"It's like camping!" - Mom's visit from Ange's perspective

Wow, so Mom’s really gone! My house is so quiet!!! After she left, I talked to Jeffrey for nearly an hour, called Erin and talked her ear off for a while after work and then blabbed away to Jeffrey again for a while. So I’m easing myself back into the routine of not really talking much.

Anyway, here’s an update on our 2 week adventure from my perspective. If you want the short version, just stick with Mom’s. This is a 4 pager! (Quick update on the goat: she still hates me and I have lots of deep cuts on my ankles from her strategic attacks, wrapping the rope she’s tied with around my legs. I’m really hoping to get the fence fixed this week so I can untie her and be forgiven.)

Day 1: Mom’s stupid flight doesn’t come and I find out my dog is probably dead. Bad day. (Update on August 23: she came home! Insanely skinny, tired and starving for attention from me, she’s back!! I have no idea where she went and the kids were just as surprised as I am. We all thought she was dead. No one had seen her in 3 weeks. She freaked out a bit at the giant goat/sheep in the backyard but got over it.)

Day 2: Mom comes in a whole 24 hours late! I spent the day in town with Carola and then we came back to the Coop. Mom is in good spirits despite being in airports for 2 days. I make a very Guatemalan dinner: cucumber salad, guacamole and refried beans with handmade tortillas. We hang out, watching stupid videos on my computer and then crash to try to squeeze in some sleep pre-BIG DAY.

Day 3: We called Dad in the morning and Mom told him, “It’s like camping! But with a stove and a fridge.” No false advertising on that one: there really is a cockroach containing outhouse, buckets for night bathrooms, garbage washing and sometimes difficulty getting pure bottled water.

This was our BIG DAY. Everyone said it couldn’t be done but it went off wonderfully! Waterfalls were lots of fun and being there until 1 was the perfect amount of time. We did all of Yaxha and got to see the sunset, too! It was a lot of driving but it worked out perfectly. Whoohoo. We were told incorrectly that there would be water for sale at the ruins so Mom and I were hiking around for over 2 (nearly 3?) hours, running up pyramids and sweating our buns off after splitting one small water bottle. Fortunately, we didn’t get dehydrated, chugging drinks from the closest open tienda we could find on our way back to the Coop.

Day 4: Belize. I stocked up on delicious fresh roasted cashews in Belize City, we met a cool DJ named Antonio and I got a cute pair of sandals. We enjoyed Belikin, the yummy Belizean beer, and had a great lunch in town. Nikki, owner of Maruba Resort Jungle Spa, picked us up in their truck and we had another hour and half on a sketchy highway. I had a terrible allergic reaction to a tiny ice cream I bought in Belize, making the already painfully bumpy trip even more brutal. But we were greeted with rum punches at the door, so it was all good.

Day 5: We chilled at the pool, got some spa treatments (my first time!), and read a lot. We pretty much had the pool to ourselves all day.

Day 6: We stayed at the pool all day. There were very few people there and we got a lot of reading done! I played in the pool with Chloe, a 5 year old who we kept bumping into, for a while. My handstand impressed her, haha. I’m fated to socialize with people less than half my age while I’m in Central America.

Day 7: We had to head out early in the morning to catch our bus from Belize City. I bought a lot more cashews (which I suspect I shouldn’t have been able to bring over the border). We bought tickets on the Linea Dorada bus, which was more like a Greyhound bus instead of the van we took there. And it cost the same! It was a lot nicer and got to lie across a row to sleep.

Day 8: I worked and Mom spent 2 hours washing our laundry by hand. I was proud. She took pictures of the fruits of her labour.

Day 9: We took our time getting up, having a nice lazy breakfast at the Comedor, the restaurant the Coop. The profits from the restaurant go back to the Coop. It was delicious. Then we made our way to Santa Elena, where we got a bus to Tikal. We dumped our stuff in our room at the Jungle Lodge hotel, took a quick dip in the pool and headed out to Temple IV for the sunset. A guard told us that was the best place to check out the sunset which is apparently part of this big guard scheme. After 6 pm, the time we got to the temple, you’re not supposed to be able to be in the park without a guide. When we bought our tickets at like 5:30, the person at the front desk neglected to mention this. Taking pity, the guard at the bottom said we could go up to the sunset. As Mom said, I held out and we got to see the sunset after bribing the guard only $5 each. Even more beautiful than the sunset was the moonrise on the east side. Mom busted up her ankle on the tour we joined for the way back, so that was the end of her Tikal hiking.

