July 12, 2008
Safe and sound. My first few days in Honduras have been a bit of a whirlwind, but we only had a half day today of Peace Corps activity so today and tomorrow I am recharging my batteries, figuratively and literally. We flew into San Pedro Sula on Wednesday without any problems and drove about 5 hours to Zarabanda, near Tegucigalpa, where our training center is. I met my wonderful new Honduran family, at least for 5 of my 11 weeks of training, on Friday. Patricia is the mother, Javier is the father and Alexandria is their adorable five year old daughter. So far, she has been the highlight of my time here. When we got to the house Alexandria stood at the door with her hand on the doorknob asking her mom, “Puedo? Puedo?” (Can I? Can I?), when Patricia told her Ok she opened the door and the room was decorated with balloons and streamers with a sign saying “Welcome Jessica”. Yup, happy tears definitely welled up in my eyes. Then last night Patricia told me when she put Alexandria down for bed that in her prayers she asked God to look over her mama, her papa and Jessica. Flattered is not even the word, she is so sweet, curious and pure, it’s so refreshing and heart-warming. My language is coming along better than I anticipated, that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of blank stares amongst me and my host family, but we are able to communicate quite a bit and I am learning a little more every day. This country is beyond beautiful. There is so much green and the mountainside views are breathtaking. The people are very receiving of us Peace Corps volunteers and the curiosity about one another is a two-way street. I look forward to building relationships and getting to know more, about everything. So far our training has been basic general information on Peace Corps policy, safety, etc. I should find out more about my specific project in a couple weeks. I will be in Zarabanda for another 2-3 weeks, then will do Field Based Training in another city for 6 weeks, then we will all return to Zarabanda for the last two weeks of training. We will be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers on September 26 and them be sent to our respective posts, which are still to be determined. Stay tuned…
Safe and sound. My first few days in Honduras have been a bit of a whirlwind, but we only had a half day today of Peace Corps activity so today and tomorrow I am recharging my batteries, figuratively and literally. We flew into San Pedro Sula on Wednesday without any problems and drove about 5 hours to Zarabanda, near Tegucigalpa, where our training center is. I met my wonderful new Honduran family, at least for 5 of my 11 weeks of training, on Friday. Patricia is the mother, Javier is the father and Alexandria is their adorable five year old daughter. So far, she has been the highlight of my time here. When we got to the house Alexandria stood at the door with her hand on the doorknob asking her mom, “Puedo? Puedo?” (Can I? Can I?), when Patricia told her Ok she opened the door and the room was decorated with balloons and streamers with a sign saying “Welcome Jessica”. Yup, happy tears definitely welled up in my eyes. Then last night Patricia told me when she put Alexandria down for bed that in her prayers she asked God to look over her mama, her papa and Jessica. Flattered is not even the word, she is so sweet, curious and pure, it’s so refreshing and heart-warming. My language is coming along better than I anticipated, that’s not to say there aren’t plenty of blank stares amongst me and my host family, but we are able to communicate quite a bit and I am learning a little more every day. This country is beyond beautiful. There is so much green and the mountainside views are breathtaking. The people are very receiving of us Peace Corps volunteers and the curiosity about one another is a two-way street. I look forward to building relationships and getting to know more, about everything. So far our training has been basic general information on Peace Corps policy, safety, etc. I should find out more about my specific project in a couple weeks. I will be in Zarabanda for another 2-3 weeks, then will do Field Based Training in another city for 6 weeks, then we will all return to Zarabanda for the last two weeks of training. We will be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers on September 26 and them be sent to our respective posts, which are still to be determined. Stay tuned…
2 comments:
It warms my heart to see such a wonderful, caring famiy welcoming you in their home.
Hi Jess! Sounds like you're adjusting pretty well and that you're with some nice people. I'm glad to hear from you.
Post a Comment