Surprising

Last week was our IST (In-Service Training) which is given on our 3 month mark of living in our site.  That also means we have lived in country for 6 months!  I cannot believe that it has been 6 months.  It has been a true emotional roller coaster.

Back to IST, it is a full week of technical and core training (very similar to PST) but the best part is that our whole training group has to be there.  So we got to catch up with everyone (but one who had an interruption of service and left for the States last week) and just hang out together after classes.

Taco Tuesday!

It was wonderful to see people who have been come some of our dearest friends.  We have built strong relationships with some of the volunteers and with our common bond of serving in the Peace Corps we will forever have this connection.

The boys posing like girls and the girls posing like boys. 

IST was informational and allowed for me to talk with my boss and a PCV from another group, who is currently transitioning to a job like mine.  This 2 hour+ conversation helped us define what our specific goals are and define the specific activities to carry out the goals.  I do not work in a school like the others in my group do.  I was asked to work along side the English assessor with the goal of providing opportunities to train the teachers.  This assignment means I have a totally different PCV experience and it was nice to sit and talk with someone who had similar situations as me.  The conversation will hopefully lead to some new and exciting opportunities for us and I can't wait to see them play out.

IST was a wonderful moral booster as well as rejuvenated us.  I got excited to go back to work and put into place ideas that were imagined from the past week.

To end IST, the Hubs and I picked up his fam for their first visit to Costa Rica!

Upon greeting them, my mom-in-law said that they had accidentally left a gift back over there and they had sent one of my sisters in law to go get it.  I had hugged all that were present and went (with some encouragement) to go find my other sister in law.  I found her and put her in a bear hug while hearing my mom in law ask if I had found my present yet.  I look up and saw my present.....
MY MOM!

Running and jumping off the porch.

Our two families have been conspiring this for two months.  My in-laws invited my mom to come with them to visit for the week.  That is in the top 3 of my favorite surprises (even though, ironically, I am not a fan of surprises).
This is the third surprise that our families have pulled over me.  The first one was getting the Hubs to Texas where I was working after we had spent the summer apart (he in Africa).

Shocked 

The second surprise was when the Hubs proposed  to me at the annual Christmas party at the church I worked at.  It consisted of 200+ roses (that were given to me by my CHill family) and a popped question that forever changed my life.










I am so blessed to have such TWO loving families.  I am off to the beach with the family!
Have a great week!