First Week In Site

It's official, I'm a Peace Corps VOLUNTEER now, rather than just a trainee! It feels pretty good. We had a swear-in ceremony at the ambassador's house that we all got dressed up for. It was kind of funny looking around at everyone... we all looked so clean! The main rules for volunteers, from what I can tell, whittling it down from an 80-page handbook, are three: 1) don't get pregnant, 2) don't do drugs, and 3) tell Peace Corps where you go when you travel. It's nice to feel like a grown-up again. After swear-in we had a free weekend. Seven of us decided to stay at a hotel in Panama City. I really wanted to get to know the city because my site is only about two hours away. I LOVED the city and I'm glad I ended up so close! One day we took a day trip to a beautiful island nearby (Isla Taboga) and spent the day on the beach which was awesome. I've survived my first week in site. It's a lot of ups and downs but I think I can really do a lot here. I work in the school from 7:30 - 3. I work with three English teachers (two in the morning and one in the afternoon) and the point of my job is to improve their teaching methodologies. Hopefully that will actually happen. I have a lot of work to do. My community is really great and all the people in it have made me feel very welcome. Everywhere I go people invite me in and stuff me with food and are very patient with my limited Spanish. Aside from one of my chickens, who aggressively blocks my path from the shower to the house every day, everyone is really glad I'm here. The kids want extra English classes on Saturdays and the adults want night classes, so I'll be starting those in May. There's a lake about 4 or 5 miles from my site (that's a guesstimate, I actually have no idea), so most afternoons I like to run in that direction and then run/walk/crawl back. No one runs here but it's just one more weird thing the gringa does. The kids think I'm hilarious and when I do workouts in the backyard I make them count for me in English. Speaking of my backyard, it's full of fruit trees - papaya, plaintains, avocado, coconut, bananas... I forget what else. My entire community is surrounded by pineapple farms too, so I get to eat pineapple every day. Yum. Some new Spanish vocab that I've learned since I've gotten to site: scorpion, matches, dizzy, branch, noise, godmother, rocking chair, toy marble, burdened, and five different words for machete... I think that gives a pretty good picture of my site.