it`s HOT!

Well we still don`t have a winner from last week`s trivia. That either means no one reads the blog or you could care less about the trivia. I`m going to pretend it`s the latter, and maybe the fact that word got around that winners weren`t receiving their prizes :)

We are at our new site now, there is no internet so we have to take a bus on the weekends to use internet. It`s really hot here, and there is malaria and dengue fever. We are all much more scared of the latter as a few people in the town have recently died from dengue. Not to worry though, we have good medical care here. This town is a lot different from Santa Lucia. The families have never hosted a volunteer and we get a lot more attention and have to deal with more American stereotypes.

Our family is very nice. There is a mother (Maria del Carmen), an older sister with a child (3 yr old), another younger sister (10) , a 17 year old brother, and a 5 year old brother. We will be with them for the next six weeks. I`ll try to put some pics of our new living situation on here next week. It`s been a week of culture shock for some here, but it`s nice because we are really getting down to the nitty gritty in training. On Monday, we split into groups of 5 and spent the morning at schools in different villages near our small town. The kids were very excited to see us. We will be working with them once a week for the next six weeks. Our assignment is to design and impliment some recreational activities for the kids to do (and that teachers could use later), the teachers are already quite busy.

Our assigned school has about 55 kids in two classrooms. There are two teachers, one teaches 1st, 3rd, and 6th grades, and the other teaches 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades- all at the same time. The kids are just grouped according to age and the teacher moves from one age to the next. The communities are very agriculturally oriented, and most the kids and parents work harvesting tomatos in the afternoons.

As my birthday is coming up (yes November is fast in coming), I`m working on a wish list from the states. It will include very expensive things like thai red curry paste, south park dvds, and spices. I see that I missed history- I didn´t see Bonds hit 756. Our new family does have a tv, but it`s always tuned to discovery kids. I know all the spanish cartoon sing a longs!

Interesting Observations from the last week:
- There are no street names (anywhere), and all the roads around our new home look similar, so we`ve had to find a way to remember where we live. Fear not, we`ve got it, go 100 yards past the ice cream shop and take a left at the donkey. Seriously, if the donkey`s not there, it`s hard to get home.
- We have a chicken and a rooster, and they sleep in the tree in the yard- there is a ladder so they can get up.
- After our fourth day, the 3 year old finally spoke to us (well, to Emily, not me). She said "adios momily."
- Our cold water bucket shower is wonderful, because it is really hot.
- All dogs here are really long- somewhere there is a studly and proud weiner dog.

Adios to all and thanks for reading, we miss you. make sure to leave your name when you comment or text message us.

Carlos (kyler) and Emily