Day 10: I was up at 4:09 am to go out on the sunrise hike. The sunrise was a big disappointment but it was an interesting study of how people cannot SHUT UP! The guides tell everyone (there are over 200 people sitting on top of Temple IV at like 5:30 am) that they need to be silent for half an hour. Um, no. People were shouting at each other, giving instructions on how to climb up to higher sections of the pyramid (Mom would have had a heart attack, so it was good she was still in bed, injured.) until enough people yelled at them to shut up. Then people were eating loudly. And people felt the need to whisper commentary throughout the whole thing. Pathetic. We did a tour after the sunrise, went back for breakfast, and then I went off on my third tour which, as you know, Mom joined for a little bit. I recommend doing tours of Tikal, but sunset and sunrise would have been enough. The third tour was pretty repetitive.

Our bad luck in Tikal wasn’t over! Somehow I managed to lose our ticket for the bus to go back that afternoon. Which may have not been a problem since they had our names down anyway. While I was looking for the ticket, people behind us got into the bus, filling it. Past Mom, who was limping around with a cane. Classy. So the jerk with San Juan Travel (oh yeah, I’m naming names, lol) told us “Well, it’s full anyway” and drove away. I walked back to the hotel to try to get back into our room to search for the ticket and wait for the next bus. I bumped into Antonio, General Manager and awesome tour guide for all three of my tours (not be confused with Antonio the DJ from Belize) who mentioned that one of his drivers was going out to El Remate (which has a lot of buses to Flores going through) so we could tag along. This van only had a few other people and I got a window seat, so we were quite pleased. Well, when dropping us off at El Remate, Mom paid the driver Q100 (although we thought it was going to be a free ride…) because we were just so thankful. The driver then (suddenly inspired by this demonstration of cash, I suspect) offered to drive us all the way back to Horizonte, which was amazing since it meant Mom wouldn’t have to try to walk around and we wouldn’t be cutting it close with the last bus, for Q150. I thought he meant another Q50 but Mom and I agreed that even if he meant an additional Q150, it would be worth it for the lack of trouble. When we got back to the Cooperative, he informed me that it would be another Q200 since it was further than he thought. So it’s usually Q30 one way per person to Tikal. We paid Q150 per person to get back!!! It was totally ridiculous and I was fuming. We just paid it and trudged back to the house after buying a few beers from the front tienda :)

Day 11: I dragged my butt back into work. They fumigated, so Mom had to limp over to the restaurant to drink coffee and read her book. I bought two fresh fish from the tilapia farm project that they keep in a pool at the restaurant for sale. Achala handed me the bag, told me she was impressed that I would be cooking them, and Mom and I started walking home. Turns out the fish were ALIVE in this black shopping bag and started to move a few steps out of the restaurant! I had made a joke about this to Mom while Achala was getting them out of the pool but I was absolutely 100% kidding. So the whole way back, we were laughing our heads off as I jumped every time the fish moved. Their deaths were not the most humane but we don’t need to get into that…We watched the Sex and the City movie with terrible Spanish subtitles that night.

Day 12: Another day at the office. For dinner, I was all ready to cook the poor fish. Mom asked if I knew how to clean them but I explained I didn’t need to: Tono just shoved metal rods in them and put them over the fire when we ate fresh fish at the laguna. Well, of course, I baked them with oil, lime, onion and spices and they smelled AMAZING. I opened the tin foil only to find that they were full of worms and a beautiful, unhealthy emerald green colour. So we ate cashews, steamed broccoli and rice for dinner. I was pretty bummed about it.

Day 13: Turns out there is a bit of dengue epidemic going on. About 8 people had it at this time, including 2 with hemorrhagic dengue who were coughing up blood. So they fumigated a second time and my poor gimpy mother had to walk to the restaurant to wait. They’ve since had people cleaning up garbage and did an extra garbage pick up to try to discourage mosquitoes from hanging out here. By Saturday, when I’m writing this, my house is basically back to normal, being full of mosquitoes again. However, I wear DEET everyday, burn anti-mosquito coils and sleep under a net. Carola is also lending me this liquid stuff that you plug in that keeps mosquitoes away. Most of the people here just aren’t used to wearing repellent (and the stuff sold in the grocery store is only 5%) or using nets. Hopefully things will change soon because there is no dengue vaccine or cure.

