I fell asleep watching lords of dogtown and woke up thinking about surf ninjas.
good flick.
however, neither of those things have anything to do with this blog entry.
sorry if i misled you... sometimes these kinds of tangents are unavoidable.
still interested? great, i'm glad you hung in there... it's a long blog entry this week, so if you think you may need to take a bathroom break or refill your coffee cup/martini glass- you go right ahead.
----
I was sitting alone in my room on a Friday night, drinking room-temperature white wine out of a warped, plastic, coffee mug when it hit me: I live in Guatemala. Weird.
There was a point, I don’t know when it happened, but things changed. “Going home” became “going back to site” as opposed to on a plane, bound for the states. I finally feel like I’m finally starting to have stuff figured out. Don’t get me wrong…I’m still surprised on a regular basis by things that happen around me…but my head isn’t tilting as far to the right when I try and understand -which is nice.
I‘ve even become accustomed to receiving calls and texts activating emergency procedures for natural disasters…Currently we’re on STANDFAST as we await a hurricane/tropical storm “Matthew”…this of course came as no surprise to me, mostly because I did laundry the other day and every time I do laundry it rains for so long afterwards that my clothes start to mold on the line I’ve strung up in the house. It’s good times.
I used to feel like a grounded teenager on homecoming weekend (yeah, it was serious) when we would get the STANDFAST order; (cue pouty, self-righteous behavior) especially when I would look out my window to blue skies and sunshine (very misleading) but after my experience with the landslide and heavy rains coming back from PDM and most recently, going back to site after a night in Xela (story to follow), I am starting to appreciate the rules a little bit, (our little girl’s growing up…sigh). don’t get me wrong, I have plenty of objections to being treated like a college-educated infant but I’m starting to understand the reasoning behind it a little bit better.
Just a few of the phrases I never want to hear again are, “corrase seño! Ya viene la tierra” “esta cayendo la tierra!!! Corrase!!!” (translation: Run miss! The earth is coming! The earth is falling! RUN!). All I can say is AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
If their goal by saying these things was to make this seño lose her cool, well done!
Once upon a time there was a peace corps volunteer who wanted to spend the night in Xela where she could go shopping, eat Indian food and hang out with her friends…
So I went to Xela on Friday morning to decompress a little from the past weeks’ activities. I was met by my darling, Claire and we celebrated our reuniting with a little bit of shopping. We bought groceries and hit up the brand new MegaPaca (basically an enormous ValueVillage/thriftstore) and then the market where I bought an ADORABLE pair of sandals.
Well, I’m an idiot and didn’t put the sandals in my backpack and instead carried them in the plastic bag that was given to me. Long story short, actually, not a long story at all- I forgot them. I left them on the micro bus (shuttle) that took us from the market to the park where our hostel was located. And that was that. Very upsetting.
I comforted myself with some Indian food…it never ceases to amaze me how wonderful that place is. Life-changing would probably be overly generous…but as I was just off of the emotional low of losing a brand-new pair of sandals (that were not in my budget for the month) I’m going to go ahead and say it, life-changing dinner. YUM. Then we went out for the night and I even danced (I know, shocking). I awoke the next morning, ate a great breakfast at the black cat (our hostel) and then hit the road. I couldn’t financially justify staying another night when I’d spent (and lost) the money I would have spent on the hostel for the second night on my sandals. So I started the clock on my 6-hour trip back to site. My plan was to get to Hue hue (the capital of the department that I live in) and decide whether or not the weather looked good enough to make the 4 hour trip up to my site, if it was raining I was going to stay, if it was sunny and nice, I was going to chance it. Well…it was sunny and nice, so I chanced it. As it turns out, not a good idea.
