A Whirlwind Week

This past week has been quite an experience. It was jam-packed, and one of the best weeks I've had in a really long time.

It all started with Semana Santa, or Holy Week. I ate at least a gallon of habichuelas con dulce. Unfortunately I had to leave my community during the heart of the celebrations, in order to help my friend with a Builders Beyond Borders group who was coming to his site to work. On the bright side, my Dona filled my nalgene up with habichuelas so I got a bunch to go. I stayed at my friend's site helping out from Friday till Monday and we had a lot of fun.

On Monday morning my friend and I got a bola down to my site. I had to change out some things from my backpack in order to prepare for a water conference in the capital. After spending about 1 hour unpacking and packing (and another glass of habichuelas), I was off to the capital.

When I got to the capital we finished editing our presentation that we would be giving the following day. The conference was headed by an NGO called Water for People. They are looking to start work in this country, and they wanted to have a little conference with all the other organizations that work in similar fields in order to get an idea of work that is going on this country. The best thing about this conference: we got a free, 2-night stay at the Hilton. We checked in at about 4, and already took advantage of the pool and hot showers by like 5. Oh yeah, and it wasn't some room on a lower level looking over the parking lot, it was on the 11th floor overlooking the ocean. The room itself was pretty small, but they were some of the nicest accomodations I have ever been in. The evening we checked in there was a meet and greet with all the people who would be attending. Cocktails and appetizers were served. And not just any appetizers...there were fried coconut shrimp, caviar, shishkebobs, and lots of other great things.

The next day was spent listening to presentations by other organizations, talking about their work being done in this country. It was a great experience overall...especially the hot showers. And the group of us 4 Peace Corps Volunteers won US$2000 for our projects. Since two of us there had all our funding, the remaining two volunteers are going to split those funds.

Unfortunately, at 12 on Thursday our time at the Hilton had to come to an end. It was really sad to leave, but we definitely took advantage of everything it had to offer.

On Thursday, I was planning on going back to my community, but when I got to the office, they were taking down names for people who wanted to go to a meet and greet with Hillary Clinton at the United States Embassy. As I'm sure you guessed, I decided I would stay in the capital one more night. The Secretary of State kept us waiting for quite awhile, but it was worth the wait. I was probably about 15 feet away from her while she was giving her speech. She gave a little shout out to the Peace Corps, and then walked around and shook hands. And yes, I got to shake her hand and say nice to meet you. It was very surreal. I think that is the only famous person I have ever had an encounter with.

And as usual, all good things must come to an end. Today I'm heading back up to Santiago, where I will be for the weekend for a little get together with some friends I haven't seen in awhile.

As far as the project goes, we're just doing some final touches, and then we should be done. Projected inauguration date: May 23rd.

Peace and Hugs!