I am now at the closest internet cafe to my house which is about two and a half hour round trip walk away. I think I will be able to make it here about once a week to write e-mails on the weekend. I have training all day every day during the week and a half day on Saturdays. I think there is one place in the neighboring town that has an international phone, but we have not found out where, or how to use it yet.
I am in a completely different world already! We got off the plane, got picked up and the first gas station I saw had a horse right next to it. It is hot, and there is wildlife everywhere. I am living with a family of three: Benito (father), Elsa (Mother), and Delia (their 18 year old daughter). Delia seems to be the only one who speaks fluent Spanish and I can make out what she is saying about %10 of the time. Comunicating is frustrating, but they are very nice.
So far I have learned about four sentences in Guarani. The lectures we recieve during training are taught in Spanish, by Paraguayans who don´t speak English. It is tough, but I hope to learn fast. I am extremely excited about being here, and learning about Paraguayan culture and language. Unfortunately I do not get a phone for three months (when we are sworn in as volunteers), so writing back home will be tough. Delia has a phone, so I may be able to recieve calls from home, but I have not spoken with her about that yet. Hope everyone is doing well!

Day 2 - Miami Orientation

Today I met the 42 other Peace Corps volunteers going to Paraguay this week. Only a handful of them are participating in the same environmental education program that I am in. The other programs are: crop extension, agro-forestry, and bee keeping. Yes bees as in bumble bees. Don't ask me what exactly they do, because I am not sure yet. Something about training people to run honey producing businesses.
Anyway, the trainees are from all over the US, but Colorado has the most representatives from one state (5 trainees). Others are from New York, Florida, Cali, Oklahoma, etc. etc (with about equal men and women. All but one of the volunteers are in their mid twenties (except one ~50 year old woman).
Today we spent meeting the rest of the volunteers, going over logistics, anxiety's and aspirations, and safety. Tomorrow we fly to Buenos Aires, have a 10 hour layover, then off to Acuncion, Paraguay.

Sept 24, 07 - Day 1 - Miami, Florida

I am in Miami about to start orientation for the Peace Corps. I will move to Paraguay on Thursday and start a 2-year, 3-month volunteer job in Environmental Education. I have a roommate Michael for the next three days who is an Environmental Studies major from Atlanta. It is nice to know that he has packed just as much as I have and has little Spanish language experience. My personal email is: ski9crazy@gmail.com, or you can most messages for everyone to read on this site.


So I am trying out this site, and hoping to post blogs every time I get a chance. Let me know if any of you have used a different site that may work better. The address for the site is http://burgessscott.blogspot.com. Here is a nice picture of my motorcycle for your viewing pleasure. It is one of the few pictures I have on my computer and I wanted to make sure I could upload onto this site. I sold my Explorer and thankfully my mom and Russ agreed to help sell my motorcycle.