Training's over, HERE WE GO!!!!

So training is finally over. We swore in as Peace Corps Volunteers on Friday. There was a speech by the Ambassador and by our boss, Don Clark, and then Rob (our super guapo/leader volunteer) gave an excellent speech - I don't remember a whole lot except for one line about "our only assured immortality being the memory of the acts that we leave behind," or something to that effect.

Anyways, then we had some cake and explored Asuncion over the next couple of days. It was a bit of a shock, being cooped up together as a unit for the last 11 weeks, and then to find ourselves surrounded by other volunteers.

Needless to say, there was some dancing and barhopping over the course of the weekend by many in our group. We also had a sort of "sports day" with Koica and JICA volunteers - basically volunteers doing the same work as us but from Korea and Japan. There are also fewer of them, and from what I've heard, they have a *ahem!* higher standard of living than we do.

It was great though. We played some kickball, ultimate frisbee, soccer and volleyball together. It was a great time. Over the weekend, I ate brazilian steak, drank a gin and tonic, had PIZZA HUT, and a few of us even managed to find a korean restaurant near Mercado Cuatro, a huge, open air market in the middle of the city. On Sunday, I returned to Santo Domingo to say goodbye to Na Marie, Lissa, and Eva, and to pack my things.
Of course, in the middle of all this, I started feeling wretched (and it wasn't the partying!). On Tuesday, before coming to Portrero Pucu, I went into Asuncion to talk to the doctors. Turns out that I had a fever of over 100, and le strep throat. By the time I got to site later that day (dehydrated and overheated, but medicated), the fever was probably a few degrees higher. Anyhoo, fear not - the meds I'm on knocked it out later that night, and I was fine, but for waking shivering in pools of sweat. TMI?

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So this ends my time as a Peace Corps Trainee. I'm officially a Volunteer, and we are now at T-2 years and counting. I've been thinking a lot about what I've learned through this process, how I might have changed, how I might change in the future. See below...

First, I'm learning how to handle awkward and uncomfortable better. This is a skill I think I'd already started to develop as a reporter - it's not particularly fun or easy to ask a man how his mother was shot to death by her cracked out boyfriend for a story on deadline. And I've done that. But where reporting sometimes required a more direct, take-no-prisoners-approach, being in Peace Corps is making me learn patience. Especially patience to hang in the unknown, and just wait, and to find some measure of comfort stretched out like that. When we first applied, we had no idea if we'd be accepted. Then, no idea where we'd be sent. Then, no idea, really, what our countries would be like. Then, how our families in training would be like.

At every turn, we were told "It depends." (This becomes the inside joke/swear-word of all volunteers.) "What's it going to be like? Oh wait....it depends."
From there, we had to put our old lives in a box, and get acclimated to a new country, new friends, and a totally new schedule - one with minimal privacy, minimal contact with home, and no internet or cellphones the vast majority of the time. Quelle disastre!

And JUST as we finally had wrapped our heads around that situation, our training ended, and now we're scattering to the corners of Paraguay, where now, practically every second I (and I know from conversations with my friends) wonder "what the heck do I do now?"

Another thing I've learned more about is thinking big picture/keeping things in perspective. being a Rural Health Volunteer is to be a 2-year-unit in a 6-year rotation that my bosses have set up. As a first time volunteer, I'll be building lots of human infrastructure, like setting up committees, teaching the people here leadership skills and how to lobby different parts of the government for the changes they want and need. I'll also be working on long-term behavioral change, as in changing tooth-brushing habits, or daily diets, or encouraging more exercise. Its a job where I might see very few direct results - quite a bit different than banging out the hundred or so stories I wrote back in Philadelphia.

So, here's to perspective.

That's all for now. Sorry I can't post photos, but my internet in site is incredibly slow. I'll try from a cyber later this week.