Well I am sitting her in my new bed,
in my new room, in my new house, in my new site here in Honduras. The past two
days have absolutely flown by even though I tried my absolute best to take in
and enjoy every moment. Isn’t it odd that the things you really want to take in
and last forever always seem to go by wayyy too quickly and the things that you
want to go by quickly always seem to drag along? For this reason, I am a little
afraid that two years from now I am going to look back and think where in the
world did those two years just go? Anyways, yesterday in the morning we meet
our counterparts (the people whom we will be working), as each volunteer had
one of their counterparts come to Tegus to participate in the day and to bring
us to our site. The day was a little bit nerve racking because you know in the
back of your mind that you are going to be working with this person for the
next two years and you want to make a good impression. Sounds easy enough but
when you factor in that there is a different language and a different culture
it makes the whole situation just a little bit harder. At this point my
language skills are at the minimum level for Peace Corps (Intermediate Mid),
though my teacher told me I was very close to intermediate high. This basically
means that I know enough to survive. Surprisingly through this point of my
travel I have only had one major language mistake in which my counterpart asked
me how many sibling I had (Cuantos hermanos usted tiene?), and I thought she
had asked me how old I was (Cuantos anos tiene?). I responded with 22 (my age)
and my counterpart was shocked, at this point I realized what she had asked me
and we both shared a good laugh.
To continue with my story, after
doing a bunch of activities with my counterpart, in the afternoon we went to
the United States Embassy so we actually got to be on American soil yesterday
which was nice. The ceremony was really nice, it was outside in the garden and
it was just a beautiful setting to have our induction. To add on to the
specialness of the evening we also celebrated the 50th anniversary
of the Peace Corps Act being signed into Congress. It was a really nice evening
and one that simply went by too quickly.
While the ceremony went by quickly, I do remember exactly how proud I
felt about America and also my fellow volunteers. The ambassador told us that
we represent the very best that America has to offer, what a compliment. After
the ceremony the fact that we were going to be here for two years finally
became real and the thought is still a little bit strange. Once we got home from
the ceremony we tried to spend some time together as a group because we have
gotten incredibly close over the past eleven weeks of training. It was odd
knowing that the people who we just spent so much time with and developed great
friendships with were all going to go off to their sites in the morning and we
would not see each other for a long time.
In the morning we left our houses
after saying goodbye to our host families (who were a great group of people) to
head to the hotel where our counterparts were staying. We left at 5 in the
morning because me and another volunteer had to take an eight hour bus ride to
our sites. Now I know what you are thinking and I was thinking the same thing,
8 hours on a bus sounds horrible. However, it was actually a rather fun
experience, it was a nice coach bus (unlike most of the buses here which are
reused school buses from the states) meaning that I had just enough room for my
legs. I got to sit next to the other volunteer who is in my department and
spend some quality time with her and there was also a clown on the bus for our
entertainment. It was quite the experience. Around 3 in the afternoon after
leaving my house at 5 a.m. the 10 hour journey was almost over, all that was
left was to get off the main highway and go up a rocky road to my new site,
Dulce Nombre de Maria, Copan, Honduras. I finally arrived to my site around 4
o’clock.
Once I got to my site I met another
one of my counterparts and I was given a quick tour of the town, I met some of
the important players of the town and after all of that I met my host family
and was able to unpack. I have a really nice host family and a great room with
a private bathroom and shower, for Honduran standards, I am living the good
life. After I unpacked I went out to dinner with my counterpart and after that
I met the other volunteer in my site and her boyfriend who just finished his
service here in Honduras four months ago. From there, we went to a welcome
party that my last counterpart threw for me. It was so nice, and there was cake
and singing and guitar playing. After the party was over I came back home and
here I sit ready to pass out. So I am going to try to sum up my feelings over
these past two days in just a few sentences, a tough task for sure. I am just
amazed at how welcomed I feel here at my new site, it is stunning to know that
I literally did not know a soul before today but because of small simple
gestures I feel that I have already made some friendships that will last a
lifetime. These simple gestures, be they a cake, a text message, or just a few
words of welcome have so much more power behind them than one would believe. I
think the reason is simple, because these actions, while small, are so pure and
so generous that they shine through like a star in the night sky, and they like
that star illuminate the world and make it a brighter place. For all of us.
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