08-17-Third week down. Successful meeting with the youth of
Charcon and Praderas. One of the Charcon parents wants representatives for the
teams to help work out any issues. Mavin, the parent, is actually the rep for
the Charcon baseball team, so I understand that he is trying to replicate an
already exisiting system of organization. Not entirely sure what to expect but
vamos a ver. Rewarded myself with a bike (1855 cords) and a fried egg omlette
for dinner. Biking was hard-I am way out of shape and my but bones need to get
accustomed to the lovely terrain that only has a few rocks J It is the faster way
to get from Point A to Point B, but on one stays in the seat for the whole
trip. Rolling hills would be an understatement. On another note, apparently my great-aunt died
a year ago today and custom says that we do the reso thing again, but you only
do it for the one-day anniversary.
08/18 Happy Birthday Isi!! Slow morning watching CARS in
Spanish and reading the New York Times. Corozal had it’s first official
practice today. Only one kid showed up on time and I was about to leave after
30 minutes, when suddenly everyone showed. They have a smaller field (it’s
actually the concrete basketball court in front of the school). The school was
having an activity for the parents at the same time, so we had several
spectators measuring me up to see how serious I was. Different subject: Isi has
a hicky! Also had the Community Bank meeting in the afternoon. The women need a
financial math booster. They know the facts, but they are not very confident
and the added stress of it being money doesn’t help. Still impressed that the
Bank has succeed for at least 2 years without the help of a PCV. Successfully made chocolate chip cookies for
Isi and gave her a bottle of lotion with a friendship bracelet for all her help
and patience. She looked rather flustered and shocked at first, like she was
thoroughly surprised that I would give her a present. Wasn’t sure if maybe that
wasn’t kosher (but I had seen Lidia give her a blouse). Technically the cookies
were made with a candy called Botonetas (chocolate coated lentils) but they
still came out great. Edwin and Vladimir wanted to eat them all, but I told
them they would have to ask Isi. This was a completely strange concept to all
parties involved, and the men just laughed it off. Written recipies are still a
relatively new thing, so Isi and Lidia grilled me trying to memorize the
recipie verbally even though I offered to give them a copy of the recipie. They
do the same thing for the cooking class; even though they write it down, they
can also tell the other women who didn’t attend verbatim what the ingredients
and instructions are without looking.
08/19 Double header for baseball in Charcon today. Arm feels
good sore. More acceptable to trhow around with the youth between innings
towards the side of the field. Biked the whole way there and back. Was scolded
severely by Lidia and Edwin and Ariel for not having greased my bike beforehand,
which was why, apparently, the wheel wasn’t centered and I felt it every pedal.
Luckily, Edwin and Ariel and Jackson (cousin) are fix-it handymen. The little
kids who live next door caught about 40 tiny fish that they brought back from
the Cenizabu river. They were incredibly practiced and precise descaling and
gutting each one.
8/20: Bacteria :2 Me:0. Woke up every 3 hours, slept in
until 6:30 then kept dozing. Lidia all but forced me onto the bus to go to the
Health Center in Praderas. Nurse Mayra said no parasites, but given that I
almost got sick and fell asleep in her office at the same time, she was worried
it might be dengue or a bacteria. The
Doctor reminded not to eat nacatamales (oops) or raw cuajdad (oops). It is
impossible to guard against all the germ vectors here, but I think this is a
particularly key time to start preparing more of my own food. Lidia was very
nervous when I told her I couldn’t eat anything but veggies and rice for the
next couple of days. She takes it as her personal responsibility to make sure I
have enough food, but it has been mostly the same thing that the rest of the
family eats. Slept in the pulperia until the bus came at 2. Two little kids
kept coming from across the street to try to talk to me. There was also a group
of gringos from the GE Build On group- they are here to build a school in
Soledad. They looked very green, and probably though I was crazy as I got on
the back of the truck with all my Nica community members.
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