I'm an OFFICIAL Peace Corps Volunteer!

It's been a whirlwind since I last wrote on the 22nd, but before I catch you up on my last week of training and the swearing in, I want to tell you about the WINNERS meeting I attended the Friday before I left. WINNERS is the volunteer group of WIN Belize and I must say I was a little apprehensive about the meeting that night. Like in America, many people take advantage of a holiday weekend to get away. They go to one of the Cayes or resort towns by the sea. So I was wondering what the turnout would be that Friday night before the Commonwealth holiday. (Remember this was a British colony - they don't celebrate Memorial Day or the 4th of July!) So at 5:30 when the meeting started I was happy to see about 5 people there. However, by 6:00 there were 10 more volunteers and by 6:30, over 20 women were present. I don't know if I've ever attended a better volunteer meeting because, unlike the famous saying by Woody Allen, "80% of success is just being there", these women were not only there but involved! Everyone dug in, volunteered to help with their projects and offered ideas and suggestions for making their efforts more effective. It was really neat!

On Saturday morning I took the bus back to Belmopan. It was my first time taking the bus and of course, it was an adventure! I asked the taxi driver on my way to the bus station when the bus left, and he told me 11:00. At 12:30 I was still sitting in the bus station waiting for a bus that said Belmopan when the young man who sells juice and snacks came up to me and said, "Lady where are you going?" I told him and he replied that about 5 buses to Belmopan had left in the last hour. I said I watched every bus and none of them had said Belmopan. After he stopped laughing, he told me that ALL buses go through Belmopan on their way to another city in Belize and that I could pretty much take any bus heading west or south to get there. So I jumped on the next bus and an hour later I was pulling into the familiar bus station in Belmopan. I walked to the hotel and immediately started seeing the familiar faces of my wonderful Peace Corps friends.

We went downstairs to the Chinese restaurant where Linda and I celebrated our mutual birthdays by enjoying two bottles of wine! More volunteers continued to arrive and the restaurant became the central meeting spot, as we were so glad to be with familiar faces again. Peace Corps volunteers filled every room of the hotel - OK, so it's not a Hyatt Convention Center, but we roamed the 40 or so rooms all evening exchanging hugs and expounding on the variety of diverse stories about our first week in our new homes - from my adventures in the big city with military men carrying machine guns on the street, to a village you can only get to by boat that has no running water or electricity! Later that evening, we all went upstairs to "the ballroom" as we refer to the empty space on the third floor. Some volunteers had made birthday cakes for Linda & I and we switched from wine to $5 a bottle rum!! It's amazing when you're far from home with no one or nothing familiar, (and drunk on cheap rum) how close you can become to perfect strangers in so little time, but I feel such a bond to all of these amazing, intelligent, fun people who have such positive attitudes!

The next day training resumed, but with a whole different tone. Now we were learning about how to patch a bicycle tire and put a chain back on, how to connect a propane tank to a stove, how to hand a mosquito net and how to sharpen a machete and cut weeds without cutting off your foot!

Then Friday finally arrived - the swearing in! We had practiced the Belize National Anthem, when to stand at the arrival of the Governor General and Ambassador, and how to walk to the podium, shake hands and accept our certificates. We were taken to the Governor General's House where four beautiful tents had been set up. All the Peace Corps volunteers from throughout the country came to welcome their newest volunteers, our host families were there and all the staff and trainers who had helped us get to this point in a mear eight weeks. For me, and I think everyone else in our group, it was very emotional, especially when they played the Star Spangled Banner! After the ceremony, lunch was served and congratulations and pictures abounded. Here are the girls of Peace Corps Belize 2010!

After the ceremony, we returned to our hotel and immediately changed into play clothes, as it was time for the annual volunteer "futbrul" game between the "old" volunteers and the "newbys". I contributed by whistling on the sideline, though since I don't know how to play soccar, I think I might have whistled for the wrong team sometimes. Us new volunteers were easy on the old guys and ended the game in a tie to save face.

Back to the hotel to change again, this time to attend a dinner party at the U.S Ambassador's house. It was a fabulous evening, albeit a culture shock becasue as we passed through the gates of the U.S Embassy, it was as thoughwe were transported into one of the most exclusive communities in Naples Florida! After enjoying "real American wine!!" we dined on a delicious dinner of Indian cuisine. The Ambassador and his wife sat at my table, so of course, I took the opportunity to give him some suggestions about how to remodel the Embassy and do his job here in Belize! After dinner, Ambassador Thummalapally's wife Barbara, assembled some chairs in a circle, gathered two guys from our group who had brought their guitars, and sat down for an impromptu karaoke session. It was a great evening that I'm sure I'll always remember - especially when I'm sitting in a thatched hut eating beans and rice for the 3rd day in a I'm back in Belize row.

So, now I'm back to the real world, trying to settle in and bring some normalacy to my life. I come to work everyday at WIN Belize and am trying to find a place to live. Santos, the bus driver, actually knows me already (might be because I'm the only white girl within miles!) and tells me where to get off at my stop. I've met several people who wait with me at the bus stop in the morning and I've got them looking for a place for me to live also.