is about all I will write for today... I want to post more pictures soon, but for some reason things it's not working right now. As usual, Im thinking of everyone. I got my very first package in the mail yesterday, Thanks Mom! Miss you all, think of me as we go through the mixed emotions of saying goodbye and moving onto the final phase of training.
Much love to all.

Life

The other day another PCT and I were chatting about how fast time has flown by...and how much our perspectives of time have changed since we got here. In the scope of two years, the last 6 weeks are hardly a dent... but so much as happened and changed in the span of this last month. Its amazing.
Everything is going very well. We have been assigned our projects for the Avanzada spanish class, and, it turns out that myself and another trainee will be spending about 4 days a week of the next three works working in a Casa Materna associated with the hospital in La Paz. We went and introduced ourselves last week and this Tuesday went to a meeting with the committee in charge of the house and it´s finances. The Casa is a place for pregnant women to come live for the weeks before they give birth. Its similar to the place I visited a few weeks ago on my volunteer visit. Anyway, Sarah and I are both VERY excited about working there. On monday we are going back to give a chat about Family Planning. It´s going to be great :) On that note, if anyone has some health education material in electronic form (hint hint PCC friends!) I would be forever grateful for any emailed info...or packages! Also, Sarah and I are going to be attending the finance meetings regularly and hopefully helping out with their fundraising. This is important as the Casa gets no money from the hospital itself, it is all from private donations and fundraising. Sarah and I have both been really vocal about our desire to work with Maternal and Child health aspect of our program, so it is really exciting to have this mini-project where we actually get to be involved with and speaking to preganant women.

All is well in Yarumela, we are bonding and having fun...and I think my spanish is even improving.
Oh also, an update on Harry the spider from my room...yesterday I was trying to find a receipt that fell off my nightstand so I pulled out a drawer and out popped Harry. Apparently that is where he lives now. EW. I put the drawer back in and ran away....maybe I´ll deal with it later.
:)
That´s all for now,
Write me letters, send me emails...
I miss everyone

Finally Some Photos!

Well, I don´t have much time to write, because it took me a loong time to upload these pictures. BUT I figure that I should include some brief discriptions! Pictures 1 and 2 are from a hike we took while in Santa Lucia, a group of us climbed up a nearby mountain, and had an amazing view of the valley from the top!
Pictures 3 and 4 and from our trip yesterday into Comayagua. The eight of us who live in Yarumela took a bus (owned by one of the trainees families) into the city to see their Semana Santa (holy week) celebrations. They have a very famous tradition of making carpets on the roads out of colored saw dust. They are incredibly elaborate and very beautiful (see pic 4). After they are done, a procession comes through and marches over them recreating all the stations of the cross. Its really interesting and pretty.
Next, picture 5 is of one of our daily trips in a Peace Corps vehicle to/from Yarumela...not sure when, but I thought it was cute. Picture 6 is from Comayagua again, after the procession went through. Picture 7 is from the top of some pre-mayan ruins where we went a few days ago. And the last picture is of me really really happy eating Pizza Hut yesterday after the procession. It was an awesome day. I dont have time to write more, but if you want to read more about the events for Semana Santa just google Comayagua Alfombras and you should find all kinds of info and pictures.
Hope people are holding up in the snow! Last week, it hit 97 here..... :)