Downtime

I have been in site for almost 7 months now... wow. And in Peru for 10? That can't be right. Sometimes I feel super-integrated (whatever that means), but other times I feel like I am still just a stranger in another country.

Right now I feel a little stuck. This week I was pretty unproductive with another fiesta (anniversary of one of the colegios), my counterpart being out of town, and outright laziness from my own lack of motivation lately. It's definitely been a down week, but nothing compared to what many volunteers go through. Overall I am very happy; I'm in a great town with internet, some cell phone service, a partial variety of food, and a beautiful view everyday! The rough times for me come from guilt from being here and simply feeling incompetant, unproductive, or outright inutil. Is that an English word or Spanish word? I don't even know anymore.


On a positive note for today, I had a fun session teaching minis (kids from pre-school) a little English. Like I said before, I'm not sure how useful it is for them, but I know I sure have fun hanging out with them and just doing something productive. The kids at that age sure give a lot of love and I can feel it. I think because a lot of times they don't get attention at home. I will also be starting to teach an English class once a week for kids in the institute (ages 17-24). I normally wouln't be inspired to do this and don't see a huge benefit for them, but this group has expressed a big interest, and seemingly a lot of people will come. I'm looking to use it as a group to have some fun, play some games, and give them whatever help they want in learning English. They have a lot of benefits since English is everywhere.

A Little bit of Everything

So I'm not too sure how to start this one because there's so much to say since my last blog, but I think I will begin by illustrating a sample experience from the other day to paint a picture of a typical day in the life of a Peace Corps volunteer. I wake up to frigid and still dark winter morning in my poorly supported bed matress. I hestitate to leave my well-blanketed, yet still slightly insufficient bed domain still beaming with residual warmth from a good night's rest, but find the will power to thrust myself into the day by throwing the covers off my warm body and popping out of bed. I look around in slight dissapointment to find a somewhat disordered house from me lazily throwing previously worn clothes and work materials due to a recent increase in schedule. I decide that a shower is worth the effort today in spite of the coldness because I hadn't showed in two days due to not running in two days and I should appear more presentable and not smell for the meeting that I was to attend in the morning in a caserio (small annex) about an hour away. Skipping forward past the terribly cold shower and preparing breakfast, I now find myself holding onto metal bars in the back of a truck on a windy muddy road with a health post worker. We are heading to another Peace Corps volunteer's site with my JASS (Junta Administadora de Servicios de Saneamiento: elected group from the community to be in charge of the water) to attend a training on administration and operation of JASS. Holding on tight through the bumps and rotations of the truck, I look around at the vast green scenery and valley below (way below) and ask myself: Where am I? Am I really living here? I realize my confusion about reality by hearing from within the truck a song I haven't heard in years by The Outfield (80's music). This reminds me of my childhood and my sisters back home which explains my confusion due to such cultural intertwining that I experience. I get brought back into reality realizing that I am cold from the rain that I now feel in addition to the reminance of my bone-chilling cold shower earlier that morning. I quickly remember that I should pay attention since I brach hit me in the face last time I was riding in a truck on the very same road.

It's crazy that I've been here for more than 6 months-a half a year in site!- but I still am amazed by the fact that I live here and how beautiful it is here! I can honestly say that this is the happiest that I've been in a long time (not that I was that unhappy before) and that this is exactly what I was wanting from this experience. It's indecribable how satisfying daily interactions can be exemplifying the integration that has taken place in this period of time that I have lived in my site. I am utterly content by the work that I am doing and the progress that I am TRYING to make. I realize how difficult developement is. But it's strange that I can actually feel the developement taking place. I've always wanted to live in the past to see and be a part of developement, and now I have the chance. I've told people how I feel like I've went back in time but with a few modern-day conveniences like phone and internet.

So moving on to real news and updates in what I have been doing here. I got to be the padrino (sponsor) of two olympic games, one for the technoligical institute in my town and one for one of the 'high schools'. Funny story: the communication issue does not just reside in the language barrier... so I was elected to be the sponsor of this 5th cycle of the nursing program at the institute and had understood (along with the madrina-other sponsor- who speaks spanish) that we were to buy sporting shirts just for girls. We later found out that we were supposed to buy unisex shirts since there were also boys in the group. THIS WAS NOT THE FAULT OF MY INABILITY TO SPEAK OR UNDERSTAND SPANISH! It's just a part of the culture for things to be unclear. Like for example, time. A meeting at 8am means it will start anywhere from 8:30 to 10:30 depending on the perceived importance of the meeting. This can waste a lot of time for a PC volunteer. Nuff said. Back to the olympiadas, my boys soccer (fulbito) team ended up winning the tournament, and I ended up getting to play a game with the professors, which was fun even though my team lost.

