Peter in Honduras

Today was the first day of training here in DC. Since I arrived last night I got up early to go explore DC, which was fun seeing as I haven’t been here since I was six. I took the metro into the city and did the normal touristy things, but there was definitely that feeling of anxiety about what to expect from the day.

Training started at 1:30pm. I think it’s fair to say I was a bit on the nervous side. After all, these are the people I’m going to spend the next 27 months with, and, more immediately the next 3 months during training. Of course, everything went as you might expect.

I guess I should have known this, but people who join the Peace Corps- REALLY friendly people. Besides, we’re all in the same boat: Leaving behind friends and family, interested in adventure, looking for new friends. We did about 7 hours of lecture and get-to-know-you exercises which were a bit tedious but this culminated in all of us getting an ATM card loaded with $140. Sweet. We quickly made our way to the nearest food dispensary, and, after a $500 tab at CPK we were satiated.

But a little more about the people: Most are between 22 and 30. There are three married couples. My roommate is a guy from New York who is 25 and is working in the Water and Sanitation program. I’ve met quite a few business people so far, but there are more W&S people so mostly I’ve hung out with them so far. It’s about half girls, as expected, but only about 10% minority, if that.

Final thoughts on the first day: This is going to be better than I imagined. The only get-to-know-you exercise that really struck home with me was the Anxiety/Aspiration section. I definitely share many of the same goals as the rest of the group, and, not surprisingly, many of the same fears. This did wonders to relieve any remaining nervousness on my part. When’s the shuttle to the airport?

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Day Two: More of the same, still getting to know everyone. We did our closing stuff today and tried to come to terms with the fact that we have to be downstairs at 3am. Ugh. So this is it, in 12 hours I’ll be on a plane to Honduras. Hasta luego.
Click here to see a picture of me in DC

In preparation for my impending departure, I’ve been scouring the web for suggestions of what to bring to Honduras. Along the way I have come across a number of stories about what life is like down there. I thought I’d share one thought that Andrew Brower had during his service in 1997-1999:

“I now live in Guayape, Olancho, Honduras. I live with a family in a small room off of their main family room. It’s quite noisy, there is no privacy (I was without a door for 2 1/2 weeks), and a hen has chosen the bag that I keep my socks and underwear in as its new favorite spot to lay its eggs. I don’t mind as I eat them for breakfast the following morning. The living situation, however, is fabulous for my Spanish, which is actually improving even though I still don’t understand why all these campesinos who never went to school after 12 years of age don’t talk like my Spanish grammar book said they would.”

Needless to say, this only gets me more excited about living there.

To give you all a better idea of where and when I will be going, here’s a schedule of events as far as I know right now:

January 29th:

Alaska Airlines, Depart Seattle 9:15am, Arrive Washington, DC 4:45pm. I’m staying at the Doubletree Hotel in Arlington, VA.

January 30th: Honduras Staging Event begins

Registration
Welcome and Introductions
Peace Corps Approach to Development
Personal Definition of Success
Anxieties and Aspirations
Safety and Support
Nuts and Bolts

January 31st:

Country specific training
Risk Management
Policies
Logistics of Departure
Evaluation and Closing

February 1st: Travel

American Airlines, departs Reagan 715am, Arrives Miami 946am

American Airlines, departs Miami 1134am, Arrives Tegucigalpa 1255 pm (Central time)

February 1-April 30th:

During this time I will be based in the capital city, Tegucigalpa, where I will complete my training with other PC volunteers (PCVs). There are currently 231 PCVs in Honduras at the moment and along with my program in business there is also a Water and Sanitation project and one other program departing at the same time. My program has 40 people, I don’t know the size of the other programs. Since its inception in 1963, the Peace Corps program in Honduras has had over 5,000 volunteers complete service.
From what’s I’ve picked up off other PCVs websites, the schedule during training is language training in the morning for 4-6 hours, then program specific training in the afternoon. During these 3 months you also travel around the country and visit PCVs who are currently in service, this is so you gain experience working “on site.” Assuming all goes well I will be sworn in to the Peace Corps as an official member in early May.

Wish me luck.

Well, this is it, my first attempt at a blog. Please notice that the theme differentiates it from Homemade Sprite depite the fact it runs on the same engine. I haven’t decided if this will be an acceptable medium for keeping people up to date stateside, but it’s a start. Any suggestions will be duly noted.