Suriname so far

Hello Everyone! Here I am one week in to my Suriname adventures! Things have been really great so far. Our group of 24 volunteers flew into Paramaribo last Wednesday night and has been set up at NAKS, a facility in Lelydorp, for the last week. We have been sitting through a lot of orientations and talks about safety, medical, administrative things that need to be taken care of. Yesterday was a big day though; we got our village assignments and our cell phones! I tried calling my parents, but apparently they were too busy to talk to their daughter ;)
I will be located in Gran Slee, a Maroon Saramaccan village, located in Sipaliwini district along the Upper Suriname River. The site is a 3-4 hour bus ride, plus 4ish hours in a boat. Whoopee! Haha. But there are several volunteers located in the area, as well as another huge cluster not too far along the river. I will have generated power (when working) from 7-11pm each night, no running water which should be an indication that I won’t have internet. This means that if you are really missing me you’re going to have to call me That’s right I do have my cell phone so get those calling cards and load your skype accounts (0115977191670).
The site wasn’t one of my top choices, it was actually listed for a Community Health volunteer, but after taking a look at the health and exercise program they were working on implementing, it really looks like it will be a good fit. Thursday we are moving in host families in the Brokopondo region, I will be staying in a village with 2 of the other volunteers for about 5-6 weeks. We started language training today, I’ll be learning Saramaccan. So far there is nothing much to report. I have been feeling well and haven’t gotten sunburn. We have had a lot of time to adjust to the humidity, which definitely doesn’t hurt me. I hope to be posting pictures in a couple weeks, right now it’s harder working from an internet café.
I love you guys! Thanks for all your support so far!
Jes

Packing

Hello everyone!
I am sitting here in the dwindling hours before my departure and rather than figuring out if my bags weigh too much I decided to make my first post on my blog. I hope to periodically update here so that everyone can be "in the know." There's not too much to know so far, only that I will be traveling to Paramaribo, Suriname on Wednesday afternoon to begin my adventures as a Peace Corps Volunteer. Right now I am excited, nervous, anxious, sad, happy and probably not going to sleep tonight considering my flight to Miami is at 7:45am tomorrow morning.I am sad to say goodbye to all my friends and family, but ready for the experience that awaits me.

Thanks to everyone for coming out this last week to see me, I really, really enjoyed seeing everyone. It was a blast! Please follow up with me here, or send me an email (jschmitt22@gmail.com). Hope to hear from you all soon :)

Love you all,
Besos.

Jessica