Peace Corps Rollercoaster

Here´s the situation:

First time meeting one of my counterpart teachers, they´ve just done an overview of Peace Corps and the project areas. First thing my counterpart, Thamara, and her husband ask me: So what are you going to be doing? I was dismayed, but not surprised that she had really no idea who I was or what I was going to be doing. The school´s director basically told her to come to Managua to pick up an American who would be working at the school. So that was my Tuesday.

I´ve just returned from my 5 day site visit and I can pretty honestly say that at least once each day I felt confident, competent, and ready to do my job. And at least once each day I panicked and wondered what it is that I´ve gotten myself into and just how I´m going to survive two years here. I figure that at least the first 3 months will be like that, if not more.

I spent a lot of the first two days with Thamara. I watched some classes at the school, she took me around town, and introduced me to her family who are all quite nice. She´s a little on the quiet side, but very excited to improve her English. and she´s my age, so that´s nice. The town itself isn´t as big as I thought it would be, there´s a supermarket and a sizable indoor market as well. There are some NGOs that I want to check out as possible collaboraters and the school´s in pretty decent shape, they even have a computer lab with free internet for teachers (score!).

My big challenge will be meeting people in the community. I had been hoping for a smaller site because it´s easier to meet people and know everyone, but I´ve got a mid-sized site and I don´t even live in town. My homestay is very comfortable (except for copious amounts of mosquitos) and my host mom and sister are really nice. However, we live in a little suburb like place north of my site and commuting in will be a pain. I had been told it was bikeable, but I´m not at all psyched to bike on a hilly highway all the way to school when it´s incredibly hot outside. Nosireebob. I´m trying to prepare my host mom for me leaving after 6 weeks, but she´s already intent on me staying.

I already am finding myself wondering if I´m doing this Peace Corps thing right, but the current volunteers have passed on words of wisdom that I feel like I should tattoo on my arm: Don´t compare your service to anyone else´s. Really, every volunteer is different and every site is different. Even so, I get caught up in questions like Am I talking to my family enough? Have I spent enough time on the stuff Peace Corps told me to do? I read like half a book today, is that bad? I hope that I can have a successful service, but I also need to cut myself some slack and do things at my own pace.

In any case, I doubt I´ll be paying much attention in class for our remaining 3 weeks of training and trying to soak up as much together time as I can with my friends. We´ve been blessed with a really good group of people who I hope to see somewhat often during service and I think I should be able to do that pretty easily.

Happy 4th of July everyone! You all had better have watched some fireworks and eaten a burger for me :)