We were about 2 hours into the trip when we came across a landslide that had covered the entire highway and was about a football field wide. Well, everyone de-boarded the bus, and looked up at the landslide with concern. I had been listening to my ipod and missed the announcement about the next plan of action so I asked a woman who was trying to re-board the bus that I had just gotten off of. The woman explained to me that I would have to walk around the landslide to the other side where there were busses waiting to take me on to to my site, but to be very careful because the landslide was likely to fall more; I’d better hurry before it started raining harder. I did not like this. Based on my previous experience with the landslide and washed-out road, I was less than confident to travel in inclement weather conditions. I watched a group of women begin to walk through the landslide area on the road and decided to follow them through. As I got closer I was dissuaded by a construction worker that was standing next to a truck that was completely covered, minus the Cab of the truck, with debris from the landslide. He directed me to the muddy area off the right side of the highway, where a cornfield was planted on an incline and people were tromping through to the other side, insisting that it was safer for me.
I stood on the edge of the highway for a bit, contemplating the best plan of action…I was wearing loafers, not the best all-terrain shoes, and I looked up at the landslide to my left to try and gauge how dangerous it might be, thinking it would be better to just turn around and go back. Just then it started raining harder, and a couple of men came up beside me and offered to carry my bags and told me that I must hurry because the rain was getting worse. I was still deciding when they grabbed my things and had started to move, the last member of their group grabbed me by the wrist and told me (in broken English no less) to be careful because it was dangerous and pulled me along. I half-jogged my way through the mud following the line of people in front of me through the corn-field when I heard a sound and then people yelling for everyone to run because more rocks had begun falling down the landslide. Yeah, I got my life together really quick, climbing up rocks and mud (effectively covering myself in it) with the grace and poise of a drunken billy-goat, until I was (relatively) safe in the bus on the other side. Let’s put it this way, if I was playing “never have I ever” and someone said, “never have I ever almost wet my pants and cried while running through a muddy cornfield in a rainstorm during a landslide…” I would have to put a finger down, because that was most certainly me. I don’t think I stopped shaking until I was back in my home with some macaroni and cheese in my stomach and Bridget Jones in my DVD player.
I will say this however, these near-death (or…well, perceived by me to be “near-death”) experiences have taught me to appreciate, or at least realize the risk I put myself at on a daily basis…and I’ve got to say I would really, like REALLY rather be safe than sorry…alive than dead; I mean, I’ve got stuff I want to do that I would need to be alive for…so….I‘m going to think about that the next time I let some men grab my shit and drag me through a corn maze of doom (overly dramatic? Probably…but lets just let it go…).
DEEP BREATH.
Phew. Now that that’s over…
I am sad today. My dear friend and training-town pal, Brent, is going home. I do not know all of the details surrounding the situation nor understand the administration’s reasoning for letting such a great guy and PCV go, but that is what has happened. I do know that he will be greatly missed by his fellow PCVs and by the schools and community in which he has lived and worked in Alta Verapaz (aka, the jungle). We’ll always have San Luisito… sigh.
That’s all I can say about that right now.
In other news, Guatemala’s Independence Day came and went- mostly in the form of a huge parade (and an astounding number of marching bands). I had the (good?/mis?)fortune of living on the parade-route so I was able to experience the parade from my window/roof/doorstep/shower as it went by. Here’s what I saw: A lot of adorably-clad children in matching outfits, a lot of scantily-clad adolescent girls (in matching outfits), a lot, and I mean A LOT of marching bands, and a few groups of traditionally-clad Mayan men, women and children (the majority carrying some variation on a basket of fruit). Each school in the area had their own space in the parade and had been practicing for weeks beforehand to bring their "A" game.
Here I am, watching the parade and enjoying myself and I start to notice that the groups of kids who are dressed the same are like, REALLY dressed the same- the exact same, down to earrings, socks and shoes and the Peace Corps Volunteer in me got really…well, frustrated.
