INFO OVERLOAD!

So the language training is super intense... our session today was all on contracting AIDS (which isn´t common here. YES!) and our potential roles in our communities when we´re solo. I found out that the whole "cotton farming assigment" is totally an example and they don´t even do much cotton farming here anymore. Great! As we´ve been told a million times since arrival... BE FLEXIBLE! Nothing is as it seems and you´ll never do what you think you´ll be doing. I´m trying to just keep an open mind, which isn´t hard since the local motto is tranquillo!

I´m making some great friends which is good and bad because in 3 months I´ll be at least an hour, if not a day, from each of them! We are in class 6 days a week so the learning is coming in full force. I just want to be able to speak Spanish, and that will make life much easier at home and traveling!

I taught my little brother Gabriel to play Uno the other night. He kicks my butt now, so maybe that wasn´t a good idea :) My mom doesn´t cook much on her own which is weird because everyone else´s mom packs them full of food. My mom gets someone else to make the empanadas which is what we eat a TON of! (Its meat, eggs, and rice in a deep fried casing). We have a orange tree, a few banana trees and yes... FIVE PIGS! I´m kind of getting used to the latrine too. Its not so bad until I get stomach problems which we are assured will come. GREAT!

Next week we get a treasure hunt with another volunteer in the capital. That will be a task and fun! I´m looking forward to exploring the city though, because we haven´t seen it at all yet. And then next weekend we´re sent out ON OUR OWN to visit another volunteer in the field. That will be rough too but I´m excited to see how its really done. I´m leaning more towards assingments with entreprenuerial women and youth, so hopefully I´ll get to experience that next weekend. Again, it could be ANYTHING!

The more I´m learning about development though, the more I´m loving it. I´m reading all the material I can so maybe this will be yet another career option? Who knows!

As for the phones, there are a few places (not where i live though) where international calls can be made. I´m going to try to figure it out ASAP so I can let mom and dad know I´m ok. Its expensive though so the calls will be quick! Also, they´ve told us that training is the toughest time to keep in touch. We are constantly in class which is away from communication. I´m shooting for once a week!

I love and miss you all... and please keep up the emails! Its great to hear whats going on. Mad props to Meghan and Carolyn for writing... MOM, DAD, Taylor, Kyle, Em, Cathy?? WTF?? :)