SO I'M OFFICIALLY A PEACE CORPS VOLUNTEER! Some of you may be reading this and are thinking I thought he already was a PC volunteer. Well, there is actually a long three month process before an actual swear in ceremony. I was previously considered just a trainee. However, this past week I was sworn in with the rest of my training group. All of us were sworn in, which is rarely the case that everyone makes it to swear in. The last weeks in our towns, we had meetings in Santa Lucia, went to visit the other eco training towns to see their finished projects, experienced a bus strike (meaning we stayed at home and watched movies), and finally were sworn in as volunteers at a hotel in Antigua. The embassador couldn't come but a guy from his office did.
My last night with my family, they told me we were going to have a cake so come home early. Well they surprised me and had a birthday party for me with the whole family. I had bought a bottle of champagne for everyone, meaning all the catholics and me, because the evangelicals don't drink. You can see the pictures I just put up. It was a lot of fun. My host sisters gave me a tshirt and my host aunt gave me a towel. Nice gestures by all. Going to miss them all a ton!
Then the day of our swear in ceremony, Patty, Bri and I took our families to Dona Luisa's, a restaurant in Antigua, to celebrate. We treated! I think they enjoyed it. Then we said our goodbyes and headed to our hostel to rest. What a strange feeling to be free and not have a family to check in with when we get home. We spent the next few days in Antigua, eating good food, drinking, and spending the last few days with all of our new friends. Then Saturday we all headed to our new homes for the next two years. Our group from Alta Verapaz took a microbus straight from Antigua because it wasn't that much more expensive and would be a lot safer and easier with all of our luggage. We also thought it would be faster, but we were quite surprised. The bus was late, as most things are in Guatemala, and then we got lost in Guatemala city. The whole process ended up taking about 7 and a half hours when it should have taken about five. Oh well, we made it to Coban late and spent the night at a hostel.
The next day some of our group from Alta Verapaz had to leave early and us others took our time getting ready and buying a few things before heading to our site. I took my last hot shower for a while and ate my last good food for a while that doesn't taste like firewood (well except for when I visit Coban). I took a taxi to my site because I didn't want to struggle with putting it on a bus. Made a new friend with the taxi driver. It was so hot. I kinda reorganized my bags into dirty and clean clothes and then rested. My room has lot's of work that needs to be done.
First few days of work included explaining my future duties to the head council of the cooperative, shopping in Coban for prices of stoves, refrigerators, and dressers, measuring the wooden structures of the zip line because we are replacing them this month, translating a survey they use for tourists into English, drinking lot's of coffee, learning more about their recording process of visitors and incomes/expenditures, and more stuff like this. We didn't have any visitors the last couple of days, which was a disappointment since I thought during Holy Week we were going to be bombarded. However, my counterpart said Mondays and Tuesdays are usually slow and holy week visitors are kind of considered all visitors over the next couple of weeks. We'll see....
The weather here has been a little bit crazy. Sunday it was SOOO HOT. Monday it was pouring down rain and freezing. Tuesday it started off cold,then really hot, and then kind of drizzling and cold. I now understand why everything I read before coming here had very varied temperatures. It is hard though to know what to wear and when. The food with my family is not very tasty. Well it has taste but not a good one. Everything tastes like a campfire because that is what they cook on. The first night back they gave me a cup of milk. It was raw milk and i'm sure not boiled three times like the PC medics told us was neccessary precaution. Then today the gave me a drink and I heard my host guy ask his wife if it was made with agua pura. I couldn't understand her answer that was in Quechi so I asked him if it was or not. He hesitated and then said yes with this cheesy smile. I asked again in all seriousness and then he said no. I was kind of pissed that he would lie. We really aren't supposed to drink tap water. I don't think they want me to get sick but I'm pretty sure it is inevitable if I continue to eat all of my meals with this family. I will have to start cooking for myself very soon. I hate to not eat with the family all of the time but they are not used to preparing food for foreigners and using special precautions.
I put some new pictures up from swear in. I'm excited about this first week of work and then probably am going to Coban this weekend to see all the Easter festivities. I'll write again soon. Hope everyone has a good holy week!
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