Seriously?

I'm beginning to think that I'm not supposed to go back to site. So here's the story. Please don't judge me... I'm a little embarassed to say so, but I haven't been in site since the 24th of March. Wow! So all my out-of-sitedness has an explanation, which was discussed on the previous blog post up to my AIDS workshop which ended last Wednesday. After this I had made plans to go home the following day, as would be expected, but started feeling sick, so I stayed another day. I felt worse, so I stayed another day and started taking an antibiotic after talking with our doctor on the phone. Then I felt a little better and was more confident in not having a fun case of diarhea or vomiting during the 5 hour roller coaster ride back to site, so I decided to leave the following day. I was a little nervous about being weak because all I've eaten the last 3 days was like 6 Ritz crackers and a half a piece of Pizza (bad idea). But I was able to pack up all my stuff that I needed or picked up throughout my almost month-long excursion (which is a lot) and manage to get it to the bus terminal to head to site. I get there, have them put my stuff in the backage area, go to pick up my ticket that I reserved the previous day and realized the lady had forgotten to write my name down to reserve my seat. I could have stood for about half of the way, although I'm not sure I could have handled it today. Based on my options, I decided that another day of rest wouldn't hurt to get myself better, I could see my friends that are in town one last day, and just deal with lugging my stuff around one more day.

So here I am back in the hotel spending more money for another stay, still not in site, and feeling super guilty and like an unproductive Peace Corps volunteer. One day I will get back to site. I'm hoping that day is tomorrow.

It is evident by my 'mood' demonstrated in this blog that I am not super happy with the situation at hand (mainly due to guilt), but as I look as possible positives I see that this guilt may provide me with some extra drive to be a badass worker when I return. There you have it: Bad; and Good.

Instead of putting pics up of the hotel room that I stayed in for the last 3 days, which would be super boring, here are pics of other fun things over my month-long 'excursion'.

I'm a congrejo!

Out of Site Out of Mind

Man, I've been out of site a lot lately and have undergoing some feelings of guilt. Although many of these reasons have been Peace Corps related, and the others Peace Corps appproved, I am looking at going back to a whole new world in my site. After getting back from Reconnect, I had to head out again for something called PDM which is a project developement workshop to be attended with selected community members. I went ahead and attached a vacation trip to Ayacucho with a few awesome Peace Corps friends Frieda and Fletcher (aka Fletch City) to visit my sponsor child. He is a great kid and always had a smile on his face. I had brought him some gifts: a soccer uniform of Peru, a soccer ball, stickers, writting and drawing materials with colors, and some books. He seemed to really like them, which made me happy. We met in the NGO office along with the mom and members of the NGO and then headed to a park to play. The experience was great but went by fast. I was very glad I had that opportunity since it is so rare that sponsors have the opportunity to visit their sponsor kids.

After the PDM workshop, I felt much better about getting a good sustainable project started. Instead of spreading my work throughout several caserios, we felt that choosing one or two and doing a lot within those caserios would be more sustainable and overall a better idea. I can't wait to get the project plan together and start! I'm happy I have a project that I'm excited about now. Unfortunately, I won't be back in site until a few days after Easter because it wasn't really worth going back to site between my arrival from the PDM workshop in Lima and a regional meeting in my capital city. After the regional meeting, I had another couple-day period that I chose to spend visiting Eric's site near the regional capital. I loved his site (except the mosquitos) and realized how different the Peace Corps Peru atmosphere is for everyone. I went along with Matt and Mark and we helped a bit with the World Map project and a trial compost batch. Eric's host family was great. The mosquitos were not.

Now I'm back in the regional capital about to head out to the beach with other volunteers to celebrate our semana santa vacation. When I come back I have another workshop on AIDS and HIV through a US government initiative and then I finally get to go back to site. I've been gone for so long and feel pretty bad and guilty about it. I head that it is drying up and the sun us out, so it should be pretty different to see. I can't wait to start being outside and running again in site. This is a difficult season for the Sierra volunteers. I still think I like it better than the mosquitos though.

I hope everyone is well. Send questions if you have them! Have a happy Easter!

Peace Corps is so Hard!