For example: a group of girls are all playing tambourines and walking down the street wearing the same boots, skirts, crop-tops, vests, cowboy hats, and earrings. I think about this; I know that the boots go for at least 200Q (having looked in to buying some myself) and let‘s face it, the store isn‘t letting these kids borrow the boots, which, from the looks of them, are all brand-new. Then let’s factor in the money spent on all of the clothing - how much does a spandex crop-top go for these days? I can’t even begin to guess. The issue that I had was that as I’m looking at all of these kids, who will surely outgrow these outfits within the year, all I began to see was the incredible amount of money that was spent to make them all look uniform.
So this is me: I’m working in the schools, preaching about the importance of good hygiene and that every child have the necessary items available to them to aid in maintaining good hygiene, freely acknowledging that it will cost each family a little bit of money and being told that there simply isn’t enough.
In some schools, mostly urban but some rural as well, it has not been a big problem to have each student bring in their own toothbrush, cup, towel etc. to leave in the classroom, however, there are also schools and communities where my efforts have been met with resistance, where director’s have voiced their feelings about the school’s perceived inability to participate in the program on the basis of the financial constraints of the parents of the students.
Now, cue up to the end of the school-year, I’m watching the Independence Day Parade…and I’m thinking, “okay, so they can all afford the matching hoop earrings and knee-high boots…but we're lacking money for a toothbrush? okay...hmmm."
I suppose I can’t judge it too hard, what with all of the money I have gladly spent on Halloween costumes over the years against how painful it was for me to spend money on things that I actually needed…like band-aids or countertop spray... It’s a priority thing, I understand that. It just tells me that I’m going to have to work harder to make the parents of these children see the benefits of preventative health enough to make it a priority, to make it competitively valuable enough to spend money on. Okay….I’ll…do it!
I just realized that this blog entry is getting to be a little lengthy… and I’m getting tired so I’ll just throw these last little bits out there- take them as you will.
-I have really comfortable shoulders apparently (I will assume it‘s genetic, thanks mom &dad); I know this because people are constantly sleeping on them when I am on the bus.
-Our pressure cooker has broken so I have resolved to cooking beans the slow way…and I think I like them better, despite the fact that they take FOREVER.
-I am planning to cook and enormous feast as a Despedida (goodbye-party) for PCV Marisha who lives in the next town over. Don’t worry, I’ll take pictures.
-I have planned a really sweet PDM (project design and management) workshop that is finally going to happen on the 4th of next month; I had a really good time making posters for it. More picture taking.
-School ends on the 18th of next month so I’ve got one more visit and then a bunch of unstructured time ahead of me…which means you should all probably be expecting some more haikus.
-I have been learning, “sitting on the dock of the bay” on my guitar. My fingers hurt.
-I wish I was going to be in the states for Halloween…I really want to carve a pumpkin and dress up like a clown.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading…I hope some of it is entertaining! Miss you guys!
Peace & Love,
Kristin
p.s. my "fast" internet has expired for this month...so the pictures that go with this entry will eventually surface...maybe next month...
LOVE LOVE LOVE!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
oh the weather outside is weather
Oh the weather outside is weather…
It has been an interesting few weeks here in Guatemala. Lots and lots of mudslides and fatalities and crops getting drowned out and Peace Corps Volunteers being put on Standfast (its like being grounded to your site).
As was expected, the productivity of my school-visits has reached a plateau as we near independence day. My schools are far too busy with dance and music practice for the big day (15th) to be working on Healthy Schools stuff. After that i've got a solid month before schools let out for the "summer" so we'll see if anyone actually wants to work...I have a feeling it may be a lost cause.
This is a look back at the month of August. Also some pictures of all of the food I have been making, I have been KILLING IT in the kitchen. If I make a cookbook that’s what I’m going to call it, I just decided that right now- Killing it in the Kitchen with Kristin™
Now that we’ve established I’m a rockstar/fat kid we can move on…
I found and purchased Hellboy I and II in the market in Antigua and I think I’ve watched it an embarrassing amount of times. It may seem a little bit lame…but just know this about me and love me anyway.
