La Pura Vida

Adelanto

How exciting! Just clapped for joy - took my chances waiting with a couple other people in the internet cafe to see if electricity would return... a bad storm had knocked it out. When I first entered the cafe the girl working here told me ¨no hay luz¨(no light) to which I cheerily replied oh that´s fine and proceeded to sit down - didn´t think about how she was referring to more than the aesthetic nature of light. But yay: it was peaceful to sit here with the sound of the rain and wonder if my luck would come through. Now I don´t have much time - need to return to be picked up for another self esteem session with the women in Pocora. Time for a little update and then hopefully a snack of the yummy fruit mamey at home before leaving.

Ok. Less than a month, as of yesterday, til I return. Trying not to count down the days but I am so excited at the prospect of returning. Still working to adapt to this new way of life. Often it is a struggle...for one thing feel weighed down by heavy food, feel a little bit sick, and then lately the bugs have been attacking more. Yesterday I went to the farm with Mario, Venicio, Josue, and Janet to inspect some cows (they have about 40). Without thinking (since I didn´t know I was going til 1 minute before) I wore pants that leave about 2 inches of skin showing on my ankles. On the way over little Josue said something about ¨you´re going to get biiiiitten!¨ but I looked at Janet´s similar pants and thought I would be okay. Surprise surprise though - as soon as I got out of their truck and stepped onto the grass this army of ants swarmed that bit of skin --ahh felt like fire. Many bites quickly. Then, and a time yesterday morning in a friend´s house when the bugs were attacking, I´ve had to hold my tongue with the stinging. because I don´t want to be a whiner. Another main difference with my life here is the lack of planning/constant spontaneity. This is probably a good thing but still takes adjusting to. An example from this morning: Adrian called to say that the phone was for me. I answered and at first wasn´t sure who it was - a man asked me something about if I could go this Saturday. Luckily I recognized that it was Walter, a guy from the Ministry of Health (always makes me think of Harry Potter), who had talked to me before about visiting a nearby community on bike sometime. I asked him what time, he said 8 and that he´ll call again Friday night. Ha, ok, I´ll be ready, bye. Makes me laugh, constant randomness. The other main thing is missing people. BUT - enough of the venting. This is an adventure.

Must go, but this week since the last update:
Tuesday - another all day workshop with the Association of Women in the Caribbean with Johana. I really like spending time with her. This time discovered she knows James Blunt so we sang that in the bus (wasn´t expecting to be serenaded with You´re Beautiful here). Next week I´m going with her to get a tattoo (tattoo´s for her) from this parlor with a guy who wears a snake! How exciting. We talked about conflict resolution and communication. Was glad to find that I could understand much more than last week, and could even participate.

Wednesday - went to Lisneth´s house again from 8-12 for more embroidering time! I think my time at her house is my favorite... she´s usually there by herself in the mornings. We put on old timey Spanish love songs (as close to Delilah as I can get) and work on our projects... as she worked the sewing machine, we talked about marriage (she married her husband at 14 when he was 26. He picked her out at a dance. She told me about his machismo and how things used to be bad...) and life. She is so purely sweet and giving.

Last night and today I´ve been embroidering. Soon self esteem workshop. Tomorrow is the big gira with Foro Emaus to expose pineapple plantation abuses.

In closing want to quote my eloquent father (hope that´s ok Dad!) because these are important words.

¨We should nurture self-change that moves us further along in a direction toward the flowering of our special gifts. People often laugh at the Noel Coward quotation I have on my wall: "work is much more fun than fun." But there's an essential truth in it. I think that the work we do should engage us in what we enjoy most, though by "enjoy" I mean pursuing activity that's productive in terms of our most fundamental strengths and competencies: we enjoy because we are fulfilling our natures.¨

Continuing on the quest for that kind of work/enjoyment here. Oops, late, taxi time. Hasta la proxima vez!

posted by Colleen @ 2:38 PM