Guate!!!!

This weekend I moved into my training community. I will be living here for the next three months! I am so excited to finally be at my training community! The last few days have been quite hectic.  I arrived in Philly on Tuesday, and sat through an important information session.  That night I went out with a couple new friends, and went to a little Italian restaurant downtown. I had lobster ravioli, and let me tell you it was amazing! I had some caesar salad and an awesome glass of vino! It was a great last meal, and I will always remember it! We left our hotel at 12AM that night, and loaded the buses to drive to NYC. I got to sleep a little on the bus, but I was lucky because I did get a look at Manhattan as we were passing over some river (too late to realize which one). I loved being able to see the Empire State Building, even if only for a minute.  We arrived at JFK at about 3AM. I went in, as I had signed up to be the airport leader, and it was completely bare. (Who would think an airport bare at 3AM, huh) We got in line in at the American Airlines desk and waited. The desk didn’t even open till about 3:45. We finally were given our own line, as a Peace Corps group. We sat, we stood, and we waited. There were about one to two people checking us in at a time. I was in the middle of the line, and I went through security at about 5:30. I went to Starbucks for the last time and got some breakfast.  I had just enough time to eat my breakfast, and then board the plane. The people at the end of the checkout line didn’t get to the plane till about 6:30, and our flight started boarding at 6:45. I slept through takeoff during that flight, and woke up, and could not for the life of me figure out how to lean the seat back. It was very frustrating! I was sitting next to a non-PC person who was asleep. It was very scary, during landing no one had their windows up, and I was in the middle aisles.  I had no clue when landing was coming, and when it did I jumped, I about leapt out of my seat.  Miami here I am!  Our flight was delayed, and left about 1.5 hours later than it was suppose to. When we were flying over Guate, we saw the top of a volcano peaking out through the clouds. We landed in Guate at about 4, and I was so happy to be there. From the airport, it just looked beautiful. We got off the plane, and followed the way for foreign visitors.  I didn’t even know that those existed in the world. We got to immigration, and there were PC people waiting for us, to help us fill out our forms. We got through immigration, put our bags in vans, and waited for the chicken buses to come and pick us up. We took the camionetas (chicken buses, I think), all the way to Santa Lucia Milpas Atlas, which is where Cuerpo de Paz (Peace Corps) is located. The camionetas are old American school buses, which are painted colorfully, and decked out with colorful lights. We drove around Guatemala City, and sat through awful traffic! We climbed a large mountain and arrived at Cuerpo de Paz. It is beautiful at Cuerpo de Paz Guatemala headquarters. It is a beautiful house, with an open area in the middle. The open area has many trees, and hydrangea bushes. We had a quick meeting, and then set out for our host family for the next three nights. I was roommates with Kim, which was lucky for me because she is fluent in Spanish. We had an amazing dinner, I can’t remember what it was but I am sure there were black beans and tortillas. I went to bed at about 8PM, as I was exhausted.  I woke up about 5:30AM to some roosters, which would continue to wake me up while I stayed in Santa Lucia M.A. I took a shower, had a great breakfast, and walked to Cuerpo de Paz. We had our ID pictures taken, had shots at lunch (I got a Hepatitis A vaccine.), and learned more about PC Guatemala. I met my leaders for training for Youth Development.  I am really glad that I am in Youth Development (well I say that now), I feel that it’s a good fit for me. We went home and went back the next day. On Friday, we did Spanish almost all day. I am in a beginners group, but I already see myself better than I was when I took my Spanish interview on Thursday. I got a medical kit, and much more! Classes ended at about 4. It was our last night in Santa Lucia, so we decided to really enjoy it. We sat in Cuerpo de Paz till about 6 just chatting, and then decided to go enjoy the town until dark. (When dark comes all of us are supposed to be in our homes, as it is very unsafe to be out after dark.) We walked around and found other PCT’s (Peace Corps trainees). I got a pastry for Q5 (about .75 cents), and it was awesome! There was a parade for Saint Peter, and we decided to watch that. It’s not the well-known Saint Peter, but the one that was really involved in Guatemala. It was getting dark, so we went back to our house to tell our host mom where we were. Come to find out that our host mom was at the parade holding up one of the banners! So we went out to catch the rest of the parade, with some more PCT’s. It was so lovely watching all of these people having a festive parade on a Friday night to celebrate something spiritual. They were celebrating for their own singular faith, which I think sometimes gets lost in the Untied States. Some people look at religion as a social outlet. And while you should enjoy company in your religion, the most important thing should be the spiritual side of it. Your relationship with a higher power is most important, I think. It was a beautiful thing to witness, and I walked back to my house happy. We woke up early, I took another cold shower, said goodbye to our host mom, and walked back to Cuerpo de Paz. We had some more books handed to us, and then we got our PC supplied cell phone. (If you want my number, I will happily give it to you on the FB.) We loaded the buses off to our host communities. It was about a 20-minute drive to Santa Lucia M.A. to my host community.  My host mom and dad, and their parents greeted me. I feel its weird to have a host mom and dad who are brother and sister. I had expected different. But this is part of the experience, defying my expectations. I was led to a beautiful room, which will be my room for the next three months. It is amazing! There are marble floors, and a chandelier.  I feel incredibly guilty for taking the good room, but I am trying my best not to feel guilty, and to be grateful for the kindness I have been shown. I know that I am a guest, and I will be treated like one for a while. I feel like the American stereotype of a person would want to stay in this room, and I don’t want to make the stereotype of a grandiose American. I hope when my family really gets to know me they will see that I am not everything in the stereotype. On Saturday afternoon we walked to the park and met up with my host mom’s family. It was fun. This city is so hilly, I feel like I am back in Knoxville walking on campus. I went to bed at like 8 on Saturday, and was woken up by my host mom at 10, because I had forgot to turn out the lights. It really startled me. I was embarrassed, that she had to wake me up because I was silly and forgot to turn out the lights. I went back to sleep and slept well! I woke up on Sunday morning and went to the market with my host mom. There were so many people there. I took a long nap on Sunday, which was awesome!! On Monday, I got up early as my other trainees were coming to my house for Spanish class. We had class from 8 till 1. Then we walked around the city for a couple of hours! It was lovely! After dinner, I went up on the roof with my host mom and dad. They showed me some of the stars, and it was just wonderful. The temperature here is just amazing!! This has been my Peace Corps experience so far, and so far I love it! I can’t wait for more! Hasta luego(see you soon)! I know this was long, but this was all in my head, what a lot to think about!And I will post some pictures later today, I hope. Again, Hasta luego!