Bien Ocupado

So, I’ve been running a lot and thus haven’t written – I’m still busy, so I’ll have to make this quick.

Last week flew by – mostly cause during the middle of the week we had a little muni reunion. All the municipal development volunteers on the western half of the country got together – you know – for the newbies to get to know the rest of us better.

It was nice to have a night to chitchat with people and get to know who is around me. It was also interesting to hear the newbies talk about what their up to and know that was where I was a year ago – sitting and staring at a spot on a wall in front of me for hours on end.

Though, I didn’t get some news that didn’t sit sooo well. Apparently, Peace Corps is changing the training cycle – meaning the new trainees for municipal development will come in March instead of June. The significance to me? If I want someone to follow up here, I have two options – A) Have a new volunteer in my site while I’m still here for the last two months of my service or B) Have my community wait another year to get a new volunteer. I’ve decided to suck it up and have someone here for the last two months of my service. It’ll be rough on both of us – I’ll have someone trailing me and this person will probably feel like they are my sidekick. But, such is life.

After all the mid-week fun, it was back to my community to continue to work on the farmers market we’re holding on Sunday. This market is turning out trickier then I thought – sometimes I have more help then I thought – but they don’t communicate to me what their doing. Then help I thought I have calls and cancels. So – I hope you all start praying for this thing.

Anyway, that brings me to the weekend. I went to San Rafael Cedros to visit the family I lived with during training. They’re still doing well. I was there for their Patron Saint festivities. Unfortunately – it rained the entire time, so not that many events went off without a hitch.

No matter what – I still never feel completely comfortable there. I still feel judged sometimes. Plus – my stomach never forgets that place, so I always feel ill.

Otherwise, it was just a calm weekend visiting. The only real excitement was when a pair of oxen were spooked and went charging down the street. Behind them ran a small boy screaming, ‘wait!’ – quite entertaining. Why was there a team of oxen? Students from the local school entered into a competition whereas they built a float on an ox drawn cart representing one of the products produced in the country – beans, cotton, indigo...things of that nature. There weren’t that many people there, due to the rain, but it was still nice to see.

Anyway, I got back on Monday and have not been running around again doing the promotion for the market and organizing other things. Driving me nuts!

Ohh…I’m proud to announce that the computer project is finished! On Wednesday, the two school directors, the driver and I made our way out to Santa Tecla and picked up all ten computers. It was a bad day – we were suppose to leave at 7:30 a.m. but didn’t get to go until 9:30ish. I’m just sooo glad it is over.

So, that night I decide to read a book and relax out on my patio. I sat in a chair that is alongside the doorway to enter in my house from the back. I suddenly see something black fly by in my peripheral vision. What was is? A bat. I was like…dammit. So, I ducked while entering the house and turned on the light. When I looked up, there were about 2 or three bats whizzing around the house. Thankfully, the light scares them enough to get them to leave on their own accord.

Alright, time to go! Remember to be wishing me luck on this market – I feel disaster looming.