Bienvenida la lluvia

My Kitties

Thursday, December 09, 2010

The winter/hot season/rainy season is on it’s way. It has started raining (mostly at night) which is actually kind of nice, reminds me of costa rica and I’ve been hankering for a good rain. However the dirt roads are becoming muddy puddles and that isn’t working out too well with my flip-flops…I suppose I will finally have to conform and buy rain boots. The large bugs have also began to emerge (see photo). This is one, dunno what its called, but its gross. There are other grasshoppers that are actually the size of a parrot and fly like one too. They are beyond gross and I’m always scared one is going to fly in my hair which I’m sure will happen one day. Apparently these creatures they call bugs are EVERYWHERE in the peak of the rainy season which…I might not leave my house (if I’m even safe there!). There also exist clothing-eating bugs but apparently they really like mustard yellow and I don’t have too many clothes that are that color so maybe I’ll be safe from those guys.

What else, oh there’s ‘agua negra’—black water. Apparently theres not clean water that come out of the fosets, at first I was like well that’s fine we use bottled water all the time anyway to drink and then someone brought up showering…I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens with that. They also say that because my town is all dirt roads and the two roads (on either side) that are the way in and out of my town are also dirt roads we become stuck here. They say sometimes the mud is knee deep? Cars cannot pass. I guess I’ll have to stock up on contact solution before that happens. I thought I was living it pretty easy for the peace corps, my power only goes out occasionally (apparently it is a lot more unstable in the winter too) I have running water (maybe even hot water once I get my own house)…who knows though, maybe in the rainy season ill get the true peace corps experience.


As far as my projects things have started moving. We had two weeks of aerobics with the women’s group (however lots of kids and boys and sometimes men come too, we don’t turn anyone away) and they wanted more so we changed womens group to Tuesday nights and now we have aerobics Monday, Wednesday and Friday (however I think we’re going to play a sport Fridays to mix it up and do something different). Our attendance is also increasing each class which is exciting and each class I’m getting more confortable and better at teaching (I love when they scream in pain! Hahaha “no mas, no mas!!”). We also talked with them about what more they want to do with the group and we might start a ‘clean up the barrio’ project/trash project with them which would be super great for me/hitting two birds with one stone because I have tons of ideas and really want to do a trash project. Everyone burns their trash here (or throws it on the mountain) and it smells awful and I don’t even want to think about the things it does to our bodies and the environment. I’m really trying to change that.



I also met with the old peeps today and the lady had known a few past PCVs here and seemed pretty excited for me to start working with them…I love old people but we have a slightly difficult time understanding each other. It’ll pass. We’re meeting Jan 6 with everyone.



Christmas lights, trees, and decorations have started going up around town. It’s kind of weird because I’m still walking around in tank tops and shorts and not at home with the fam, its also hard for me to see a Christmas tree because it just reminds me of my mom but its still cool. There is a secret santa (or amigos secretos) going around with my fam here (like 100 people)--$2 minimum gift. It sounds fun but I have no idea what to get my person (I haven’t chosen a name yet) and I don’t know I’m a little nervous about it.