From serious to seriously awesome

AWKWARD MOMENT OF THE WEEK:
Realizing a bird had pooped on my shirt (apparently when it was laying out to dry) AFTER I had already arrived at a meeting.

17/March/2010

Last weekend again brought me out of my site. This time it was for ‘Peer Support Network’ training. We had members of the U.S. Embassy come and give us training on how to deal with and avoid rape and sexual assault. At one point the presenter asked “Has anyone read ‘The Gift of Fear’?” Boom. Hand up. It was one of the books about survival and kicking butt that I brought with me here, thinking I’d be in much more taxing, life or death situations than I have been. I felt so empowered that she was backing that book up, which is all about using your senses; your innate tuition to help you survive and outwit your attacker. After that presentation we had training specifically for PSN for the next couple days. We learned our role within Peace Corps, that we’re not here to give people advice, but to facilitate their thought process by asking questions, and essentially letting them “talk it out”. We made a plan of action for things to do in the future to get the word out about this available service to volunteers, and that was that. Not to deviate from the point, but we got to stay in a HOTEL with A/C and WIFI!!! It was just fabulous, and this particular hotel had a super breakfast.



After training, I went with a few people to San Juan Del Sur, a popular tourist attraction. We stayed in a solar powered beach house outside of town that was completely secluded, we had an entire beach cove to ourselves called Gorilla Head. I just don’t know how these things happen, but they do, and this house was donated to us for the weekend by an American couple. Long story short, they were very nice and generous to do this for us, and we had a wonderful, relaxing time. The house (since it’s in the middle of NOWHERE) has it’s own 24/7 security guard this lives in a little house out back, along with a maid (the security guard’s wife). We layed in hammocks and read, went swimming, took walks, went through the woods to another beach, and explored the area. It was a fantastic, relaxing time. No tv, no internet, to cell phone service. Just us in our little eco friendly house surrounded by nature.