workin hard.... or hardly workin....?

Thursday I went to work! I was pretty excited to finally start doing something! (other than being a tourist for the past 2 months!) I got into the office at 8:30 and we headed in the field to San Jose for a day visit. San Jose is the farthest village we travel to. As we are driving through neighboring villages, I spot a little gringo in a bike helmet.... And who is it? Dan! We stopped and chatted to him and his host brother and it was pretty hilarious b/c we thought we weren't gonna see eachother for 2 weeks! oh man. Then when I got into San Jose, I saw the volunteer of that village, Patrick. It was a pretty weird day because UNICEF came to monitor the program, so there were lots of pictures and sucking up to the donors type stuff happening, so I couldn't really get a feel for my job. But I watched some of the stimulations with the babies and tried to practice my Mopan with the families! haha


San Jose is beautiful tho! It's in the hills and all the houses and thatch huts and it's huge! Such an amazing place to see.... that definitely is the perk of my project!


We got home from our trip before lunch and that was pretty much all I had to do for the day. I took advantage of the computer and internet access (wohoo!) to update my blog and such before going home. MY co-worker, Samuel, walked me home so I knew the way back and I got a little bit of a feel for PG. It's only a 1/2 hour walk to Indian Ville--not too shabby! I met Michele after she got off from school and we walked around town a little more to get a feel for things.... basically, we did a lot of circles and got lost. ahhahaha


On Friday I got up for my second day and basically did nothing! Oh Belize! MY counterpart came in to quit that day! So now I am pretty much acting as the supervisor of the organization! Yikes! I don't know about all this.... So once again I sat on the computer and caught up. Boy, totally not what I was expecting to get in to down here! We shall see....


I took the opportunity after work to explore the market and such. I tried some musse melon juice (that might be completely wrong) which they served to me in a plastic baggie with a straw--the norm. That afternoon Cornelia took me on a looong walk around all of PG to kinda get a feel for things.... it was awesome! We got sweet tortillas, and gingerbread, and ice cream all along the way.... yay fat kids!


That evening I hung out around the house being lazy. Our neighbor, Rena, is from El Salvador and really sweet so I chatted with her in the yard while Tania picked mangos for us. She is only 20 years old and she has a 3yr old and is pregnant with another! She's sooo young!


My new host family eats kaldo nonstop! I had kaldo kax for lunch and dinner friday. Oy. I'm ready for a burger! hahaha. That night Cornelia and I watched scary movies... I hate scary movies, I was so scared!!! I could see the screen from my bed, so I watched from under my mosquito net.... Yea, I'm cool. Of course, as I'm screaming and hiding under my net is when I meet Mr Assi for the first time. I'm sure he thought I was a crazy gringa! lolol.


Saturday was soooooooo hot!! Oh man! I didn't have a fan because it broke, so I was sweating my you know what off when I woke up! & ya know when you wake up sweaty and you just feel gross and miserable? yea, it was one of those days.... lol


so i didn't actually get myself moving and out of bed til after 10am... they thought i was a LAZY gringa! haha Plus, I got a cold since moving down south...yea, I'm in the heat and I have a cold, what's up with that? So I decided to skip breakfast and have lunch as my first meal.... You can guess what I had.... KALDO! haha Anyway, I decided since I couldn't taste or smell, maybe it would be a good day to try pepper!!! So I threw a habanero pepper into my kaldo.... BAD LIFE CHOICE! My brains pretty much came out of my nostrils!!! It cleared me out! My mouth was on FIIIRE! To top it off, I was outta water, so I had to run to the Crystal jug, try to get it open--which was an ordeal-- and filled my water bottle, spilling water all over the floor, and then chugging! It was bad. I had to mop the floor after the incident. I swear my lips were numb after that! Phew! I mean, I'm a wimp when it comes to pepper.... but this was madness! My nostrils were like Niagara Falls! So bad! I think I lost 2lbs just from by whatever came out of my nose... I'm not doing that again....


After that experience, I decided it was the perfect time to take a cold shower. And it was. I felt instantly better after a rough morning. By the time I finished, Michele, Nate, and Erica had come by to go walking and looking at houses. We spent the afternoon out around town. It was nice! We went down to the sea to get a little water time, but it was very unsuccessful b/c I ended up slicing my foot open! Fail. Dengue of the foot. Just kidding. But then a drunk man came to visit us down by the sea and became best friends with Nate. Nate told him he was with his wife, so when the drunk man learned Michele was his wife, he came up to me and kissed my hand and stroked my arms.... creeper! Then it was time to leave.... Thanks a lot drunk man! hahaha


Later on I got my second round of lunch at their host mom's. She is Garifina, so we had a traditional soup with coconut milk and plantanes and shark in it! (I forget the name). But it was really good! I think it's the first time I had shark too! Yum. Who's the king of the sea now??? hahaha Wow. By the time I got home, it was another meal. So I had some kaldo (yes, kaldo!) for dinner before headin back out. We all grabbed pizza (or 8th meal for me) that night at this little shop at the edge of town. It was pretty good! Yay, I know a pizza place! To top it off, BELOW the pizza place is a chocolate factory where they give you free samples!!! Mmmm Mmmm good! I tried the cacao -- the local stuff-- so good! Plus, free samples rock! hahaha


Which, by the way, I was told that my blog is constantly about food.... which is funny, because meals is one of the things I dread in Belize! But I love to eat.... It's a catch 22 situation! hahaha So I guess you will just have to keep hearing about my food experiences.... hahahaha. OR SEND ME FOOD!!!! Wow, that was my hunger yeling.