Field Based Training, etc

Hey y'all,

Here's some pictures to start:

First here are some fellow trainees (minus the guy in gray) and me in Antigua (that's a volcano in the background):

Some of the Healthy School volunteers on field based training after giving our first health presentations in an elementary school:

Just a few of the redheads in our training group:

At a mayan ceremony that the Peace Corps arranged for us:

So last week we got to go on a field trip with the healthy schools group to visit some current volunteers in the department of Totonicapan (Toto). Ten of the sixteen of us will be sent to work in that department and seven of us will be replacing the volunteers that we went to visit. It was cool getting to see everything we've been learning in training put in to practice as we visited a bunch of the schools, learned about infrastructure projects they are working on in the schools and participated in a workshop for teachers. Seeing the sites and homes of the volunteers gave me an idea of what my life will be like once I get sworn in and sent out to site. It was also some good bonding time for our group because all sixteen of us stayed in a hotel for the week while the PC staff stayed at another hotel. We felt like we were teenagers whose parents had gone out of town for the weekend and we took advantage of the opportunity for nightly dance parties. This may sound a bit juvinile but keep in mind that we have to be home by dark every night and we have our lunches packed for us and our laundry done by our host mothers. Basically, for all intents and purposes during training we are all twelve again.

I have to admit that visiting the volunteers that we will be replacing left me a little disappointed because the reality of the life of a healthy schools volunteer in Guatemala is quite different from the life I imagined myself living as a PCV in Central America. All but two of us will be sent to the western highlands which means my dream of hammocks and mango trees and layers of sweat from the tropical heat will be replaced with plenty of wool blankets to keep me warm in the mountain cold and layers of dust during the dry season. Also I was imagining roughing it out in some rural town in the middle of nowhere when in fact most of us will be sent to fairly large towns with plenty of buses and concrete buildings. The good thing is that I will most likely have a flushing toilet, a hot shower and electricity. Also, we will be working in 2-4 schools that are in small rural towns of the municipality where we will live which means we will have the opportunity to get out and see the natural beauty of Guatemala when we go to work. I guess I just have to adjust my expectations and realize that no matter what the site I am sent to is like it will definitely be a unique experience and an opportunity to challenge myself.

Next week we are each going out on our own to stay with a current volunteer for a few days to shadow them and ask them all of our burning questions like "how do you buy gas?" and "how did you find your housing" and "what do you do when you are going crazy from loneliness?" I am being sent to visit a volunteer about 45 minutes from here, which again I am a little bummed about because I was hoping to go somewhere further out there, but it will still be cool.
We find out our sites on the 12th of March which sounds like its soon but to all of us it seems like a lifetime away because we are all dying to know our destinies for the next two years. I guess this gives me time to adjust my expectations so I won't be disappointed when I get my assingment. The week after we find out we will be sent out to visit our sites with our host country counterparts (in our case the superintendent of schools in the municipality) and we will figure out housing, transportation, etc.

I'm still loving life with my host family. They took me and a friend to the beach a few weekends ago which was really fun. I still haven't gotten sick from any of the food and I now eat on average five tortillas with every meal (but somehow have managed to lose weight). I have eggs and beans every morning and have tried all sorts of yummy tropical fruits. Mango season has started and my neighbor gives me avocados almost on a daily basis so I am pretty much in heaven as far as food goes.

Anyway, all in all life is good and I am happy. How are you???

Paz,
Crystal