¿Qué pasa, calabaza?

Hello to all with my first post from Honduras. Safe to say it’s been one of the most eventful weeks of my life. Tuesday I flew into D.C. for an afternoon staging event with about 50 other future volunteers headed for Honduras. We stayed at a motel but had to get on a bus at 3am Wednesday for a ride to the airport. We then flew to Miami where we had a short layover. The last flight landed us mid-day in Tegucigulpa, Honduras. Everyone was pretty exhausted by this point. We followed people with Peace Corps signs through customs and out to some vehicles where we packed our luggage. Then we took a bus to a smaller community where our 3 months of Pre-Service Training (PST) take place. A quick session was held to introduce our training leaders and prepare us a bit for life in a Honduran household. Next we were introduced to our host families. I had been quite nervous about how things would go with my new “madre” and “padre” was wondering if I would be able to understand anything at all. I was a bit confused when my host father said we would be taking the “Mercedes Benz” but then I realized he was joking as he pointed to an old white beater. They took me home where I was shown my room, which is almost the size of the one I had in the U.S. They also have a son who lives at home and is older than me. I am able to take hot showers too which I was not expecting. My fellow Peace Corps Trainees (PCT’s) and I spend full days at the training center but so far have mostly just been getting introduced to all the aspects of our PST. I could go on forever about my first 3 ½ days in Honduras but I will try to summarize the main things that come to mind so far:

• I like the food a lot more than I thought I would. Tortillas, beans, meat, rice, and many types of fruit have been the staples of my diet so far. I also love the coffee here.
  
• My host family is extremely nice. They have really made me feel like I am one of the family. “Mi casa es su casa”, my host father told me yesterday. It certainly helps that they have hosted many trainees, or “aspirantes”, in the past.
  
• My Spanish is better than I thought. From what I can tell I am somewhere in the middle as far as the trainees go. I was pretty rusty at first but even after just a few days here a bunch of words are coming back to me. The past couple evenings I have had some great long discussions with my host father and am excited to improve every day. I’m also confident about this happening as I hear the teachers here do great things in terms of helping to improve your Spanish during PST.
  
• The training staff is extremely-well equipped to prepare us for our jobs here. They have a lot of experience and really know how to make the transition a smooth one for us. They are also very personable.
  
• My fellow trainees are a great bunch of people as well. I still don’t know everyone’s names but have enjoyed getting to know many of them. People seem to have a good sense of humor too which really helps to lighten the mood a bit and allows for some joking around during down times.
  

I got cold feet pretty bad right before I left the U.S. However, so far I have no regrets about my decision to do this. I’ve been really happy here. I know it is super early and some major struggles probably lie ahead, but hopefully the good will continue to outweigh the bad. I’m very excited to see what’s in store.

Too all my family and friends back in the States: I’d really like to stay in touch with as many of you as possible. I love you and I miss you all!