A New Adventure

And so it goes sometimes, one day it's great, and the next, well it's not.
The next chapter begins, and I for one am (dare I say) excited?

Certainly I could be naive to think that I haven't become extremely co-dependent, but at least I can go into the new year with just that, independence. Truthfully, if I were to admit it to myself, I fear that I will simply become more cold-hearted.  My way of warming up to new people like a snail simply won't work this time, and I don't really want to invest in yet another relationship.

I am set on my ways, and now that a month short of a year goes by, I am kinda not feeling the hook-ups with the cute guys at the party nor wanting to actually put in any effort. I just want the guy that holds me tight, that doesn't care if I shaved my legs that day, and can have a good time staying in or going out on a crazy adventure.

I say good-bye to what was love, but I know it was right. It just sucks now that I'm still here in Santa Cruz twiddling my thumbs, and no sex.

During Debriefing we were in Peña Blancas, and well there was this guy running down the road and Kyla (another Project Supervisor) and I both looked at each other, 'I wonder why he is in such a hurry'. Within a second later, I get bumped into again, this time it was a Police Man chasing him! Yikes, if I had moved one inch to the left I could have been shot..I forgot to mention that both of them had guns. 

The end.

I just remembered, the other day there was this bird eating a small intestine.
It was quite disgusting.

I hate airplanes, wow-forgot how much.

But on my last plane, the one where they had us wait for an hour before we could take off, and to comfort us they told us that there were 'mechanical difficulties' the person next to me disappeared. Normally, I would be nervous or scared for person X's safety-but for me this meant an extra seat and sleep!

I suppose sleep is the reward for having to travel so long and having your plane delayed three hours and gate changed four.

The end.

3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage... all to turn 3 ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food ....into 3 beautiful and hopefully compelling short films.....

= 

a trip of a lifetime.

move, eat, learn

Rick Mereki : Director, producer, additional camera and editing
Tim White : DOP, producer, primary editing, sound
Andrew Lees : Actor, mover, groover

hemorrhoid |ˈhem(ə)ˌroid| ( Brit. haemorrhoid)

noun (usu. hemorrhoids)

a swollen vein or group of veins in the region of the anus. Also (collectively) called piles .

DERIVATIVES

hemorrhoidal |ˌhem(ə)ˈroidl| adjective

ORIGIN late Middle English : via Old French and Latin from Greek haimorrhoides (phlebes) ‘bleeding (veins),’ from haima ‘blood’ + an element related to rhein ‘to flow.’

Let us just say that this was a fun exam to have in Dr. Rigo’s office—it was genuinely one of my fondest memories here in Honduras. 

The highlight from this lil’ visit? 

I don’t think I can say-somewhere between the medication prescribed is: a butt cream, a poop blander, and amoeba fighting agents and the exam itself…perhaps it is just too close to even judge.

Mommy Dearest,

When I get home can we please go and get yummy bagels..you know, just the way that I like them: sesame, slightly toasted with tomato and a chocolate milk..with a straw.

Thanks, slash I can't wait to give you a big hug too.

Six months is a bit too long for me, don't know about you..
Plus then we can stay up late at night and tell each other stories and laugh until our tummies hurt.

Ate mãezinha, diga oi á meus avos. 

Dear Diary,

I just got the lamest email ever. Pretty much it says that I will not be seeing someone special for an additional nine days after I get back. Is it entirely selfish of me to be tremendously bummed? I leave him for nine weeks, and he is goes for nine days. Any-who, got me some Stevie Wonder to brighten things up..

Tetanus.

      It is amazing how fast you can freak out. I went on a run with one of my vols. this past Friday, and well...I fell on a fence. I didn't think much of it as I was running in the swamp of a field, through barbed wire fences, past cows and jumping across rivers..but when I got back to the house-covered in filth, it was certain my leg was bleeding quite profusely.

      Luckily, in my case the fence that scraped me up only got me in five separate locations, and also lucky enough, that same fence is only rusty as fuck.

    With that, I thought back to my shots..I have had three in my lifetime. Yeah, so it probs. leaves tetanus out of the possible ones...So I called my Mommy, and she looked up my shots..and I got a tetanus shot in 2006! Thank goodness, because it is already bruising in a five inch radius, also one of the symptoms, woot woot!