We were pretty spoiled this last week as we had our Reconnect meeting. Beautiful beach setting and great times 'reconnecting' with all the other crazy PC volunteer peeps. There were mullets, Rock-Paper-Scissor tournaments, and 'superbeds' involved. Unfortunately we were reminded of the danger of being a foreigner with a few incidents that occured one night to two groups walking back from the beach. It took a toll on the group, but made us realize - made me realize how much we all mean to each other.

Coming back to my capital city, I was eager to go back to site to get started on a World Water Day Radio ad, but was just too exhausted and couldn't finish a couple of errands in town before heading back to site. Right now, because it's the rainy season, there's only one bus opportunity per day. Fortunately, I have nice friends and Robyn helped me edit the Radio ad that I had put together in very poor Spanish. Thanks Robyn.

Now heading back to site tomorrow, I am feeling a little depressed today. I think most of it is due to lack of sleep. Maybe things will be better tomorrow when I wake up. So what I got going for me this next week is I will be helping with a general meeting about the water to inform the people of the new changes. The next day is World Water Day (March 22) which is a great opportunity to help educate the people of the water issues that people face and will face in the future. I leave the next week to meet my sponsor child and am lucky enough to have Frieda and Fletch to come with me. After that I will head back to Lima for a Project Development meeting where 2 members of my community will be heading down.

Other fun dates... half marathon in July (on the beach) and possibly the Lima marathon in Aug.

Amazing Voyage

So I'm back in the city getting ready to head out to our Reconnect meeting (at the beach!). Reconnect is meeting that each incoming group has after 3 months at site... kinda a 'check-in' time. For one of the first times I was able to take the bus from my site to the city during the daytime and it was amazing! Usually we have to take a madrugada bus (earlybird) at 3am out of site because it's the only one offered during the rainy season. I don't know if it was watching the sunset with the setting or what, but it felt life-changing! Okay, maybe not life-changing, but it had a great affect on my mood. This may also be attributed to the fact that there was a sunset. I realized on this trip that even though I love rain and hadn't consciously felt affected by the lack of sun, when we got out of the clouds I did feel a noticeable change. I felt happy before, but the sun made me feel so much better. I guess I took it for granted living in New Mexico. The summer evening feeling made me want to play soccer like I used to at UNM everyday that I could. The trip started out at my site where we go through the green mountains with many windy turns (like the black range in NM) and lots of mud. It's not unusual to have to stop at least once to push... usually just the guys. After about 3 hours of that, we entered the green ricefield plains surrounded by steep green mountains. There is a huge mix of plant types here including those trees that are more fat in the middle than the top or bottom. I always forget the name of those. There's also moss that grows on the trees and bright red and yellow wildflowers. After the ricefield plaines with a sweet river between, we went into another green lowlands area that is a lush green forest covered by vegetation. All this was enhanced by the fact that it was sunset. This made me a pretty happy camper... yes: happy camper.

In other news... I've started to realize that I am getting used to the strange things that occur here without noticing. I don't know what's weird anymore. For example, the other day I was on the phone with my mom and she asked 'What's that noise in the background?' and I told her 'Oh yeah... that's just the parlante (loudspeaker) for the town. ' I remembered that we don't have those in the US. They give annoucements throughout the day mainly about municipality stuff, but also sometimes when people are selling things and whats on the menu for one of the local 'restaurants'. She said 'You didn't tell me about that' as if I am able to tell her everything that I see and do here (my Mom is so cute). Once I thought about it, I realized the loudspeaker thing started here in Peru. They're not in the US because it would be considered noise pollution and/or violation of people's rights... huh weird. Maybe that's why Im annoyed at 6am on Sunday mornings when I have to listen to Peruvian ballads when I just... would rather not.

But one thing that I have not yet gotten used to (gotten?) is that fact that people throw trash around like their planting seeds or something. It makes me cringe, especially because of the beautiful place they have here and how neglectful they are (not all). On the very trip here I saw the cobrador (guy who collects the money/tickets) throw a glass bottle out the window. He was finished with his drink, and just tossed it out the window... done and done. Really? It feels like watching someone poop right in someone else's house (sorry for the analogy). I guess it's just what they know. They know it's bad, but the actions do not always reflect the knowledge as I have learned a great deal these last few months.

