Congrats, Now You May Officially Work for Free!

(Writen 5/15/09) - Happy B-day momma yesterday and Carly today!

Well today I join the ranks of thousands who came before me to work as a Peace Corps volunteer!! Although I already felt like a volunteer, today it is official.
This week passed so quickly and was such a complete rollercoaster ride that I can hardly believe that by tomorrow night I will be in my new home for the next two years! During this past week all the H14ers were reunited for one final week in Zarabanda to do some general housecleaning before we are sent off on our own. This of course means we had to pack everything up and move back to our old host families for one week to sit through long meetings about banking, safety and security, and working with our counterparts when all we actually wanted to do was move to our sites. But it was nice to see everyone again before we are shipped all throughout the country. On Thursday we had yet another infamous Despedida (going away party) which is nice in theory but ends up being a lot of work for a really awkward social gathering with our host family and a bunch of other families that no one else knows. However unlike the last one, the Peace Corps staff took care of all the food and decorations so all we had to do was serve the food and entertain our guests which made the whole event much nicer. Both Gloria and Reynita (my 1st host mom and little sister) came and all in all I believe they liked it, especially the photo slideshow with all their photos.

Which brings us to the main event, swearing in. Today I woke up bright and early to get all dolled up and head out by 6:30am to go to the Peace Corps office in Teguz to meet my counterpart. All of us volunteers rode the big yellow school bus to Teguz which made the whole trip feel much more like going to prom than to be sworn-in at the US Embassy haha. And while all the other soon-to-be volunteers where pretty nervous about meeting their counterparts, I was cool as a cucumber because as everyone knows I am an excellent bull shitter and have no trouble talking to strangers J but I was pretty nervous about the logistics of getting to my site. Apparently a few of the counterparts have cars but for those who don’t, its public transportation a-ho with all your possessions no matter how long the trip. Especially after all of our safety and security meetings, we are all more than a little nervous about being an American with an insane amount of luggage of public transportation that goes through major cities like the capital. But once we got there everyone was paired up with their counterparts and let me just tell you at this moment the bells of fate rang as I looked across the room and saw the most impressively dressed woman waiting for me. My counterpart is Mayra who works as the Project Manager at the Municipality in Orocuina. She is 24yrs old, has a degree in International Business and is currently working on getting her Masters in Project Administration while she works at the municipality. She was dressed to the 9’s putting on her makeup while laughing at someone on her Blackberry and holding her pink razor in the other hand. We spent the next hour talking which went by super fast as we chatted about our families, favorite pastimes, boys, and a little bit about work haha. But I mean hey, we have the next 2 yrs to talk about work right? Then she uttered the words I had been praying I would hear: “I hope you don’t mind but I brought my car so we are going to ride back in that instead of the bus!” AHHH HALLEHUJA! I can’t even explain how worried I had been up until today about the logistics of getting to site with my 4 large bags on less than favorable public transportation. I mean, nothing says rob me more than a gringa riding on a bus with 4 bags she can barely lift for hours at a time. I literally felt a wash of calm come over me afterwards and was truly excited for the rest of the day.

After the meeting we rode over to the US. Embassy to be sworn in. The whole affair was pretty quick, lasting only about an hour. There were 5 speakers which included our training manager Luis, our country director Trudy, 2 Honduran guest speakers, the Ambassador, and our very own Jose to represent the volunteers. And I must admit that out of all the speeches, Jose’s was by far the best and made me way more emotional than any graduation or wedding speech I’ve heard to date. We also sang both the Honduran and American national anthems, recited our swear-in oath and of course ate cake and took a million photos. While I was waiting with my counterpart to have my picture taken with the Ambassador a camera crew approached me and asked if I would like to be on tv to which I quickly replied NO! However, apparently no one was convinced that anyone, especially an American, would not want to appear on tv so before I knew I was thrust in front of a camera and attempting to sound articulate in Spanish about my experience so far in Honduras. Lord only knows what I said but hey, theres a memory right? After the ceremony and cake we were hustled back into the school buses and shipped back to the training center in Zarabanda to eat lunch and then WORK!! Now in past years all the other volunteers enjoyed a pretty nice party at the Ambassador’s house for the rest of the afternoon but as luck would have it my cycle was the first to “try something new” which means budget cuts and making us work instead of enjoy our last day with the other volunteers and training staff. Although after the way the afternoon went, I am pretty sure that they won’t be doing it that way again because everyone was over it before it even started, including my counterpart ha. The whole thing ended at 6:30 and then we had to scramble to say our goodbyes before we were sent back home which also sucked because it leaves you crying like an idiot in front of everyone, including your counterpart. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go straight home because I had to go get money from an ATM to last me through my first few days in site and buy saldo for my phone so I could talk to my counterpart in the morning so I went to a nearby town with some other volunteers to get money before heading back home. I didn’t end up getting home until around 8pm and had to rush to eat dinner and then spent the rest of my night trying to bond with my host family, saying goodbye to other volunteers in my neighborhood and packing which wasn’t exactly how I pictured my last night but oh well. Luckily since I have a ride tomorrow to my site and don’t have to take the bus I don’t have to be at the bus stop at 4am like my neighbors do!
Now as I sit in my bed I am overcome with a million different emotions. Although I so happy to finally be a volunteer and I am beyond excited to get to my site and start working, I am also a little nervous to actually be on my own. It’s so funny to think that when I signed up for Peace Corps I was so ready to go off and work alone, in an unknown country for 2+ years and now I am nervous to leave all the other volunteers. I really never imagined I would make such good friendships in such a short period of time. Now I am left wondering how will I ever get anywhere without Jp and Jose to walk with me? What will I do when I walk out my front door and don’t see Matt across the street waiting to talk to me. And I can’t even begin to imagine not being able to see Erika every day? Starting tomorrow I will be meeting new people all over again and trying to form new friendships to make my experience throughout the next two years something meaningful. Heres hoping the Peace Corps was right about my “advanced” level of Spanish and that I have enough energy to be super friendly everyday for the next several months! So heres to jumping in headfirst all alone!