On a lighter note, we had a really nice dinner with Carola for Mom’s last night at the Cooperative. I made papaya chicken and salad. We also had Chilean white wine and fair trade chocolate. It was a really nice night. I was able to translate pretty well for Mom and Carola and I don’t think we missed anything because of language. There was a bug incident that you can check out on Facebook.

Day 14: In the afternoon, Mom and I went to Flores. She was a great sport and we did a bit of walking to go to a restaurant with internet, got souvenirs for the fam and then went back to La Luna for another really delicious dinner. They were slow on the bill but when the waiter came by, he was bearing two shot glasses with rum on the house. So that made up for it! The power went out at the Hotel Isla de Flores where we stayed, which was terrible since we were on the 4th floor (which Mom picked without considering the fact that I’d have to carry her 40 lb suitcase up all of those flights of stairs!) and it was over 40°! Everyday for Mom’s last week was over 40°. We were boiling without the fan, AC or running water. Fortunately it was off for only 30 minutes but the cable stopped working so my one night of cable TV (I got to see maybe 3 minutes of Friends!) was not to be.

Day 15: Mom leaves in the morning and then I bus back for a very productive Friday at work. As I write this on Saturday afternoon, Mom should be landing in Ottawa after overnighting in Houston.

It was a great trip with some awesome memories. It was nice to have someone here who knew where I was coming from and could appreciate the difference in culture and lifestyle from what I’m used to. Mom was a great sport, despite being injured and living in conditions that are so much more uncomfortable than what she’s used to! We were woken up in the middle of the night multiple times by fireworks, dog fights, and loud music. There were days where ranchero music was blaring from the house next door (including a whole CD that was like Alvin and the Chipmunks Mexico style or something) and she survived!! Plus, her Spanish definitely improved –she’s got numbers, some food and stuff that sounds like French- and is better at converting Quetzales to dollars than I am.

She brought lots of fun toys and gifts that will keep me occupied for a while yet. Brendan sent me tons of CDs that are going to get me through many more days of cleaning. Jessica got me addicted to Lost (which we were both watching last night! We texted. It was like we were hanging out, haha). I have a lot of colouring books and stickers for the kids from Mom, Dad and Grandmaman that I still haven’t taken out. I need to wait for a day when I have a lot of energy and that hasn’t happened yet! They’re going to freak out. The big hit so far has been this chicken magnet that has magnets on its hands and feet which are on strings so you can pose it on the fridge. Fridge magnets alone will entertain these kids for hours, but this chicken…kids of all ages are loving it, haha (see pictures on Facebook). I’m looking for the perfect spot for my Canadian flag that Mom got on sale. I have oodles of books to read in my hammock (complete with a pig bookmark)! Mom also bought me some candles which have a melted top layer during the day here because it’s so hot, haha. I’m so spoiled. I ate all of the soft pure maple leaves Mom bought me already…not so good on the rationing.

Mamá en Guatey - Mom's side!

Below is the itinerary my travel agent/daughter ent me. A classic case of "the best laid plans ..."

August 8:
Mom books it through the airports and makes it to the Flores airport for 6:20 PM
If she's hungry, dinner is authentic Guatemalan eats prepared by the girl with a Guatemalan name and face but very non-Guatemalan speech patterns.
I get to Cleveland 1/2 hour earlier than scheduled, to discover there's a mechanical problem with the aircraft. The flight to Houston is delayed 3 hours. I only had 1 hour to make my Guatemala connection so that's a bust. I get to Flores at 6:20 pm Aug 9. The decision to "train" for 2 weeks at remaining calm during the trip as I have no control was a good one. Lots of negotiating, sitting, reading, during my 2 day trip to my baby girl.

