And they're off! Sort of...

Aban dedeer, tomorrow morning, we head out to Same for our site visit. That's a week-long stay with our new host family in our new communities meeting with our new counterparts and seeing new things all around. Our group of 31 is being flung out across the country like seed in a field. Two of us were already sent to Atauru Island yesterday because the ferry only goes once a week there. A few more left this afternoon and the rest of us leave in the morning.

We are in week 7 of training. 2 1/2 weeks to go before we all become volunteers. This week at our sites will be a sneak peek of what it will be like - no American friends to speak English to and help you speak Tetun, no Peace Corps to hold your hand. Yes, we are a bit scared, actually.

Bekah's Tetun is better than mine, so luckily I have her to help me when I don't understand. On the other hand I'm using her as a crutch, leaning on her instead of trying to do it all myself. It's not on purpose, it's just survival. But my Tetun is indeed improving daily.

We met our counterparts during Counterpart Day this morning. Ours are very nice and said they have lots for us to do. My counterpart actually said, in Tetun, "You can play you're guitar and sing in English and the children will come because they want to learn English." And they love the guitar here. I'm still in the market for one.

In other news, we all have to do a little project during training related to our field, either Community Economic Development (CED) or Health Promotion (HP). I'm a CED and I will try to run an Ultimate Frisbee Camp, tentitively called Eskola Soe (Throwing School), in two weeks. It will end with an exibition match on Fair Day, where we all present the results of our projects. Matthew, you can smile knowing little Timorese kids are throwing forehands like pros. And they taught themselves! They're super quick to catch on.

We'll let you know how the site visit goes. Ate logu!