back to PG!

I cannot believe it's only been a week since Swearing In! I feel like it's been months!!! Time is funny like that... lol

I was exhausted after Swearing In. We took the bus back to PG and I slept pretty much the whole way....then I went home, went to bed, and didn't wake up til noon on Sunday! I was beat!!! Sunday afternoon was then dedicated to laundry.... because I had tons of it! (and laundry takes hours...lol).

Monday began official volunteer work at my organization! Pretty much they had nothing for me to do besides inventory..... oh joy. haha So I spent Monday catching up with my emails and doing inventory! The big boss from Belize called me that afternoon to tell me that I'm going to be doing all the official supervisions because they are not going to hire a replacement supervisor for awhile....so I am it. hahaha I don't think this is how it works, but whatever...it's fine for now.

I went back to my host family and caught up with my tortilla making lessons! lol. I had a week off from cooking, so it's been back in full swing since I got home. hahaha. Mrs Assi is always asking me if I could cook, and do laundry, and have children.... I always respond, "maybe...but I don't want to!" I think she thinks I fail because I'm 23, single, no kids, and I can't really cook. I pretty much have NO good qualities suitable for a Mayan woman.... guess I'm not gonna get married off into the family! hahaha oh darn!  I will be happy to move into my own house, just because it's really hard to live with another family....you have to be "on" all the time.... even when you work all day and want to come home and relax, you still have to be friendly and up for conversations with them.... it's kind of exhausting! I love my host family, don't get me wrong!, but sometimes I just need chill time! haha

Monday night Laura and Dan came into town for the Festival of the Arts because both their villages were performing... we hung out for the night and it was much needed after a long 2 days of getting back into the swing of host family life!

Tuesday I started going into the villages for supervisions--on my own! I was nervous! Fido, our driver, took me out and we covered Laguna, Santa Anna, San Felippe, and Midway villages...I felt very productive! Since I was so productive, I gave myself a very lazy evening of hammock time when we got home. I napped and hung out with baby Pachy and was just a big bum! It was fantastic! I even watched some bootleg tv from a local Idaho station.... yes, very strange. I wonder if the local electronics man in Lewiston, Idaho knows that his commercial is international??? hahahahaha

Wednesday I slept in a little, deciding to go to the office later than usual. I had fried chicken for breakfast, same as yesterday. What a weird thing to eat when you first wake up! hahaha My stomach pretty much hates me when I stuff it with dinner at ungodly hours of the morning! haha. But Antoinnette also made banana fritters that morning and they were delicious!! So good!  After work, I met up with a few volunteers for a beer at an ex-pat bar in town. Nice and relaxing. Oh, what a stressful life! 
Dinner that night was chopped jibby jabby and tomatoes with tortillas..... it was so strange!!! I'm not really sure how to feel about that meal.... hahaha. And I'm not even sure what jibby jabby is! Just some weird plant/vegetable thing! hahaha
That night I watched "My Sister's Keeper" w/the family and CRIED! That movie is so sad!!! I felt really dumb, but when it ended I turned around and Ant and Cor were crying too. Mrs Assi, of course, was not...most likely because she didn't really know what all was being said. She did make fun of me for crying though and kept repeating "this is so sad" after I said it.... odd. I needed a happy thought before bed, so I tuned in to the end of Bridget Jones's Diary.

