Tuesday:
I have decided to rip off el blog de Francisco and go through the 2 months and 3 week review (1/3 of my placement)! I also am not experiencing the culture shock drop that we were warned about at this point in our placement. My lowest points were when I first got here and a month and a half in. So poo on you stupid culture shock curve that I mocked even when we were learning you!
Negatives: The language barrier and the living conditions have been the hardest to deal with. I miss being able to communicate very clearly with people and talk their ears off. I miss not worrying about bugs and not constantly being itchy from bites. I miss not having to be a ridiculous clean freak because of the bugs (WASHING EVERY PIECE OF GARBAGE. IMAGINE THIS!). I miss having a bathroom inside my house. I miss being able to use a toilet at night. I miss weekly garbage and recycling pick up. (Especially since I missed the once a month pick up for July.) I miss being able to turn water on and off whenever I want and not having to worry that I’ll run out partway through the day. I miss my washing machine and dryer. And I hate the sounds of ranchero music, roosters, barking/fighting dogs and howler monkeys (in that order, based on frequency and difficulty blocking out with earplugs. The toads, crickets and other random bugs all tend to make noises that are pretty easy to ignore, even when they’re really loud, which is very considerate of them.)
I really miss coffee shops, my coffee maker and, most of all, my coffee grinder. I went on a mission with Carola to find a bodum with no success despite scouring basically all of Santa Elena. And delicious fair trade Sumatran coffee…mmm. Thai and Indian food, too. Mostly, I miss just hanging out with my friends, watching hockey, going out to a bar at night, lazing around and talking about whatever.
But I feel content to be here in the cooperative for another 5 months and a bit. I know I will have all of those things when I get my ass back to freezing cold Ottawa, so it’s all good.
And the opposite of Francisco, I miss Toronto. I love that city. I love that you can go out late with 24 hour buses, hang out at bars, buy French fries at 2 in the morning, walk around feeling relatively safe. Those nights walking for hours along Bathurst with Jamie last summer back from the bars were classic! I love the subway and street cars. I love Queen Street. There’s any kind of restaurant you could ask for. Streets that are simple to navigate that are clearly labelled! KENSINGTON MARKET and Rice Bar! The Green Room! I know it’s evil and, as a Canadian, I’m supposed to hate it and want to distance myself, but being young and living in Toronto is just too awesome (minus their non-hockey team). The majority of my love for the city, though, is because of the people I’ve met and brought there –doing all of those things alone just isn’t that much fun. Buying French fries at 2am alone is actually kind of sad.
I do agree with Francisco that I would much rather transport people here than take a weekend vacation back to Canada.
Positives: I’m learning what it’s like to not be crazy busy with a million activities to plan and being in charge of a lot of things at once. It’s nice to have these 8.5 months off from studying, working in a hectic environment or being in charge of a club/residence/whatever. Although I do miss it already and know that it’s my nature for how I live my life! I’m learning more about what I appreciate back home. I’ve been talking to my friends a lot via email and text messages, reconnected with some family and realized how important so many people are to me. The random memories that have popped into my head really surprise me. I have so many memories of hanging out with my dad, watching him cut veggies for stir fry and watching movies. I told him we have a date to watch the Sister Act movies when I get back, haha. Since high school, I’ve hardly spent any time at home, just hanging out with my dad watching a movie. Things like that.
I love my hammock, my dog(s), my bench that is suspended from the ceiling that acts as my dining room chairs, and my hanging chair. I love that I can wear halter sun dresses to work that would get me fired in Canada (for the record, the advice I got in training about how to dress was way off base, too. People here have cleavage and shoulders going on all the time and it’s not a big deal at all. Hanging out at the hotel restaurant in a bikini? Not a problem. It’s 44 degrees, for crying out loud! Although, Mom and Nancy, the cleavage only comes out at the pool, don’t you worry). I love that there are puppies and little kids everywhere, despite the economic consquences that come from that. I love that there is cheap Chilean wine at the grocery store (okay, by LCBO consumer standards. Carola is horrified that it’s over $5. Francisco would also likely be unimpressed with his $3 bottles in Canada). I love that you can say “good afternoon” to a total stranger or to a busload of people and it isn’t weird at all. It is totally beautiful here and I can easily hang out in the rainforest, ride horses and go to beaches every weekend. I have space to do pilates in the morning (for the moment we’ll ignore the fact that it’s in the room that’s basically designated for garbage as it has all of my garbage sorted into different bags around the perimeter). I’m sure I’m going to love my goat when I get him/her, too :)
I LOVE the food. Fresh fruits and veggies for really cheap: avocados, papayas, lemons, peppers, garlic, cucumbers, cilantro, zucchini, potatoes…all grown locally and available all the time. Mangoes, too, but I’m sick of those, haha. Homemade tortillas are staple in my diet. At least one meal a day, often two, involves tortillas. Refried beans, grown and packaged in the Petén, are also a daily staple. Homemade guacamole, eggs from the cooperative, oatmeal every morning…it’s heaven. I eat basically the same thing everyday and I LOVE IT.
For some reason, my body loves this environment and my hair and skin look great. Go figure. I’ve had fewer stomach problems than I’ve had in a couple of a years.
Living alone has been an interesting experience, too. This might be the only time for the rest of my life that I live totally alone! Being able to wake up, work out, cook, clean and veg totally on my own is really strange. Although the lack of a front wall and the ability to see into my house from basically every side takes a bit away (can’t walk around in my underwear, unfortunately and sound proofing wasn’t part of the design plan), it’s nice to have this experience. But I’m still really pumped to be getting a place with my Jeffrey in 2009 and then having incredible roommates, whoever you may be, for my 5th year!
Obviously it is great to get this first hand experience working with people who have been through a terrible genocide and have managed to build up this great community and run an office. It has been tough on my patience, at times, because I’ve worked in an office environment literally since I was 12 (yay for fast typing skills) and am used to working with highly educated, computer literate people who have strict systems of running an office. So not only has it been an incredible experience in that it’s a grassroots Third World experience, but it is also great to see how former guerrillas have made what will hopefully be seen to be a sustainable successful cooperative. Which takes me to my research which, unlike Francisco, I’m very excited about. Once my research proposal has been approved and I confirm my research supervisor, I’m going to give a full big ass boring explanation!
There you go, T, my positives section is bigger than my negatives! Proud?
Wednesday: We finally have internet! Nearly 6 months of waiting, and we’ve got it!!! Okay, so it’s painfully, painfully slow. Takes me back to the 90’s, haha. It’s a lot quicker on my computer than the computers in the office, which is nice. I didn’t miss it that much but at the same time I’m extremely excited to have it back.
In other news, I have a mosquito bite on my face and it sucks.
yeh yeh' positivity stricking you ange!
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