It´s Official, Here I go!

So last we left off I was finishing up training and had visited the region that I´ll be working in. Since then I´ve visited my actual site which was a decent combination of exciting/overwhelming/children everywhere/ I ended up getting sick with an amoeba and spending the night in the hospital before returning to my training community. Kinda a rocky entrance but I´m sure things will improve (mainly my immune system).

Our swearin ceremony was by far one of the best days in country so far. We went to the ambassador´s house and yours truly got picked to deliver a speech representing the Community Environmental Conservation project in front of the Peace Corps staff, volunteers, the ambassador, and the Panamanian Vice President. No pressure really. To my delight, and in spite of my nervousness I nailed the speech in spanish and I am almost positive no one saw my body trembling behind the podium.

After a rockin swear in night celebration and a couple more days of office business the majority of the group 63 crew and I hit the beach and spent the last 3 days goofing off and pretending that the immenent shock of reality wasn´t really real. Well now I am one night away from moving to my community and a bit petrified. I am not allowed to spend the night out of province for the first 3 months which means I´ll be separated from a lot of my gringo buddies and will be working my butt off trying to master a 2nd and now 3rd language. It´s rough battling insecurity and loneliness when you´ve got so many people back home rooting you on. It´s hard to explain how it feels if you´re not here so I won´t go into it too much.

Ok so for reals this time here´s my contact info if you care to reach me or send me stuff (nothing expensive since it may take a month to get here and could possibly get stolen):

phone: 50765360230 (I think you have to dial 011 first or 001. one of those)
My other cell phone is 50760898524 but does not work in my site afterall so only use it if you think I might be in the city which is rare.

for mailing stuff my address is: Catherine Fabiano- Cuerpo de Paz
Entrega General
David, Chiriqui
Republica de Panama

It never hurts to write something religious on the envelope like ¨propriedad de la iglesia¨ or ¨Dios bendiga este correo¨ to prevent supersticious postal workers from opening it. They still probably will.

Stuff on my wish list would be cd´s (gotta buy a battery powered boombox since i don´t have electricity. I like reggae and rock or any new popular stuff that I may be missing out on here.), motivational poetry (seriously, attitude lifters are essential here), and of course any photos you got always make me happy.

Lots of love to everyone as I head into my site! Wish me luck!