- Cooking/Eating/Sharing food
- THIS is a big deal for me. Any of you who know me well know that food is a very critical element when it comes to my happiness, and fortunately, Lauren and Margaret share my passion for creative cooking/eating in general.
- This paired with some wonderful cheeses, quinoa, oils, vinegar, and spices from my lovely mother has led to some very memorable kitchen experiences including (but not limited to):
- My first attempt at making chutney - black berries, apples, jalapenos, ginger, and clove - was fairly successful and tastes delicious both baked over hunks of brie with pretzal crisps as well as spread on toasted sweet bread with brie slices melted on top (both have been big hits with Dona Humbe)
- Quinoa and veggie breakfast skillets
- Various tortilla pizzas including veggie, chicken, goat cheese, and sun dried tomato pesto as well as goat cheese, tomato sauce, chorizo, jalapeno, and cheddar
- Jalapenos stuffed with chorizo and melted baby bell and cheddar cheese
- The night of the jalapenos was quite the homestay bonding time - Lauren ended up with jalapeno oil on her face (which turned beet red), we initially didn't seed the jalapeno slices which led to some scorched esophagi (at least mine), running noses and eyes, and ultimately resulted in Lauren and I rubbing our faces with hunks of cucumber from the fridge and Humbe refusing all jalapenos but loving the combo of goat cheese and chorizo - very good times
- ALSO every community insists on feeding me in some way, so I stay pretty well fed and watered throughout the day - a full stomach certainly takes the edge off tough communities and long, bumpy rides through the mountains
- Friends and Family
- I've been able to spend more time chatting with and getting to know Margaret, Lauren, and Waleska. I also feel like my Spanish has reached a point that I can finally build my relationships with some of my non-English speaking friends: to name a few, there's my Muni driver, Abel, who is quiet but an absolute delight to be around, the Vis Alcaldes showing me around the communities, Pedro and Damacio, and Mincho's daughter, July, who works in the planning office at the Muni and has been SUPER helpful with everything
- This past week has also been a time of connecting with friends back home, especially a wonderful catch-up with Mary Rose and mama G - my face hurt from smiling when I was done talking with those wonderful ladies
- I've also been super fortunate to have spent some time chatting with my mom, dad, brother Michael, aunt Janet, and Tim to hear about their lives and swap some stories. I was also able to THOROUGHLY enjoy some good-natured sports banter with my grandpa (or should I say, some wonderful opportunities to rub his face in the current state of Brewer's baseball in relation to the Reds, though now I'm hoping the Crew can get out of their slump...)
- All this to say having a chance to chat with all of the different, wonderful people in my life right now (near and far) have been HUGELY helpful in boosting my mood
- Exercise
- I've been spending more time attending the aerobics classes put on by my PCV friends and have been dragging myself out of bed for 5am runs with Lauren and some of the ladies in the community - while I certainly can't say I've hit a routine, I'm in the process
- Self-confidence
- I think I was more nervous than I realized at the start of my work, and I'm sure some of that insecurity and self-doubt in relation to my Spanish and just the depth and breadth of the data acquisition process had me fairly off-kilter. I'm certainly still not 100% awesome at Spanish and fully comfortable in my role, but I've now completed 30/140 community visits and I'm hitting a groove
- Por ejemplo, the other day I met with a few leaders of a community who have apparently recently had some discussions with Mike/Doug (my professional mentors/bosses) about the possibility of a pedestrian or vehicle bridge (long story short, there's some debate as to which type is best for the location, the the project is on hold). Because they were used to visits from stately, professional ingenieros, and perhaps a few young, wide-eyed students in tow, when I showed up in the pick up, one of the leaders came right out and asked "Solo usted? Pero donde estan los ingenieros?"
- Last week this probably would have thrown me way off, possibly ruined my day, and definitely would have led to some serious feminist tude... However, this week, I was able to quickly respond "Soy la ingeniera - vamos a hablar" and move on with the meeting
- I think the community leaders (all men) were a bit taken aback, but it turned out to be one of my favorite groups of guys so far. Once we all moved past the fact that I was a (relatively) young woman, we had a great discussion, and the leader who was initially so taken aback by me ended up coming with us for the rest of the day's visits and was an awesome advocate for me, which in turn helped break the whole female-engineer awkwardness inherent at the start of most of my meetings, and led to great, fruitful afternoon conversations.
Not quite on the same level as everything above, BUT I have to say I've been listening to a LOT of Beyonce since her performance at the VMAs - her new album is an amazing insight into her personal life and the marital struggles she and Jay Z have faced (and overcome) after having a baby in the public eye - I know that's a total side note, but she's awesome; I mean, seriously, who get's 16 minutes of performance time at the VMAs? Beyonce, that's who.
In other, sad news, I dropped my camera in a spring on Friday :( - I was shocked at the time how little it phased me (granted, I ended up with some pretty serious insomnia last night just laying awaking thinking about how I could have prevented the drop from happening...). Ultimately, I had a little teaching moment when I went bought some rice at a tienda (so convenient) and put my camera in it for the rest of the day - Abel had never heard of this method and seemed very impressed by the concept. Currently old blue (my camera...) is hanging out in one of the goofy doggy-face-tupperware things my mom sent me from Ikea - I gave one to Waleska's son and he was pretty happy with it, but I'm still pretty perplexed by their presence in my care package...
Based on my calculations, I should be done with my community visits by the end of October - if I can stay on top of my paperwork and map-making, I should be in very good shape to be headed home for Christmas with my projects wrapped up (pun intended) and with my full attention directed toward the Sechum vehicle bridge construction in January!
All in all, life is going quite well! So here are some pictures!
Food first, obviously...
The oven doesn't work, so to make the pizzas nice and crispy and melty, we just put a pot over the comal - it's a partial Peace Corps oven
Yummy yummy pizzas
Quinoa skillet with some Aero Press coffee on the side after a 5am run - notice the bag of spices (SO MANY SPICES) from my mom and my little frijolito in the bottom corner... re-learning how to text on that bad boy has been tough and a major flashback to high school...
THE jalapeno night - the first few pizzas with seeds in (bad idea)
Dona Humbe showing off her "pastel" of toasted sweet bread, chutney, and brie because she thought it looked pretty - also, it's Sunday, so she has on some awesome, Quiche traje. I'm a big fan of the handmade huipils of Joyabaj, but I think Humbe's latest blouse is awesome
In other news, Lauren and I found Eeyore hanging out to dry on the clothes line the other night... Mind you this was the same night I found Lauren eating her dinner directly out of a frying pan...
Abel getting some shots of the scenery
Pedro's beautiful house and garden in Chorraxaj
A community meeting - this is a very young community with no school or meeting area, so we met at a break pressure tank for their water system
The school directora of Chiritza'q - SUPER PILAS - just strolling through a lovely garden behind her school
This was the community from the story above with the leader perplexed about me being the only engineer... also a young community with no meeting space, though this hilltop meeting around the plaque commemorating the connection of the community to the Muni electrical grid has been one of my favorite meeting settings so far
The school director of Barrio Democracia showing us how they've had to set up a room in a hallway - turns out this is the school right next to where my aunt Janet lived when she was here in 2000-2002 in the Peace Corps!
A few pictures from the road...
...all of the communities to the north are high in the mountains, so we see some pretty spectacular views...
The Toyota is Abel's pick up - we spend a lot of time in that car...
A view of the city of Joyabaj
Finally, my sad camera hanging out in a rice bath in the silly dog tupperware on my dresser (which is complete with some knickknacks from Tim/games/the 88Nine Studio MKE CD...)
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