I'm in my site AND have a phone!!

Hey everyone!! I know it's been a while since I've written...GEEZ 8 days! I'm sorry...I'm just going through what I went through 3 months ago again (moving, having to settle in, find internet cafes, etc.).

So...A LOT has happened over the past week. We had our swearing in ceremony, which basically means that we're all volunteers now (instead of just "trainees")!! :) So that night we obviously partied it up big time, and the next day, we had a day-long meeting with all of our counterparts and went to our final sites. Then, yesterday, I attended a youth leadership day-long conference for all of the youth leaders in the country, which was AWESOME!! I was surprised that none of the other youth volunteers went; I guess that just means that my counterparts are AWESOME enough to think about inviting me!

Anyway, ok...so a recap of what's happened this week:

LEAVING MY HOST FAMILY
Ok, this was pretty emotional. The last night that I was at home, we all sat around the table eating dinner, and Maria, my host mom said, "When Stephanie left (the volunteer that lived with them 2 years ago), we said goodbye and hugged and that was that. But you're different. I feel so sad to be losing you. Our door is always going to be open to you because you are such a good person." And of course this was accompanied by lots of tears from her. Now if that doesn't tug at your heart, I sure don't know what will!! It was SO sweet!

YEAH, THE OTHER VOLUNTEERS KNOW I'M CRAZY
2 stories on this one...the first...so I needed to go to the post office to mail a couple of things back to the states. And Tara, one of the trainees from my host community went with me. So it was quite the long process, figuring out with the teller how much everything was going to cost, filling out the little custom forms, etc. Well, after about 5 or 10 minutes, we had it all figured out. Each envelope needed 4 stamps (big ones at that) so after I finished filling out the customs forms, I started licking like mad. (And yes, AIA, I was thinking of Jon Boes with his 1000 envelope licking story which cracked me up the whole time! And yes, Seinfeld fans, I was thinking of the episode where George's fiance dies from the licking!) Anyway, when I was about half-way done, with that nasty stamp-taste filling my mouth like crazy and making me wish that I had some water to clear out the taste, Tara looks over and says, "You know, Michelle, I heard that you can get amoebas from directly licking stamps here." I had a stamp on its way to my worn out tongue and just froze. Of course my mind is going a million miles a minute and I'm thinking, "Oh CRAP!! I've been SO lucky and careful and now I'm going to get sick from STAMPS!! How can I get all the bad stuff out of my mouth!!" I was FREAKING OUT (which of course made me involuntarily swallow the contaminated saliva making all kinds of new things run through my head and made my heart start speeding up from the freaking out)!! So, I look at Tara, I'm sure with total fear in my face, and she just BUSTS out laughing and ends up doubled over because she's laughing so hard. I was like, "You're kidding??!" VERY FUNNY. She got me all right!! :) I swear, we were laughing about that everyday for the last week! Only I would freak out about potentially getting amoebas from stamps! The 2nd story...during the family fiesta (and now every event since then), I've been the photographer. Well, I took photos of all of the families at the family fiesta, and did the whole, "Ok, everyone move a little to the right. A little more...more...more...more...more...STOP! Ok. You move your head forward a quarter of an inch. A little more. STOP! Ok. Big smiles everyone!!.....ONE!! TWO!!! THREE!!!" Of course this was all in spanish. Apparently, I was entertainment for everyone on this and they all thoroughly enjoyed the one two three action. Anyway, I thought a lot of you would enjoy that story. :)

WOW THERE ARE NICE VOLUNTEERS IN MY GROUP!
During the last activity in our last day in the training center, we all passed around a piece of paper with our name on it, and everyone wrote something for us (so there were 27 papers, each with one name). So when we're feeling all lonely and depressed in our sites, we can refer to this sheet of encouraging words from our peers. As you can imagine, I really like stuff like this! So when we finished, I started reading the comments on my sheet, and they were all really nice, but there was one that stood out and just cracks me up EVERYTIME I think about it. I don't know who wrote it, but it said, "You're like Mary Poppins with a database. Your personality and organization skills will be more than enough to get you by!" Oh my goodness. Does anyone else find that extremely funny?? :)

SO NO INTERNET, BUT THERE IS A PHONE!
Right. So I live somewhere without internet, but I have a phone now! And the plans here are totally going to spoil me...it costs $0.10 per minute to call others, but it's free when others call me! So...feel free to call whenever. Right now I'm turning my phone off when I'm in a new place or on a bus since people don't know me yet. Otherwise, I'd increase my already high "hey, let's rob her" look. :) But if I don't answer and you leave me a message, I can call you back later. So...to reach me, you have to dial 011+503+7+938-2980. I have no idea how much it costs to call me from the states, but if you want or need to talk, just drop me a line (or email)! :)

Alrighty, well I think that's about enough for now! I miss you all VERY much and think of you often!! I hope you're all doing well!!