Friday, May 6, 2011

I'm here!!

I have been here in Guatemala for 8 days.  What a crazy 8 days it has been. I don’t want my blog to be a boring timeline of everything I do, but I will catch everyone up on the past few 8 days and then I won’t talk about everything I do word for word, I will talk more about my experiences.  On April 26th I was in Philadelphia for 1 day for “Staging” or orientation, which is where I met all of the other 52 other Peace Corps Trainees going to Guate.  We went over the goals and objectives of Peace Corps in general.  We had orientation from 12pm-7pm, I then went out to eat with a few other PCT, and then came back to my hotel room at about 9pm.  I laid down from about 10:30pm-11:00pm.  Then I got up, took a shower and was out of my hotel room at 12am.  I had my hotel room for a whole 5 hours but I only used it for 3 hours!  We took a bus from Philadelphia to New York City in which I slept most of the way.  Our flight from NYC to Miami was 3 hours and I slept the whole way and the flight from Miami to Guatemala City was 2 hours but I didn’t sleep at all.  When we arrived in Guatemala we were greeted by Peace Corps staff and a couple current volunteers.  We went through immigration and customs as a group.  Peace Corps welcomed us to the country by loading us up on nicely painted, decked out Chicken Buses (aka old American school buses that are driven down from the United States and then used as public transportation).  We were taken to the Peace Corps office, which depending on traffic, is 1 hour outside of Guatemala City.  We had a little orientation and then we were taken to our host families where we stayed for the next 3 nights.  I was in a home with 2 other cool trainees.  In my family we had a mom, dad, 17 year old daughter, 15 year old son, 11 year old daughter, 7 year old daughter and our mom’s sister lived in the home also.  They were such a fun family to get to know.  During the next 2 ½ days we had orientation at the Peace Corps office.  We had Spanish interviews, immunizations, information about how to stay safe in Guatemala, what to do if we get sick, and received many workbooks that we will be going through in the next 3 months.  On Friday we were told which Spanish groups we will be in depending on how we did on our interview.  I am in a group with 3 other trainees.  Each Spanish group gets placed into different towns around the Peace Corps headquarters.
On Saturday morning we said good bye to our host family.  Then at the Peace Corps office we received our cell phones.  All PC volunteers and trainees receive cell phones and phone calls between all PC volunteers, trainees, and staff is free!  I guess only 5 out of the 76 countries that PC serves in do volunteers get issued a cell phone.  Then we loaded up into big vans and we were taken out to our different towns.  I was the last person in the van to be dropped off at my house.  I was welcomed with a warm hug and kiss from my host mom.  I came into the house and met the rest of the family.  I have a host mom, dad, and 2 daughters in their 30s.  One daughter is married and has a 10 year old daughter, an 11 year old son, and a 15 year old daughter.  The other daughter is married and has a 6 month old daughter, 2 year old daughter and an 8 year old son.  I obviously live with a big family and I love it.  After I met my host family I saw my room and where I will be living for the next 3 months, during training.  After 3 months of training I will become an official Peace Corps volunteer and then live in a different site for the next 2 years.  I love my host family, they are so nice and I have been laughing so much with my host mom and dad.  I also have electricity all the time, hot showers and running water (the water stops from 8pm-4am).  This week we had Spanish class Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, today, and tomorrow.  Every Tuesday we travel back to the Peace Corps headquarters for general trainings about culture, safety training, medical training, immunizations, and technical training.  So far everything is going really well.

1 comment:

  1. That is really nice that you have had good host family settings. Will you have another host-family setting when you become a "volunteer"? I hope that family is nice also.

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