The puppies are starting to run around and are too cute for words. 5 have been claimed, and I imagine there are going to be a lot of annoyed and disappointed people when they find out. I'm definitely working the "I don't speak Spanish, I have no idea what's going on" angle on that one. I have no interest in making the process anything more than the people who put ribbons on the ones they want first get first dibs. They've all still got another month or so to go living here anyway. Had my first argument in Spanish with a boy today (probably 11 years old-ish) who is determined to get one of the male dogs which have already been claimed. We just went back and forth and he was really pissing me off. I don't have a lot of patience in general and he just kept on me about how he wants them. I tried to explain patiently that other people want them too and they came first so, there's life. He kept pouting and complaining that he wants a male one. Frick. I was really close to asking him to leave but have managed to hold it together. If he attempts to switch the collars around their necks, though, he's out. I'm too tired in general to deal with this crap, especially since I'm giving the frigging things out for free. Having these puppies has been great in terms of meeting the kids here, but it's also been a bit of a headache.
To add to the headache of my day, I was getting grabbed and poked by a guy beside me on the bus. A glare, a slap and then a hard punch in the chest later, he left me alone. But after we got off the bus, he started following me till I ran to a cab, so that sucked. I am confident that people would help me so I'm not really scared but it's unfortunate that I have to feel violated and uncomfortable in this beautiful country.
Today the power is out so I worked at home. Nothing much can happen at the office when the power is out since we have all of these desktop computers that we need for basically everything. Plus it's an excuse to work while lying on my hammock drinking lukewarm limeade and listening to Janis Joplin :)
Starting to go a bit crazy from the bug bites. I haven't slept a full night in a long time because I keep waking up because I'm scratching my legs and feet in my sleep. Ugh. Dave, wanna trade placements for a couple of months? I bathe in Deet, burn mosquito coils and only sleep with my net but they still manage to get me all the time. It's just too awful and hot to wear pants and socks 99% of the time here, so that's not even an option. Bleh.
Mom comes down in 3.5 weeks! I'm so excited. At least one Honduras trip (Ania comes down in less than 2 weeks!!) and a stop in Nicaragua to renew my visa, plus travelling with Shawna at the end...Time has already gone by so quickly -today is my 2 month anniversary of leaving Ottawa!-, I can't imagine how fast it's going to go once I start travelling and getting into my research!
In the process of doing my research proposal right now. It's looking like social capital in former guerrilla fighters is going to be the topic. I think it'll be the perfect balance: a job that focuses on economics and research that focuses on political science. For those of you who aren't familiar, I'm currently working on a specialist degree in International Development Studies. However, that's extremely general as "development" can be about the environment, education, economics, politics, culture, etc etc etc. So I'm also doing a major in political science. I've also been taking economics courses for the equivalent of a minor along the way. So basically, political economy of development is my thing :)
Mirko and Cecilia, two people from CUSO Latin America-Caribbean, are coming down tomorrow morning. I'm excited to meet them after just encountering them via email and telephone. Carola, the new CUSO cooperant, is coming on Thursday. She's not an Anglophone but she did understand an email I sent to her in English, so hopefully between our English, French and Spanish, we should get to know each other! All I know about her is that she's lived in Chile but that's it. So much excitement, haha! I just brought her the rest of the furniture and linens I needed to drop off.
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