August 9:
Up bright and early for breakfast, complete with un café de Guatemala.
Off to Santa Elena (Don't forget bathing suits and laptop! If you need to change money, at least one of us should have our passport because the bank with the good rate is stupid like that). First, walk to Flores to reserve the bus to Belize and check out some souvenir places. Walk to Maya Internacional for internet, lunch, our first margaritas and pool, if it's hot. (Figure out where we're going for lunch in Belize, make a reservation and call the hotel with pick up time and location.) Then boot around Santa Elena to get a cooler and food (chicken, cucumber, papaya) for cataratas. Make sure we catch a bus by 3pm back to the Cooperative.
Drop off our stuff, grab flashlights and mosquito repellent, and go to Valentina's before 4 to catch a ride to the fiesta in Santa Rita.
I'm on a plane. Didn't happen.

August 10:
Early breakfast, again. Pre-make tortillas for lunch. Leave a lot of food for Coquette. Leave at 8am for the cataratas with Valentina and Carola. Don't forget hiking boots, toilet paper, Purell, food in the cooler, bathing suits and cameras! Start making lunch by 11.
Leave cataratas by noon to Yaxha.
Wash and hang bathing suits as soon as we get home.
We did this! cataratas are waterfalls BTW. We had a truck and driver from the cooperative (Rony). He was very patient and had great stamina to last through a day that everyone advised Angela was too jam packed. The roads are unbelievable; the truck weaves back and forth trying to find the shallowest pot holes. The scenery is very Canadian, except for the occasional palm tree. Rolling green hills. We had a lovely BBQed chicken lunch, after surviving the swim to behind the waterfalls. One of those experiences that I did because I didn't know any better. Who knew the force of the water coming down would make it so damned hard to get to the rocks -- but the option was that or dying. Much easier swimming back to shore -- once my legs stopped shaking. We ended up leaving at 1 for Yaxha. Yaxha was wonderful. Very quiet; not many other people around, and we had Rony to point out the flora and fauna. Saw my first spider monkeys and howler monkeys. Unbelievable the racket they make; a bit unnerving. I also discovered my extreme fear of heights. We happily clambered up a pyramid and admired the view of the surrounding valley. Then it was time to come down. OH MY LORD! The steps weren't even (not a big priority over a thousand years ago, I guess) and all I could think was one false step and I'm a gonner. (there appears to be a dying theme here) We got a very long walk in, thought we were going to have dehydryation issues (but not deathly), and made it back to the pyramid that apparently has a fabulous view of the sunset at 6ish. We hadn't made plans to be there at 6 so it seemed like the fates were with us that we arrived then. We climbed to the top to discover that the sunset decided not to happen that night.

August 11:
Don't forget passports, books, bathing suits, some DVDs if we want to watch a movie, cellphone and RECEIPT BOOK!
Leave by 6am to Flores. Breakfast in Flores. Bus at 7:30am. At the bus station in Belize, figure out the noon return bus for Thursday.
Relax until August 14.
We wolfed down breakfast in Flores to make it to the bus on time, to have it leave at 8:40. It was overbooked so it was the sardine trip to Belize. The difference between Belize and Guatemala is dramatic. Completely different people, language, attitude; both very nice in their own ways. We loved our stay at the Maruba resort. Indoor plumbing, very few other guests so we mostly had the pool to ourselves, drinks delivered whenever we asked (when we checked out she referred to our "very small bar bill". Hmm. I'm losing my touch :) Ange had her first massage and enjoyed it, I had a pedicure and was glad I did (see further down).

August 14:
Take noon bus back. Get groceries in Santa Elena and book it to the last bus.
Beside the fact that we had to take a 9:30 bus back, this went pretty much according to plan, with bonus action. We did some souvenir shopping and went to La Luna for dinner (a restaurant written about in the guide books as a good choice -- they're right)

August 15:
Ange works, Mom relaxes. Movie with niños after work?
Another day that went according to plan.

