August 9, 2011

A week from today we will be sworn in as official Peace Corps Volunteers! Today we had our 2nd to last tech session. We talked for a little about sites and any questions/concerns we still had. Then played the card game cuarenta (40). At 11 we went to go harvest our vegetables from the garden. The lechuga (lettuce), remolacha (beets) and rabano (radishes) were all ready, for the most part. After harvesting we cleaned and chopped and made a lovely salad. Chloe took the tops of the beets (the leaf part) and cooked them with some onion and garlic. They also roasted/baked some of the beets, which were quite tasty.

We ate our left over pizza with the salad and Portia, Tom Rebekah and I watched the movie Booty call, so funny, gotta love the 90’s! In the afternoon, Parmer (country director) and Dana (asst director) came to talk to us about the Policy book. We talked about housing, traveling and vacation policies. I don’t know if I mentioned this or not but we are the last group that has the option to live on our own after the 1st 3-6 months in site. Apparently Washington has mandated this for several other Latin American countries. They’re not sure if it will go worldwide or not. The vacation days policy is kinda confusing but essentially I get 2 days/month and can save and use them up. We also get personal days. No more than 25 days/month are to be used at once.

After training a bunch of us played soccer. The 1st time in years that I’ve played! It was really fun but oh so tiring. Again, not sure if it was the altitude or being out of shape.lol. The burning of garbage close to the field didn’t help. Our team lost but it was still really fun to get out and play.

I went straight to the mall to get my family photo printed then arrived home about 7:30. Papa Patricio was home. The one night I come home starving and there’s no food! So I showered and ate some crackers with PB. I was starting to think I might fall asleep before Mama Teresa and Lucy arrived home. They arrived around 9 pm

I guess they were in Cumbaya in search of a “Madrina”; Lucy needs one for her confirmation this weekend. So they were at a family member’s house. Lucy isn’t confirmed and can’t technically get married by the Catholic church until she is so I guess she’s doing crash courses or something since the wedding is in like a week and a half…lol..oh the catholics..

My host sister Anita from Mexico skyped me!! I was able to see the whole family and talk with them for a bit. Soo good to see them and hear how they are doing. Anita will be leaving for a Rotary Exchange Year in Brazil next week. They want me to visit and I really wish I could. Made me kinda miss Mexico.

So I ended up eating dinner, I was the only one but Mama Teresa stayed and talked with me. We had an interesting conversation about divorce and some of the family dynamics. My host brother is divorced and re-married but has a son with the 1st woman. We talked about how the ex isn’t the greatest example for Arian but that the step-mom doesn’t seem to get along super well with him either. The kid is such a sweat heart and I can only imagine what type of counseling he’s gong to need and most likely not get when he’s older. Plus Pato (host brother) and current wife are going to have their 3rd child so I guess there is some pressure about finding a bigger place and all that jazz. Ok calling it a night.
Chao