that night was big...

... as if standing on the edge of a cliff, about to look down into the next two years of our life. we would be finding out our site placements the next afternoon: precisely where we live and what our job would be for the duration of our stay in Belize. we celebrated this anticipatory moment at a bar; walls covered with sarcastic placards, stools plastered with bumper stickers. i'm quite sure no one slept much that night.

and now i sit on my small bed, absent-mindedly scratching bug bites and staring at my placement folder. Orange Walk Town. located an hour south of the Mexican border, this is the second largest town in Belize, with 20,000 people. i'm not a fan of big towns, so i'm not initially thrilled. but then i learn about my jobs: i'll be a part-time reading specialist, and a part-time librarian. as a bookworm and advocate for instilling a love of reading in children, i'm ecstatic. and then i see the word "spanish" scratched on the white label on the front of the folder: i'm going to Guatemala for 5 weeks of spanish training. i am one of the lucky few and i am glowing.

initial training in San Ignacio is over. now the group splits up for the first time, for 10 days of technical training with the other trainees in your specific field. some groups will be in rural villages, bathing in the river. the teacher trainers will be at a river-side resort, tanning poolside when classes are over, being hated by the rest of the bunch : )

but we know this luxury is a fluke, something we won't experience again for a long time to come, so we soak it in. we mix drinks and laugh, piled on a plush bed in an air conditioned, pristine room. earlier, we enjoyed the blue blue pool and a slow and beautiful sunset.

in the morning when i step out onto the porch of our room. i usually see 2 or 3 iguanas scatter up a tree or down to the river, due to my arrival. the slew of river-side hammocks are tempting, but the bugs are part of the deal and they have prevented me from enjoying what would be a picture-perfect reading haven. on the walk to school we hear the deep, guttural cries of the howler monkeys. we pass the same two men every day, sitting under a leaning tarp, surrounded by bits and pieces of just about anything. we bid them "maanin" and they tell us that the big lightning storm last night was just for us.

and training is almost over. all that's left is to visit our placement sites to meet our counterparts and host families, and then we swear in as official volunteers. this has been a whirlwind journey, and it's only the beginning.