the house on the hill

here i am in my final host family's lovely house on a hill in San Ignacio. this town is beautiful! very hilly, which makes for some good exercise. my family lives at the top of a steep one on the outskirts of town, just yards from the entrance to the Maya site of Cahal Pech. the house is large even by U.S. standards. i spent 6 hours yesterday in the hammock, reading the final Harry Potter and gazing out at a view of the entire city (until the mosquitoes starting to drive me out of my skull). gorgeous! and i seem to have lucked out again with the internet access. this definitely wasn't the living arrangement i was envisioning when i joined the Peace Corps. but i'll enjoy it while it lasts...

i met my work counterpart, Jose (or Joe, as most call him), and sat in on some teacher training workshops that he was coordinating. seems like he'll be fun to work with, and i'm getting the sense that september is going to be a HECTIC month. it's never a good sign when one of the first things your counterpart asks you is whether you have problems working on weekends. ruh roh.

now that i've settled in a bit, i head back to Belmopan to officially end my training and swear in as a Peace Corps volunteer. just in time for Hurricane Dean to make landfall. it's all over the news, and on everyone's minds. looks like it's likely to be a soggy, windy next couple of days. i'll let you know how i fare...