In the beginning

I am beginning to get accustomed to cold showers, cockroaches/spiders, mosquito bites, sunsets at 6:30pm, warm milk, lots of rice, potatoes, beans, and avocados (even for breakfast). And I am waiting for the parasites/head lice which I have been told will come. I realize this doesn't sound very appealing at the moment, but it's always these things that make me smile and remind me that I'm in a different place. :0)

Thankfully it is not the language that is exhausting me (in fact, I feel pretty darn comfortable with the Spanish... though far from fluent/understanding everything), but all of the new information is quite overwhelming. We've had tours of almost all parts of the Ranch (though not everything because this place is enormous) and we've had talks about community living, health, the kids, etc. After days of sitting, walking and listening, the evenings are spent eating dinner and hanging out with the kids. Each volunteer visits a different home every night to see which one they feel most comfortable in/which one they would like to be "theirs" for the year (meaning we eat dinner there each night/hang out with those kids the weekends we work).

I am currently living out of my suitcase in a room with 9 other volunteers (but we'll be moving in the next 2-4 weeks thankfully!), but we're still in the awkward phase of spending our days together yet not really knowing one another. Beginnings are always funny that way. I look forward to the days when we can laugh about our shattered first impressions and we can converse less superficially.

And as with all new experiences, I cannot believe it's only been 3 days. Time seemed to fly for the past few months of my life, but when everything is so new, time has a way of slowing way down.

I am off to eat lunch now... which supposedly starts at 12:30 ... though really is not served until about 1:15 :0)