One Year Down, One to Go

May 3rd, 2007 I was officially sworn in as a Peace Corps Volunteer and May 3rd, 2008 marks my one year in site! That means I only have one year left! Up until now I feel like I have been counting up how many months I have been here, but now I am counting down to how many months I have left. This year has gone very fast yet at the same time I feel like I have been here for a long time. In some ways now that I have passed the one year mark I feel that things will go very quickly until the end and that I hardly have time to finish all the projects I want to work on. On the other hand it still feels like I have a long time to go when I think about that fact that I have to do all the holidays again. It also feels like an incredibly long time when I realize I have to work with the Rotary Club for a whole other year.
To celebrate our one year Hondu 10 (the group that I came in with) all got together at Lago de Yojoa (The largest lake in Honduras) for the weekend. Our group came in with 51 people and over the past year 11 have ETed (Peace Corps acronym for Early Termination, aka they went home). With 25 out of 40 at the lake we had a pretty good turn out. It was nice to see fellow volunteers again and hear about their various experiences. I am thankful that after a year I can say that I am happy with myself and happy with my work. At times I have felt overwhelmed by the amount of work and the responsibilities I have been given but over the past few weeks I haven’t been that busy and I realize that I would rather have work than not have work. Hopefully I can find a good balance over the next year. I have never once thought seriously about leaving and have only asked myself “What in the world I am doing here?” about twice. I feel thankful for this because not all volunteers are as lucky to have meaningful work and a meaningful experience.