staging y mi primero dias
I would like to say I don't know where to begin, so much has
happened in the past three days. But I do know where to start! Gaddy
Vasquez came and spoke to my group (Honduras 9) and Ecuador. There
were about 100 of us. His speech just made me want to get on the
plane and head down there even more! He said being the head of the
Peace Corps is great but its the people under him that are making the
difference, the ones who are helping in the world. Everything he had
to say was so positive. I didn't know this before, but the Peace
Corps is one of few government bodies whose budgets have increased and
in the past three years the most amount of volunteers to ever serve in
the history of the corps. Also he told us that of the 13,000 people
that apply only 1/3 are accepted! I'm not sure if he does this all
the time or not, but it was definitely a great way to keep me
motivated and finish this hectic process of staging. (found out he
makes it to almost ALL stagings in DC)
But now let me start from the beginning! I got to DC on time (I
couldn't see the other one on my ticket!) And while I was in
Charlotte I called and asked the hotel if they had a shuttle, so I
wouldn't have to flag down a taxis. They did, so when I landed I
lugged my backpack down to the baggage claim and paid a guy to take my
bags out to the curb for me. Yeah, what can I say I need a few more
luxuries before leaving the states. So I got out to the curb and
there were two other chicas waiting for the same shuttle with a large
amount of luggage. Both of them were volunteers but after everything
was said and done that day, it turned out one of them was going to
Ecuador, and there were actually two staging groups in D.C. those few
days.
I checked into my hotel room with the other girl and it turned out
we were roommates as well. Her name is Cathie and she's from NY, and
has TWO degrees in environmental sciences. Anyway, we both had a lot
of the same concerns and what not so it was nice to get there
immediately and have someone to talk to. We both went down stairs to
check-in and hand in our paperwork. At 3 we started with our ice
breakers and PC policy talks and whatnot. It was a lot to take in but
most of the information included a fun activity along with it, which
helped to get to know more people. After we got done at 7 I called my
cousin Bill and we went out to dinner at a italian place in
Georgetown, which was really nice because I'd never been there and I
haven't seen my cousin in forever. After dinner we went and checked
out his place and then I had to ask him to take me home because I was
exhausted from the flight and long nights I had the past few days.
The next day we got up and had to be downstairs at 7:30 to begin
our second day of training which ended up being very similar to the
first one. I went and ate lunch in the underground Crystal City with
some more volunteers. Toward the end of the day we had our final
information to get on the plane the next morning and head down to
Honduras! After we finished for the day I called Robin, because she
was in DC for a job interview, we were supposed to go out and have
dinner but then my roommate came back up and told me that the director
of the Peace Corps was coming to speak to us at 8:30, so we had to go
to dinner early, which was ok. Robin, Cathie and I went back to the
Crystal City underground for dinner and I had my last American beer.
After dinner we went back and listened to Mr. Vasquez speak and then
headed into bed.
At 2:15AM we got up to get down for my groups check out time -
which was 3:15AM, the latest - and we were on the bus to the airport
by 4:30AM and we were on the plane taking off at 7:30. There was a
completely different flight to Miami that left while we were all
sitting there too. It was kind of painful. Oh yeah and as we were
handed our passports and tickets I found out that one of the guys who
was helping out at staging is a UGA grad ('95). So that was cool, too
bad I didn't know before. And my luggage was overweight, but for
someone lucky reason I ended up not having to pay. I had to move a
lot of stuff around for the weather in Teguz so I guess I messed up
the whole plan. Ohh well its here, safe and sound!
OK so we landed in Honduras at 12:45ish and went outside and loaded
all of our bags into a truck and then put our overnight bags on a
school bus (a yellow one!) and drove the 17 kl to Sant Lucia. Around
3:30 we were introduced to our family (well the ladies of the
household) and then after socializing for a few minutes we were on our
way home! My host family is really nice. There are 4 people and me
living there and a 15 month old baby girl. Maribol y Cristobal are
the parents and there son Tito (Cristobal Jr.) lives with his child's
mother, Maria. Their baby's name is Andrea Daniella. Everyone is
very nice, but I think they are very use to volunteers because they
aren't really around a whole lot. The food was great. For dinner I
had tortillas y queso and avocados and hard boiled eggs and broccoli
and cauli flower. And for breakfast the next day I had pancakes,
watermelon, a banana, cafe and orange juice. For lunch I had
something great too! It was kind of like ramen noodles with
vegetables, peppers, carrots and something I'm not sure what it is.
