So my 22nd birthday came and went, and ended up being pretty nice despite being significantly more sober than my last one due to the no drinking during training policy here. The other volunteers surprised me with a cake and a card they had all signed, which really made me feel appreciated and surrounded by good network of friends. When I got home my family also had a cake form my, and proceeded to sing “feliz cumpleanos” and other spanish songs. It was a really nice gesture and I feel closer to them now.
I have just returned from a PC event called “immersion days” where I went to visit a volunteer in his site that he had been in for one year. His site was a tiny village of less than 300 way out in the mountains of the west. It was an hour and a half hike from the nearest town, and the roads were so bad it is almost impossible to drive to. The village had no running water or electricity, but had a school and a church. I stayed with the volunteer and his host family for three days way out in sticks. They grow lots of corn, beans and rice, which is about all they eat. Our host volunteer was a bit sick of the lack of food variety. The highlight was visiting two absolutely gorgeous waterfalls. One had a narrow swimming hole at the bottom, which was deep enough to jump off of the surrounding rocks into. The other was over 200 feet tall and absolutely astounding. The surrounding protected area highlighted the natural beauty of tropical areas and reminded me of why I am here and definitely boosted my morale.
Hope all is well in the States.
Much love.
PS. I mis-typed my phone number before, its actually- 011 503 7516 3289
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So happy I got to talk to you on your birthday, and glad it was a good day! You've got so many cultural disparities being thrown your way in such a short amount of time, it's kind of mind boggling. Just don't grow up too fast out there (;
ReplyDeleteI was curious about this immersion day you mentioned you were going to, and sounds amazing. I wonder if you'll be placed as close to such a tropical area like your volunteer's...that would be so cool! The waterfalls sound nothing short of beautiful. I wish I could see them...you should take some pictures with your iTouch or something and post them. Oh, and how was your beach house weekend? I can only imagine shenanigans after all the hard work you've been doing.
Miss you much,
Christine
Igi - do you have skype on your computer? Was that you cell phone number. We downloaded Skype free to our computer while we were in China and put $10 on it and were able to make Skype telephone calls using it while we were there. I did a one hour teleconference with DC and several local and one US call and still have 8.80 left on it.
ReplyDeleteGlad to here about the waterfalls and the foods they are producing. We found the same in China - the don't grow lots but what you will have is good fresh foods and you can always introduce new seeds for variety.
Have fun with it.
Hugs,
Jane