About my trip to the dentist…
I didn’t end up getting a root canal but I did cry my face off in the dentist’s office. I went in and they took new X-rays (despite my having brought the one I had taken in my site) and didn’t see any problems; they decided that the reason I was having pain was because my two fillings (one on the bottom tooth and one on the tooth above it) were not ground down enough and my uneven bite had created pressure points. The solution? To grind off the parts of the filling that were uneven. So she put a drill in my mouth and went to work…zero Novocain. IT WAS AWFUL. You know when you go to the dentist and they ask you to just raise your hand if you feel any pain? Not so much at that office. As I’m crying and raising my hand she keeps taking the drill out of my mouth and telling me, “okay, okay, no more of the drilling then” and then she’d switch the drill heads and go back in. At one point in the appointment I was crying so hard, my face was literally dripping with tears so she grabbed the bib that I was wearing and patted my face with it. When it finally came time to tell her if the pain was gone when I bit down, I was in so shaky and sweaty that I couldn’t tell. I left all puffy and sniffling and still can’t chew food on the left side of my mouth, only now I have hot and cold sensitivity as well; joy. I don’t know if my experience was normal for that kind of treatment but I am inclined to think not; pretty sure I haven’t cried at the dentist since I was 6. I don’t want to come off as a whiner, I am trying to look for the humor in the situation. I feel like once it’s funny I’ll be willing to make another appointment with the dentist, but right now I want nothing to do with more dental work. I’d rather just chew on the right side of my mouth for a while and use the extra soft toothbrush and pro-alivio toothpaste. I am just realizing that I forgot to tell the nurses this…I should probably do that… I bet they’re getting tired of me calling them all the time.
Speaking of me calling the nurses all the time…
I got a really cool skin infection on my face. It was really awful. I’ll tell you what, it’s really hard to promote “healthy schools” when people think that they’re going to catch something from you. I didn’t think that it was that bad right? I thought it was maybe just some stress-triggered thing from my near-death rainstorm/landslide/waterfall drive home from the project design and management workshop with my profe (I’ll tell you about it next). So I decided to just wait it out a few days and see if it would resolve itself. I called the gas guy to bring me some more propane and I put on a little bit of makeup and a hat; the first thing the gas guy says, “whoa, what happened to your face? That looks really bad.” THANK YOU. So I said something like…“I don’t know, I’m sick or something, you can put the gas over there, its Q.114 right?” and he left, I washed my face and looked in the mirror and decided it was time to take a picture and send it to the nurses to see if it was something that I should be concerned about. No, I wont show you the picture but imagine me, I’m making the saddest face ever and it looks like I’ve got chicken pox all over my face…got it? Yeah, so I put work on hold because I couldn’t figure out a way to leave my house during the daylight hours without getting a lot of commentary on my hideousness. The nurses decided that it would be a good idea for me to get in to see the dermatologist and get this infection taken care of; so I go back to Guatemala City for the second time that month. So, so poor by the end of the month. I dressed myself up like a celebrity avoiding the paparazzi and hit the road. I saw the doctor, got some drugs and some topical stuff and headed back to site. I was so happy to be back, I can’t even tell you. I think I spent equal amounts of time in my site as I had on the road last month, it was nice to be in my own bed…in my own house where I could let my skin heal and make my own food…and watch Hellboy.
My life flashed before my eyes…made me miss theme parties.
