Back from first day trip out of sight. Some friends and I went to a tourist spot about 5 hours away to catch up and clear out minds. We stayed at a pretty nice hostel with a swimming pool, internet and air-conditioning at night! The highlight of the trip was going to the grocery store and buying a ridiculously expensive box of sugar cereal. It was great to get to share stories and hear how everyone is doing. 7 of us were able to get there and I can confidently say that we all appreciated the time to recoup.
Then I spend the night in a friends site, which is close to mine (an hour away by car). It was nice to have her share her community with me, it made me excited for showing other people my community! On the way home I traveled to my community for the first time without relying of friends, family, strangers for a ride. I took the bus from the larger town near her site. The bus ride was a hour in an old school bus, and then when I got off I had about a hour walk to my house. I was pretty sure I was going to die during that walk, it was noon and the sun was so hot I was sweating pretty intensely. But I made my own shade with my umbrella and just kept chugging along. Eventually I made it home, took a cold shower and spent the afternoon sitting on the front porch watching the cows graze, the thunderstorms roll in and waiting for my body to stop sweating (it took 3 hours to go back to my normal resting sweating amount).
Sunday I read an entire book and chatted with the family back home. I also found out that my favorite TV channel plays American movies dubbed on Sunday nights at 7pm, so last night I watched Ella Enchanted.
Today I am going to meet with the local government this afternoon to chat about a project that are hoping to apply for funding from the federal government for. Also I made a map of my town with my counterpart, we drew all of the houses and listed all of the people that live in them. In my town proper there are 50 people living here. That’s 20 down from 5 years ago when the other volunteer was here. After I counted all of the people and thought in my head (wow! What a small number) my counterpart said “Wow, a ton of people.” Good to know we are on the same wavelength. But actually my counterpart and I are getting along really well, we have been teaching each other different card games after dinner and it’s a lot of fun. Also we are now able to joke about our different sense of humor. I usually say ‘its not funny!’ when someone is laughing at something that I think is serious. Now he says that “its not funny” is a Chelsea saying and we can laugh about it. Yay for progress.
I have officially named my puppy in hopes that it lives. Its named Sugar after the puppy in India that I named, but that got stolen. Right now Sugar is fat and lazy. He eats and sleeps all day long. Today he officially started walking and when he walks his belly touches the ground. He also tries to make noises, but I wouldn't exactly call it barking. Super cute.
All for now, gonna read some manuels on teaching English and prepare for my upcoming classes. Loves
Chelsea
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