Hey Jennifer...

... we're home.
Those are the first words that I said when we landed in El Salvador June 8th, 2009 to Jennifer Turner. I really meant it too. But until yesterday I have not really felt it. That isn't to say that the people here are not incredibly warm, they are, or that I feel more and more at home everyday, I do, it is just that I now know where I am going to live and the transition from trainee to volunteer is more real.

I am going to live in:
Departmento Las Cabanas
Municipio Jutiapa
Canton Carolina
Caserio El Empalme

So where exactly are you living, in a city, how big is it, and what does Caserio mean? Take it easy mom. I am going to live in El Empalme. It has about 400 homes with a school of 360 kids and 7 teachers. El Empalme is in a Canton which is a little bigger than a Caserio, and then it is within the municipal of Jutiapa which is in the department of Las Cabanas. I am just north of San Vicente, where we have been doing our training, and only 3 hours away from San Salvador, the capital.

The best part, to me, is that I am the first volunteer and I am going to work with a very enthusiastic school director who is very excited and ready to work and begin projects with the youth. The plan is for us to leave our host families this thursday for San Salvador and then Friday we will swear in and Saturday afternoon I will arrive in my site where I will live for 2 years.

After we all found out our sites and put a star with our name on it on the this big map in the training center we went out for just a little bit to celebrate. We were all discussing our sites, sharing the teaser amount of information with one another when a trainee in my group said "I feel like we are really in Peace Corps now. Like we are seriously in Peace Corps." It's true. The honeymoon phase will soon be gone and while we are still mentally preparing we will be walking into our sites, meeting our new neighbors, and for some us integrating into a community that has never ever had a Peace Corps volunteer.

Pre Dance and Paint

Untouchable.
San Antonio Caminos,
is untouchable.

We just found this out today. I don't know if our spanish teacher told us because it is true, or the more likely reason, because she knew with our big egos it would fulfill all of our hopes to be super volunteers.

But I just got a text that it looks like it is going to rain really hard.
Scroll down to see what I did this weekend.
Friday was the dance to raise funds to paint the basketball court.
Saturday we painted the basketball court.
And not pictured is our celebration in San Salvador.