A Dollar's Worth.

What can you buy with a dollar? Well in the United States, you can buy 10 mint candies, you can by 1/3 of a tank of gas, you can almost go one way on a bus (not quite..) You can buy an organic apple and a half, and you could even get a few bananas. 

In Honduras, one dollar is the equivalent to 18.9 Lempira. Which is a damned lot! Meaning that you can buy:

• 18 packs of Choco Risas (4 cookies in each packet.)
• 3 Pera Jugazzo juices.
• 2 bus fares (that takes you over 2 hours away.)
• 1 1/2 of bread (approx. 12 pieces in each.)
• 20 bananas.
• 3/4 box of cake mix (name brand.)
• 9 bags of Alborotos (my favorite snack/candy.)
• 3 notebooks.
• 1/2 handwoven neck scarf.

        The dollar just went down, meaning that the bank won't exchange any money for my poor lil' vols., looks like you may have to go with one less Choco Risa and lolli-suckers (right) for the week, sorry : (

       Slash meet Hanna, she drew a mustache on her face with permanent marker this past Monday for a skit she did in one of her classes. Way to go Hanna, yes, stressing the importance to cover your food so that mosquitos do not carry germs and dirt to your food when they are flying around..

The Things I Do For You-

Carrying large sums of money is scary as shit. Every week on Route, I bring with me a bit too much, and as I walk the few hours to each community, get on another bus and hitch another jalón, I am always worried that not only the money will disappear, but so will I. Apparently, in the La Paz region (where there is another AMIGOS project) there have been a crazy increase in kidnappings, might I add specifically on the highways to other countries. I think this would be the appropriate time to note where one of my communities is…on the carretera to El Salvador! Note this is a fantastic community, love it, I really do..but it is also the same community that I grab a bus that is going to the border to get there, and simply get off a bit before. Oh, and did I mention that there was also a bus that blew-up on this same highway (but on the El Salvador side) last week. It killed 12 Hondureños, 1 Canadian, and 2 Estadounidense! Hopefully this won’t be me..but one of the host mom’s Blanca (one of my favorites) called me just to make sure that I had not blown up too, and that I would still be coming that Wednesday because she wanted to make me tamales..)

To come back to the subject matter, exchanging money..I hate doing it, if carrying around all that skrill wasn’t enough, I also have to carry my passport..and let’s face it losing your passport sucks-straight up, not down. Thus, I try to exchange money as little as possible and the story begins:

I was exchanging money at Banco Occidental, and I waited and waited outside the bank inline for so long to find out that they weren’t actually waiting for the bank..that was fun. So I go inside soon after and I go up to a window where this nice man helps me. He asks for my identification, and I squirm in panic..and then I find my passport at the bottom of my bag. He asks for the money, and then he converts it to Lemp. oh the glorious Lemp. full of plastic holes in the twenty bills and god forbid you try to break a hundred L. bill..back to the story, he counted it about eleven times to make sure it was the correct amount. Asked me a few questions, what I was doing here, for how long, where am I leaving..I am sweating a few buckets with each. I don’t know what it is with authority, they scare me shitless. But the Bank people know how to keep it hush hush when dealing with these large sums..I think I should take note of them. All they do is whisper and mumble, moving their fingers so fast that not even my eyes can follow along. One request, speak up? I know you are super skilled and can stay hush hush, but I can barely hear you!

Right, slash these are two of my lovely vols. that I carry money around for..meet Nick and Stefan. 

I am really loving my time here, but it would also be a lie to say that I would not also really love to be home and snuggling with my someone special : (

And thus, the countdown begins: 20 days!

Dear Diary,

     I have been having a super bad case of anxiety lately. I don't know what it is, but I have had a plethora of nightmares, yikes..all of which are not fun! Most interesting is the fact that I have had one of my vols. in two of them..I still can't figure it out. I am losing so much sleep because I am too afraid to close my eyes, goodness this is not good! So, I shall retell them for you here (the abridged version):

1. My first dream took place in San Rafael, on Highway 101 in-between the Central San Rafael Exit and the Lincoln one. I was a slave, and we would walk down in a line in chains, going from one end to the other. By the end of the dream I found myself a mermaid (yeah I know, this is pretty cray-cray) made of paint, and me and my vol. painted our way out of slavery by disguising our art into a mirage. Then we slipped over the side of the freeway wall, and on the other side it was as if nothing had happened, it was regular downtown San Rafael. 

