new people and smells

April 11

Today Tuija left and Andrew is going to leave in a few days interesting things about La Esperanza is that most people volunteer for about 2 months and people are always coming and going so most of the volunteers that were here when I started won't be here when I leave. However, it will such having to say goodbye all the time. Also, Tuija is a pretty good roommate. my next roommate could be pretty gross or mean or something. Or, maybe she will be a really loud snorer or there will be a mix up and I will get assigned a guy roommate who has really bad BO. This could go bad so easily. . .

April 12

I watched this thing on CBS today (yes, we don't have hot water but we do have cable tv) called The Lord's Boot Camp. I only caught about ten minutes at the end but it really made me think. All that I figured out was that there were some people that went to Africa and did some volunteering with children with HIV/AIDS or something like that and it reminded me of Montaña de Luz, the place I volunteered at in Honduras. That week was really intense, actually that week kind of started off a period of about a month that was crazy, but that place was so amazing and I was learning about things that I heard about but had never really met people that had gone through living with HIV/AIDS, parents deaths, abandonment, abuse, etc. Montaña, made me want to go back to central america. Anyway, when I was watching this, it also reminded me of how much I want to go to Africa. I want to see so much of the world and it makes me sad because I also have a lot of places and people I want to visit again. To many choices!

Anyway, back to the Lord's Boot Camp, at the end they showed one of the girls when she was back home and she was doing some evangelical work in the street. She want up to this girl and her mother and asked the girl if she believed in the bible and the girl said that she did and that she was a morman. The evangelical girl (I will call her girl #1 because I don't remember her name) didn't really know much about mormanism so she asked the other girl (girl #2) what it was like. Well, I guess girl #2 was not giving very good answers because girl #1 became very conserned about the salvation of girl #2 and told her so. Well, the mother of girl #2 became a bit adjitated so girl #1 got someone to talk to the mom while she attemped to convert girl #2 to a more godly form of christianity. This kind of bothered me. I don't know that that is the best way to convert people. First of all, I would find it offencive if someone came up to me and did that and I would find it even more offencive if I was the mother. I think evangelizing is a very tricky thing and go tell someone you have known for about 5 seconds that they are going to hell is probably not the best way to start off any conversation, nevermind one where you want someone to understand your point of view. I used to be wary of any type of evangelicalism. I am of the opinion that god is bigger than all of us and that I think we should probably let him worry about deciding who is going to hell or not. In fact, I don't really want to know because there is a very good chance it would break my heart. If I discoved that everyone goes to heaven, I would be upswt that all the people that have committed attricities get to go to heaven. However, if I found out that there is some rule that if you don't do something, or if you do a certain bad thing, then you have to go to hell, I would be devestated by the lack of hope for those people. Anyway, When I was is Costa Rica, I came across a form of evengelism that I like. It's called servant evangelism. Basiclly, how it works is you do something nice for someone like a free car washing or a free coke and tell them that you are doing it to show the love of Jesus in a practical way. If they want to talk more, they can, or if they feel their time has been wasted, at least the coke or there washed car will make up for it.

April 13

Well my fears subsided when I met my new roommate, Becky. She doesn´t look dangerous (although, I have been told not to judge a book by it's cover, even if she seems nice so far she could easily snore really loudly or be really gross- just kidding she is cool). Another girl moved in the house today as well. The three of got pizza together and we got to know each other. Becky is from Florida and is taking a quick break before she goes after her PhD in geology in the fall. I asked her if there is like a special geeky geology thing that gets her really excited but she didn't really come up with anything but she did confirm that in her opinion, volcanoes are pretty sweet. She is pretty quiet and I think we will get along OK. Sharon is the other new girl and she is from California and she used to work in marketing and she liked it but she didn't find it fulfilling because what she was doing was helping the rich get richer. So, she quit her job and is going to business school to learn about business that helps people (she had a term for it but I forget what it was) Anyway, she has spent a month or two in southeast asia and now is here. Sharon also seems pretty cool and she is really outgoing and friendly. They will be cool to have around the house.

April 14

One thing I miss when I use Spanish are being able to use words that aren't proper grammar. When I use english, I like to say things like "hard core" and "that's sweet" and adding "-ish" on the ends of words. I think that the way we use words expresses a part of our personality, and it is hard when I don't have the vocabulary to do that.

April 15

Well, one not so cool thing about nicaragua at this time of this year is the heat. IT IS SO HOT! Since I probably walk at least an hour in this heat every day, I think that is what has been bothering me. Since, I have gotten here. I feel really tired all the time. The sun just takes my energy from me. It is becoming the problem of the hour. But I just don't know if I am not doing something I should to protect myself. I will work through it, I just have to figure out my best survival methods. I am kind of looking forward to the rainy season but that probably won't make things cool just more humid. I am hoping though that is will create more wind and there will be a few more clouds so at least it might make me feel a little cooler.

April 16

School was interesting today. A lot of what the day usually consists of is a lot of coloring and naming the colors (well, they actually only know red, yellow, blue, orange and brown so they mostly just go over those). However, today, they traced their names today. I am lovin' the variety. Also, some kind of doctor volunteers or something came to the school to give the kids shots. Some of the kids flipped out. They were so scared. There was one kid that when they even mentioned he was going to get a shot he would start sobbing. I felt so bad for them. They all got through it OK, although they did have to hold a couple of the kids down. That was the worst. I felt really bad for them but I was happy to see that they were getting vaccinated for something and that they have at least some form of ongoing healthcare in place.

April 17

Well, right now our house is going through tough times. There seems to be a disease of some kind that is spreading at an alarming rate and nearly everyone in our house has gotten it. I will spare you the details but I will say that is an affliction of the digestive system and that it is good to have a toilet near. That leads me to the second issue troubling those in the Santa Lucía house- all the toilets are broken except for one. That toilet just happens to be located in my bedroom. Oh yeah it's perfect. But that not all, the bathroom isn't like a totally separate room. There are walls but they don't go all the way to the ceiling and there isn't a proper door, just a curtain (that I supplied, by the way, it didn't come with the house). Any sounds or smells coming from the bathroom can and probably will be smelled from in the bedroom and probably from my bed. Tonight could get pretty disgusting. Maybe I should sleep on the couch!