Half Way Through Training

Hola todos! I just finished week 5 of training which means that I am exactly half way through Peace Corps training and well on my way to becoming an actual Peace Corps volunteer. As a side note, I am currently sitting in my dining room with my dad and brother watching WWF on TV. They have no idea that it is staged and are, therefore, shocked that the guy wasn't quick enough to get out of the way before the chair came down on his head. I am a little bit embarrassed by the cultural exports of my country at the moment.
This week, we made the transition from more language oriented training into the technical, practical experience oriented phase of training. Since it was more hands on, the week was a lot more fun than past weeks have been. We had a trash management practicum on Thursday, which consisted of every student bringing a day's worth of trash to the center to be sorted. As if our host families and communities already didn't think we were weird, now we ask to bring their trash to the center and then take it with us on public transportation. Between this and WWF, I can't imagine what they think of the US. Once we got our trash to the center, we spent the day digging through it, sorting it, weighing it, and talking about it in order to find out what people are throwing away and how this could be reduced by implementing a recycling system. This is a tool some volunteers use to have numbers to back up waste management plans that they propose once they get to site.
On Friday, we went to a small rural town, which was supposed to be similar to a site we might encounter. The original plan was to walk around and talk to the local people about natural resources in order to practice doing a community diagnostic (our fancy term for getting to know a community). We got in the Peace Corps van and started our slow and steady drive up the Carretera Central to an altitude of about 8,000 ft. We only had to stop once along the way to wait for our overheated engine to cool off. Once we got there, things did not go exactly as planned because everyone in the community was working on remodeling the community center so no one could really talk to us. We ended up going on an amazing hike up into the hills to a waterfall. Since we live in a desert type ecosystem, it was great to get up into an area where there is vegetation.
One of the highlights of my week was returning home to find that my sister had been given a new kitten. I was immediately deemed the godmother of the kitten and asked to name it. I decided to name it Vampiro (I would be lying if I said this has nothing to do with my current obsession with Twilight). The name then got extended to Chucky (named after the doll from the horror movie) Vampiro Vazquez Zevallos (my family's last name).
Today, Sunday I woke up and went to teach English at the grade school in my small town. Two friends and I ended up teaching about ten kids some of whom were more excited to be there than others. After English class, I cooked French toast and an omelet for my family. It wasn't amazing but they definitely enjoyed it, especially the mango-strawberry topping I made for the French toast. After lunch I did laundry with my host mom which is great because we get to chat and laugh while she watches me struggle to scrub spots out of my old socks. I am definitely not as much of a perfectionist as she is when it comes to getting whites their whitest by hand. I got some great pictures of my mom, abuelita, and I drinking beers over the wash tub which I will put up once I find a fast enough internet connection.
I hope all is well!! Please keep me updated on your lives! Also, if you have a different email that you would like me to email you at, please let me know. I want to keep in touch with everyone for the next two years. Keep it real for me in the states, miss you all!!