Site Announcement

The big day had arrived.  The day that we thought would never arrive.  The day that felt like it had taken 12 months to arrive, not 3, was finally upon us.  That's right, it was time to learn where we would be living and working for the next two years of our lives.  During the previous three months, we had heard about various cities and regions in Honduras.  Most of the stories came from current volunteers who had been in their sites for nearly a year already.  Random tidbits would stick with you: "Try to avoid the South, it's excruciatingly hot there," "If you can miracle a site in the North, do it," "Olancho is known as the Wild, Wild East," "The West is best."

Truth be told, we didn't have a whole lot of say as to where we wanted to be placed.  Over the course of three separate interviews with the two business directors, we could express our preferences of hot vs not as hot climate, city vs village, luxuries vs roughing it, etc.  And while I am sure these were taken into consideration, the directors' main job was to link us up with the appropriate work environment in which they believed we could thrive the most due to our work interests, our expressed need for structure vs freedom for creativity, and our ability to network and build opportunity.

While I must admit that I got slightly caught up in the drama and uneasiness of the week between final interviews and site assignments, in the back of my mind I did always have faith in our two directors that they would get it right, not just for me but for everybody.  That said, the butterflies were still dancing as I stared down at the taped-off flag of Honduras, waiting for my name and my new city's name to be called.

That's right, the business directors made their announcement with style and flair.  They placed 17 a-frame name tags (16 singles, 1 married couple) labeled with the names of each of our new cities in their appropriate spots on the map of the country, reading off the work opportunities they had identified in each site.  Then, one by one, they paired a city up with a gringo.  To this point, I genuinely had no clue where in the country I would be heading and didn't really mind.

Masking tape map of Honduras
Nice job, Ryan!
(Photo credit to Ryan Gever)

17 sites littering the Honduran countryside
(Photo credit to Ryan Gever)

Kelvin, myself, Jacob, and Che
nervously awaiting our destiny
(Photo credit to Andrea Sorce)

The town of Campamento, the spot further east than any of the others (on an actual map), was called, followed by "Brett Beckner."  Home, sweet home.  In all honesty, it was rather anti-climatic as all I knew at that point was the name of my town and where I was in relation to my friends.  I knew nothing about this place called Campamento, except that it's in the department of Olancho, which has quite a special reputation.  But the journey was starting to unfold and it would just be a few days until I would begin learning about Campamento in person, alone.

All of us standing in our new sites,
I am way in the back/east
(Photo credit to Ryan Gever)

'A' marks the spot