Also she packed me cucumbers and tomatoes. So I'm definitely not
eating bad at all, actually its hard to get it all down! Right now
our host families are getting paid to feed us three meals a day, so I
get a packed lunch every day also.
Apparently my family has hosted many volunteers, for almost 20
years. I found this out because 2 Americans stopped by for dinner and
one of them was a RPCV. She was hosted by the same family in 98. It
was nice to have someone that knew English and Spanish after that
extremely long day. She helped me out with a few things I needed and
couldn't remember how to say. But i felt guilty speaking English.
She said that I was doing much better than she was when she got to
country. That made me feel a lot better. But it is still VERY
frustrating to not be able to express yourself.
I went to bed by 10ish and had to be up to get to the training
center by 7:30AM. So I woke up by some miracle because I forgot to
set the alarm. My bad. Anyway I will do that tonight for sure. I'm
running out of time at the internet place - like I said before its not
really a "cafe" its computers in a sketchy room. Tomorrow we start
getting our vaccines, I have to get quite a few because they said
you're supposed to have another round of all of your infant shots once
you're older. Whatever. We got paid today - 50 limpuras/day which is
about 3 dollars. Its about a 1:20 exchange. So by American standards
its not that much but hopefully it will be enough for right now.
OK I'm running out of time and I need to go call my mom. More
later. I'm not sure how often I will be able to get over here and use
the internet and keep everyone updated. I'm going to try very hard to
type things up at night and use a jump drive to easily send them.
Email me at bridgetfrench@gmail.com and I will write you back
individually but right now that seems kind of over whelming.
Ohh yeah for the ladies - almost all the guys are very attractive.
Its not bad duty. My project is split 50/50. I'll take more pictures
and hopefully get them up and whatnot very soon. Its been raining but
there are A LOT of pretty views and cute houses.
Hasta lluego,
Bridget
--
Bridget Kathleen French
954.650.5084
happened in the past three days. But I do know where to start! Gaddy
Vasquez came and spoke to my group (Honduras 9) and Ecuador. There
were about 100 of us. His speech just made me want to get on the
plane and head down there even more! He said being the head of the
Peace Corps is great but its the people under him that are making the
difference, the ones who are helping in the world. Everything he had
to say was so positive. I didn't know this before, but the Peace
Corps is one of few government bodies whose budgets have increased and
in the past three years the most amount of volunteers to ever serve in
the history of the corps. Also he told us that of the 13,000 people
that apply only 1/3 are accepted! I'm not sure if he does this all
the time or not, but it was definitely a great way to keep me
motivated and finish this hectic process of staging. (found out he
makes it to almost ALL stagings in DC)
But now let me start from the beginning! I got to DC on time (I
couldn't see the other one on my ticket!) And while I was in
Charlotte I called and asked the hotel if they had a shuttle, so I
wouldn't have to flag down a taxis. They did, so when I landed I
lugged my backpack down to the baggage claim and paid a guy to take my
bags out to the curb for me. Yeah, what can I say I need a few more
luxuries before leaving the states. So I got out to the curb and
there were two other chicas waiting for the same shuttle with a large
amount of luggage. Both of them were volunteers but after everything
was said and done that day, it turned out one of them was going to
Ecuador, and there were actually two staging groups in D.C. those few
days.
I checked into my hotel room with the other girl and it turned out
we were roommates as well. Her name is Cathie and she's from NY, and
has TWO degrees in environmental sciences. Anyway, we both had a lot
of the same concerns and what not so it was nice to get there
immediately and have someone to talk to. We both went down stairs to
check-in and hand in our paperwork. At 3 we started with our ice
breakers and PC policy talks and whatnot. It was a lot to take in but
most of the information included a fun activity along with it, which
helped to get to know more people. After we got done at 7 I called my
cousin Bill and we went out to dinner at a italian place in
Georgetown, which was really nice because I'd never been there and I
haven't seen my cousin in forever. After dinner we went and checked
out his place and then I had to ask him to take me home because I was
exhausted from the flight and long nights I had the past few days.
