A Present to My Route

Part One

Part Two

"Hola Tamale"

I just got back from Close-Outs, where I stayed over at my favorite host family’s house..I heard many stories as they missed the lil’ vol. possibly too much. The funniest being when they introduced him to tamales…I suppose this non-West Coast kid was just in such shock as to what they were..when he got them he said hello. “Hola Tamale” The family thought it was perhaps the funniest thing in the world. 

Debriefing Funk.

I can’t help but be a lil’ let down with Debriefing. There was a lot of energy floating around, and too many things to tend to-but when it came to good-byes, I had to use pats on the backs, equivocating to real ones. Poor me, the bus stop came out of nowhere, literally, it was actually just an arbitrarily chosen stretch of the land.  An added plus, the lil’ ones thought it would be fun to have a DP on the last night, full of candy, cookies and really loud song lyrics. The best part (on our end) was that these lil’ ones drew all over their faces, and due to our planning, still have marker all over their face during Immigration and Customs! Your welcs. But, looky-aren't they darn cute?!

One of my vols., Kristy is the sweetest lil' lady ever.

During our back-feed, we tend to draw and talk about everything and everything.

Did I mention that when I come for my weekly visit, she always has questions ready and waiting for me to answer.

This last week in particular, we spent about three hours drawing pictures for another volunteer, Jen.
It is actually, perhaps the coolest game ever of 'Riddle'..you should play.

Highlight of back-feed this week would be one of her answer's on 'youth involvement' (and yes she gave me permission to post this...)

"One of my favorite things about working with the youth is that every once in a while they will just start singing randomly one of the songs that you taught them two weeks before.." -Kristy

A lil' story.

Once upon a time, Nicholas Muth needed to take his Malaria meds. He decided that he would take it with breakfast, as it stated that it was required on the bottle. Among the Amigos vols., it is common knowledge that Malaria pill is not known for its good taste. Because of this, he decided that he would down it with a spoonful of beans that was provided on his plate. Upon doing this he realized that he would not be able to swallow this with his fresco. As there was no other solution then chewing the beans with the pill, he decided to try anyway. This was a bad idea. The Malaria burst open with powdered dust. This tasted terrible. To get the taste removed from his mouth he ate a large spoonful of rice. This made it worse, as the rice was still smoldering from being cooked. The taste plagued him for several minutes as he inhaled the food on his plate (except for the rice). Little did he know that later in that day (lunch time) that his supervisor would make him eat all of his crema, to make matters worse.

Can you read this? 

It says pretty much that Matt's Route sucks and that mine is the best. 

Sincerely, Stefan.

But just in case you can't read it, I shall highlight some parts here and there: 

Dearest Matt, 

      I hope this keeps you occupied when you are waiting in the clinic with your inferior vols. 

Best of Health, Stefan

     P.S. "What is love- baby don't hurt me."

Feria de Juventud.

Point blank, because we are a 7 week project (meaning 6 weeks in Community) time is a'limited! We have a Youth Fair and Route Picnic instead of an official 'Midterm'..and might I say that our Feria de Juventud came out pretty darn dashing with a splash of fun..

*These are my lady vols (FYI)..

Route Picnic

    We had our Route Picnic about a week ago now. It was quite fun, and filled with ice cream, pizza and internet-every American's dream..

Choco Risas: 1 Lempira (every night)
Roll of Toilet Paper: 10 Lempira (at least once a week)
Sleep Talking in Spanish: Priceless.

                   *Just some words of advice from my vols. in San Fernando.

   

To Highlight A Bit.

This week has not been the best, let's be real.
It started off just fine, but by the end of the week it stripped me to bones: Maybe rabies, and even scabies.

• I almost got in an accident, but instead I just got slammed into the back of a truck-nothing broken. My phone got lost in the process.
• I got bitten by a dog, and now I may have rabies. I won't know for another 7 days now.
• One of the Supervisors got scabies, and Tuesday night I psychologically convinced myself that I too had them..
• I had to eat meat soup. I then had a horrible stomach ache for nearly two days (I haven't eaten meat in 7 years.)
• One of my vols. broke a fence.
• I tried to take a shortcut to one of communities, it is an hour walk is the heat, then a bit up a steep ass hill, well I ended up 45min. in the wrong direction-which was also nice. 
• I got 10 tortillas in one meal, no joke.
• I finally made it home to Staff House to find out that two of my best friends need me more than anything, and I can't do a single thing.

This is a taste of my 'Dream Team' in El Tablón. 

First school day and they are kicking ass in the school.  

Diggin' Route a bit too much.
This is seriously amazing, the best of all worlds.

Teatros sobre lo que aprendieron en la capacitación-

more to come..they won't upload for some reason.

La Ruta

This be them, all nine, plus me..the shortest of them all.

When they found out, one of my vols. goes: 

"Wait, you are our Supervisor? But you are so little and adorable.." 

I am choosing to take this as a complement...

Kristy, Nectarli (youth counterpart) y Erica: San Fernando

Eric y Alejandro: Chogola

Las tres Muchachas: Hanna, Alexandra and Lauren: El Tablon

Youth counterparts, plus Stefan and Nick: El Cerron

Marin Chapter, represent! Stefan, yo y Marley

Yo y Melecio (awesome ass vol.)

Let's get going! Heading to community in a Jalon.

My boys, I do not know how I ended up with so many!! But they sure are cute.