Destiny Day

Pues…this Wednesday we found out where we would be living for the next two years. We were all damn excited and nervous, sitting around in a circle smiling like big dopes. Our APCD dragged it out as much as he can before actually telling us. I won’t say the actual name of my site here in case the unthinkable happens and someone reads this blog and tries to stalk me but I will say that my site is an aldea, equal to a village in the US let’s say, in the department of Huehuetenango. I am only a few kilometers from the cabezera (department capital) and am located near the Interamerican Highway. Roadtrip anyone? Bear? The aldea, according to my APCD is semi rural and a mix of ladino and indigenous, mainly ladino, with about 8,000 people. The climate is cold and I’ll be surrounded by mountains. However, Guatemala cold is not cold, at least I think not. Other PCTs were freaking out about having cold climates but I’m thinking, “Bring it on. I’m from the Chicago area. I love the snow. But not so much driving in it.” Since I’m not allowed to drive nor does it snow here, I will be just fine. Other tid bits about my aldea include the fact that the economy is agriculture-based and the main crop is corn. So…I am back in Illinois. Woohoo! There’s also a luxury hotel and a few NGOs in the area. I’m not going to lie, at first, I didn’t like the idea of being so far out, with a department boarding Mexico, but after looking over my information more thoroughly, I am pretty happy. In a few weeks, I will be visiting my site for the first time and I will have to look for housing. Then in less than a month I will be swearing in as a volunteer and I’m off to my site for…2 years! I will definitely miss my training town though. Today I celebrated with a delicious American meal of a hamburger and fries with Carmen while watching Germany beat Turkey in the EuroCup. It was so good but made me so sleepy for some reason. A couple of trainees went to grab some drinks and I had to back out within 15 minutes of getting there because I couldn’t stop yawning.