One week left

So i am now 5 days from the end of training and things are heating up. I am studying none stop for the Language Proficiency Interview and Training Assessment Conference to be held on Saturday, which is also the night before we all fly back to Manila for final debriefings and meetings with US and Philippine government officials, and then the formal swearing in. We are excited to say the least. We have been slowing wrapping up our tech and language sessions and are also preparing to do our community projects in our respective training sites this week. Craig and I have decided to facilitate a Mangrove cleanup which the elementary school in Tapon Norte which they desperately needs right now. It makes things a lot easy when you can just walk into a school here without telling anyone and ask the have if we can use the children all afternoon on a school day four days before we plan on doing it. All that and without hesitations the head teacher said "Yes" ( can you image the amount of paper work that we would have to do in the US.) Afterwords we are going so show finding Nemo and a video on Mangroves along with a poster making contest. It should be a lot of fun, because we are going to fly by the seat of our pants. Yesterday we had our final open water scuba dive before we received our certifications. all i can say is WOW!!!!!! We went back to Apo Island which is considered to be a top ten diving destination in the world. We did two dives and during that time we saw sea turtles, sea snakes, fish of ever size and color. Even for people that are good at concentrating (Which i am not) it was hard to stay focused on one thing because of the beauty around use. Our second dive we went to 70 feet along a wall that was about 100 feet high. It was at this point that i could look up and not see the surface and realized that i had been underwater for about a half hour and i still had another half hour to go before i reached the surface. The water was clear and the coral was magnificent and overflowing with color and life that stretched deeper than light would allow my eyes to see. Sadly i had to return to the surface but i have for sure found a new love when it comes to water activities. I did not decide to get my certification just for fun (not that it is not by any means) i did it because i believe that it will be a great tool for my job. The step i am getting ready to take after swearing in is the heart of what Peace Corps is. Living in community with others in a way that others might not find comfortable or easy. Just because i have been here for over two months and have studied various aspects of the culture and tech does not make what i am getting ready to do any less challenging. Soon the comfort of have Americans that are going through the same process will be some distance away and once again i will begin a new life. This life is going to be conducted outside the cultural norms that i was used to in the US and even in San Jose. I will be relaying on my faith and what i have learned so far. I still have a lot to learn in every area and i will still make mistakes and cultural bad chooses that i will have to deal with. There will be very bad days and there will be many amazing days and i am excited for every one of them. I do not know what kind of person i will be when i service ends but that is what i am excited about. -- David Walker Lumsden PCT San Jose Neg. Or. Phil. Batch 266