Damn, training is over. Things are finally starting to sink in for me now as I`m starting my service. This last week was busy as hell and now all of a sudden, I´m in Coban, I start work on Monday and I still don´t have a house. It´s exciting and all, but it´s rather shocking to become comfortable after three months and to then start it all over again. Anyways, last week saw a host of events. Continuing with the chicken saga, last Saturday we slaughtered all 30 of our birds to cook for our family appreciation day party. We went out in Antigua that night and then swore in at the ambassador´s house on Monday morning before celebrating another night out. Needless to say, I haven´t been sleeping much. Wednesday, I spent a final day with my host family. When I told them that I was considering staying in Guatemala for my last night, the kids all starting crying, so I ended up staying there on Thursday evening. Thanksgiving itself was fun, but certainly not the same as KC. The vice-ambassador had us over to his house and treated us with a really good dinner. Yesterday morning we said our final goodbyes and took off for our sites. So now, I´m here in Coban and trying to get myself organized. I´m hoping to find a house by tomorrow, but there´s no big rush. Although I feel like I´ve been here for awhile, I frequently need to remind myself that my two years of service just began on Monday.

I´m back in Antigua today after visiting taking a site visit to Coban. I spent the time with some other volunteers looking for housing and meeting the folks on the cooperative. It looks like I have got plenty of work ahead of me. I´ll be working with families, women´s groups and two schools on the cooperative. Also, I´ll be teaching one or two days a week in an all-boys primary school in Coban. I spent all of yesterday looking for a house, but I can´t make up my mind. I think I will live in my site mate´s house till I find my own.

Prior to Coban, we had a pretty incredible weekend. On Saturday morning, the trainees played the Spanish teachers and tech trainers in soccer at the center. 10-2 was the final score. They made us look like fools. However, those two goals were both mine (a fact that many have told me to shut up about). Afterwards, we drove south to climb the Pacaya Volcano. Awesome. You start out at the base in the woods and walk up a couple miles to where the rock begins. From there, it´s a straight climb up the slate-rock cone of the volcano. It was really cloudy and rainy, so the view wasn´t much, but we were surrounded by the sulfur ducts. We even got up close to the lava at one point. I got completely soaked, but it was worth it and definitely something I would do again with anyone who visits.

On Sunday, we woke up bright and early and our tech trainer Roberto took us to Monterico with his family. It´s a small beach town down on the Southern Pacific Coast. There were great waves and I probably spent about 5 hours rolling around in them. It´s definitely a different side of Guatemala. It´s got black sands and unlike Antigua, it´s hot. So all and all, it made for a busy, but wonderful weekend before meeting our counterparts on Monday.

Training pretty much feels over. At this point, my thoughts are focused on life in Coban. It is
kind of weird to be so far away from all the friends I´ve made through training. Most everyone else in my groups has their sites on West and thus, very far from Coban. However, those living in the Coban area form their own community. So it will be something of an adjustment. We have two more weeks here at the center before we swear in. I´m having Thanksgiving with an embassy family in the capital (gonna miss KC) before taking off on the following Friday. From there, it´s all Coban.

Big events this week. We started by painting Antigua red on Halloween and yesterday we ate lunch with the new ambassador. However, all of that paled in comparison to our site assignments. I had placed my bet and mentally prepared myself get the remote, arid site out in the Western highlands. To my surprise, I got Coban (the site I secretly coveted). Needless to say, I am really pleased with how things turned out. For the event, our jefe came out to the center and drew a big map of Guatemala on the ground. We all closed our eyes and our teachers placed us on our respective sites. At the same moment, we all opened up and saw our placement and sitemates.

I am going to be working on the Chirrepec Tea Cooperative and I´ll have two sitemates from the ag. marketing program. Unfortunately, another volunteer who was supposed to be placed in Coban decided to go home. It´s a bummer as she was the most knowledgeablele of all the ag. volunteers (she regularly ¨field butchered¨livestock). Since her site will be left open, my boss asked me to pick up some of her work at a school in Coban. So with that, I´ll be working with families on the cooperative and teaching to 4th and 6th graders in the city. Also, I´ll have to start Kechki classes as most families on the cooperative do not speak much Spanish.

If two months ago you had told me I´d be living in a city, teaching 4th graders and working on a tea co-op speaking kechki, I would have laughed. I had imagined the Peace Corps experience in far more rugged and subdued terms. It´s amazing to think back to the beginning of training and to see the difference between my expectations and how things have turned out.

Anyways, I´m pumped about Coban and I´ll be going back on Monday to start getting things together. Perhaps I´ll visit the Children of the Corn....