On a mental update, I'm doing pretty well. I'm here; I'm doing what I can; and enjoying as much as possible. My Spanish is still a little frusterating. I actually do get annoyed every once in a while when I get laughed at. It's good that I have a lot of patience. I will go talk to a group of guys that I only kind of know and talk with them for a while and when I walk off I hear them laughing. I'm like... Mannnnn... I know they're laughing at me. Which is fine. It's normal. But after a long day of exhausting Spanish and other issues, sometimes I'm not in the mood to be laughed at. Most of the time, I just laugh at the fact that I'm being laughed at, but again, not always. I think I'm learning Spanish slowly, but I'll keep working at it.

Other than that, when it doesn't rain I play fulbito, which I'm finally getting good at. I am finishing up doing surveys of my area. I mainly did them in the surrounding small villages called caserios. I mostly enjoyed doing them even though it can be exhausting. There are some that go really well. I visisted an old couple a couple weeks ago and after a little bit of talking they really oppened up and were just so happy to have a visitor. There are a lot of issues with the elderly here because once they are unable to work, they need someone to rely on. This couple was really good to me and treated me to boiled potatoes and queso fresco... campo cheese. In the campo when we get offered something, we kinda have to eat it... and all of it. It probably wasn't the most sanitary meal, but I was actually happy about it because I was hungry. I realized I can eat a lot of weird things. Luckily I haven't had stomach problems thus far.

I also finished up teaching summer school last month and there was a little ceremony. I enjoy working with the kids here more than anything. The little kids are awesome. I try not to have favorites, but I can't help it.

I get to go to Ayacucho this month as well to visit my World Vision sponsor child. I got assigned to him about a year before Peace Corps and now that I just happen to be in Peru for Peace Corps, I get to visit. I'm pretty excited about it. This month will be busy with a lot of traveling between this reconnect, visiting my sponsor child, and then a Project Development meeting which we attend with our socios. Should be interesting, so I will try to keep ya posted. Congrats to Keith and Iphigenia getting married! The pics were amazing!

(a congrejo-crab I found in my house & an example of the trail I walk to get to the caserios... there are crabs in the mountains of Peru... weird)

I Live in the Clouds

Seriously… I live in the clouds. This zone is justly called a Cloud Forest; so much humidity that plants grow on power lines and roofs. My experience thus far has also had a cloudening affect on my mind. I don’t know how long it will be until I consider this my reality, but I do know the ups and downs of this life are definitely more varied than I had expected. I feel as though I have been in a long dream since I had arrived in Peru. This second life has been amazing in so many ways and I realize I am actually living the dream that I had for so many years by living in another country in an attempt to serve others. I don’t know how long it will be until I consider this my reality, but I do know the ups and downs of this life are definitely more varied than I had expected.

Since the last (real) post, I have done a couple interesting things. The first of which includes helping in the slaughtering… wow, harsh word… the killing (not much better) of a pig. I was invited by a community member to help in this ‘event’ as it serves as a tradition as well as a overall cultural experience here. It’s more than just the killing of the pig, in the campo, it’s a community event in which everyone takes part in and the meat along with other food components are shared afterwards as a type of celebration. For some reason, it takes place in the madrugada (early morning) at 3AM. This could be for one or each of three reasons, 1) a simple precedent set by tradition, 2) it takes a whole day and many helpers to kill the pig and make all the meal preparations, or 3) The screaming of the pig will not annoy people during the day… but on second thought it has the opposite effect of people sleeping at night. First, I help walk the pig in front of the house of my friend, then a huge pot of boiling water was readied. Once the water was boiling, a group of 5 people tied up the pigs hands and feet and when the pig was secure, the butcher stabbed the pig in the chest aiming for the heart, which I was later surprised he has achieved with amazing accuracy. The blood was drained into a bin (and kept for later) and the pig slowly died. Then the hot water was used to burn off all the hair on the pigs body and helped along with knifes. After all the hair was removed, everyone began cutting the pig apart very methodically. All parts of the pig was kept. The intestines were saved to be cleaned out and used as sausage, the skins made chicharrones, and of course the meat makes everything else. For some reason, people are interested in buying the head and feet, which I guess they also prepare in a certain way? The pig parts were then weighed and reported, and the cooking began. I ate everything they gave me.

Another interesting thing that I started was teaching English and Math at vacaciones utiles, a type of summer school. I have been teaching the secondary (mid and high school kids) and been having fun getting to know them. However this program has problems keeping kids to go to class since they go by shear will and are held by nothing. The little primary school kids, or minis as I like to call them, are super cute. I have fun playing with them. The whole school had an outing to a nearby (and beautiful) seminary where we played games and got to interact. It’s so weird to be the non-separation of church and state… something I’m not used to yet. There’s signs in the school that says “God Loves You”. Of course I have no problem with it since I’m Catholic, but I’m sure other volunteers are not too fond of this. To make a long story short, Engineering is fun, but there are definite thoughts of joining my family in the teaching thing. Oh yeah, and school is amazing! It’s nothing special in terms of it’s structure, but it overlooks a beautiful view of the surrounding green lush mountains and overlapping clouds.