My near-death experience…Okay, that’s a little bit dramatic but at the time I was pretty sure I was going to die. On the way back from PDM Workshop with Profe Lisandro we took Mari and her counterpart back to her site which is like 2 ish hours from mine. Well we went up into the mountains to drop them off and while we were there it started raining…like REALLY raining. There was some concern as to whether or not we were going to be able to make it out because often when it rains up there the roads to get back to the highway become blocked. Well Profe Lisandro and I decided that we really would rather go home than stay and try and wait out the rainstorm, since it had just started we thought we had a pretty good chance of getting out. So wrong. We are driving down this, well, mountain and we are taking our time to try and be as safe as possible when we come to one area of the road that looks like a waterfall is running down from the straight-up mountain to our left and then flowing over the road in front of us where it waterfalls again over the cliff on our right. The first thing profe lisandro says, “oh no, I don’t like this, this is really dangerous.“ Naturally I stayed completely cool under pressure. Yeah right. So Profe gets out of the car and starts talking with these two guys who are walking up the hill to see if they think that we can get across; right away I’m thinking this is a bad idea, I am just seeing our little pickup being washed over the right side of the cliff. The men that profe spoke to thought it was not possible, so we sat and waited for the rain to let up a little. There was a brief softening of the rain and profe got out (in his business clothes…in the pouring rain) and started to move boulders and tree branches and other misc. stuff that washed down the mountain and into the road with the other two men. So, long story short, we made it across the river in the road but only after we got stuck in the mud in the middle of it, I was terrified. Then, not 200 feet further down we run into a landslide that has covered the entire road. At this point I am thinking that we’re pretty much screwed. There’s a river behind us, washing out the road, and there’s a landslide in front of us, blocking the road. We’re not going anywhere. Then I start to think about the likelihood that another landslide happens right where the car is…that would pretty effectively ruin my plans to get home/live. So I called the peace corps office to see if they had any sort of “Disaster Preparedness” lecture they could give me, you know, maybe some tips about, “in the event of a mudslide happening on a narrow road in the middle of a rainstorm on the edge of a cliff, you should____” ? well, I ended up talking to one of the Nurses who happens to know the area really well because she used to live near there, and she asks me, “are you more worried about the mountain falling on you to your left or the road washing out under you to your right?” Shit. hadn’t even thought of the road washing out on me to my right, a whole new set of death scenarios came to mind. In the end a crew of locals helped to make a passage in the landslide wide enough for one car to pass through. We were the first people through and 10 minutes later we were down at the highway. Thank god. We stopped at a little café on the side of the road so that we could wash up and try and dry off a little bit. We drank some coffee and got back on the road. 8 and half hours after we left the hotel where the workshop was held we arrived back home. It was 10:30PM and I was hungry and needed to bathe. So I put some water in a pot to boil it for a bucket-bath only to find that all of the propane was gone; that my roommate had left me with none. This was a terrible turn of events for me, since I also didn’t have any food except for and apple and some dried pasta in the house because I’d spent the majority of the month traveling. I gave up, I washed my face, changed my clothes, ate an apple, went to bed. Awoke the next morning to a brand new day and skin problems. It was one of my top 10 worst peace corps days. But it’s over now and I’m glad.
Other things I am very glad about: I received packages! I love love love my friends and family. I am so lucky to have you all! This week’s all-stars are Meredith and Elizabeth Joy.
Mere- love the scarf, headband and yumm sauce! I have been trying to eat it slowly but it’s just. So. Good. Just thinking about it now has me craving another yumm bowl. Putting it on the docket for tomorrow.
Lizzy- Currently on disk 11 of 37 in NCIS… it brought me back after my life-issues last month, can’t thank you enough for sending those to me. I think I actually ate cheeze-its as a meal one afternoon. Mmmm…so much goodness.
I'm all tuckered out, uploading those photos took FOREVER. blah.
LOVE LOVE LOVE!
xoxo,
Kristin
It has been an interesting few weeks here in Guatemala. Lots and lots of mudslides and fatalities and crops getting drowned out and Peace Corps Volunteers being put on Standfast (its like being grounded to your site).
As was expected, the productivity of my school-visits has reached a plateau as we near independence day. My schools are far too busy with dance and music practice for the big day (15th) to be working on Healthy Schools stuff. After that i've got a solid month before schools let out for the "summer" so we'll see if anyone actually wants to work...I have a feeling it may be a lost cause.
