Estoy aquí!

I made it to Guatemala in one piece!

After a short half-day staging event in Atlanta on Tuesday where I met the 51 other Healthy Homes and Youth Development volunteers (where I discovered there were only 6 other guys), we all boarded a plane on Wednesday morning and made our way to Guatemala City. Once we arrived, there were several PC staff members there to help us get through customs and very quickly escort us to the PC Headquarters in a small town about 40 min outside of Guatemala City. The PC HQ is an awesome little compound (literally-it´s surrounded by barbed wired and has armed guards), but is really cool inside with an awesome courtyard where we eat and have some of our classes.

We were all placed with temporary host families for three days while we´re here for orientation. I got pretty lucky with my family- a couple with 4 kids who are all pretty outgoing even around a big gringo (most of the kids here just stare at us). I think their house is pretty nice by Guatemalan standards - electricity, cable TV, several rooms. There is running water, but not in the bathroom, so that means a warm bucket bath in a shower and just dumping a big bucket of water down the toilet. It´s actually not as bad as it seems and I´ve already gotten used to it.

The past couple of days have been full of general health and safety information and determing our different Spanish levels. Today we were placed in groups of 4-5 with other people in our same project (healthy homes for me) and around the same level. I think I got pretty lucky with my group - everyone seems pretty cool. Tomorrow we will all move to different communities with our little groups where we´ll study Spanish together and receive our technical training...so I´m looking forward to meeting my new host family for the next three months.

Guess I better run home for dinner. The foods been great so far...lots of black beans, fried plantains, tortillas, and chicken (which I like!). And the best part is...I still haven´t pooped myself!! Let´s hope it stays that way!

Hasta la próxima!