Home Ties

Spending the day in the City... taking care of my weekly shopping. Had a great homecooked meal of spaghetti and salad compliments of Jamie. Mmmm! What a treat!

Things are going well. Yesterday I gave a little speech in front of about 75 people from my community. They were gathering for their regular meeting with the ADESCO (kinda like a city council). It went ok... A bit awkward to stand in front of all those people and talk in Spanish. And they all just sat their with very straight serious faces. I couldn't tell if they like me by the looks of their faces. And I passed out invitations to my own personal assembly that I'm having in a few weeks. It's going to be at 1:30... I didn't get to choose the time, my bosses did. A lot of people told me that they would not be able to come because it's too early in the afternoon. Most people are still working at that time. But it's going to be at the school, so a lot of the youth will be there I know that for sure. It's supposed to be my official presentation to the community about who I am and what I am there to do. My program director comes and everything. I want it to be great.

Next week I have to travel to the capital for a doctor's appointment. YIKES! I hope I can find someone to go with me. I dont want to go alone. I have to find the peace corps office, and I've only been there once so I'm not exactly sure where it is. I will probably just call our approved taxi service to make sure I get there ok.

I'm participating in the Peace Corps' World Wise Schools program and I'm corresponding with my friend Katie's class at the school I taught at last year. It's really fun! I sent them my first letter last week and Katie told me she shared it with her 8th graders and that the kids got really excited. Some of the students were in my class last year, which makes it even more special. Many of the students are from Latin America, and even El Salvador. It's a great opportunity for the kids to talk about where their from and be more culturally aware. I'm told they really loved my stories about the bathroom, the rats, and all the other critters I live with. We are going to be doing a pen pal thing for the rest of the school year! And my other friend that works at the school told me that some of my old students that went on to high school this year came back to the school to visit me. They were really sad to hear I was gone and they asked my teacher friend that keeps in touch with me to give me an update on how they were doing. It's really nice to know that they felt we had a good relationship. That's the special thing about being a teacher. My students I taught will probably never forget me. Makes me feel like I actually made a difference in their lives :) And it's awesome that I can continue to teach them from all the way down here.

I like my host house a lot. The set up is perfect. I have my own house to the side of my host family's house. But they can be a little overbearing sometimes. My host mom is always on top of me offering me food and every night after I eat dinner she walks me outside to my house and gives me a hug to say goodnight. It's sweet, and I know it's because she cares about me... but I hope to eventually have a little more independence. On the upside, because she walks me into my house at night, she has been there everytime I found a scorpion, a snake, and baby rats to kill them for me. She's ruthless. We have some really good laughs too. But I'm kind of regretting that I already said that I would stay there my whole two years. Kinda jumped the gun on that one. There's another house that I have the option of moving to that's a little closer to the school, and it's right next to a house where just a little old lady lives and runs a store. She seems a lot more chill and like she wouldn't be all up in my business like these host parents are. Plus, my house now- my family stores stuff in it, so they are coming in and getting stuff out of it... and sometimes my mom goes in there to clean it and stuff. I'm a bit territorial, and I don't want to worry about people coming in my house... or worry about what I leave laying out that I dont want them to see. I guess I could always change my mind in the future, and say that I really do want to live closer to the school... but that wouldn't go without hurting their feelings I'm sure. We'll see what happens.

Allrighty, time to go do my last bit of shopping before I catch the bus! It's an hour bus ride back to my canton. At least they play music on it. That makes it more entertaining. Okey dokey!

Paz y amor.