Adios, Yanacoto!

Hey all,

I haven´t written in awhile because things have been very, very busy since my last post. I have been getting ready for heading off to site, saying goodbye to my new family and friends, and packing in a lot of those lasts... fiestas, visit to the quality pizza joint in the nearest big city, hitting up Jockey Plaza, which is pretty much a glorified American mall. From here on out it will be pretty ¨rustic¨as they say in the Peace Corps, and I´m looking forward to getting the chance to see what I´m really made of.
Training is pretty much finished at this point, which is both good and bad. The bad is I won´t be seeing most of these folks for quite some time, although we´ll keep in touch I´m sure. The good is the actually training part is over, which was getting kind of tiresome. If you have a hankering to revisit high school, then training is for you. If not, you´re counting the days until site. That being said, the information was pretty good and it´s obvious that our trainers worked as hard as possible to get us ready for a pretty uncertain situation. I certainly couldn´t think of a way to do it better.
As far as last impressions culturally of this area, it is surprising how much this feels like home after only 3 months. It´s really like I´m leaving all over again. There are certain cultural differences that jump right out at you, such as a lot less concern for personal space, although my family has been good about that. Still, I can´t say that there´s anything here that really bothered me all that much, and even the town-wide loudspeaker announcements each morning at 6 a.m. got to feeling like normal. There are also some great cultural practices here that I wouldn´t mind importing back to the states, such as greating literally everyone you pass on the street and saying thank you to the cook after you finish every meal. I also have gotten used to the greeting kiss, although that still wouldn´t fly in the midwest I´m sure.
All in all, I´ve had a great three months here but am excited (and not a little intimidated) to move on to the real work. The next three months will be tough as I integrate into the community and start planning what exactly I´ll be doing in the next few years. We have a pretty intense community diagnostic we´ll be doing for much of that time and outside of that I´ll have to make sure to prioritize my time so as not to burn out right off the bat (during my visit I was approached by a load of town organizations about helping out, so I´ll ideally have plenty to do).
Well, to sum up, I´ll be making weekly posts from here on out as I can only get internet once a week. Mail will be even worse if I have to get a box in the capital- once a month. The good news is I´ll have a cell soon enough that everyone can call. It will be free for me, but I would caution those who want to talk to check it out with your provider first. This international stuff can get tricky, although most phone cards should work at the worst. Adios,

Zach