Come so far with so far to go...

My first few weeks in site have been VERY busy!!! Much busier than I expected, but I'm happy that I have such a great site and counterpart. My counterpart (the person I have been paired to work with the next 2 years) is named Alex. What makes him so great is that he is patient with me and encourages me, even though my spanish is no where near where it needs to be. He constantly calls me "Pilas" (which means a person on top of their stuff). I appreciate the self-esteem boosts because I definitely need them. I struggle so much because mentally I want to be ahead of where my capacity is. I want to be able to explain my self fully and educate others, you know, what I was sent here to do.. but my limited spanish just doesn't allow that to occur. I am thankful, although frustrated, that I am where I am, because I know I have no where to go but up... I was thinking today, "Wow, I can't wait to see where I'll be in a few months and a year!" I think its amazing to be able to see your own growth. I definitely notice the growth I've accomplished just in the last few months, I just need to be patient and keep practicing, and everything else will fall in place like it always does!

I'm supper excited because last week I had my first Health Promoter group meeting. Health Promoters are the main people I will be working with during my 2 years to improve the living conditions of the people in my town. Peace Corps' thoughts (and every other person doing community development) is that you train local community people to build capacity so that the knowledge of what I'm trying to impart will be left here and passed on after I leave. Thus, I will be starting a Health Promoter program (this month) to train my Health Promoters. I'm so nervous but so excited at the same time! The meeting last week was to bring them together and introduce me and my Healthy Homes program. A lot of the Promoters seemed very excited and ready to work with me. Some were even hugging me at the end of the meeting...BIG SMILE on my face!!! I was appreciative that my counterpart was supportive and really pushed the idea behind the education part of our program and did not mention (as I requested) the projects that I will be doing my second year. It is important for me to have HPs that are working with me because they want to help their community and not because of anything they can get out of it...so that was awesome!

Unfortunately I did not take pictures of my 1st meeting with them, but I did take pictures of my 1st charla I gave today. It was on Family Planning in a school in one of my town's cacerias (smaller town) called Rio Hondo. Family planning is definitely not my strong topic, especially not in Spanish. However, I pushed through it, despite the frustrating thoughts that were going through my mind. To be honest, I really didn't have a choice...what was I going to do, run out of the classroom crying because I couldn't say most of the words I need to say... lol That's really what I wanted to do! No, it wasn't that bad. Luckily my super-hero counterpart saved my day. He stepped in at the right times and was sure to include me throughout the entire charla! The students particpated and seemed to have a good time. Although it ended up being 2 hours long.. I think it went great! It was so funny, at one point I attempted to read descriptions of some of the family planning methods, tripping over a lot of the words and when I was finished the entire class gave me a hand clap for my attempt, I was so touched...lol  Check out some pics below...

Thanks for reading!
Shantrice