viernes 16.9.11
A Happy Latrine Birthday! Have you ever thought you’d build a latrine on your birthday? I mean I don’t think there is any better way then to spend a birthday morning than building a latrine. At least it wasn’t full! Wahoo! So on the morning of my birthday September the 10th, shout out to Ivano my 5th year design teacher because we share the same amazing birthday, or as he likes to say I share it with him because he was born first, anyway we had training in the morning. We rotated groups through building the plancha of a latrine, working on water storage tanks, and doing community analysis. A plancha is the base of the latrine that you would sit above or in my case squat on. We had to saw the rebar with a hacksaw and then bend it using a tree’s branches. Then we had to tie it together using a thin piece of metal cord to make our roughly 1-meter by 1-meter plancha. The next group came in and had to mix the cement with sand and gravel. After that we poured the concrete to form the plancha over the latrine pit. We must have looked so pitiful trying to do this because the owner of the house came to help us. I have never seen a man work as hard as this guy does. He dug the latrine pit 1-meter by 1-meter by 3-meters alone, then found tree branches to use under the plancha to support it. Then he helped us mixed the concrete. Whenever we are in tech class he is always working on something with his house or yard. He also has some great dance moves but that’s coming up. So the other project, we learned how to make water tanks for storage and what the ratios of materials are to coat the insides, outsides and make the lid. After the morning work session I had a nice, relaxing afternoon. I played my guitar and yes I can play a mean “when the saints go marching in”, “ode to joy” and “jingle bells”. After than my family danced go the Macarena and I taught them the Cupid Shuffle. All in a days work. For dinner we had the typical birthday feast here, which is rice with chicken that is cooked all day over a fire and a pasta and chicken dish. I saw my mom and my sister kill the 2 chickens for dinner. They basically choked them or strangled them by holding their necks, which I think is a lot nicer than how a lot of other people do it here, slitting their necks and letting them hang upside down. I’m hoping to help in the next chicken killing J. For dinner some of my Peace Corps friends came and then all my relatives here. Dessert of course was my favorite part, cake and ice cream. A tradition for after blowing out your candles is that they take icing and put it on your cheeks. After the festivities we went up to the rancho, where we have tech class and had a Latin dance party. I learned how to salsa dance. This is the part where I had said the owner of the house, Arnufo, really knows how to dance. He was teaching everyone how to salsa and then showing off his skills with his wife. My favorite part of dancing was with the little town kids.
Sunday all of my relatives here, who includes two other Peace Corp trainees, and myself went to my grandfather’s finca (farm). Some of us rode on top of horses to get here. Finally I got my wish of wanting to ride horses. We rode to the finca and then I got to help my uncle herd the cows and bulls into the coral. We had to ride to the other side of the farm to get the other cows. I’d say I’m basically a cowboy now. Or cowgirl to be correct. All I need to learn is how to rope a cow. Which is what my uncle did next because some of the cows and bulls needed to get vitamin injections. When my grandfather was giving the injections in the butt, the cows would try to kick him. He got kicked really good one time but I think he was used to it because he did not budge. I’m pretty sure that kick would have snapped my leg in half. After this excursion at the first farm we went to the second farm to get oranges. My sister’s boyfriend climbed the orange tree and threw them down to us. Another skill I need to learn, how to climb the orange tree that has spikes. Note to self don’t do this again. Ouch. We would then cut the peel off the orange and suck all the juice out. They don’t eat certain types of oranges here only drink the juice. My grandfather also uses a 2-foot machete to cut the orange peel off. Another skill I need to learn because I butchered my orange trying. After our escapades to the farms we went back to our house for lunch and then rode the horses some more. The next day it hurt to sit. I was so sore from riding the horses and my thighs were swollen. Take an orange, cut it in half and then attach it to my upper thighs that is what it felt like. So needless to say I walked a little funny for a couple days.
Sunday the 18th we are heading to tech week in the Comarca Ngobe Bugle where we will all be staying with a different family. The site will be like our sites for 2 years in that we will have no electricity and maybe no running water. I’m not sure on that yet. And I have a dreams update. I’m not sure if all these crazy dreams are from the malaria pills or what but… in the past couple nights I had a dream about the Cincinnati Bengals and singing in a huge choir at one of their games, which is funny because in Spanish class the next day we were doing an activity on using the future tense and my friend told my future of marrying a professional football player. I like this future. Other dreams I had… a little Japanese boy had a game to kill me. We were all in a building and there were drawings of a gun hanging throughout the building leading to the gun. The FBI had to find the gun in a certain amount of time or the kid was going to kill me. Another dream there was a ghost that was messing with me and hit my foot in my dream and it woke me up out of my dream. Another dream last night I was in some terminal where there was a graduation for a special school. The children apart of this school were from age 5 to college and once you were apart of them you couldn’t get out. Somehow I was trying to escape from them and I did but it was really freaky and somewhat futuristic. Where do I come up with this stuff?!
