HI ALL!! I haven't really had time to blog too much because guess what!??!! I AM IN GUYANA...FINALLY! I have been here since Tuesday. We left Philly for NY to fly out of JFK at 1 a.m which got delayed until 1:45 am..as if we weren't tired enough. I sorta slept on and off through the nigh but nothing substantial. I have great great great fellow volunteers and the group before us is here to help us through these first days! We got off the plane and it was 8 a.m. and hot as hell!!!! We waited in line at customs forever jsut sweating but finally got through and after lugging 96 lbs of luggage were greeted by PeaceCorps Volunteers with coconut mil and fresh bananas! A great way to start service! We literally got our site placements (remote site/rural site or urban site) in the parking lot of the airport which we were not expecting. Apparently tings have changed for me..I was originally talked to about a remote site and we were prety certain thats where I would be; well it looks like plans have changed. I will be traning in West Demarara an urban site on the west bank of the West Demarar River. So the good news here is that I will be able to keep in touch so much easier then before..depending on my site I could possibly get daily access to internet or phone. And, now that I am here I am happy about the change. What I would have considered more remote in the states, here is considered urban. So the switch to urban site is good in that I will still be having a Peace Corps experience but instead of suffering through some of the remote site hardship (i.e no running water or electricity) I will have a few more amenities that will make me more comfortable therefore making me a better volunteer therefore creating more sustainable change. All in all I am very happy here so far.
I can see friendships forming already and it's great...Peace Corps staff is fabulous!!! We had a swim test yesterday in black water where we all passed with flying colors. I learned the rules to cricket and have eaten some DELICIOUS Guyanese food and drink. It is very very hot and humid here, but so far not unbareable; granted I am currently staying in an airconditioned hotel. Tomorrow we leave for our training sites where our host families will meet with us and finally take us home. I am so excited 1. because I want to start integrating into the community and 2. because I am tired of living out of my hiking backpack (all our luggage got taken fro mthe airport to our host families on Tuesday). I want to unpack some stuff and have all my comforts in those suitcases with me. I am lucky to have had internet the past few days and I don't know how often I will be on once I'm at my host house but it will definitely be enough to keep everyone posted.
That's all for now..time to celebrate our last night together before real PC service starts! Love you all!!
Send me letters/packages!!
yay! glad you're safe, sound, and happy :) keep the posts coming!
ReplyDeletelove you!
~kim
Glad you made it. Happy about your new housing assignment. Have a wonderful time. Keep us posted.
ReplyDeleteAll My Love,
Karen :)
I want to send you mail....soooo as sooooon as you get your site location mail or whatever i need the address! Christ! love you
ReplyDeleteGood morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favour:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Guyana? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Guyana in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and a original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Calle Valencia, 39
28903 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com, where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely