So, we made it through PST (pre-service training), in Miami; more early training in the capital city of the country, and we're now placed with our host family.

Miami was a great time -- we got to meet the 31 other trainees (we're not "volunteers" until we've been graduated from our two months of training). So imagine 31 other people, from age 21 and freshly graduated from undergrad (literally, the Sunday 2 days before Miami), to retiree age, and everything in between; hailing from Alaska to the Philippines to Cali to Vermont, and even Iowa(!); individuals having traveled to all 50 states, or 68 countries (these are two specific people I'm talking about), South Africa, Japan, Argentina, and everywhere in between. We have native Ukrainian speakers, native Spanish speakers, whatever, wherever, whoever, you name it and we've got it. It's awesome just to sit and talk to everyone.

Okay, so enough gushing about our new crushes. Miami was basically getting to know all these new colleagues, and getting in the proper mindset. Then, two days in our new capitol. Sorry for all the vagueness with place names down here, but we need to be a bit discreet. G-town is great, bustling, and a bit intimidating. There are places we're not allowed to go as trainees, til we've acculturated a bit and can read danger signals well enough to know what's what. We met our supervisors, trainers, and the other long-term workers who basically take every new group and get them situated.

We have coordinators specifically devoted to helping us with health, with security, with culture, and on and on. Even one or two supervisors for our service project (you know -- the thing we'll actually be doing while we're here). They all seem like great people, and quite competent as well. We got the first 3 of a number of shots, were given our choice of 3 malaria medications, each with its own unique and interesting side effects, and basically introduced to the country, the capital city, and the food and culture. We also got to bask in the last air conditioning we'll get for two years.

So, after two full days of this, we were placed with our host families. Each volunteer gets their own host family, except of course the two of us (the only married couple), who get to stay together with one family. There are 9 trainees placed with families in our village, out of the 33 total, all of us in Education (as opposed to Health, the other main activity that volunteers will be doing here).

Our host family has had different trainees stay with them 3 times now (we're the fourth), so they know more about this thing than we do. Our official host mom is actually the grandmother, the top of the 3 generations (6 people total, 2 in each generation) living together in our house (the bottom of it is her granddaughter, age 3, who is of course hilarious and adorable). Since they've hosted before, the older 4 members all do a great job slowing down and speaking fuller English with us, as opposed to the local dialect of Caribbean patois that is spoken here. The two little kids, on the other hand, are much harder to understand. Our family is of East Indian descent, as opposed to African, and we live in a mixed town (some are entirely one or the other). The men work out of the home, the grandmother (our host mom) runs the show at home, and the mother runs a little shop that sits at the front of the property, on the street, where you can buy Skittles, or beer, or Clorox, or sandals.

That's plenty for now. In the meantime, training continues in a nearby village center, we have training in the capital city every Friday, and the weekends leave us free to explore and meet new people (and try to get a grip on the local dialect). We'll post more when we have a chance. Maybe we'll talk about the anaconda that was recently pulled from the trench out back. 25 feet or so long.

No worries, it's dead now.