Monday, March 22, 2010

Volunteer Visit

About a year ago, when I first got in country I went for a volunteer visit to see Ann and Tim. Now, a year later it was my turn to have a volunteer visit. I remember thinking how much it seemed Ann and Tim knew and trying to imagine that I would feel so knowledgeable a year later and be able to give good advice to a new trainee. Needless to say, I still don´t feel that knowledgeable, but Ann and Tim assured me they didn´t feel very knowledgable by the time I came to visit them either. I wanted my trainee to have a good time so as I had been planning on doing a mural for international women´s day before the dengue hit me, I decided it would be a fun project to do while she was here. So Thursday I went down to the school to start mapping out and drawing the mural I had designed. My volunteer Lauren arrived in the afternoon and I hauled her down to the school and we worked on drawing out the mural to be painted on Friday. However, Friday dawned cool and rainy, which meant no school, so no kids to help us paint, plus it wasn´t ideal weather for painting. So we had a lazy Friday, watched a movie, I made soup for dinner and we played cards and dominoes. Luckily, Saturday morning was sunny and my friend Ruth who is the closest volunteer to me and her trainee Carly (who grew up in Beaverton) came up to visit. We had arranged for some of my friends to take us to the Rio Mijo which is a 20 minute drive or so from my campo. We had a nice lunch of locrio first and then put on our cascos and hopped on the motorcycles of my friends to take us out to the river. We spent a few hours at the rive, enjoying the cool water on a hot day. It was lovely. Then we headed back to my house where we rested for a few hours and I made spaghetti for dinner, then it was time to head out to the discoteca for a little bit of dancing. We went to one and were almost the only one there although luckily my friends saved us and we spent plenty of time dancing and then decided to head over to the other discoteca, which was closed until the owner saw us pass and opened it up for us. So we spent another couple of hours and dancing. It was a great night and I was so happy to be in my campo and see that the girls were having a good time and that my guys were being such gentleman and buying our drinks and dancing with all of us. I knew they were good guys but it made me proud to see how they treated my friends and encouraged them to dance. Here´s some pictures. I will perhaps add more later.


Me, Carly, Madeline (my little neighbor), Ruth, and Lauren.


Dari and Goné hanging out in the hammock whil we waited for lunch.


Martin trying out the hammock de los estados unidos.


Ruth enjoying her locrio.


As snug as three bugs in a rug. Ruth, Lauren, and Carly curling up for a good night´s rest after an action-packed day.

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