Written August 31, 2012

Posted sometime this weekend.

Happy last day of August everyone! Does anyone have fun plans for this weekend coming up? Soccer tournaments? Picnics? Mini-vacations? Do tell!

I can’t believe its almost September already. . . it feels like just yesterday I was hugging everyone goodbye, and watching Tara and my mom drive away from Philly. Madness. The even crazier part is that I still have 22 months of this . . yikes. I’ve decided not to think in terms of “years” because that sounds scary as shit to me, but instead “months” or “weeks” that way, this adventure (while amazing) doesn’t sound so daunting. At this point, seeing as there are 52 weeks in a year, I’d say I have maybe 100 left. That doesn’t sound so bad, considering I have most of September planned out, and early November we have our 3 month Reconnect conference.

I’m definitely still in the ‘settling in’ phase here at site, and while this week went well, I will need more of them to really and truly feel comfortable here. I like my site, like my organizations – so those aren’t issues. . .its just getting my mind around the other things like; being away from friends and family for so long (especially around the holidays) constantly being the center of attention simply because of my skin color, feeling a bit disconnected from life at home – let’s face it, I live in a bubble here, my age will change, and yes I’ll have life experience I could never have in the states, but really my life isn’t moving forward, while others are. Its going to be interesting to come back 25 years old, and figure out my life from there haha. Stay tuned.

Ok - enough of the depressing stuff. . .sorry about that, just needed to get some thoughts out of my head.

So lets talk about this week! It hasn’t been anything too incredibly crazy or whatever, just trying to get into some semi-normal routine here, wake up do some yoga, drink coffee (instant, ugh) and then go off to whatever I have “planned” for the day. Monday I cleaned all day, Tuesday I had a meeting with Angela and her young group of girls (REDES) its sort of like a women’s/teenager empowerment group, I like the sound of it, but will need more time before I want to take it over. Luckily there is a great counterpart who has her stuff together and could easily run the group. I want my language skills to improve first before I’m giving any sort of life advice or whatever. I had my weekly meeting on Wednesday with my one organization – they asked me for some ideas about doing new projects, so I think I may do a Community Needs Assessment with them.  They are already out in the community, but I think the idea of going back out, talking with people etc, we can get a good idea of the next type of community development project. That way the information and needs of the community are taken into consideration, and its not just a plan thrust upon someone. Am I making sense? I could have probably worded that a bit more eloquently. . . oh well.

Yesterday I went down to my other organization and hung out there for a bit, just chatting with people, getting to know them (they only meet once a month) but do home visits every week, so I’m going to try and get in with them on some of the home visits. Today is Friday, and I am joining one of my counterparts out in the campu to see her deliver palestras and other information to people and children. Looking forward to this and I’ll let you all know how it goes.

This weekend, I will be hanging out here at site, will probably go down to the lagoon on Saturday just to have an escape, take a long walk, and just chill out. Its kind of hard to do that here at my house, because people are constantly walking into my house – not kidding. I’ll be cooking at night with the door closed and people (without knocking) will just walk in. Yes these are people I know, but it’s the principle of the matter. I’ve tried to explain that I’d prefer them to knock, but the message isn’t going through. So I constantly am having to lock my door if I want any sort of down time. Really looking forward to moving into my real house in October, there is a porch, and a fence. Meaning I can sit outside and enjoy the sun/shade without the worry of people looking at me, or wanting to talk to me haha. Selfish? Yes. Necessary for my mental health? Hell yes.

I’m working with my one organization this coming week to arrange a ledger/tablet type thing to keep track of how many chickens are sold during the day/week. They have a great income generation project of raising chickens to sell, buttttt they don’t actually keep track of how many they sell in a day, how many die, how much food costs etc. They have all the bank slips for deposits and expenses yes, but nothing documenting profits, losses etc. I’d eventually like to get them set up with a powerpoint program, seeing as they do have a computer (which at the moment isn’t functioning) but I think starting with a notebook first is a smart move. Give us some time to get used to documenting the information, then transferring it into a computer program, once the computers are fixed – another story for another day. Baby steps. Baby steps.

So yeah. . .thats my life these days. Thrilling right? Haha I’ve been doing some cooking – made a good soup the other night, some bruschetta, a good egg scramble – tonight I’m going to try my hand at a Moz style boca burger. Stay tuned.

Missing everyone at home. Love the emails – keep them comging!

Lets talk visits! Who wants to come? When? I have all kinds of “Lonely Planet” books that I’m about to dive into. . gimme something to look forward to!

Xoxo

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