Fernando de la Mora

It's official...I'm a volunteer!! Today is my first day "in-site". I recruited another volunteer to help me move my stuff into my new room yesterday, and today I'm meeting one of the family members at 1:00 to go in search of a bed and hopfefully a ropero (armoir). Bed is key...my floor is cement and I don't have so much as a rug. If all else fails, I'll sleep on my fleece couch cozy and sleeping bag for a couple days....let's hope I find a bed ;)

Leaving Guarambare was emotional, but I'm only a 45 minute bus ride from my family there so it'll be easy to visit...just need to make the time. My family in G'be is fabulous, and I certainly intend to see them relatively frequently. It was a nice feeling to have - that I was leaving "home" and that they want me to come home to visit. Gives me hope that I'll be feeling like Fernando is home in no time. Probably good that I've spent so much time bouncing from state to state and house to house....helps me set down roots fairly quickly.

The swearing in ceremony was nice. Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State, swore us in - he's actually a pretty funny guy and his speech was better than anticipated. Dave from our group spoke on our behalf...his speech was absolutely beautiful! After the ceremony we wandered around a bit and found the pool and tennis court (which I'm allowed to use whenever I want). The pool is gorgeous! It's plenty big enough to do laps in, and generally is uncrowded - que suerte! I even bought goggles the other day, because I certainly plan on swimming regularly (thank goodness it's free). I'm also going to look into taking Tai Kwan Do because there's a center in my neighborhood. Look out!

So this week will consist of getting settled in, saying hello to people in the neighborhood, learning my way around, and recovering (I've been sick lately - get to that in a minute). Next week I'll start making the rounds to organizations, schools, and foundations to find out what's going on in the community and what the needs and interests are. I'm sure I'll spend a bunch of time just sitting around chatting with folks and youth - that's to be expected. And I'll have to find a tutor for Guarani, because I need to be able to speak better than I do now. I've already had some offers (from when I visited my site a couple weeks back) so I can't imagine it'll be too tough to find someone.

I took my poop to the lab this morning, so hopefully they'll be able to tell me what's going on pretty soon. I think I have Ghiardia, but we'll see (lots of diarreah, nausea and vomiting). It's been a couple months...and it's consistently gotten worse, so it was time. Don't worry though, I'm maintaining as well as I can and will be fixed up in no time! It'll help too now that I'll have a change in water source - means that if they give me meds I have the opportunity to get better and STAY better :)

It's been cooling off a bit here. Just in the 80's, which is like heaven! Anything under 90 and humid is a relief!! It was actually COLD a few days because of the rain....starting to think it might be true that it really does cool off here in the winter ;) Hopefully it's getting nicer there - all the flowers should be out and the grass should be green. Someone please send a photo of the cherry blossoms...I know they were all worried that the season was going to be ruined on account of the weather, but I bet it was still beautiful!

I'm going to have regular access to email now...so don't hesitate to drop a line! I miss you all and think of you often. Thank you soooo much for those of you who have send cards and letters! I absolutely love to hear from you!!!

Hugs and Kisses,
Lor