Brutal Heat Returns

Sunday: It’s around 40 degrees at the moment. Probably hotter. Good news is my clothes are drying really quickly and I managed to haul myself out of bed before 8 to work out, clean the bathroom and wash clothes pre-deadly heat. Bad news is I have yet to buy a fan (waiting on a truck to bring it back here) so I’m melting. Speaking of melting, I filled a glass with ice cubes and within 20 minutes, they were all completely liquid and not that cold. I’m doing my best to work on my research proposal while lying in my hammock and moving as little as possible. Someone want to ExpressPost me any kind of iced coffee beverage? I won’t even be picky about it.

So working on my proposal has made me realize something: research costs money! Since Guatemala is such a small country with less than 3000 guerrillas at the end of the war, to have a thorough study (i.e. talk to someone other than the people at Nuevo Horizonte!), I really don’t think I can just stick to Petén. So the expenses...ay ay ay. Plus, unless we get internet access in the next few months, I’m going to have to keep shelling out for buses and internet time :p Working out basically how much I think things will cost, a full month’s worth of pay is probably going to be need to saved to pay for travel, internet, hostels and printing. Unfortunately the bus to Guatemala City isn’t really something you should skimp on because the cheap buses are super sketchy. But I’m pumped to get working and it should all be worth it in the end!

Had a couple of brainwaves on people I should talk to about former guerrilla organizations. Hopefully those will come through. I’m going to write up a letter in Spanish to try to help me explain. Bleh language barrier!!! Although, doing interviews for my SWOT analysis has so far been just fine with understanding. Woot.

So my date ended up being a lot of fun! I had a pretty terrible intolerance reaction to popcorn afterwards, which SUCKED (no idea why popcorn bothers my stomach but I eat corn flour tortillas everyday...), but otherwise it was great. I started off with Audelio, Brenda and their little brother whose name I thought was Miguelito but is actually something that sounds like Miguelito when mumbled. I’ll get back to you on that one...then three of the boys in the house to the left came by and another little boy. So it was a full house! Yes, I know I suck with names but I’m working it. We watched Chicken Little with popcorn and Sprite :) Going to have an open invitation for Madagascar this week. It’s much more fun watching with the kids than by myself! Maybe they won’t want to steal my movies if they can watch ‘em here with free popcorn and pop, haha.

Monday: 40-ish again today. Unfortunately did not wear one of my halter dresses that you would be fired for wearing in Canada but are my basic uniform here. My polo that I sported all the time at the City of Toronto last summer is not plus 40 degree office wear. Worked out in the morning, showered, worked, came home at lunch, dumped a bucket of water on myself, came back to work, went home and showered again. Fortunately pila showers take very little water. My poor keyboard is getting its fair share of sweat. I had some errands I wanted to run within the cooperative after work (running low on my bottled water, shockingly...) but it’s just too brutal to walk anywhere and lift anything with the sun and then the bug/snake situation at night is undesireable to say the least. One of the downsides of having a pila that you can only fill in the morning is that, when you have a dog that’s drinking water like it’s her job and you have 3 showers you run out of water pretty quickly. Oh well, dishes and washing Coquette will get done tomorrow!

Tuesday: My stomach has decided to be difficult and I had another painful allergic reaction last night. Bummer. I have to go back to being super careful about everything I eat –no fun!!

Shoutouts to Brian and Tiana for being wonderful friends :) Canada Post Welland beat Canada Post Kingston by 1 week, haha. Thanks so much for the letters (and new Coldplay CD! Tiana is my HERO)!!! They’re definitely helping the time pass by while I wait (1.5 weeks!) for Mom and (2 weeks!) Belize! I bought cute animal magnets (I know, I want to tempt these kids to steal things from me) last weekend, so now all of the cards and letters that have been sent to me are displayed with horses and bears on my fridge. No pigs, unfortunately.

I heard whispers about peliway (sp?), i.e. the tropical goat I want, in the office today, so I’m hoping that means he/she is on his/her way! Mo, I need you!!! My grass is completely out of control.