August 16:
(If we don't feel like doing laundry, we can bring clothes to the laundromat in Flores to pick up on the 17th.) Do a trip around the lake in Flores in the morning. Lunch in Flores at La Luna or Las Puertas. Bus to Tikal at 2:30pm.
Not so much according to plan. We had breakfast at the comedor, got the local sardine bus into Santa Elena, had lunch at Ange's hotel (Maya Internacional), and caught our bus to Tikal. Stayed at the Jungle Lodge near the entrance to Tikal. Decided to check out the sunset from Temple IV. Did a 35 minute walk in 15 minutes to get there by 6:00. The guard at the bottom of the stairs of the Temple explained that the park closes at 6:00 and we needed to leave. I think our profusely sweating brows made him cut us some slack and let us continue with our physical abuse by running up the stairs to the top of the Temple. We get there to see there's a barricade set up with guards to keep you from watching the sunset unless you're with a tour. The guards offered to let us in for $10. Ange decided to be stubborn and we stayed put. Another guard wandered over later and whispered that he'd let us in for $5 each. We bit. It was worth it. What an amazing experience. As soon as the sun set we scooted back to the other side to watch the full moon rise. We were so fortunate to be there for a full moon on a clear night. It was a once in a lifetime experience. When we got to the bottom of the Temple the tour guide (Antonio) told us we were welcome to join his group for the walk back. Very nice as it was pitch black and our flashlight had run out of batteries (we discovered later). That being said, I sprained my freaking ankle when I stepped into a hole. 500 feet from the end of the trail! They sent a truck back to get me. All very exciting/painful.

August 17:
Tikal. Bus back in the afternoon.
Antonio arranged for a truck to take me to the central square in Tikal to join his tour talk. Very nice. Much better than sitting around waiting for everyone all day.

August 18-21:
Ange works, Mom relaxes. Some meals at the restaurant, do a tour of the rainforest with Tono at some point, get ice cream in Chal, watch some movies with kids, have Carola over for dinner, whatever.
After work on the 21, go to Flores for dinner (Luna/Puertas) and hotel for the night.
Mom sits in casa icing foot every 20 minutes, keeping it elevated, occasionaly putting on the compression bandage that the very nice tourist gave me in Tikal. I managed to read a couple of books, do dishes Cooperativa style, and avoid any close encounters with varmints. We had lunch a couple of times in the comedor, Carola came over for a lovely chicken dinner, we killed a humungous bug, welcomed Mo to the casa, and enjoyed 2 more movie nights with the kids.

August 22:
Hotel shuttle to the airport by 7am :(

Week 1 of Mom's trip (by Ange)

Belize (the resort) was paradise. I thought it would be a good idea to reenergize my batteries and get me going, pumped for the next 3 3/4 months of work, 4 3/4 months of being in the Coop and 5 ½ months until I go back to Canada. If this countdown is any indication, it didn’t really achieve that. Well, I hope it did and it’ll just take a bit of time to sink in but right now I’m in “I wish I was back in Canada” mode.

The luxury of the hotel, Maruba Resort (HIGHLY recommended), and the friendliness of the people in Belize City isn’t why I’m homesick. That was wonderful, but it was the features that are similar to my life in Canada that really made my heart pull to go home. Being able to go pee in a bathroom at 1 in the morning (or 8 at night, for that matter) in a bathroom, in the same building was huge. Not even thinking about bleach. Being able to have juice in my bedroom and not being worried about the cockroaches, flies, etc that would follow. (At the resort there are a fair number of bugs and some evil fly things that don’t care about mosquito repellent and are more or less impossible to kill, but very few actually come inside.) The number one thing, though, was the language. Being able to joke and communicate at such a higher level than I’ve been able to for the last 3 months was such a relief.

Francis asked me the other day if I like speaking Spanish. And I do. Languages are so useful and I’m glad for the openings that having Spanish will give me. But fluency doesn’t come fast (unless you’re Italian learning Spanish, so I’ve heard) and I’m still only at a basic level of communication. Bastante. But enough to get by isn’t enough to live a full life and that’s been rough. I know eventually, I’ll get there, but right now, my brain still hurts and after the 3 day break from Spanish I’m reaching for proper verb usage.

I have only had one good night of sleep in the past week, so that’s not helping either.

Update on Coquette: pretty sure that she was killed by people here who like to put out food covered in poison to kill dogs because they don’t like them. It’s pretty common and quite a few people have lost dogs that way. I found this out on Friday night, the day before Mom came, so I was very happy to leave for Belize with her while I was really bummed. Still bummed and talk about her too much but it’s very hard to live with such a sweet companion and have her gone. I really miss having her and I know that will get a lot worse when Mom leaves. I’ve considered trying to get one of the stolen puppies back but now that I’m potentially only here for another 4 months, I’m just going to leave it. Goats to come soon, hopefully.

Update on the research: Got some great advice from a brilliant prof about my proposal. Ditching the social capital angle and just working the reintegration of guerrillas into society. Going to rework the proposal and work on getting a supervisor before I say more. I’m lucky to know a few professors who are going to help me out but the supervisor role is still open...

