Last Weekend Together

March 18^th

On Friday all of the CEC volunteers in my training group rented a house/hostel called Casa de Jay on the beach in El Palomar. It was the perfect place to spend our last few days together! We swam in the ocean, hung out at the beach, ate seafood, and partied with Jay, a Canadian girl, a couple guys from Seattle and all the surfers in town. Unfortunately the waves weren’t great, so we couldn’t surf. There were a lot of jellyfish in the water (one girl in our group got a really bad sting in her crotch) but it didn’t stop us from having a great time! Friday was one of the volunteers’ birthday, we celebrated by drinking seco and Bloody Mary’s on the beach, skinny dipping, and cooking a huge chicken Thai curry dinner.

Today has been kind of a strange day. This morning we all said our goodbyes, and individually left Casa de Jay for our sites. I’m usually not overly sentimental about goodbyes. I know that I’ll see the people I care about again before too long, but it is strange leaving the people that I’ve shared this unique experience with and not knowing exactly what I’ll be doing for the next two years. I have gotten used to sharing with them on a daily basis what new way living with Mama Chomba somehow had managed to get more ridiculous, and I will barely speak any English for the next four months. But these next few months will really help me improve my Spanish, give me a lot of opportunities to grow and learn, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of stories to share when I see my fellow volunteers for “Tech Week” at the end of July.

Piedras Gordas here I come…I’m not sure if they know what they’ve gotten themselves into J

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