In Apia, Samoa

Hey everyone. Just letting you know I am here and fine. There are 14 of us. And I think 20+ volunteers currently in country.

Training in LA was okay. We just basically went over the handbook and discussed what made PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) sucessful. It was nice to get people to get to know each other. We did fun exercises with colored pens. Check out Mari's website (http://marisamoa.blogspot.com) for pictures of the group and when we arrived in Samoa at 2:45 am. I will upload a few pictures later, but I forgot my camera card this trip.

We are living in Apia, Samoa (the capitol city of Samoa) right now. Everyone keeps referring to this first part of training as the honeymoon because most things are still done for us.

We will be intensly training for 10 weeks. They say if you last 10 weeks, you will make it in the PC. I am currently a PCT (Peace Corps trainee). I become a PCV at the swearing in on December 14th. On the 21st we leave for a week to live with families in a small town outside of the capital. We do that on and off for awhile. 1 week with the family, one week back, one week with the family, one week back, 3 weeks with the family, 2 days back, and then the swearing in, and then off to post.

I won't find out where I am going until probably the 29th of this month. I could go to one of 2 islands. 3 of the 14 volunteers are going to Savai'i. And the rest stay on 'Upolu.

We have learned a little language. But not the intensive part yet. I can say thank you. Fa'afatai. And your welcome: Fa'afatai fo'i. And I can even pronounce them correctly. :) Plus a few of the other basics.

While I am in the capital city, we have fairly regular access to the internet, otherwise, it won't be until I get back into the capital.

Let me say that the people here are super friendly and nowhere NEAR as large as everyone in the states assumes. I would say they are average. Smaller than a lot of Americans.

The climate is nice... for me who is always cold. In fact last night I needed a long sleeve shirt. Everyone else thought I was nuts. It's humid, but not too much yet. This is the beginning of the humid season. The country is beautiful, I promise to post pictures as soon as I get the chance. I will probably NOT be calling anyone because it is expensive for Samoa to call the states, but actually fairly cheap for the US to call here. And my email time is limited because of the slow computers, so I won't be responding very often to emails. Though once I am actually in service I will have more free time.

Until the next time...