Swearing-in

It's been a few since I last updated the blog. In that time, I have sworn-in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and have moved to my site. I am now sitting in a hostel in Chiclayo, the capital city of my department - Lambayeque. I arrived in Chiclayo this morning (well technically yesterday morning sense it is after 12:00AM) with the other 3 volunteers from my group who will be working and living in my department. We are staying the night here and then tomorrow we will all go to our respective sites.

My site is fabulous. It is exactly where I wanted to go. It is named Ciudad Eten and I visited it on for Field-Based Training a few weeks ago. At that time I did not know where I was going to go, but after visiting Eten, I knew I wanted to go there. I made it clear to my bosses that I wanted Ciudad and I was lucky enough to get it. It is literally right on the beach and it is such a tranquila city. Everyone is really chill and my host family is fantastic.

My community partner is an obstetrician who is totally on her game. She is fantastic and already has some health classes with which I will be helping her lined-up this week at the high school.

I am a bit intimidated, because I have so much freedom in what I can do. I can literally do any project that I want for the next two years as long as it involves youth development. In some respects that is liberating, but in others it is daunting. I visited Eten two weeks ago and met the mayor and lots of other important people. They all spoke of such grand expectations for me. I am worried that I won't live up to their expectations, but I am going to do my best.

The first three months at site are meant to be an integration period. We are supposed to work on a community diagnostic in which we assess the community's needs, resources, strengths, weakness, and threats. During this time we are not expected to do much in the way of actual projects, but should be focusing on the diagnostic while accomplishing early-wins. Early-wins are little projects that we can do with little preparation and training. They involve teaching English, drawing a world map on a wall with children, or teaching a few classes on simple health topics like brushing teeth or washing hands.

It's weird to think that I will be at Eten for the next two years and I don't even know what I will be doing exactly. However, I'm super excited to get out there and figure it out. I'll have internet in my new house, so I'll try to keep this thing updated so you can all know how things are proceeding.

Chau!