Hi,
How are things in your life? Life here is humming along - lots of work, lots of fun and not much sleep.
Work continues to be hectic, although it was a bit slow this week since all of the bosses were away - it is hard to get motivated sometimes when working alone (as I found myself many times this week). Still, I achieved a lot, including getting some donations from the Canadian Embassy, a big Tea company and a Cookie company.
I've been doing lots of project id visits still and this week we decided on all the projects, so hopefully that will be the end of that for a bit. Not I am not enjoying the visits, but it is tiring and now we need to start preparing other things like the leaders' orientation, closure for the groups in the field now, buying new equipment for the next project, etc. Soon, we will get to site the groups in the field again, that is always a fun part. I have been in the office all week, which is rare... Kind of nice for a change.
On a site visit to la Isla de Chira with the UNDP, there were four of us in the car and we decided to go rafting on the spur of the moment that weekend. In end, three of us went - Gabriela from the UNDP, Johnny from the university and I.
It started with a scary talk of what to do if we fell in and/or got stuck under the boat, etc. We were just beginning to doubt our decision to undertake this adventure when they made us get in the boat. There was no turning back. Promptly, on the first rapid, Gabi almost fell out. Fortunately, she fell in the boat, not out.
After the next rapid, we were starting to feel like we had it all under control then on the third rapid, we smacked into a rock and got stuck there. Our boat was almost bent in two on the rock and for a minute I couldn't see the girls in the other half of the boat. Finally, I found them, as I climbed to the rock side of the boat so I wouldn't get swept away. Then I noticed that we had lost our guide! Oops. Fortunately, he had grabbed the guideline. He helped get us off the rock and we were on our way. However, he got a lot of ribbing from the other guides.
In the end, it was great fun and not too dangerous. We are thinking of going again in a few weeks...
We had our midterm exam two weeks ago and I got 29 out of 30. It is a lot of fun. Last week, we had a guest speaker, a friend of the teacher from Belguim. After class, I was chatting with her and my teacher invited me to Scottish dancing since we both share some Scottish background.
I brought my friend Mario along, since my teacher (Emily) said they were short on men for the dance. So, we went to Emily's house for a ride and went along with her and her family and friends (about 10 people). It was great fun - all the sets and jumping, etc. I knew nothing but it was fun.
After we got kicked out at 12, we went to a club for latin dancing until 3:30am. Lots of fun.
Lots more stuff - the ballet, a disastrous visit to Sarapiqui, but that's enough for today - gotta to go get ready for a party later tonight.
Take care, hope to hear from you soon.
Rob