All Systems Are Go

I probably struck pay dirt with my site, I honestly couldn’t have been luckier. First of all, I live with a host family where my mom is part of the Recursos Naturales Comite and my dad is president of the PTA. I met an environmental/English teacher that is super excited to get me in the schools to teach enviro-education and a full immersion English class to the chicos. The governor of my town is super motivated to start a trash clean-up program with my help. My mayor is super motivated in general which is hard to come by in such a small town. There are two, yes two, agricultural/forestation promotion organizations near my site that make regular visits to my town. And, I have two community partners that seem much obliged to work with a gringo on just about any project! So to say I’m grateful is an understatement. During training we heard horror stories of people having tons of problems in every area I just mentioned, and in some cases not making these breakthroughs until half-way through their service! I won’t be shy in saying a lot of the early breakthroughs I’m making are partly my on doing by just getting my face out in the community; but honestly the majority of a volunteer’s success is totally dependent on the communities attitude, and even more just purely circumstantial. So once again, to say I’m grateful is an understatement. I still have those times when absolutely nothing happens, when the rain is pouring and all you can do is wait. But when part of my “integration,” (which I might add is supposed to be the hardest part of the two years,) is going fishing all day with my host brother in some of the most scenic places I’ve experienced thus far, I consider myself pretty lucky.

Also, my family is really starting to warm up to me. It’s a small step forward when they invite me to watch the one channel television with them, but its such a big success in my mind considering they’ve never experienced a volunteer (even more so, a gringo) living with them. You learn to count your blessings no matter how small when you’re this far from anything you once knew as comfortable. I think what I’ve truly learned to appreciate is how much warmer a room can be with other people eating and laughing can be when there is a freezing rain outside. The idea that you depend on other people for your comforts is really new to me, as strange as it sounds. My time in the Army showed me I can survive and endure strange situations, but now that I’m in the Peace Corps I’m finally learning to enjoy those situations as well.