Pre-Service Training, and Beyond

Dear Family and Friends,
Welcome to my blog! I hope this message finds you happy and well! I have created this journal in order to write about experiences during my time as a Peace Corps Trainee and now (we had the Swearing-In Ceremony yesterday) Volunteer. I just completed the 8th week of the training program for the program in Guyana (for those of you who've never heard of it- there are many, don't worry- it is a small country in South America bordered by Venezuela, Brazil, Surinam and the Atlantic Ocean).
This day has been a long time coming. I'd thought about joining the Peace Corps since spending an excellent year studying abroad in Ecuador. I eventually turned in my application just after Molly and Bryan's unforgettable wedding day last September. Afterward, I headed off to France and worked as an English Teaching Assistant in a French middle/high school in Montpellier. It was an amazing year and now, writing about it seems an overwhelming task.... I'll just say, in short, it was one of the happiest times of my life! The quality of life there is extremely good (chocolate, cheese, wine, good friends, nice people, beautiful language, relaxed atmosphere, astonishingly beautiful architecture, 35 hour work weeks, the Mediterranean Sea, what more do you need). I became friends with other teaching assistants who were serious travelers and we got to explore around the south of France and embarked on some voyages through Spain, Andorra, Italy, Germany and England. I ran the Paris Half-Marathon with some other teaching assistants. There were so many people in the race, I was knocking elbows the whole time. The teaching program ended April 30th and after that I spent 2 lovely weeks at home in Minnesota, racing around, and managing only to see a fraction of the people I'd hoped to see.
My adventure with the Peace Corps, which will last 28 months, started May 26th when I tore myself away (again!) from my mom and dad and got on the plane to Miami. There were 2 days of orientation where I met the 34 other trainees (actually 35, unfortunately one girl dropped out after 3 days in Guyana), who are mostly in their 20s but also includes a handful in their 30s and one just entering her 50s. On Wednesday the 28th we took the plane to Georgetown, the capitol, nicknamed the Garden City because of its many trees and parks. It is a fast-moving city of 300,000 where mini-buses and taxis fly around blasting club music, animals walk the roads (it is not uncommon to see a horse or donkey-drawn carriage drive by), and trenches lead out to the sea. Georgetown has architecture unlike any other I've seen. It has a colonial feel, and also the world's largest free-standing wooden structure, St. George's Cathedral.
After spending a couple days in Georgetown we headed off to the coast, piling all 34 Trainees into speed boats for the bumpy 40-minute ride across the Essequibo River to the Essequibo Coast, where we were placed with different host families during training. It is an agricultural area and rice farming is the main industry here. There is a lot of livestock; many families raise their own chickens, keep goats and sheep (which provide my favorite background noise), roosters (my least favorite , but a good natural alarm), cows, donkeys... all of which cross the main public road at their leisure. The other day I was greatly amused by an intense bull fight which broke out on the road outside my house, creating a minor traffic jam. Since there is only one main road, this sort of animal traffic makes the going very slow, but I am thankful for these unexpected speed-limit enforcers, since many cars wouldn't seem to heed a speed limit otherwise. However, the other Trainees have seen cute little cats, kittens, dogs, and more, being taken out under cars which refused to slow down! Very sad.
I am currently living with two host parents (who have left to visit a daughter in Toronto), their son Darsh and his wife, Sharon. They are a wonderful family of East Indian origin. The village where I've been staying is mainly E. Indian and the people have retained a lot of their Indian culture. Although I have yet to attend a wedding or big ceremony, I've seen many Bollywood films, learned to cook curry/naan(called roti here)/daal etc., attended religious services at the mandir and Sai Ba center (a group that worships Sai Baba, a man in Southern India, and the service is 2 hours of continuous singing in Hindi). My family has a very impressive garden and they grow all of their own fruits and vegetables and sell them at the market. One of the highlights of my life is the mango tree in our yard- I'm used to having to pay $2 for a mango in the states. My family lives right on the Atlantic Ocean and the sunrise is incredible; however, in this area tragically it is not advised to swim in the ocean since it is not too clean. Because (if I'm not mistaken) of the fast-running rivers and waterfalls, the water is brown with sediment and that runs into the ocean, creating a brown sheen which nearly reaches Trinidad. When the sun is shining on the sea, it kind of looks like a desert. Life here on the coast is relaxing, and when people have free time they enjoy a little "liming and gaffing" (chatting/gossiping). 
During these 8 weeks of training I have spent a lot of time in class with 33 other Trainees. There are 16 in the Health Sector, 4 in IT Education and 14 in Education, me formerly in the latter category, though you can tailor your goals to meet the community needs. My city is located in the mountains, right on the border with Venezuela, and near the coast. It is supposedly an enchantingly beautiful city; I guess I'll find out when I get there tomorrow! As for now, there is no internet capability in the city, however another volunteer is working on getting it there...so, I may or may not be keeping up this blog, depending on the internet status. However, if you'd like to receive a snail mail letter, send your address to me here or at my email address if you'd like! If no blogs come because I don't have access, the next post will be when I come back to Georgetown for more training in November. Tomorrow I fly out to my site, (there are no roads reaching over the numerous rivers in the jungle) the other options being a perilous 24-hour ferry ride over the ocean from Georgetown (the cheapest option) or a 7-hour speed boat ride from the coast. So tomorrow when I reach my site, I start the exciting process of community integration! Wish me luck!
P.S. I also have a new cell phone - let me know if you'd like the number.  Getting a phone call from a familiar friend makes my month!