outreach and introspection

So after our day off Sunday (on which I did absolutely nothing productive), we had essentially no class on Monday. Lots of study time for projects. And we played soccer again in Atenas with the locals. I can say we’re settled. I remember the first time I went running here, the sun was coming up and I was just so taken by all the houses here, all the dogs, the signs, the school kids going off to school… And now I run down the same street every day to the same place at the same time and see all the same people, and dogs in the same place; I remember every hill, every house, every sign. It is no less beautiful than the first day I saw it, even more so now because I feel like I’m a part of it. I’m not a visitor anymore! I wave to everyone I see and people smile. It’s crazy. My friend said to me today, every morning when I wake up I feel a little bit better about being here.

Today we spent all morning gardening around the campus. I signed up for trimming the orchard trees. That was a euphemism for hacking away at the edge of the property with machetes. MACHETES. Our site manager (who doesn’t speak English) just handed us five girls giant machetes and pointed to a fence and that was that.


All I want in the world is to play with machetes all the time.

I got terrible blisters on my hand though. It is easy to just start hacking away without realizing that it hurts and you’re sweating profusely. Anger management. We also uprooted the old corn harvest and composted it. This was a very hot and sweaty endeavor. And you know what that means? Midday pool time. This has also become a part of our routine. As soon as we get out for lunch, get our bathing suits on and get ready for a dip. My tan is getting much better! Truly.

After lunch I had a group presentation about coffee. What we learn in school is actually really interesting. Problems: we don’t have any grades except two lab reports and two exams. This makes it really difficult for me to understand concepts that I’m supposed to focus on so I don’t really feel motivated to pay attention during lectures. Also, any class between 10 am and 4 pm it is so damn hot and humid in our classroom that it is impossible not to fall asleep. So I often do really distracting things on the computer to stay awake and then I can’t focus.

It’s hard to believe school is the primary reason we’re here. We do all these other projects (tomorrow our schedule consists of a community outreach project [mine is teaching elementary school children English vocabulary about the environment], house cleaning, house meeting, and meals) that are so much more rewarding than sitting and watching power points for hours at a time, that I don’t understand how they expect us to appreciate our scholarly endeavors. Oh well, maybe that’s the point. Tonight we had salsa dancing lessons! It’s pretty damn difficult. But awesome.

I am happy. Almost all the time. But I am kind of living in a fantasy still and sometimes I miss real life.