Too Busy to Settle In

Hola--

My first week of training went well. Besides language training and cultural education, there are four technical components:

1) Environmental education in the local school, both working with children directly as well as developing new curiculum and techniques with the teachers
2) Writing a grant to fund a project at the school
3) Creating an emergency action plan for the school
4) Developing a project at a home for street kids in the next town

Also there are field trips to visit volunteers working in the "campo", security and health seminars, and all kinds of fun. And all this must be completed in twelve weeks, not months (as I published in my last post), thank you Mom for clarifying. It's plenty to keep us from being idle!

Tomorrow is Sunday, our day off, though we will be waking up at five to participate in a "faena", a community work day. We will be picking up garbage on the main access road to the town. Later on I will attend mass with my host family, and help with some chores around the house.

Some readers expressed interest as to the conditions of Chepe and Luvia's home. There is electricity, a small color TV, and a two-burner gas stove. Water comes out of a pipe outside, but at random times, so one must scramble to fill barrels when it begins to run--you never know when it will come on again.

Love to all, and I will try to write weekly during the three month training period.

Safe Arrival

Hello Everybody!

I write to you today from the Peace Corps Training Center in Santa Lucia Milpas Altas, Guatemala. I arrived in country last week and have been very busy with orientations, trainings, and getting to know my new host family as well as fellow volunteers ever since.

I am living in the small town of San Miguel Milpas Altas. My host parents, Chepe and Luvia, are actually a couple of years younger than me. Their oldest Pablo is 2 1/2, and the twins Fabio Emilio and Shirley Emilia are 12 months. The kids are adorable and Chepe and Luvia have been very kind and gracious hosts. My Spanish, spoken little since I left Nicaragua nearly two years ago, is dusting off surprisingly well so I am able to communicate and converse freely. The house has only two rooms but I am staying in a small cinder block outbuilding so I have ample space and privacy.

I will be spending the next twelve months in intensive technical, linguistic, and cross-cultural training--all very hands-on. Then I will move into the community where I will live and serve for the next two years, as an Environmental Educator.

A very special gracias to all those who have donated to the fund that I started back in Maine to support the projects I will be helping to develop here. My church has sent word that $1300 has been raised!

I'm off to a training session. Love to all, John