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.