I have also started doing encuestas (surveys) that are necessary for Peace Corps. I like this because I get to meet the families from the campo and many times, the offer me food or drink, which can be interesting, but I haven’t had problems eating any of it so far. I get scared that I will be full from the previous house and not be able to finish something… can be disrespectful, but so far, so good.

There have been some other interesting things that have also happened, including the issues that have come up with the building of a new water treatment facility in my site, but I will get into some interesting customs that I have witnessed thus far. These things are not necessarily restricted to Peru, but at least what I have seen in my specific community. For example, sometimes when I ask a ‘Si’ or ‘No’ question, I get a response that is ‘Si’ but while sucking in. I don’t quite understand it. It’s almost like a hiccup, but after the 50th time hearing it, I realize that that’s just something people do. Also, I live in the land of the mud right now, and my clothes definitely reflect it. How in the hell do Peruvians keep their stuff so clean… ESPECIALLY THEIR SHOES! I seriously make an effort, but after a couple minutes of walking, I have mud stains on my pants, and my shoes are noticeably dirty. Peruvians judge people a lot by their clothes and appearance and I know I get some looks and some ‘So you were in the campo huh?’ I want to say… ‘no, I just live here in the mud’. Actually that’s no so bad - next time I will say that. There’s more, but I guess I forgot right now, so I will come back to that another time.

My schedule recently has been teaching two classes in the mornings from 9-1 on Monday’s and Tuesday’s, and usually working with the JASS (Junta Administradora de Servicios Sanitario – the elected group in charge of the water) as they are transitioning to the new water system. I have been able to get close with the two engineers on the project that have had a lot of patience with me and my Spanish and have overall helped me a lot. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been doing that much, but I haven’t been home very often except for the last couple days, which I have needed. So this wasn’t the amazing post that I promised, and for that I am very sorry, but I think you will forgive me, yeah?

As for my outlook on life: it varies so much here, I cannot keep up with my own emotions. At times I feel like I am living my dream and could not picture a better way to be spending my two years (in a badass place!) and other times I feel like I am wasting my time, other people’s time, the government’s money, and being away from my family for no reason. No matter strong I thought I was, I at times encounter that fragileness that cuts to my soul where I can actually physically feel pain in my heart. I think it’s important to experience this state of being because this nakedness of comfort makes you realize your true being and what and who you really are

It's on its way... It's on its way I promise!

What up peeps. So I've been very behind on my posts, and for this I apologize. A little bit of business, and a little bit of virus issues are to blame but the next one will be a fun-filled adventure-packed wild-ride kinda blog. So since I have set the bar a bit high, I better start on it and live up to these expectations I have just set.

Wishing you all well, and could someone maybe send me a frisbe or two, and/or hacky-sac? The kids here really like simple games asi. Oh.. and/or maybe a football (regular size or mini). I have a lot of kids asking me about American football.



Meanwhile... here's a sweet pic of the paisaje.

Bienvenida 2009

Happy New Year everyone! 2009 huh… weird right? I made sure and switched my cell to Spanish before I made a couple texts to my friends. Feliz ano is different than feliz año.

So here, as in many latin cultures, it is tradition to stay up late on holidays partying. Here, the town fiesta goes until 6am, and the drinking… whenever you can make it home I guess. I had a great time and was able to stay pretty sober throughout -to my astonishment. I had made sure to eat a lot beforehand and take a little nap to raise my tolerance. I made it through 3 drinking circles and had a decent amount of beer, but for the first time in Peru, I held my own. The circles included one of community members, one of my friends, and then a circle with the family (mainly the uncles).

You may be catching a sense of sourness from me toward alcohol, and I guess I should admit that I am definitely starting to feel this way. After seeing the effects it has on the community as a whole, I am really developing a bit of detestation for alcohol. I want to point out that even though I perceive alcohol in such a bad light, I don’t really sit and judge the people (or the culture or community) that drinks. With the way it’s handled here and accepted, I am in no place to judge why people make the decisions that they do because it’s not something that I can understand since I am not from here. But I hate the fact that I know some great people here who are great friends but change into Mr. Hyde when they hit a certain point. One incident that I won’t talk too much about on this blog left a cute little 5 yr. old girl (who was alone) crying in the middle of the fiesta at 4am after a drunk guy stumbled by her with a rock in his hand looking to fight another guy. I got her to sit with the family for a bit and thankfully she felt better after I let her take some pictures with my camera.

