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Friday, December 9, 2011

Where have I been...

Let me start off my asking you guys not to judge my real quick typing (without proofreading or spell check). I am also still in Spanish mode and that sort of makes me think and talk like a hilbilly.

EN GENERAL:     Just so you all know, I am fine and not dead, just busy. So I was supposed to have this huge meeting (where my boss from the Peace Corps comes, I needed a written project and I needed to give a 3 hour presentation in Spanish) in my community in October. So I was super busy working on that but of course, they changed it to the first week in November. Five days after that I had a ten day conference about Environmental Conservation techniques and projects that I could do in my community. That ended the Wednesday of Thanksgiving. From Wedenesday to Friday I celebrated thanksgiving.

MORE DETAILS:        My meeting did not go well. 6 people showed up. Three of them being host parents, one the town "sheriff", another is a miserable old man who is out to bring me down, and the sixth.... well I don't remember off the top of my head but there was a sixth, I think.. ANYWAY out the the 6 people there only 2 participated, 2 were too shy to do anything, and the other two whispered to each other the whole time. We also did not accomplish anything. It sucked.
The point of this meeting was to give me an assignment. A project that I could work on with the community. YEAHHH that ended up them telling me to teach English classes. FABULOUS! Not exactly environmental...
Anyway it gets better because this week I had a meeting and it was just to talk about the trash situation here- now let me fill y'all in here. People here either burn their trash, throw it in the street, or throw it in the children's soccer field (which means when it rains, and it always rains, that it falls in the mangroves).- But when i schuedules it I didn't realize that the day I made it for, was also a huge fiesta in the next town over YET yet yet yet still 8 ENTHUSIASTIC people showed up. We accomplished so much and it was so great. At the end of the meeting people were still talking about the problem and they looked at me and said that they wanted another meeting!!! It felt so good.

My conference went well. Learned a lot but the highlight is my mother’s worst nightmare. So as you all found out within the first five minutes of meeting me, I am a spaz. I drop things and fall down and generally just don’t have any cooridination whatsoever. Well, for those of you who know my father, you know that he is a tad bit competitve. Okay, I was being generous. My dad is… he really likes… He is one competitive S.O.B. (and I love him). So I have a bit of that gene. Going back to the story, my spazy, competitive self, was playing this game of Steal the Bacon. Well I was paired up with a girl much larger than myself. Well anyway, we were running toward the bandana (that was the bacon) and we ran into each other. Well the girl is perfectly fine. She stood on her feet. I on the other hand, went flying. Feet up in the air. My friend was crying he laughed so hard. My other friend told me that he heard out clunk  together and now he refers to the extravagenza as the “sonic boom”.
Thanksgiving was great! 200 Peace Corps Panama volunteers attended. It was up in the mountains, where it’s cold, so it gave a feeling of being back home, except without the family part. But don’t you worry, there was PLENTY of drama. How many crying people I comforted, I do not know. All I know is that I wasn’t one of them.
I also cooked. Now before any of you start worrying, there was no burning of food. BUT I did work on a sweet potato pie for 200 people (so it was quite large and heavy) and I had two boys help me take it out of the oven and they dropped it. Well some of it was saved.
I also did dishwashing duty which was so much fun because I got to eat SOOOO much while cleaning the pots and pans. MMMMmmm. My friend and I took stale bread and dipped it in the turkey fat. I know it sounds gross but it was sooo yummy. And I hadn’t eaten american food in over 7 months. I went nuts.

Anyway I hope you all had a Happy Gobble Gobble because I certainly did.
¡CHAO!

1 comment:

  1. We miss you so much Madye!
    Love,
    Sami and Casey

    ReplyDelete