Update on work: Almost done my SWOT analysis of the credit program. Going to schedule a time with the board, hopefully this week, to present. Due to an increase in the cost of living, our pay has gone up, which is great. Inflation has been nuts, so it really makes sense. It’s not a huge increase, but nice nonetheless. Even the souvenirs we were buying went up in price since a month ago.

Mom has survived the few days using the outhouse. She washed a ton of clothes by hand and did a great job wringing them out! I'm sure she'll update you soon but wine and luck have kept the bug problems to a minimum :)

We’ll write about the rest of the trip soon! Pictures to come on Facebook. There are a lot. Tikal gave us lots of stories, so stay tuned!

crappy Friday

Just when I thought my research proposal was done, I came upon an article about social capital and poverty in Latin America, which seemed like something I should probably read before I submit the proposal! Anyway, it mentioned that the lowest Human Poverty Index scores in Latin America in 2005 were in Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Nicaragua and Haiti. I.e. where Angela, Ania, Dave and Francis are stationed. So that’s good. And I doubt that any IDSers will be doing a formal placement in Haiti anytime soon...yikes.

Phewf
Kids came over last night to watch Water Horse (“Mi mascota es un monstruo”). 10 kids. Not cool. Next time I have that many kids over, no pop and no popcorn because they went totally nuts. I had to break up kids elbowing each other in the spines (¡!) and Domingo, the youngest one, ripping plants out of the ground and throwing them in the house. He also had a temper tantrum later after he tripped and I eventually was screaming at his older brother to stop yelling at him and leave him alone. UGH. There was also spilled Sprite all over my yoga mat, purposefully (I suspect) spilled popcorn in an effort to get more (unsuccessful as there was none left. HA!) and lots of whining about space and sharing. Good lord. All in all, glad I had it and it was, generally, fun. But the pop and popcorn combined with the movie being pretty boring was too much. I told them the next installment is next Friday so stay tuned...(pictures should be up on FB)

Bad news
So Coquette has been missing for 3 days. No clue where she is and the puppies are gone, too. Asked the kids about it and they haven’t seen her either. Frick. Apparently she has “another owner”, though, which is problematic. I have to asked José Luis (Annie’s fiancé for those who don’t have Sean McCurdy memories) about that...Joanie’s cat got taken away after she’d had her for 9 months when the “original owner” came by to take it. But, as Carola said, you would think that they would let me or someone else know. Meh.

Due to mechnical trouble, of course, my mother is stuck in Cleveland. She can’t get here, apparently, until tomorrow NIGHT. Which means I have to try to find the guy in charge of car rentals to see if I can change the car rental. And that means we’re missing our day in Santa Elena and a party in Santa Rita. Which is fine but a big bummer.

La Casa de Embarazo: Pregnant Annie, cat, dog (x2?) and now...

No, not me. Although immaculate conception would win the “best co-op story” at least for 2008.

BAAAH!! Shawna sent me a kick ass package that I got today (Tuesday). Sorry if this is embarrassing, evil cousin, but I have to share the funky stuff I got. It was a Mom-style care package, i.e. full of awesome random stuff! Okay, first item I pull out: an “environmentally friendly” (¿?) sushi stapler (which is actually handy, too, since I’m lacking in the stapler department). Next? MAPLE SYRUP CANDY. Oh how I missed you!! I used to eat way too many selling maple syrup for the Sullivans. Third item was “Hell Babies” stationary which is sort of hard to explain, but imagine what a 13 year old goth wannabe would design if she were designing purple hell themed stationary (bleeding fruit stickers, an evil looking little monster dude, a curvy girl with flaming boobs, snakes and dripping spider webs...yeah). And the handiest and cutest of all, a three eyed squirrel change purse. I’m saving the card for tonight...made my day! I have the best friends. All of the mail I’ve been getting is so much fun! You’re a creative bunch, people.

Other exciting Tuesday update: Luis found goats! And, against my better judgement, we’re going to go in together on a pregnant one. I know this is going to come back to bite me in the butt (maybe literally...) but I have a ton of really tall grass and he promises they’ll be cute...Haha. He has a farm (see Facebook pictures) so we’re going to split on the goat now and he’ll pay me my half back when I leave and bring the goats back to his farm. I’m sure there will be many a goat story to come, so stay tuned.