The next day we got up and had to be downstairs at 7:30 to begin
our second day of training which ended up being very similar to the
first one. I went and ate lunch in the underground Crystal City with
some more volunteers. Toward the end of the day we had our final
information to get on the plane the next morning and head down to
Honduras! After we finished for the day I called Robin, because she
was in DC for a job interview, we were supposed to go out and have
dinner but then my roommate came back up and told me that the director
of the Peace Corps was coming to speak to us at 8:30, so we had to go
to dinner early, which was ok. Robin, Cathie and I went back to the
Crystal City underground for dinner and I had my last American beer.
After dinner we went back and listened to Mr. Vasquez speak and then
headed into bed.
At 2:15AM we got up to get down for my groups check out time -
which was 3:15AM, the latest - and we were on the bus to the airport
by 4:30AM and we were on the plane taking off at 7:30. There was a
completely different flight to Miami that left while we were all
sitting there too. It was kind of painful. Oh yeah and as we were
handed our passports and tickets I found out that one of the guys who
was helping out at staging is a UGA grad ('95). So that was cool, too
bad I didn't know before. And my luggage was overweight, but for
someone lucky reason I ended up not having to pay. I had to move a
lot of stuff around for the weather in Teguz so I guess I messed up
the whole plan. Ohh well its here, safe and sound!
OK so we landed in Honduras at 12:45ish and went outside and loaded
all of our bags into a truck and then put our overnight bags on a
school bus (a yellow one!) and drove the 17 kl to Sant Lucia. Around
3:30 we were introduced to our family (well the ladies of the
household) and then after socializing for a few minutes we were on our
way home! My host family is really nice. There are 4 people and me
living there and a 15 month old baby girl. Maribol y Cristobal are
the parents and there son Tito (Cristobal Jr.) lives with his child's
mother, Maria. Their baby's name is Andrea Daniella. Everyone is
very nice, but I think they are very use to volunteers because they
aren't really around a whole lot. The food was great. For dinner I
had tortillas y queso and avocados and hard boiled eggs and broccoli
and cauli flower. And for breakfast the next day I had pancakes,
watermelon, a banana, cafe and orange juice. For lunch I had
something great too! It was kind of like ramen noodles with
vegetables, peppers, carrots and something I'm not sure what it is.
Also she packed me cucumbers and tomatoes. So I'm definitely not
eating bad at all, actually its hard to get it all down! Right now
our host families are getting paid to feed us three meals a day, so I
get a packed lunch every day also.
Apparently my family has hosted many volunteers, for almost 20
years. I found this out because 2 Americans stopped by for dinner and
one of them was a RPCV. She was hosted by the same family in 98. It
was nice to have someone that knew English and Spanish after that
extremely long day. She helped me out with a few things I needed and
couldn't remember how to say. But i felt guilty speaking English.
She said that I was doing much better than she was when she got to
country. That made me feel a lot better. But it is still VERY
frustrating to not be able to express yourself.
I went to bed by 10ish and had to be up to get to the training
center by 7:30AM. So I woke up by some miracle because I forgot to
set the alarm. My bad. Anyway I will do that tonight for sure. I'm
running out of time at the internet place - like I said before its not
really a "cafe" its computers in a sketchy room. Tomorrow we start
getting our vaccines, I have to get quite a few because they said
you're supposed to have another round of all of your infant shots once
you're older. Whatever. We got paid today - 50 limpuras/day which is
about 3 dollars. Its about a 1:20 exchange. So by American standards
its not that much but hopefully it will be enough for right now.
OK I'm running out of time and I need to go call my mom. More
later. I'm not sure how often I will be able to get over here and use
the internet and keep everyone updated. I'm going to try very hard to
type things up at night and use a jump drive to easily send them.
Email me at bridgetfrench@gmail.com and I will write you back
individually but right now that seems kind of over whelming.
Ohh yeah for the ladies - almost all the guys are very attractive.
Its not bad duty. My project is split 50/50. I'll take more pictures
and hopefully get them up and whatnot very soon. Its been raining but
there are A LOT of pretty views and cute houses.
Hasta lluego,
Bridget
--
Bridget Kathleen French
954.650.5084
posted by Bridget at 10:19 AM
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