Superstitions

From all of the traveling that I have done, perhaps the most valuable lesson that I have learned regards to the various superstitions. Instead of arguing something with reason, it (in most cases) is better to nod politely, and most importantly..agree. Some of my favorites superstitions as we would call them, really just never seem to stop being ridiculously funny:

• When there is a thunder storm, you must sit on the couch and do absolutely nothing. If not, the rayos will strike you and you shall die instantaneously. 
• Do not read books. If you do, you will surely go blind.
• Do not put money in your bra. If you do, you will get breast cancer. 
• Never bathe in the night time, or else you will become very sick. 
• Do not drink coffee and eat warm bread right after the other, or else you will get a horrible stomach ache. 
• If you find a snake in your path, it means that there will be much trouble in your near future.  

Doggies.

There are many different customs that one is exposed to when traveling, kinda the best part. For example, here in Honduras, having a pet is not so common. 


Here, the dogs are not fed in our conventional way. 
One of my vols. threw up the other day and within minutes the dueño was feeding his dog, and cleaning up the mess! Buen provecho!

This would not be Central America if:

To seguir adelante como la Juliana in her Male Privilege Project..well not really but it is really quite nice, and you should check it out anyways-

I present you with:

This would not be Central America if:

• When I walk down the street, I get cat calls.
• When I go to someone's house they say 'Pase adelante' before they even know who I am.
• When I hop into someone's pick-up truck the men give me their seat.
• When I walk through communities they send their child with me so the dogs don't eat me.
• When I walk from one house to another, the dogs bark at you without stopping.
• When I do anything, I appear incompetent because 1) I am a gringa and 2) I am woman.
• When you try and cook something on the stove, you get electrocuted.
• When you live with Florian, there are no bananas in the house-ever.
• When you go out on route, you look like a dork-and when you come back, you are still a dork, a bit dirtier,  and radiating happiness (if you didn't have a sick vol.)

Missing You-

All yesterday it rained when I was in Chogola, meaning thunder and lightning and the obvious, no survey and demography work. So instead I played with the host sister Janeth (11) and I taught her some games that me and my sis used to play (she loved them.)

I also realized how much I am missing a certain someone, and worse thought of all the things I wish I could be doing right then with him. I ended up writing the longest letter which I plan on sending today (so it can arive in some three weeks..) When I got back to Staff House, and then to the internet cafe, alli estaba the longest email from my boo.

Lucky for me, I am used to being the person in public that cries..And yes, I cried, how fun! It was a really beautiful letter, and truthfully just made me miss him  more. So there I was and still am in the internet cafe, trying to respond to everything, and crying..but thank god for best friends, like Juliana that write the funniest things about their privates..and then I laughed for quite some time, of course receiving the same amount of unwanted attention.

Mi Tesoro

My watch broke! I just got it at the Flea Market in Santa Cruz (for $5) and it just broke! I was waiting at the bus stop and I put on my big bag, and boom the part that attaches to the clocl part broke! I was really upset, it even lights up!

But no worries, because I fixed it with my lil' sewing kit!!

Stressed.

I do not know what to do. I leave in now less than ten days.

And guess what, AMIGOS just changed my flight to the day prior!
Woot, do you know what this means?

Me neither, I do not know how I am going to do this.
To do:

1. Pack for Honduras
2. Laundry and Amigos appropriate clothing
3. Pain the house and stucco the holes that we made.
4. Clean, clean, clean.
5. Have quality time with those I care about, unlikely : (
6. Prep for my research this summer
7. PRINT MATERIALS
8. Put everything into storage!!
9. Eat my food that I still have..in the fridge.
10. Find a storage unit.
11. End of quarter evals. for Steering
12. Find a replacement
13. Start and finish my finals.
14. Go camping with my boo
15. Get anti-malarials!
16. Get a field journal for the summer
17. Get the last things from home
18. Not be stressed?

Thanks old trusty.