Thursday was another field day in the villages.  I had to wake up earlier than usual, so I was able to walk with Cor to school on my way to work. This time Samuel came with, as did Pearleen. I think Pearleen is more like a social worker in our office...she doesn't directly work in our program, but we are both under the Ministry of Human Development. So it was a nice full car on the way there. San Jose was the first village, and I was dropped to supervise while they went around doing other stuff. I had to hike to the top of a hill for the first supervision and it was an AMAZING view! SO gorgeous! I talked a lot with the Rover who works there and she showed me where they had cleared the trees for the house she and her husband are building. She invited me to come when they build the thatch house sometime in August--I'm totally taking advantage of that invitation!! I'm not really her boss, so I think it's fine! haha I met back up with the car, and the chairmen of the village took us up another hill to get cell phone service and also for another great view! We drove around for Pearleen because she had a lot of other business to take care of in San Jose before heading to San Miguel. By the time we reached San Miguel, all the Rovers were done for the morning, so we headed home for lunch.  We headed back out around 1:30. We stopped at a high school on the way where Pearleen did more stuff, but I was exhausted and fell asleep in the car! hahaha We pulled up to San Miguel and I thought it was another normal supervision---wrong! We actually were going door to door to EVERY house in the village who has a child under 3 to get feedback about our program and our Rovers.... OMG! I felt like the biggest gringa ever! I looked so dumb going around because I don't know the village or ANY families, and I don't talk Q'echi or Kriol! Ah...it was so awkward for me! I couldn't wait til it was over!!!! It was like bad memories of selling candy bars for fundraisers all over again.... ahhhh!
I didn't get home to well after 5 that night, and even though I was exhausted, I headed over to Cali's to hang out with her for a bit. We ended up going to one of Dave's friend's birthday party--it was very fun! It was a kriol family (and they know how to party) and they had great music and it was just an awesome night!

TGIF was exactly how I felt on Friday! It was a LOOONG week back after Swearing In! We had a "Forthnight" session, which takes place bi-monthly for all the Rovers in our PG office. At first, Samuel wanted me to run the session, but I've never even been to one! So I agreed to start it, but had him take over. It was a REALLY short session because I'm pretty sure he didn't really have anything planned...which worked out for me because Matt came into town from Santa Elena! I walked to meet him and hang out while he was waiting on his host dad for lumber! We hung out for about 2 hrs and his host dad never showed.... so I went back to the office and he got the lumber on his own. I had a nice hour of nothing to do in the office.... hahaha So I spent the time gettin to know Samuel... Then I left because it was Nate's bday! So I met up with Nate and Michelle, and Matt stayed in town and we all grabbed a burger! Then we went to the bank and Matt spots his host dad from across the street. He comes over and smells like straight Belikin! hahaha He ditched Matt to go drink! So funny! So he was talking to us for awhile and we finally left and told him we had to go somewhere he couldn't go. We all went our separate ways, and Matt and I decided to find a place to have a beer since he had a few hours to kill before the bus.... We were walking down Front Street and Matt spots his host dad again, and we straight up run! It was like an escape scene from a movie! We were in the market and like crashing through people....so ridiculous! hahaha We finally headed up to Reef Bar and had an amazing time lookin over the water and relaxing, enjoying our good ole Stouts. Nate and Michelle eventually came back and met us and we had an awesome Friday happy hour.... it was the perfect way to end the working week!
We took Matt to his bus before heading back to our houses... I did some PC integration and went to visit with some neighbors in IndianVille. They are actually related to Matt's old host family in San Martin. And they gave me some delicious homemade cinnamon bread! Mmmm!!! lol. Food.
I got home to my phone to find out that two different football teams wanted me to play for them the next day! So I was in a dilemma because both were last minute and I didn't know what to choose! Things like this always happen to me!!!
I got home around dinner time and headed to the corn mill for Mrs Assi to get some ground massa. Then we made tortillas and had pork kaldo for dinner. It was really good that night! lol. Meanwhile, Matt texted me that his host dad never got on the bus and then later on they passed him passed out on the side of the road and the driver wouldn't stop to pick him up! hahaha Fail! Poor guy.
I ended the night going back to Cali's that night to hang out with some people for Nate's bday. I came home early and was still locked out of my house! Ah! Even worse, she let me in and was in her underwear, which is like spandex type satin lacey shorts things... it what all the Mayan women wear under their dresses.... but how awkward! Whatever...it was hot... I understand her nakedness! hahaha
I got into my room and noticed a weird black spot on the wall by my bed. I shined my flashlight on it and realized it was a SCORPION!!! My first encounter with a real life scorpion!!! So, as anyone would do, I stopped freaking out.... took a picture of it.... sprayed it with cockroach spray....took another close up pic of it... and then hit it with my shoe repeatedly. It was quite an exciting way to end my evening! hahahha