Week One and a Half

Hmm...where to begin.

The first Sunday here I went with my alcalde (mayor) to another town for a Rodeo. Not like the rodeo´s in the US, smaller bulls....collected from local farmers. But still, it was interesting. Once there I met up withRachell (neighboring volunteer). Her and I chilled while my alcalde went his own way....for the best. She introduced me to all her people and her host family. Between the boys being bucked/falling off the cattle, we had singers (some good, some not so good), queens (they have queens for everything.....ex queen of the rodeo, queen of the patron saint festivals, queen of the police....everything) and some really fun drunk people. Alright, maybe fun isn´t the word...let´s say interesting. We also had to navigate the mud...it poured at one point during the festivities. Afterward, I went and chilled with a bunch of the local ladies and my host sis (Iris). We just sat on a corner and watched a mariache band. I couldn´t help but stair at the singers tremendous underbite. We sat till it was dark and then piledlled into a car to head back home. Apparently, during my time with the band, my alcalde was searching for me even through Iris had called one of compatriotsates to say I was with her.....oops.

Monday started my first ´work week´, i really don´t do any work right now. I think I did pretty well my first week. I started sitting in everyone´s office for about an hour or two to get to know ttheirnd thier jobs. Yes, it was just as, oawkward, akward as one may imagine. But, I´m starting to become accustomeawkwardnesskwardness. I also managed to attend various meetings about stuff I didn´t fully understand. One included a soccer tournament, another scholarships and students who are living up to the grade requirements, and a health committee meeting. Not to forget the youth group that I´m now working with or the softball team I´m helping to resurrect. Alright...maybe I´m more like sitting in with the last two...but i´m getting there! I´ve also managed to introduce myself to different organizations in the community, like the health center. I´ve walked through the town (takes about 15 min or less from start to finish) artisansed some artisians (pottery anyone?). I also managed to finish about a book and a half....I have a lot of down time. I´m also still watching La Fea Mas Bella...my soap opera.

On Thursday we had a spectacular thunder storm...spectacular! I´ve never quite seen a storm like it. The house shook from the thunder and the land lit up like it was the middle of the day with the lightening. We, of course, lost power/watvaryingne lines for varing amounts of time. The water came back on after a little less then a day, electric on saturday and phone lines till yesterday. It was quite romantic writing my journal by candle light.......but then I went to bed at 7:50pm cause there was NOTHING to do.

Over this past weekend, I Rachel'sack out to Racheals. There was part of the Peace Corps soccer team playing futbal rapido (smaller version of soccer done on a small basketball court) against the locals. The women won by one point, but the boys weren´t so lucky. Afterward we chilled at Rachel's place. Rachel´s site is currently enjoying it´s festivals patronales...so there was plenty going on. We went and say Axe Bahia (group from Brazil) in concert. I must say, I was a little disappointed. First, because they said we could dance with the group and then retracted in favor of locals dancing instead (yes, i know it´s better, but still! i was excited and they ripped the rug right out from beneath me...err). Next, because they only really sang two songs in the hour or so they were on stage. The rest were dancing competitions and promotions. They advertise A LOT here during programs.

Sunday morning everyone left but me.....I was staying around for the Cross Dressing Competition later that night. I´ll talk more about that in a minute. Basically, we just chilled around town. I saw a skit put on by some local kids, ate some pizza (just have to not think about NY) and took a nap. Ohh..there was also that thing with the guys on horses. They would make the horse go as fast as it could toward this clothes line type thing. On the line were targets in which they had to try and put this chopsweirdtype thing. It was wierd. There would also be random parades with people in random get-ups. That night we helped out at the Cross Dressing competition by being the male escorts for the ´ladies´. It was fun to finally cat call some of them....bwa ha ha ha ha. We went by the names of our mayors. I don´t think anyone caught that, but it was still funny to me. Some of the guys really got into it and strutted like a model..Rachels great. Apparently Racheal and I made good ´guys´because some people actually mistook us for them or just didn´t recognize us.

That brings us to thiRachel'sMonday I went back to Racheals site (what...she´s like half an hour away) to attend the local dance. It´s like high school..boys on one side, girls on the other and if they dance there is a nice space between the two. Stephen (another newbie) was also there. We make fun of him because his alcalde just keeps buying him beers whenever they go out no matter how many times he says he doesn´t want one...it´s great. The dance was divided between dj music and a live boy band. The band was terrible...well...not the band, the singers. They tried, Lord did they try..but it fell a little short. Afterwards, I hunted down my alcalde for a ride...I was worried he would leave without me. We got back to the house around 2:30ish and I crashed.

Tuesday the Alcaldia (mayors office) was closed in honor of its employees and we all hit up lunch. I didn´t understand most of what went on and everyone though that was incredibly funny. I thought it was funny when half my speech (at the end everyone said something) was in english...Sweet Revenge!

I´ve also noticed a few changes with myself. For example, I opened my peanut butter and found 3 or 4 little ants....I said, ´it´s still good´, picked them out and carried on my merry way. I'm also ok with the random bugs and reptils I find. Wel...most of them.

One last note....I´ve seen a spider, an aracnid if you will. I thought that I had seen spiders in my life, but I hadn´t. It was like a taranchula....big, very big....huge...furry...with a defined body...and big legs. Hell, it probably could've taken on a small dog, like a tea cup yorkie. Iris killed it with a broom.