Hey there,
Oops, it's been more than a month. I am hard-pressed to even remember what I have been up to in the last month or so...
Well, I last wrote on Xmas. I had envisioned a vacation in Guatemala, but money and circumstances encouraged me to look for things to do around here.
I went to my friend Alejandra's house in a not-so-well-off (poor) barrio. I had a great time, for the most part, except for the fireworks. But, we danced, we chatted, we drank. The usual new year's kind of things. At the end of the evening, around 1:30/2am, Alejandra's brother and his fiance started fighting and the whole family started to get involved... It was not too pleasant, so I decided it was time to head home. Apparently they have a fiery relationship, so this is normal. Oh well.
Speaking of dancing, that is starting to pick up again, been dancing many times, most recently on Friday until 4:30am (and I had to work on Saturday morning at 8am. Yuck. Well, we had fun.)
Well, my vacation ended. All good things must come to an end. I was enjoying it, although maybe by the end I was a bit bored. Work is going well; it is lots of fun. The people are great, and we spend a lot of time joking around and enjoying life. Still, we are accomplishing things - we are going to do a SWOT for our team shortly, something I thought maybe was to be left behind in management school. I am supposed to lead a session on team building and things like that as well. I have taken on a few side projects: a web page, a youth group and a new employee procedure. So, things feel busy, but it is really not too bad.
We have had two more workshops in Matagalpa, fun stuff. We went out dancing and I met a lawyer. Not sure if she is my type, but it keeps me occupied I suppose. This last workshop involved two visiting Uruguayans that are here giving workshops on playing and games. In some ways, similar stuff to what we did in YCI or camp type things. It is fun.
For the CUSO half of my job, my boss came from Costa Rica to visit. It was pretty laid back, thankfully. I can see why some people tend to get frustrated with her, but I have (fortunately) not had any problems myself yet.
I started my French class last month. I did the placement test and came up in 5th level this time. An improvement, I guess. It is just 9 blocks from my house on Saturdays, so it is a nice walk over. Most of the people in my class are about 14-17 I think, but there are a couple of adults, including one that worked with Raleigh International, a YCI competitor.
I've had a couple of visitors, David, from my management class managed to score a ticket from Air Transat's last minute flights for $150 plus tax or something like that, so he came for a week, although he spent 4 days in Honduras. It was good to catch up with him and with the Saturday Globe and Mail that he brought! Among other worthy gifts.
Also, my friends from Esteli returned from Canada, bearing more gifts and have also stayed over a few times. I now have the guest mattress broken in, so the next visitors are more than welcome...
FOG is going well, consuming some time, getting ready for the scholarships for this year and receiving a couple of donations of used shoes and more things coming next week.
To my surprise, there have been marches for peace here, including one on Saturday morning. I hope to go, although I am trying to squeeze in my French class too.
I could probably go on and on, but life is too good to sit here in front of the computer too long, although I do have a few web pages I need to get finished...
Take care,
Rob