Friday night, I watched some cartoons that I bought with a gang of kids who came over then went to Valentina’s to hang out with some other people in their 20’s, half from Santa Rita and half from Horizonte. Not exactly a big boozing night, though –2L of beer were split pretty evenly among the 8 of us, haha.

Saturday, I went into town as per usual for researching, Skyping and Facebooking, then came home to children who were pumped to watch more cartoons! So we did while they chomped on these mini-lemons that grow in my backyard that I’m afraid to try in case I’m allergic. Unfortunately, they are in the habit of dropping the seeds on the floor or tossing them out of the house with inaccurate aim. So my floor is now covered in spit and pits (they did try to remember to put the pits in a bowl but they were pretty entranced by the cartoons) –worth it! Only downside to Saturday was the lack of the garbage people showing up –I have two months worth of (clean!) garbage in bags in my garbage/exercise room that I’m keen on getting rid of!! I’m going to run out of space to do pilates, haha.

It was all too good to be true: Raoulin (I know I ruin the spelling of everyone’s names) came by Saturday night to tell me that he couldn’t get us horses for Sunday because they’re all being used to carry stuff to fumigate the grass. Bummer! Oh well, it’ll give me another activity to look forward to after Mom leaves so I shouldn’t be too depressed.

Sunday was full of research proposal-ing (goal was Tuesday, now modified to Friday since I found a lot of useful, interesting information. Which sounds like a good thing but sucks because it means more work, haha!), washing a ton of laundry (which didn’t dry due to mega thunderstorm-age in the afternoon, bleh) and a break to watch Madagascar with some of my neighbours! It was very sweet. And Audelio, Virgilito and Brenda came by in the afternoon and coloured while I chatted with Mom on the phone. Mom’s bringing stickers (thanks Dad!), colouring books (thanks Grandmaman!), crayons, pencil crayons, and movies (thanks Cruzes!). I can’t wait to see their faces –they’re going to freak out.

On Monday, movie afternoon was cancelled since the power was out for the first half hour and I didn’t have a lot of time since I want to finish this ridiculous research proposal. So Brenda, Virgilito, Braulio and I watched some cartoons for a bit. Brenda brought me an apple! It was the sweetest thing. I haven’t eaten an apple in 3 months (they don’t grow them here). My little apple gift made my day.

And that's the pre-Mom´s visit update!

Mom in 6!

Wednesday:
The rain is so hard that my magnets were blown off my fridge and most of the letters and cards blown all the way into my pila room, where they were covered in rain. The rain blew so hard a bunch of my plastic dishes, nowhere near the front of my house or a window, went flying off the shelves and pieces of my palm roof shot into the house. There’s water on the floor and my usually rain-proof pila room is filling with water. I’m very glad I’m caught up with dishes for the day and already took a shower since now the pila is full of bugs and debris that have flown into it. If your pila gets spoiled with things falling into it...that’s your water until the next morning! Lots of extra cleaning to do now.

Speaking of pila water, I now use it to cook and for tea and coffee. I’ve gotten over being grossed out by the little layer of silt, haha. I only use bottled water for cold drinks and ice mostly because I don’t feel like having dirt and crap in my cold drinks. And I agree with Francisco about the bottled water in Canada –I refuse to even Brita my water although Jeffrey insists on the filter (just to be a brat; I highly doubt he cares about the filtration of his water either way).

Friday: Change your calendars people! New month!

Today’s a bit of a milestone (or I’m making it one in my head). 2.5 months in the cooperative, 1 month since I moved into my house and exactly 6 months until I come back to Canada.

Coquette has been acting like a pregnant dog. Not a good situation. I’m just hoping she’s aging weirdly or having empty nest syndrome (although 3 of the puppies are still hanging out at the house) or something. She’s started making a little bed for herself in my garbage/exercise room, has become really weirdly agressive towards me, has put on weight pretty quickly in the last week or two and keeps wanting to sleep on my bed. I told Carola if she has more puppies, we’re going to have to start giving them away to tourists. She has the pitch ready “Gift of a puppy with a tour! An authentical Guatemalan puppy!” Or my other idea was start giving them away with every loan we give out. Everybody think non-pregnant thoughts.