Monday, March 29, 2010

Arrival!

Hello Dear Friends and Family,
I'm currently writing from the Peace Corps office in Belmopan. So far everything has been going great--I'll do a little recap:

Last Wednesday: arrived in Dallas after a quick morning trip from State College to Phili to Dallas. There I met the 37 other new volunteers that have become my good friends in the last few days. We've got people from California, New York, Indiana, Minnesota, Florida, North Carolina, Washington, etc. I'm one of the youngest in the group, but we've got a bunch of twenty-somethings and even a few 50s and over. Everything went great in Dallas and we did a whole bunch of introduction, orientation, get to know you stuff. I've really enjoyed getting to know my Healthy Communitites group. We've got 8 people and most are about my age. Right now I'm sitting beside Dan Lieberman from New York City.

We arrived in Belize on Thursday afternoon in a place called Ladyville, which is near Belize City. Immediately getting off the plane we were hit with the heat and humidity something that has been pretty constant up until today which was a little cooler. Its a bit intense at times, but I think I'm going to enjoy being in a hot climate. We were greeted at the airport with cheering and clapping by about 30 current volunteers and staff we came up to welcome us. Then we jumped into a bus and headed to a hotel where we were introduced to rice and beans.

The trip from the airport to Belmopan showed the beauty of Belize. There's much green here! We passed homes and farms, streams, and mountains (not so much mountain ranges, but a number of rounded hills). Belmopan, is one of the smallest capitals in the world--population about 8000. This week we're staying at a Chinese hotel in town--we've even got air conditioning! Each day we walk to the Peace Corps office and having sessions on everything from security, to health, to language, etc. On Friday we had a Kriol cultural day and visit a village called Bermudan Landing--they roasted cashew, made brooms, sang, danced, and took us on a tour of the Baboon (Black Howler Monkey) sanctuary that includes several towns. About twenty years ago they only had a couple hundred monkeys--now they have over 3000! We got to see a few howlers (pictures will come in a bit). Sunday I went to church with a couple other volunteers and then we went swimming and played kickball. I've had a great time getting to know my fellow volunteers--we really get along well. Well, I've got to head out, but I will try to post some more in a week or so. I haven't been getting much time to get on the internet, so apologize before hand for the time in between posts. On Wednesday we find out what training site we'll be going to (one is for learning Mayan Mopan and the other for learning Spanish (this is probably where I'll end up)). We move in with our first host families on Thursday and start training on Tuesday (everything is closed for about 4 days for Easter). Everything is going wonderful. I'll be in touch again soon :)