Missing Labor Day

So I have officially had my first real holiday in the States which I am missing. Good old Labor Day with the football games on with the start of college football season...yes, I have to admit I even missed the football games. But I guess this is just the first of many holidays which I will be missing in my PCV service. On the brighter side, Ecuador had a soccer game on Sunday...which they lost to Columbia...but it was still a really fun time. Not quite Labor Day with the burgers and beer, but we made do with what we have here. Moral of the story here, the next two years are going to be very interesting.

I still haven't really "done" that much with my job, but I am slowly starting to accept that is one of the main aspects of my "job". Just living in a third world country where you don't speak the language or know the culturally accepted ways of doing things is a job in itself. I did meet up with my counterpart though, so I am doing a little more with INNFA now helping here and there. I have also attending some of the local meetings in my town and was apart of the Dia De Deportes (Day of Sports) this past Sunday where, of course, I got sunburned.

My first three months here my main job (being the one that I actually have to write a report for and turn into the PC) is a survey of my neighborhood and find out about the area and the things that they want to see changed. This really just involves a lot of observing and socializing. Development really does start with the people in the community, and not yourself. I am pretty proud of myself though that I have written up a couple of surveys that I can hopefully put to use sometime starting next week after I have my counterpart give his opinion on them as well.

All in all...my mood changes all of the time if not almost hourly here. But I really think that is one of the many joys of the PC experience. There is definitely a reason it is called an experience instead of just a job. The things that I am doing here don't really fit a regular job description at all and I don't think that they need to. I guess in some ways it goes back to the good old saying you'd be surprised by how far a smiple smile goes.

Living in El Retiro for the next two years of my life is going to be by far the most challenging thing I have done in my life and the most rewarding. And even though I have days where I don't know what I am doing here, I know that when the time comes to leave this area and return back to the States, that in itself will be hard as well.