i became an official volunteer for peace corps. insanity.
after getting my picture taken, dealing with our souvenirs (paid and DONE! finally! i now own a peace corps jersey, peace corps zip up hoodie, peace corps patches, peace corps ring, and peace corps t-shirt. woot, bling), and chilling out with my pc buddies, i finally got dressed up all fancy like and went through the whole ceremony.
know what was cool? the u.s. ambassador was there. it was super official, with men in suits and those ear pieces coming in and doing a sweep, talking to the admin, all before she showed up. when she talked, though, she seemed like such an amazingly sweet woman! she spoke in spanish and then after a quick apology to the host families who came to see us, broke out into a few words in english that were just extremely endearing and wonderful. however, we only got to take one quick group pic before she was out the door and gone. that's really too bad, i think it would have been such an amazing opportunity had we had the time to talk a little bit, but i understand- she's super important and has things to do. still....
besides that, 2 of volunteers went up to speak and both of them were just amazing. both of them made me laugh and think and in the end, just appreciate all of this more than i had originally. why? because personally, i find these "official" things a bit annoying. we sang the peruvian and american national anthems, we put our right hands up and swore to protect our constitution and all that, we took a million pictures, and the entire time i was thinking... is this really necessary?
but i guess it's just really nice to have an official ceremony and all that. plus i got to dress up. i think in the future, i would like to wear a business suit every day of my work life. i don't know why. i want to become one of those people who others just always see wearing business attire, and then when they see me in dress normal clothes, it's kind of weird but nice.
that's kind of strange. but i guess it's a good thing because when i'm up in la libertad next week, doing my peace corps thing, i'm gonna have to buy me some nice professional clothes. i have a feeling that i'll be working with my municipality pretty closely (or at least i hope i will) and no one takes you seriously if you're dressed in a tshirt and jeans. i've always had a problem of people thinking i'm much younger than i actually am, because most of the time i act like i'm 5 years old i guess... so i'm going to have to work hard these first few weeks to make sure the impression i make on my community is that i am a hard worker who wants to do good... because that's exactly who i aaaaammmmmm!!!!!
speaking of la libertad, i gotta get packing. most of my stuff i took with me during site visit so at least that part's done with but i still have things from this week to lug around. also, i need to buy a bed and a dresser, cause my room's got nothing in it (i'm currently borrowing my new host family's aunt's bed... which makes me wonder what SHE's sleeping on... er.)
so i have to pack my things and then go crazy with the new volunteers tonight! plus my host sisters! yup, maybe i just won't sleep to maximize time spent with my dearest friends~
sigh. i'm going to miss all of them, and dynamics will change once we're on site, based on who we have the most contact with, which sucks. i love the people i've grown close to these past few weeks, going through all this craziness of training and being new and getting used to peru and now... now things are going to change.
things are already changing. there's a shift in the wind, our fleet has separated ways, and my boat is now going solo. it's sink or swim, i guess.
but as was shared today, during words of wisdom:
There will be moments you will say, "I can't"
but there will be a lifetime you can say, "I did"
peace and love, my friends.
and let's throw a little luck in there as well.
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