We are going to Quiché!

This morning I traveled to Dueñas to meet up with Sarah's group to receive our site assignments. Basilio, our Program Director, and Anna Isobel, the assitant for the program, arrived around 8:30 and handed us all envelopes wrapped in newsprint (they were all adorned with little bows as well). When we first learned that we were going to Quiché we were both a bit disappointed because our first experience with the Departmento was a little negative -- our field-based training took place in the aldeas (rural communities outside of a pueblo) around Santa Cruz el Quiché, the capital of Quiché . Santa Cruz takes the cake in terms of poor planning, nasty smells, and overall dirtiness for a city. Luckily we're around two hours away from the place in a little town. We have two rural health técnicos to work with and there are many aldeas around our pueblo so we should have a lot to do over the next two years. We are also the first volunteers to be in this site so I'm interested to see the community's reaction to our arrival. We will know later next week when we visit our site! I'll make sure to post an update after that happens to let everyone know how it goes.

This past week has been a trial in patience for both Sarah and I and the rest of the training group. Everyone seems to be at the end of their rope in terms of their families, class, and training - i.e. there is no control over what we are eating, when we have privacy and when we don't, what we can/can't do during the day and night, constant Spanish classes, etc. I'm not complaining at all but I do think training is just a couple of weeks too long. We're all itching for freedom and the independence to cook what we want, rest when we want, sleep when we want, etc. Two months is a long time, and it's even longer when you look ahead and realize you have three weeks to go. Don't get me wrong: I love it here, especially my family (I will post pictures in a week or two) but I wouldn't complain if I never saw white bread again. Anyways, enough of my catharsis.

I hope everyone that reads this has a great week!

(¡Yo espero que todo estén leendo esta tengan una buena semana!)