Adventure of a Lifetime

So on Thursday, the 20 of Noviembre, Ann and Keila came to my neck of the woods to visit. They stopped by to pick me up and we headed to Restauración for a meeting with Ramon, the district director. The meeting had been scheduled and confirmed as of the day prior but of course, upon showing up, he wasn't there. The sub-director, however, was. The purpose of the meeting was to form a better relationship between Peace Corps and the district. Ann's brilliant plan is to make them more aware of the volunteers in the area, what our job is and how it lines up with theirs, and to hopefully find a way to collaborate together more effectively. This is why she creates "clusters" of volunteers in one district when she does site development. The meeting went beautifully. They saw her passion, loved how much our goals line up with theirs and are excited for the relationship to form. We are still in infancy stages with the process but it was so neat to be there and have a hand in moving forward.

Next? Lunch. Then we headed to a community called Cruz de Cabrera for site development. Ann had been there before but had heard of another route through the pueblo which was apparently shorter. What she was unaware of, however, was the condition of the road. Literally the worst road I have ever seen in my entire life. Imagine me in the back seat, holding on to both "Oh shit" bars on either side and Ann and Keila screaming in the front as we rise and fall and curve with ditches and mud and cliffs hanging off to our right. The complete lack of houses and people was also terrifying in that NO ONE would've known if were to have gotten stuck. I had to get out three times to see if it was even possible to keep going with the way the cracks and holes dipped. THANK GOD for the PC four wheel drive and the incredible chofer that Keila was. An hour and a half later, we made it to the school. 

Incredibly enough, despite not seeing many houses, the school's population is higher than that of Mariano Cestero. We met with the director's wife and the teaching staff of the afternoon. They were wonderful and excited about the possibility of a volunteer working with them. All I have to say is this volunteer better be prepared for living out in the middle of nowhere, with no cell phone service, and they have to LOVE walking. A lot. Haha But oh my god did we have a blast together, the three of us women screaming, praying, singing, and laughing until we were sick to our stomachs (or maybe that was just Ann's pregnancy 😜). And again, it was neat to see the back stage of site development. Something that we don't see much as volunteers since we are just sent where our bosses have already been to and explored.

On the way out, we headed in the other direction and it took only about 20 minutes and the road wasn't nearly as bad haha. We vowed NEVER to go that way again! We stopped by and saw Tiffany and then they brought me home before heading to where they were staying the night. So much fun.