Public Speaking 101...en español...

So things are going pretty well down here in the southern hemisphere. Staying busy, but having a great time. Last night there was a fiesta in my neighborhood to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the barrio. The soccer tournament that we were involved in was a prequel to the fiesta last night. Our team performed quite well, I believe we had 3 wins, 3 loses, 4 ties and a forfeit mixed in there somewhere (due to a combination of miscommunication and schedule conflict with the presidential debate...yes, we have TV down here). Though we performed well we were definitely not the best team in the tournament, but some representatives from the neighborhood chose to give us an award for sportsmanship. And for this they gave us some sharp looking jerseys with the name of the barrio written on them. A great gift, they were given to us during the fiesta last night, and for this they expected someone from the team to speak. This someone happened to be the captain....who happened to be me. At this point I have been studying spanish in university for one year, and have lived in a spanish speaking country for all of three weeks, this surely has not prepared me for speaking in front of 100+ people. After some encouragement and teasing from my friends, mixed with a bit of liquid courage I was ready to take the stage, grab the mic, and butcher the three or four sentences that I had planned out. It probably wasn't all that bad but it was an unexpected surprise. This was followed by fireworks, drinking, and dancing For some reason the dancing area was comprised almost entirely of gringos (many were wearing the recently gifted jerseys). The way people drink here is a bit different than in the states, the men will gather together in a small circle of 4-6 people and pass a large bottle and glass around the circle. They don't have personal size bottles and it's taboo to drink directly from the bottle, though I believe we smashed a couple cultural boundaries last night. After receiving the cup in the circle you fill it about one third full, drink it, shake it out and pass it to the next person. This allows for everyone involved to share both conversation and germs (sorry grandma :) ). There are often many of these circles that will form at a fiesta, and each would like nothing more than to pull in a gringo, especially to tease him about the public display of poor spanish (the people are actually very understanding and patient with us as we struggle to learn spanish). So of course as I'm trying to walk across the fiesta area I will get pulled into three or four different drinking circles and a 35 yard walk will take 40 minutes. It's not a bad thing, just a little different. At about three in the morning I called it quits and went to bed, my host parents were somewhat surprised that I went to bed so early. I need to thank the volunteer that lived with them before me, he drank much more than me, more frequently, and I went to bed much later than I. Because of this I've got a little bit more wiggle room than I was expecting, which is nice.

It's not all fiestas down here, that's just the break that we have been looking forward to after three long weeks of classes about first aid, agriculture, composting, safety, health, spanish (of course), with a bunch of vaccinations mixed in as well. We will find out our site assignments November 6th, though a few people already know where they will be stationed for the next two years, the rest of us are excited to know where we'll be. That's when the real peace corps stuff starts, we've been told by many current volunteers that training is a necessary evil and the actual service is much more fun. But honestly this has felt like summer camp up to this point, new friends, new places, and for the most part every part of your day is dictated by someone else and we don't really have all that much responsibility yet. Aside from showing up on time (which means 20 minutes late is ok) and a little bit of spanish homework. It's nice to have a gradual increase in the expectations of us rather than throwing us in over our heads. At times it feels quite slow but it's probably for the best.

I will now try to get a few more pictures up that I promised last time. Hope everyone back hope is doing great with school, jobs, looking for jobs, and everything else. Oh...and don't forget to register to vote.