week one.

i´m not sure where to begin. i can´t believe i arrived only 6 days ago. i have experienced more life in those past six days than i could ever have imagined. taking into account all that i have experienced and the advice of a few good people reminding me to be present here, i´m not going to write much. and i´m not sure how pictures are going to work. i still don´t have internet on my computer, so i´m using the one in the office at the fundacion. but, considering i spent significant time with people this week that don´t have doors or bathrooms in their homes, i simply can´t complain.

the one thing i will say is that this is really a different experience than my time in chile. i know i probably shouldn´t compare too much, but it´s difficult not too. i´m sure by my 3rd, 4th, 5th stays out of the country i´ll be better about that. because chile was my first time abroad, it took quite a while to adjust. i had to adjust to living with a family, to the language, to a different culture, to sticking out, etc. with that experience under my belt, i´ve been able to adjust much quicker here. i´m already completely comfortable with the language, the idea of another culture, etc. and although i´m used to sticking out, in chile, there were at least a good amount of other tall people and white people. here, there really aren´t. so, there´s really no chance of being confused for a local. but that´s okay.

i´m not sure how pictures are going to work. facebook is pretty painfully slow right now. so, i´ll post a few here, and put the rest up when i can. i´ll give explanation along with the fotos.

overall, however, things are great. i am learning so much. in fact, i was thinking and writing the other day that i don´t think there´s really any other way (at least for me, i guess) to learn about what it means to be human than by meeting people that live completely differently than me. when you throw out all those other variables, all the institutions we´ve come to associate with ¨being a person,¨ the human spirit seems so much more...visible. i was going to say understandable, but that´s not true. at least not for me. but, i´m not sure that´s something i´ll ever achieve.

ok, a few fotos, with some explanation.

this is a picture of the house i´m living in. sorry it´s sideways, but i just don´t have the energy to figure that out right now. it´s this amazing colonial-style house. very open, which is great. it´s the house of adriana, the executive director, and has been passed down in her family for generations. and it´s right near the centro (downtown), so that´s great. again, i´ll try to put up more pictures when i get a chance.



This is Adriana (in the red) giving some soccer/basketball/volleyball uniforms to the women working in one of the communities that the fundacion works with. the community is called el gusano. we (adriana and i) actually stayed out there one of the nights. the people are absolutely wonderful and welcoming. i´m sure i´ll write more later.


i just love this one. i took it outside one of the schools in another community that we visited to drop off uniforms. that´s there soccer field and basketball court their walking on there. and of course, a church. one interesting adriana told me was that although they don´t have buildings for schools, they ALWAYS find the money to build a church. and don´t be alarmed by the mask. although some people wear them, there has yet to be a case of the flu in this state. in fact, any time the topic comes up, everyone laughs at the crazy gringos for freaking out about it. (about 75% of the people that were supposed to come help at the fundacion this summer cancelled, making things really difficult.)


this one, taken in el gusano during the day that we stayed there overnight, is a perfect example of me being stared at as ¨that tall, light-skinned, red haired girl with a ring in her nose.¨ kids are the funniest about it. this family was really sweet too.


this is the reason we went out to the community--they brought in a priest to do a benediction of some new sewing machines they had donated. the priest (yes, with a total mini-mullet) was an interesting guy. he told a lot of jokes, tried to speak some english to me, talked about knowing che guevara and silvio rodriguez and how much they loved him, and found any excuse to break out into song. after the benediction (he walked around sprinkling holy water on everything) we ate, which was delicious, and then sat around to have a ´tequilita.´ that´s right, tequila straight. it was tough. and as the priest sat there with about 10 women, he had them eating out of the palm of his hand. it was pretty interesting. (there aren´t many men around, especially my age, because most of them are in the states. much of the community is actually funded off of migration dollars. although, many of them are returning as well because they can´t find work there either.)


this is the kitchen where our big, incredible meal was cooked. the woman who lives here (the house without a bathroom) is named angeles. in the morning, she made me a cup of orange tea that she made herself. delicious.


the night we stayed, i played jenga with these girls for like 2 hours. their giggling was completely contagious. in fact, at one point, the girl on the right with the HUGE smile was giggling so much that she farted. (some things are universal). we were all dying we were laughing so hard. i even had tears down my face from laughing. what a great moment.


this was a class for the elderly that i think is sponsored by the government. i kind of have a girl crush on the girl who was teaching it. she´s really great.


this is one of the main plazas right by my house. i generally take a walk around the area everyday in the late afternoon, sometimes stopping for a cafecito or cervezita.


okay, so go here for more pictures on facebook, with less description.