Where to begin... it's been so long since I last posted and a lot has happened.
We went back to Santa Rita for one more weekend and had a Goodbye party on Saturday evening for all of the host families. One of the host moms cooked arroz con pollo for us, we bought some punch and 2 cakes - I think it went pretty well! At the end Reyna and César gave me a towel because I didn't have a normal one :) it was super sweet. I also gave them a photo in a frame of us (the one that is in the previous post) as well as a CD with some of my Christian music on it since Reyna listens to Christian radio all the time. Sunday I made my rounds to some of the other families to say goodbye. Then early Monday morning a Diablo Rojo came and picked us all up and took us to the office.
We stayed near the office in Clayton for a few nights while we had a few last info sessions, language interviews, interviews with the Country Director (awesome guy), and then got ready to swear in on Wednesday! We had a few hours around lunchtime to shower and get dressed - all of the girls actually put on make-up and looked like different people haha. Then we hopped on buses and went to the Canal Museum in Casco Viejo for the ceremony. It was super official feeling with the CD Brian Riley, a representative from MEDUCA (Ministry of Education), and someone from the embassy who swore us in. It kind of took me by surprise when we actually swore in, but felt really significant. swearing to defend our country and serve the people here in our work was pretty cool. Definitely felt like a significant moment in time when all 54 of us were swearing in.
Afterwards we had a reception with some delicious food, then were dropped off at the Amador Causeway where we had a drink or two, ate some delicious italian food, then went into the city to have a night on the town! It was fun to finally have a free night to relax. But of course we had to be ready to leave the villas near the office at 9 am the next morning. We went to the Albrook terminal (national bus terminal), spent some time in the mall (I went to Gap and bought 2 shirts - I felt like I was in heaven), then managed to get 2 buses to take us all to the beach! We arrived at Playa Esmerelda after about 2 hours and found 2 AMAZING villas waiting for us. We had a wonderful 3 days of sun, friends, beach, and pool fun. It was a n awesome way to blow off some steam after 10 busy weeks of training.
Then again, it also brought us all that much closer together, so saying goodbye over the course of Saturday and Sunday was very sad and many tears were shed becuase I probably won't see the majority of them until In-Service Training 3 months from now. So while we were all ecited to go to our sites and start our work, it was sad to leave each other. Even though we've only known each other for 2 months, being in this strange and new situation together every single day makes you bond super quickly.
So then we all found our separate ways to our sites. I traveled with another PCV - Harrison - to the bus terminal in Chitre where we had a quick lunch, then took separate buses to our sites from there. That last 40 minute chiva ride also felt very momentous. The beginning of 2 years in this place. It still hasn't quite sunk in that this is my life for 2 years. Up until now we've been going going going and always had something to look forward to and anticipate. It's hard to believe that this is my life now. It's just us and our communities.
I'm slowly adjusting to things here and my family is being very accommodating, which is nice. I'll update some more in a few days... I've spent enough time on the internet today! I'm also having trouble uploading photos while in my site to my blog... so we'll see how that goes.
Hasta luego!
Sav
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