time is starting to fly

“Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”

With only one week left in training I am really starting to learn how quickly time literally flies by. this week has been a very good one, the first couple of days were spent doing tech training and listening to my fellow healthy-school trainees give presentations about the independent projects they have been doing here (their spanish is a at advancado medio or alto and no longer need language instrustion). which was incredibly interesting because at least around the antigua area there are a lot of projects one can do. it has definitely given me an idea of what i would like to do for secondary projects, but i have a couple more months to go before i am going to even think about starting secondary projects.

The second half of the week has been spent on IDA (Independently directed project) this is the opportunity to visit a current healthy schools volunteer and see what life is really like here in Guate. We (my partner and i) have been very fortunate to stay with Ms. Lauren Wert and her cat Manchitas (little spots in spanish). She has been a very very kind hostess and it has been a wonderful couple of days. Her site is in Tecpan, one of the sites near some Mayan Ruins. We have visited a couple of schools, but mostly relaxed and asked her a million questions about getting started when we get to site, how busy we can actually be down here, and day to day life. we have gotten to eat some wonderful food, which makes me very excited to get to site and start cooking again!!

This week is the big one, we find out our sites and swear in. they have decided to change the day we find out our sites from thursday to wednesday so we are all very happy about that! the first two days of this week will be going over policies and maybe some introduction to mayan languages, but mostly wrapping up training.

friday we will be in the capital at the American ambassador's house to swear in, so far 400 guest have RSVPed so this is going to be a huge deal. PC is putting a lot of pressure on us to look our best, but it sounds like it is going to be something incredibly memorable! and i cannot tell you how excited i am! in my next post if i can figure it out, i will put up pictures from the day!

next weekend is the first weekend of being a volunteer so we are all staying in antigua until sunday where we return to the office, jump in a van and head out to the cabicera of our department. from there we get to meet our counterpart, and stay in another hotel. On monday i will finally be in site and will be able to start looking for housing! and start work! estoy emocionada

on a sad note, two of our fellow trainees were asked to leave this week. it came as a shock to all of us and many of us are still angry and sad about it. they both would have made amazing volunteers.

well i better hit the road, but can't wait until next time, blogging as a volunteer (ojala!)
Kata