This is a look back at the month of August. Also some pictures of all of the food I have been making, I have been KILLING IT in the kitchen. If I make a cookbook that’s what I’m going to call it, I just decided that right now- Killing it in the Kitchen with Kristin™
Yep, that just happened.
So here’s the food montage.
Some Chilli
and some veggie soup...
...Margarita Pizzas
Yumm Bowl!
Elephant Ear
and a hamburger.
Now that we’ve established I’m a rockstar/fat kid we can move on…
I found and purchased Hellboy I and II in the market in Antigua and I think I’ve watched it an embarrassing amount of times. It may seem a little bit lame…but just know this about me and love me anyway.
About my trip to the dentist…
I didn’t end up getting a root canal but I did cry my face off in the dentist’s office. I went in and they took new X-rays (despite my having brought the one I had taken in my site) and didn’t see any problems; they decided that the reason I was having pain was because my two fillings (one on the bottom tooth and one on the tooth above it) were not ground down enough and my uneven bite had created pressure points. The solution? To grind off the parts of the filling that were uneven. So she put a drill in my mouth and went to work…zero Novocain. IT WAS AWFUL. You know when you go to the dentist and they ask you to just raise your hand if you feel any pain? Not so much at that office. As I’m crying and raising my hand she keeps taking the drill out of my mouth and telling me, “okay, okay, no more of the drilling then” and then she’d switch the drill heads and go back in. At one point in the appointment I was crying so hard, my face was literally dripping with tears so she grabbed the bib that I was wearing and patted my face with it. When it finally came time to tell her if the pain was gone when I bit down, I was in so shaky and sweaty that I couldn’t tell. I left all puffy and sniffling and still can’t chew food on the left side of my mouth, only now I have hot and cold sensitivity as well; joy. I don’t know if my experience was normal for that kind of treatment but I am inclined to think not; pretty sure I haven’t cried at the dentist since I was 6. I don’t want to come off as a whiner, I am trying to look for the humor in the situation. I feel like once it’s funny I’ll be willing to make another appointment with the dentist, but right now I want nothing to do with more dental work. I’d rather just chew on the right side of my mouth for a while and use the extra soft toothbrush and pro-alivio toothpaste. I am just realizing that I forgot to tell the nurses this…I should probably do that… I bet they’re getting tired of me calling them all the time.
Speaking of me calling the nurses all the time…
I got a really cool skin infection on my face. It was really awful. I’ll tell you what, it’s really hard to promote “healthy schools” when people think that they’re going to catch something from you. I didn’t think that it was that bad right? I thought it was maybe just some stress-triggered thing from my near-death rainstorm/landslide/waterfall drive home from the project design and management workshop with my profe (I’ll tell you about it next). So I decided to just wait it out a few days and see if it would resolve itself. I called the gas guy to bring me some more propane and I put on a little bit of makeup and a hat; the first thing the gas guy says, “whoa, what happened to your face? That looks really bad.” THANK YOU. So I said something like…“I don’t know, I’m sick or something, you can put the gas over there, its Q.114 right?” and he left, I washed my face and looked in the mirror and decided it was time to take a picture and send it to the nurses to see if it was something that I should be concerned about. No, I wont show you the picture but imagine me, I’m making the saddest face ever and it looks like I’ve got chicken pox all over my face…got it? Yeah, so I put work on hold because I couldn’t figure out a way to leave my house during the daylight hours without getting a lot of commentary on my hideousness. The nurses decided that it would be a good idea for me to get in to see the dermatologist and get this infection taken care of; so I go back to Guatemala City for the second time that month. So, so poor by the end of the month. I dressed myself up like a celebrity avoiding the paparazzi and hit the road. I saw the doctor, got some drugs and some topical stuff and headed back to site. I was so happy to be back, I can’t even tell you. I think I spent equal amounts of time in my site as I had on the road last month, it was nice to be in my own bed…in my own house where I could let my skin heal and make my own food…and watch Hellboy.
My life flashed before my eyes…made me miss theme parties.
