i write today from an internet cafe in Orange Walk Town, which is where i'll be for the next 6 weeks, doing community based training. it's in the far northwest of the country, not far from the Mexican border. which, unsurprisingly, means that i'll be studying Spanish. :) slightly more useful in the long run than Kriol (which i was kinda intrigued to learn). it's a town of 15,000 or so, with a bustling town center focused around several outdoor plazas and a fruit and vegetable market. i'm here with 3 other youth development trainees, doing four hours a day of Spanish class. we'll also be running a number of activites for a few different groups of youth (ages 8-25), centered around literacy, life skills development, art and computers.
i'm living with a multilingual family of four. mom Donna is a professional cook with a wonderful laugh. her husband Ismael works in electronics and is a walking encyclopedia of pretty much every kind of fact available. 21 year old Yolanda just graduated from college and is working at the local radio station. she's psyched to have someone in the house to take dancing with her. i'll report back on the state of the clubs in Orange Walk in case anyone's interested. :) and 6 year old Zoe is a ball of energy and sharp as a tack. she's going to be a handful, i can tell already. they all speak english beautifully, and my spanish is ridiculous, so it's been easy to default to the language we are all proficient at. i'll have to exercise some serious discipline to make this happen... but i've moved on from bucket baths to an honest to god shower, which is pretty sweet. AND they have a washing machine! and more mango trees in the backyard... if i can wrap my brain around the language, things should work out just fine.
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To quote the infamous Isaac Boone Davis (who was probably quoting someone else)"Dude, Spanish is as easy as spelling socks, S-O-C-K-S" :)
Oh, oh and speaking of Mr. Davis, who can forget "dude, i can't believe he's dead?"
glad you're learning espanol. as you get better, you should try to write your blog in it...
I suspected you had headed north since Bradley mentioned you had a Spanish teacher. It will be useful, though potentially less interesting. I laugh that you are still in a town three times the size of my hometown.
So it's Orange Walk Town and Spanish is the language> I'll bet a bunch of it comes back from those ancient times in junior/senior high. Of course, Italian may blurt out now and then. <( (-:}
Sounds like OWT is an interesting place and your host family great, too.
Camp says "Hola!" Sorry, I don't have an upside down exclamation point. Adele and I and Anita and Rudi just got back from there. It was hot and humid in your honor.
Have a good 6 weeks.
Greetings from both of us. Just got your email.
This sounds just about right. Well done and the pics are great.
As of 7/7/2007 [when we left], Sacandaga Lake is 3 to 4 feet below last year's flood -- the straight break water is completely visible and the left hand curved break water is 1/2 visible and the rest pops up with the big waves. The outlet is just bearly passable in the canoe on the Sacandaga side.
Take Care and be a blessing.
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