- Tropical Storm Noel - I'm alive, it was horrible, my floor was full of water and my latrine flooded, the water group had to be evacuated by helicopter (I'm so J)
- I fell in love with my host family at CBT..Nina and Welman. ....Nina stepped on a nail and had to get stitches, that's the background of the story. Anyway, Kim and I were doing the usual, sitting with the family in plastic chairs listening to Es tan difficil, pretending to know spanish and them pretending like they know what we're saying-looking at each other---when a cockoroach runs by, well Nina gets all excited, not scared excited but happy excited and had Welman catch the cockaroach and then he preceeded to put it into a plastic baggy full of other cockaroaches--- turns out after much confusionon my part as to why she's collecting and buscando for cockaroaches- turns out that she uses their guts as a home remedy to extract the tetanus from her wound, so there ya go.
- I graduated Peace Corps training and am now an official volunteer!
- I love the kids in my site- so much so that I actually played soccer with them- and then I fell and bruised my knee- but I redeemed myself by teaching the boys cheerleading and yoga, and they actually really love it.
- My site- In the hills of the northwest, yup I live in the hills, although I can pretty much say that it's nothing like the hills of hollywood- unless rollers and hairnets are in fashion now and I missed it. But the lastest gossip is that the price of cheese has increased, which has pretty much resulted on screaming matched in the street and chairs thrown...yes actual chairs thrown. I guess people like their cheese even more than I like cheese, and I like cheese.
- And the hills are not alive with the sound of music, but full of the sound of cows, and the people in the site think I am weird that I don't eat them..or pork or goat. And they just think I'm weird in general because I told them I slept with my dogs back home and every time I see a puppy I have to play with it..also because I've taken up running, for exercise but mostly so I don't have to take a cold bucket bath.
- My Dona looks for guys under my bed every night.
- Tropical Storm Olga occurred, and all volunteers had to be consolidated to a hotel.
- I'm learning to live without Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks and malls...and at first I thought..."How sad, I'm losing a part of myself" things that would literally make me happy and get me through the day. But then I thought of what I do besides drink coffee and shop that makes me happy and gets me through the day- and I thought of playing dominoes with the muchachos, helping Caco learn to read, or dancing with lil' Robinson, and maybe living without a latte or appletini isn't that bad, and what really counts is the time I spend with these kids and the people I'm fortunute to know and that finally I don't think of this as "getting through the day" but as things I look forward to. I feel like I'm letting go of so much but gaining something completely different. (ok I promise that is the last sappy thing I am saying for now except I miss you guys like whoa!)
Oh and please send me stuff...especially for my kids, like markers, coloring books, Uno, a kite, anything really.
