Alacrán- Scorpion

Holler,

Okay, where should I start? So much about my life here has changed in the last week, it’s nuts! I guess I’ll start with our first day as volunteers… The swearing in ceremony was at the house of the ambassador and it was really awesome! The ambassador was super welcoming and nice and his house is absolutely gorgeous. The swearing-in was a pretty short ceremony, with speeches from our training director, the country director, the ambassador and one of our fellow trainees, Justin (who was hilarious, well done dude). I must also comment on the quality of the refreshments that were offered to us after the ceremony… they were bangin. We got to have coffee with milk (a rare and delicious treat), double chocolate secret recipe brownies and mini ham sandwiches with the absolute perfect combo of mayo and mustard. Aside from the yummy treats though (I think you can all see where my priorities lie…), it was really exciting to finally be volunteers and the oath that we took is the same as the official one we’ve all heard on TV so I must say I felt pretty legit. After the ceremony we went back to our towns to grab our bags and then took off for Antigua for the night. It was the first real night we got to go out and we had a blast. We all had dinner together at a pizza place and did superlatives, which were hilarious. I ended up winning most likely to break a bone, most likely to fall into a latrine and most likely to catch on fire? I forget what the last one was but it was something along those lines (I’m beginning to think everyone thinks I’m clumsy but it’s probably all in my head…). Anyways, Antigua was a lot of fun and a great way to say peace out for the next couple of months.

Okay Saturday… this is when the real fun began. We woke up and got breakfast at bagel barn (I already plan to eat bagels every single day when I return to the US… they are delicious). After breakfast we made the trek to where the camionetas are in Antigua (which was not fun with all our bags but I must say thanks to Thomas for carrying one of mine as well as my water bottle which had re-hydration salts in it that he made for me and tasted like dirt… I appreciate the effort greatly). The camioneta to Guate took forever and there was an incredibly creepy clown dressed as a dog sitting next to Lexi but we made it, which is the important part. In Guate, I got lunch with Emily and Brynna while we waited for Lexi and Carmen to get their wireless internet modems but we all ended up getting split up shortly after this… Brynna and Emily left together and I decided to wait for Lexi because we were going to take the same bus out of Guate. This backfired, however, because the line at the phone store was ridiculous and I had to leave without Lexi (of course I was paranoid about being late…). I made it successfully to the bus terminal and got on the right bus and off we went to Chiquimula… wouldn’t I have been so lucky. It turned out that the bus I took hated me and broke down about 3 times before actually ceasing to work… by this time it was 7 oclock (maybe later) and it gets dark in Guatemala at like 6 so no dice there. Also, buses to my town from Chiquimula stop running at 6 so again, no dice. We had to wait on the broken bus for maybe a half an hour until another bus came and got us and took us the rest of the way to Chiqui, where I stayed the night in a pretty nice hotel actually. The one saving grace about this story is that Lexi was with me! She ended up missing the other bus she was going to take and just happened to get on the bus I was on when it was already en route (the odds of this happening are not that good). So thank goodness we were both together and were able to stay in Chiqui and go shopping the next day for groceries and things of that nature. All in all, it was a looong day but ended up being okay since both of us were having some anxiety about going to site anyways… thanks for sucking bus!

Sunday was my first day in my new house and it kinda dragged. My new family here is really nice and welcoming but it’s so different than having my four little brothers running around and playing all the time. I miss my family in Sumpango immensely. My madre did send me off with a homemade banana cake that she made for me as a going away treat and also joked that it would be all I ate for the next week… little did she know that I’d finish it by Tuesday! I really haven’t eaten much else besides massive amounts of cake and oatmeal… I guess I should have taken my mom more seriously growing up when she told me to pay attention in the kitchen. I guess it’s a good thing I enjoy tea since apparently boiling water is the only thing I’m capable of. Oh, funny story here too… I was making tea two days ago and accidentally put the bag of sugar on the burner after I was finished (duh, the burner was still hot and burnt through the bottom of the bag instantly as well as melted sugar all over it, which is NOT easy to get off). I guess I actually am not even capable of making tea… it’s gonna be a long two years! I also was greeted in my room last night with a big old scorpion crawling down my wall. I immediately thought to myself “is it too late to choose the house with the rats?” Unfortunately it is too late for that and I’m pretty sure there are scorpions everywhere here so it probably wouldn’t have helped much. I ended up hanging my mosquito net (which I seriously McGuyvered, my room was not built for that type of protection). I was finally able to sleep knowing that my net was there to protect me and all the sweat (its blistering here 24/7) was worth it. Other than those few little things, my living situation is not bad. Privacy is a little more difficult here and I didn’t have any service whatsoever for my cell phone until yesterday when I bought a new one with a different service provider, which now works in a few locations in and around my house (better than none). I’m already used to the latrine and have gone running the past two mornings around the soccer field (this morning a little girl literally sat in the shade of a tree and watched me the entire time… when I said hi to her on my way out she started hysterically laughing… TIG dude) which makes the cold showers refreshing and wonderful.

This is the last paragraph I swear. I had my first meeting with the women’s group this morning and it went really well. I think all the women liked me (only 17 out of 50 showed up) and they expressed interest in me going to their houses and things like that, which is awesome considering this is my only job right now and our group only meets once a month… I need to find a hobby stat! It was really interesting to see how the meeting was run though and hopefully my Spanish will be better in a month so I don’t have to ask the president of the association to repeat every single thing that happened during the meeting to me after everyone left. I also got to hang out with my bff here, whose name is Brenda and she is the coolest 16 year old ever (and she’s super patient with me, which is awesome). We went to town and got me some agua pura so that I don’t get worms and then just hung out for a bit. Tomorrow I am going to meet her in town again and hopefully be able to post this blog (as well as check my beloved facebook and email… a week without technology seriously feels ridiculously long… maybe this is good for me). Anyways, sorry if this bored you to death but I wanted to talk for an extended period of time in English and since I am the only person here capable of doing so, this is what you get! Hope everything at home is great and I miss you all mucho!