My near-death experience…Okay, that’s a little bit dramatic but at the time I was pretty sure I was going to die. On the way back from PDM Workshop with Profe Lisandro we took Mari and her counterpart back to her site which is like 2 ish hours from mine. Well we went up into the mountains to drop them off and while we were there it started raining…like REALLY raining. There was some concern as to whether or not we were going to be able to make it out because often when it rains up there the roads to get back to the highway become blocked. Well Profe Lisandro and I decided that we really would rather go home than stay and try and wait out the rainstorm, since it had just started we thought we had a pretty good chance of getting out. So wrong. We are driving down this, well, mountain and we are taking our time to try and be as safe as possible when we come to one area of the road that looks like a waterfall is running down from the straight-up mountain to our left and then flowing over the road in front of us where it waterfalls again over the cliff on our right. The first thing profe lisandro says, “oh no, I don’t like this, this is really dangerous.“ Naturally I stayed completely cool under pressure. Yeah right. So Profe gets out of the car and starts talking with these two guys who are walking up the hill to see if they think that we can get across; right away I’m thinking this is a bad idea, I am just seeing our little pickup being washed over the right side of the cliff. The men that profe spoke to thought it was not possible, so we sat and waited for the rain to let up a little. There was a brief softening of the rain and profe got out (in his business clothes…in the pouring rain) and started to move boulders and tree branches and other misc. stuff that washed down the mountain and into the road with the other two men. So, long story short, we made it across the river in the road but only after we got stuck in the mud in the middle of it, I was terrified. Then, not 200 feet further down we run into a landslide that has covered the entire road. At this point I am thinking that we’re pretty much screwed. There’s a river behind us, washing out the road, and there’s a landslide in front of us, blocking the road. We’re not going anywhere. Then I start to think about the likelihood that another landslide happens right where the car is…that would pretty effectively ruin my plans to get home/live. So I called the peace corps office to see if they had any sort of “Disaster Preparedness” lecture they could give me, you know, maybe some tips about, “in the event of a mudslide happening on a narrow road in the middle of a rainstorm on the edge of a cliff, you should____” ? well, I ended up talking to one of the Nurses who happens to know the area really well because she used to live near there, and she asks me, “are you more worried about the mountain falling on you to your left or the road washing out under you to your right?” Shit. hadn’t even thought of the road washing out on me to my right, a whole new set of death scenarios came to mind. In the end a crew of locals helped to make a passage in the landslide wide enough for one car to pass through. We were the first people through and 10 minutes later we were down at the highway. Thank god. We stopped at a little café on the side of the road so that we could wash up and try and dry off a little bit. We drank some coffee and got back on the road. 8 and half hours after we left the hotel where the workshop was held we arrived back home. It was 10:30PM and I was hungry and needed to bathe. So I put some water in a pot to boil it for a bucket-bath only to find that all of the propane was gone; that my roommate had left me with none. This was a terrible turn of events for me, since I also didn’t have any food except for and apple and some dried pasta in the house because I’d spent the majority of the month traveling. I gave up, I washed my face, changed my clothes, ate an apple, went to bed. Awoke the next morning to a brand new day and skin problems. It was one of my top 10 worst peace corps days. But it’s over now and I’m glad.
Other things I am very glad about: I received packages! I love love love my friends and family. I am so lucky to have you all! This week’s all-stars are Meredith and Elizabeth Joy.
Mere- love the scarf, headband and yumm sauce! I have been trying to eat it slowly but it’s just. So. Good. Just thinking about it now has me craving another yumm bowl. Putting it on the docket for tomorrow.
Lizzy- Currently on disk 11 of 37 in NCIS… it brought me back after my life-issues last month, can’t thank you enough for sending those to me. I think I actually ate cheeze-its as a meal one afternoon. Mmmm…so much goodness.
I'm all tuckered out, uploading those photos took FOREVER. blah.
LOVE LOVE LOVE!
xoxo,
Kristin
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