Catch Up!

Wow, the last time I wrote was the end of August! Where does the time go? I swear it's starting to fly by for me. I'll give a brief recap of the last couple of months here and then post some of my journal entries that I've written at site. We have still been without power, not shocking I know, so it makes for early to bed and early to rise for me!

Quickly the last three months:

September:

I recieved a check from Bill to help get the Slagball girls their uniforms!! We were all so excited to get this gift, the shirts are made and they will begin the new season in Jan! I'll make sure to post some photos of everyone in their new clothes! Thanks Bill from all the team, you did something really special for them.

Raoul had a birthday! I came into celebrate with him, we went out to eat a a fancy Italian resturant near the house. His cousin and Aunt came from Holland to visit so I got to meet more of the family. They brought treats, chocolate, yum! It was a really nice time, dinner was great, I gave him a bottle of Chivas so after dinner we had some cocktails and good converstation.

I was able to get a handle on the bat situation!! Can you believe that I exterminated the WHOLE house and brought those suckers down! It was gross, a little sad, very smelly -- but I have been enjoying a mostly bat free house now! There was one unfortunate (well not too totally unfortunate) occurance due to my spraying. I think some of the exterior of my house got some of the spray. I walk out to find the rooster that likes to sit behind my house and crow at all hours of the early morning - death. Whoops.

This was my set up to spray the varmits! Pretty professional.

I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty gross, they just kinda dropped onto my floor - dead.

I felt a little guilty about this one - but man do I sleep a lot better thru the morning hours!

October:

We had a big Broko Day in Wan Hati. Broko Day again - is a celebration of someone who has passed away. Women wear celebration pangies, and everyone dances, sings and parties well into the nite. Kendila made us matching pangies to wear to the festivities, but a sad thing occured the morning of Broko Day, she got word that her father passed away. She left to go be with her mom up river. Broko Day wasn't as fun without her. Although Corvina did make bamie and peanut sauce chicken, and she Sa, Olivia and Vanessa and I danced the night away. I still missed my sis Kendila.

My Ma Moengolina - love this crazy lady!
All dressed up and ready to go to Broko Day Sa and her baby Prai with her two sisters. Made me miss my two sisters! We danced like crazy the three of us!

The boat about ready to do down river.

The little girls and I gathered flowers and made princess crowns! It was the cutest project, everyone looked like little storybook princesses!

Mona has her princess crown on!

Michael came to visit. He stayed for two months. I came in to greet him and spent a few days with him, getting him settled into an apartment and just hanging out and catching up. He stayed in the city when I went back to site in Oct.

I got an amazing birthday package from my mom with all kinds of great things! Lots of arts and craft things - I love it cuz it gives me and the kids something productive and fun and creative to do together. The kids had a blast with jacks, clay, oil pastels, making muppets - she also send beef jerky that Ula enjoyed and that I also gave some to Power the boat guy - he loves it and is always extra helpful to me when I have loads to take on the boat! It was also a treat cuz I got to enjoy Ice Cream sandwiches for my birthday at site. She sent Astronaunt packaged ones. So smart that mom of mine! Thanks again mom - the village all loves you and tells me that anytime you want to come visit, they'll make sure you have a wonderful expierence!

My birthday was reall fun! I came in and Ula and I went to the zoo, where we ran into Michael. We hung around then Ula and I went to dinner. This time it was dinner at the fancy resturant where we had our first date! Cute huh? I just got into the city that day so it was a nice relaxing day.

The next day I went to Paran where the Sur 15's were taking some trainings. I did a presentation on how to handle the kids at site.

November:

The ladies of Wan Hati got an awesome, awesome gift. Three ladies came from Holland (funded through their government) and stayed for three weeks to teach the art of bead, glass, silver jewerly making! The project allowed for all the materials and tools to be donated to Wan Hati. It was a huge thing and a great success! I women (myself included) had so much fun learning and being creative. After the women left the women decided to make Fridays and Sundays official work days. So far they have stuck to it! I brought some of their completed jewerly into the city with me around Thanksgiving and almost every piece sold! The Embassy had an art fair and between that and other volunteers most of the pieces were sold! That same nite of the art fair I met up with Ula at a meeting conference he had for work. They were finished and having a cocktail hour. His boss bought a bracelete for his wife. It was such a sucess. The women make around $200 SRD and when they saw the money - it really helped to motivated and make more to sell. The money will go into the Women Organizations bank account and be used for more supplies, and things that the community needs or that the village would benefit from getting. There are a few giftshops in the city that are also interested in buying the jewerly so once we get more to sell I will come in with Tanta Wilma and we will go together to some places to sell the jewerly.

Michael came out and spent about 10days out at site with me. We had a good time. Went hiking, played in the river, cooked and looked at the amazing stars everynite.

Guest lodge underway. Wan Hati is building a guest lodge - funded by the Ministry of Regional Development. It's in the process of being constructed now, they have cleared the area and between the rainy days are working to get the building up. Along with the guest lodge, the Mististry also funded the making of the market! So all that work put into the market - was I guess practice for the next proposal that we do. They have not started construction just yet, but are clearing the area now. This will also be a great place to sell the jewerly ;)

Clearing the path into the bush where they are going to clear an area for the guest lodge.

The area was bulldozed to make the area for the guest lodge.

Peace corps staff came out to visit and dropped off cement for me to make a deck in the front of my house. Currently it's sand and with all the kids that come over, it would be cleaner for them if we had a cement area for playing and extra room for project that we can do outside instead of in the house. I tried to get some guys from the village to help me - everyone agrees to help, but they have a hard time remembering to show up ;) The deck is still not complete. Although they did make a new concrete stand for my durotank. Hopefully we get the deck done before I leave ;)

Thanksgiving time! I came in for the holiday. Ula and I had a filled up week, lots of activities! The 25th is Independence Day here too. We went to some bbq's then to all the events down in the city. They had a culture fair (pic are posted on my facebook) it was really cool. The Amer- Indians, Idonisians and the Marrons participated and shared a bit of their culture traditions. I got to get dressed up and go to a wedding for one of Ula's friends. Partys here are so fun, and wedding are a riot - they usually have wedding bands, I get a kick out of the bands. The day before I went back to site we took a road trip to Nikerie. I go East to site, so we went West to where all the rice is produced. It was a really nice day out.

That's a quick recap of the bigger events that happened over the last few months. I've been out at site for the last three weeks and time is just going so quickly!