Friday, May 29, 2009

It's official, I'm a Peace Corps Volunteer



Yay, today was the big day and I'm officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer. They had us raise our right had and pledge to defend the constitution and all that good stuff. It's a pretty big day, we all went to the house of the US ambassador's house and there was a formal ceremony and everything, My host Mom got to go with me and it was a great time to prepare to move on, again.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Here are a few pics.

Here is a link to some more photos. I will try and get caught up... http://www.flickr.com/photos/36935590@N03/




Here are some photos and people from my pre service training. Tomorrow we will be sworn in as official volunteers and we are all very happy! Here are a few memories of Acosta and PST.





Sunset in Acosta and above is Karina our Spanish teacher, we love her and she is a ton of fun!!!! I will miss having her to hang out with during the week, come to think of it, I will miss all of my fellow PCVs.


This is my Acosta host mom Marta. I moved in with her and her family a month and a half into training and I love her soooo much. I will be so sad to say good bye to her

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Today was a no good very bad day.

Okay, we all have them, not everyday can be a good one and today has been a bad one. Here's what happened... I have an international phone card that I have been using to call the US and it has been working really well, or so I thought. I have been using this phone card and it has been charging me twice. First it charges the house where I make the call from for and international call at international rates and then it charges me the minuets that I had on the phone call. Not a good deal. I'm probably going to need to pay around $80-$100+ to the owners of the homes where I made my phone calls. This sucks. In addition to this, now I don't have a way to call home. Okay, so I received this news this morning. Then one of my fellow trainees rescued a puppy and the puppy was sick this afternoon. I was carrying the puppy to the vet when I noticed something weird. The puppy had diarrhea on my shirt. It was totally nasty. After this my classmates/teacher were nice enough to buy me an ice cream for my prize. Also, today I realized that I failed to call my brother and sister in law for their birthdays. I missed it, and by a lot. I'm so not a fan of today. I still don't know how the phone card situation will work out or how much it will cost me in the end. At least I was able to clean the poop off of my shirt.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Training is coming to an end

We are getting down to the end of training and we are all burned out. I am ready to go to my site and relax and take a moment to breathe. I'm excited to get to know my community, move into my room and make it feel like a home. The first few weeks are going to be spent settling in and learning more about the town (possibly the first few months). I'm excited to see what I can do and what the town wants since that is the key, finding where the towns needs/wants meet my abilities and interests. It's an exciting time, but also a time for me to recharge my batteries since training has left me pretty drained.

In other news... Last night two of my friends found a little puppy in the gutter and adopted him. His name will be pulga, which means flea in Spanish. Super cute and I'm typing with him on my lap right now.

Monday, May 18, 2009

La Palma

On Friday I arrived at my new home for a get to know you type of visit. I will be living with a family in a "cabina" format, but it`s pretty much like I live in the house, once I get to my computer I`ll be able to explain a little bit better, but it`s cool because I have my own entrance and bathroom that makes me feel a little more independent. I really like the family and I will also be living with another volunteer for the first 2 months of my service. I`m taking over the site from a guy named Mateo so he will be my little brother for the first 2 months. It`s kind of cool that he is there for the start of my service since that will help me to get to know the community and help me get started a little quicker with my work in the community. Osa is beautiful, you can`t imagine a place more beautiful. The other morning I ran to the gulf and it was the perfect distance. The golf is so blue and is surrounded by lush green (pics to come). It is a bit hot, but I`ll have the impending rainy season to help me stay cool. In really great news, John is coming on June 3rd to visit. We will be heading to the CR vs. USA world cup qualifier, I`m really excited as you can imagine and he will get to know La Palma and my family down here and La Palma. I can`t wait. I`ll have more to write once I get back to Acosta and have a chance to take in all that has been happening...

In Trinkle news, my brother and his wife are going to have another baby due at the end of November, I can`t wait!!!! I`m already planning a trip home for a few weeks around Christmas.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

Site Assignment Day



Hello Everyone and I have some really really awesome news for you. Friday was our site assignment day, the day when we find out where we will be for the next two years. This is a huge day for a Peace Corps Trainee, for the past 2+ Months we have been training and training for this and at this point it's so close we can taste it! Well, let me give you a little background on the site selection process. Our bosses go around the country and talk to different communities that have requested a Peace Corps Volunteer, they work with the community to see what their needs are, if the community is safe for the volunteer, etc. Well, they work on site development for a really long time and then we arrive and they begin to train us and get to know us and ask us what we would like to do and what we are looking for in a community, they then try to match us up with a community. This could be pretty tricky as you can imagine. I mean, here you have 50 different people all with a different idea of what they want and they try their best to make happen for everyone.
So, my site is La Palma on the Oso Peninsula!!!! I could not be happier. I'm located a 15 min walk from the beach and I will be living in my own cabina with my own bathroom. I could not be happier, this is perfect. YAY!!!!!! I am so happy about my placement and the projects that I'll be working on. I'll be replacing a current volunteer named Matt who will be in site with me for the first 3 months. Okay, this is all I have time for, but I'm going to visit my site for a week this Thursday and will post lots of pics of my future home! Yay, this is so perfect.

This is my Acosta training group, we are all going to opposite sides of CR. We are all really happy with where we are going, but sad to be so far apart.