End of the Month

So August is ending and I've almost been in country for 8 months. I can't believe it. I'll be in the teens... as in 19 months left! That's crazy. Time has been going fast but I've hit a little slump. The past week has been crazy. A lot of things have made me super emotional but I've been busy which is good. Lots of school visits and presentations to fill the time. We also met with a local NGO and will be giving a workshop on HIV/AIDS prevention to teenagers in the next two weeks. I'm nervous about it but excited. It is such an important topic and I'm sure after the first one I will feel more confident to keep spreading the word. Also I've been thinking a lot about my parents who still continue to do great things with their lives. I'm looking into my future after PC already. Also, thinking good thoughts for my mom as she spends the next 10 days in Haiti doing medical relief work. I love hearing about everyone from home's adventures. It keeps me motivated and looking for new and exciting things to do.

This past week we had a group of new trainees come and visit Tecpan. It was cool to show them around and to remember how crazy life was during training. They have only been here for about two weeks. I got to show them my apartment which was fun because I remember seeing other people's places during training. It was just exciting to hear their questions and to remember how much of a whirlwind training was and how glad I am to now be in site and working. Also, the next training group to arrive will be HEALTHY SCHOOLS! Not until January but I'm excited at the prospect of meeting new people and helping a lot with the training of the HS program. One trainee is living with my "old" host family. I've done a horrible job of keeping in touch with them but tomorrow I'm heading over to their house for lunch. YUM! Also, I'm really excited to see them. I've missed them a lot and it's hard to remember what life used to be like in Guatemala during training, let alone in the US. Things are changing so much... it doesn't feel weird to not flush my toilet paper! Although right now lots of people have been traveling home and I have been feeling more homesick. I'm just reminding myself to get through everything and soon enough people will be visiting and it will be 1 year in country before I know it.

So buy those plane tickets and know that I'm thinking of you all and missing you dearly. love love love

I've got beans

So tonight was tamale dinner at our friend Brenda's house. Brenda is 22 and not married. I.E. We need to be friends. She is really sweet and a teacher at one of our schools. She is also my neighbor and Don Pedro is her Uncle. Sadly, they do not have a very good relationship related to some rumors about Brenda having dated a married man last year... when she was 21 but you know it was totally her fault and thus she shouldn't be trusted or talked to. It's a little hard actually because I want to respect Don Pedro and Dona Mercedes with their choice to talk to someone or not but it is hard when they turn their nose down at me when they know I have spent time with Brenda and I'm sure this dinner will hurt their feelings but I mean at some point I have to make decisions on my own and having a 22 year old friend seems pretty good right now. Anyway, her mom made us delicious tamales and gave us beans. Ha sometimes pity tastes so good. Now I've got beans in my fridge and I'll be able to heat them up on my new stove. Well, that would be the case if I had gas. Next month. Hopefully we can keep this friendship alive to keep sharing food. We also have set up a movie night complete with popcorn. I guess we will just see what happens.

I bet you are thinking it's pretty sad that you have a stove with no gas but I mean it's not so bad. Gas is EXPENSIVE. I eat dinner with DP and DM pretty much every night. So I only have to worry about breakfast and lunch which surprisingly I can scrounge around enough to have something pretty good. Also, Betty and I together can pull off a pretty good lunch pretty cheaply and totally culturally sensitive. Beans, Eggs, and some type of salad (usually cucumber, tomato, onion and then lime and salt! YUM)So slowly but surely I will be a great little chef... haha Seeing as right now I can't get my huge water jug open, I'd say my skills are not in the kitchen. I also don't know which is more embarrassing a stove with no gas or a water jug that you can't open? You tell me.

In other news, Manchitas is really fat. She is getting so big. Also she loves to leave presents on my bed when I leave. This is really testing my patience. A)because it is really gross B) because it is a huge pain. I do love her though I'm worried she might have fleas and I don't have enough money to get her fixed until next month so I'm terrified she's going to get pregnant, keeping pooing on my bed, and get so fat that she won't be able to move. Any cat advice welcome.

This week starts more meetings. Tomorrow we are meeting with a local NGO to share what our project is and hopefully brainstorm ways we can work together. Should be exciting. Well that's the brief update for now... Love and miss you all. Let me know you are still reading.

Market Day

The month of July has flown by and tomorrow makes 7 months! I really can't believe it. We had so many conferences this month and Betty's parents visited for the last week as well. So things were busy busy busy and it keeps on being busy. With lots of school visits to make this month, Betty and I are trying to stay on our toes. Going to school, fixing up our apartments and keeping up with our pets... Ok it sounds a lot more busy than it actually is. We have adapted to the lifestyle of not being able to multi-task or work for long hours. It just makes you so tired. Anyway, things are falling back onto normal schedule because we don't have any more meetings at the center for a while and we are just able to focus on life at home in Tecpan.

I'm trying to get the house cleaned up after I returned to a DISASTER. Who knew a small kitten could do so much damage. It was disgusting and awfully messy when I returned after 3 nights away from home. This little kitten is so needy. She wakes me up everyday for feeding at 6ish... Then constantly has to be with me and cries when I don't give her every ounce of my attention but I guess that is ok because she loves me and even though sometimes when I go to sleep I'm alone, she's always with me and for the moment without Fleas.

In other news, Today I went to the market and did some serious shopping. I bought Veggies which are currently sitting in Chlorine in order to be edible. I bought 2 knives, a pineapple and some HONEY! However, I'm not so sure about the honey. It tastes like syrup... processed syrup. But maybe that was just because it isn't as good as Woodland Ave Honey. I don't know. I'm pretty sure it's not syrup. It looks like Honey. and Syrup would be more expensive than Honey and I only paid 10Q for the bottle... So we'll see. I'll try again. I really am going to try to start a Honey project with my friend who is working on a Tea Farm in Alta Verapaz. That could be really fun and a nice chance to perfect my bee skills. They are definitely rusty.

I guess things are moving along slowly but surely and I'll try to keep you guys updated on my happenings but I mean not a lot happens. Anyway, love and miss.


HONEY


My widdle baby that drives me crazy


Little Manchitas loves to Cholorinate veggies