Bonding in a Foreign Land

My blog has been Peace Corps approved, so time for my second blog post in country. Yay! J I sent a very long email to some of my closest friends and family yesterday detailing some of my thoughts on this adventure so far, and many things that we have been doing.

Most notably, yesterday we took a “field trip” with our LCF’s (Language and Cross-Cultural Facilitators). They are the lovely people that are assigned to help us learn Amharic or another territory specific language. They are the best people ever, who have the patience of angels. My LCF (he won’t be mine the whole time, we will be split into much smaller groups) is fantastic. He definitely knows how to boost confidence, even if we are butchering his language.

Back to the field trip yesterday: we went to the National Museum and got to see a bunch of awesome artifacts of clothing, pottery and such, and paintings. The coolest was seeing the bones of Lucy, back in the birthplace of human kind. I forget how much history Ethiopia holds for every one of us. We also went to the market, but we just walked around quickly and then got back into the bus. That was more of an experience with interacting with different people than actually buying anything.

We have been sitting in a lot of information sessions, although less so than last week. Our sessions the past few days have been getting more specific to our actual experience and what we will be doing. We have had a few sessions on teaching, the school system, and grammar. We have also talked about sites and assignments. I have my “interview” tomorrow so they can place us in a place and assignment that best fits us, although they will place us more where they need us rather than our own preferences. Everyone I have talked to has ended up loving their sites, even if they aren’t thrilled at the beginning.

I am very excited to learn more about teaching in the classroom, although I am terrified. I have gotten up in front of a class before, but not high schoolers, and never something as scripted as English to non-native speakers. I am most excited for my secondary project. Most volunteers say that the project they adopt ends up becoming their favorite part. I want to do something with literacy, but we will see how it goes. I know it will be difficult, because I first have to integrate into my community and school, which might be hard, since I have always had an easy time with teaching.

There are a lot of restaurants near our hotel, so I have been eating well. One of the best lasagna’s I have ever eaten was at the restaurant of a mall right by my hotel. We have seen quite a few tourists the past few days, which is the first time we have seen anyone that are definitely tourists since being here. We drove through Addis yesterday for the first time really since getting here, and you can definitely see the growth and development in the country and the attempt of the government to continue to become more economically powerful in the world.

I have really begun to bond with my fellow PC Trainees, and I will be sad to not be with them more when we move to Butajira on Saturday. However, I am thrilled to finally be meeting more Ethiopians and to stay with a host family. I think the scariest part will be not having my fellow PC Trainees with my 24/7, but I will still be spending all day with them in language, cultural, and teacher training, mostly.

I have been able to get on Facebook more the past few days, because the internet access has been better. I even (attempted to) Skype my mom yesterday and chatted with my mom and dad. As much as that has been great, it has definitely made me homesick. Especially seeing Sam’s wedding pictures and knowing I can’t be there to hug Cailee. But, knowing how much I am growing and how I’m hopefully going to make a difference in at least one child’s life is keeping me going.

Today, we heard some people from the Consulate speak and they are all in the Foreign Service. Hearing their stories definitely made me marvel at the fact that some people live their whole lives without ever reaching out of their boundaries and traveling and exploring/experiencing the world. I know it’s not in everyone’s ability, but those who have the ability and means to travel and experience the world need to do so. Thankfully I have been given an amazing opportunity, and I don’t plan on wasting this.