Well, turning the mood a little bit (sorry to get so downer), I did have a good time and enjoyed experiencing the New Year’s fiesta in a place I would never expect to be at this time… rural Peru. I stayed up late and it took me about a day to get back to things.

This morning I was able to get back to my routine of running in the morning and was very glad that I did. The community was soooo beautiful this morning. Everything is getting greener from the rains and the community was covered in a giant cloud. As I ran in the hills above I was ran through the clouds and as I was coming down the clouds were clearing a bit and I could see the community below along with the sunrise. Later in the morning the clouds were huddled around the surrounding steep mountains. I think I am starting the take the beautiful setting for granted a bit, but this morning I realized how lucky I am to be in this place.

In answering some questions asked, I will get into some of my everyday life here. Many of tasks are outlined and highly recommended by Peace Corps (with good reason in my opinion). For example, during these first three months, it is most important for me to become submersed into the community and become ‘known’. This also provides a method of security because as we become accepted into the community, the community will begin to look out for us. Also, trust (confianza) is a huge deal, especially in more rural areas. It is key to build this throughout our time here as a volunteer. In the meantime while trust is being built through interaction with the members of the community, we are also collecting information about the community. This information guides us as to what types of projects are needed/useful and desired by the community. I highlight desired because even if the community needs something, but doesn’t want it, this will not be a sustainable venture and will end up being a waste of our time. Moving on from preaching a bit, my tasks up to now have therefore been participating with the people here and visiting the diverse groups within my community (the mayor, municipality employees, doctors, store owners, lay people, etc.). From this data I can assess what types of activities into which I can put my time. Possible ideas are working with the wastewater system (because right now it goes straight to the river), working with building latrines in the surrounding more rural areas, and capacitating the JASS’s (groups that deal with the water and sanitation services) to be more effective. My location is a little different that most Peace Corps volunteers because I am in a bigger community. With this comes some great advantages (internet, higher probability of toilets, diverse types of people, less isolation), but then there are also disadvantages (more work to be known, more complex community dynamic, bad community habits are amplified).

As I said before, I don’t really have a normal Peace Corps living situation with a host family, but I am really getting to know and like my ‘host brother’ Humberto who is the owner of my apartment and his brother Cesar who lives next door to me. Yes, washing myself and my clothes can be hard because I don’t have a tap inside my house and going to the bathroom can be inconvenient as it is outside, but day-by-day it turns out fine and I know I am in a much better living situation than my fellow PCV’s without light, water, walls, doors, and other such ‘necessities’. After talking with Humberto today, I found out it might be possible for me to put in a spiket and drain right outside my door to nowhere on the’ balcony’. Speaking about my other family, I spend a lot of time with Sasha’s host family, who also accept me as part of their family. The mom, Charo, is a teacher in segundaria, and the husband Felizardo is a tech at the health post. They have 2 daughters, Caty 18, and Cinthia 23, and one son, Paul 25, who were all home for the holidays along with other cousins and aunts and uncles. They are a very modern family for my community in many ways.

Ryan on speaking Spanish: So, as you may or may not know, I am pretty annoyed with my lack of Spanish speaking ability. I think I may have some learning deficiency or something in this area. I really feel like I’m going nowhere with it sometimes. But I try to have fun with it a little and am learning to read people’s faces, which is pretty hilarious sometimes. I wonder ‘Did I just say what I meant to say?’ or ‘Did they ask me how long I’ve been here or how long I’m staying?’. In short, I am making some progress, but not as fast as I would like and hoped. I know you’re thinking ‘you’re from NM and your family speaks and therefore it should be easier for you’, but maybe that was the problem. I knew a few phrases and accents and such, but maybe I tuned out the rest growing up because I couldn’t understand what my mom was telling my grandma so I gave up on listening, and now I’m used to tuning Spanish out…. Or something. Yeah… that will be my excuse K. I usually do not get too tired of speaking it as some of my PC friends do, but then again I have Sasha here as an English outlet.

Wow… kinda long blog this time, yeah. Well, I will get to more questions another day along with the upcoming story of tomorrow morning: The slaughtering of a pig followed by: The eating of a pig. Hope you guys all had a Happy New Year’s and begin the year right!