I have mentioned before that i live with a family that has a one and a half year old little boy running around being a tyrant at all times. Me and him are not what you would call good friends, but we have this special pact. He loves food, and i always have extra, i also eat by myself inside cause my mom says i will get eaten by mosquitos if i eat outside sooo... little baby is always at my lap smiling to be fed, and what does he get? He gets rice, white lovely rice, and i get to bring my plate back with a little less food on it, could not have created a better solution if i tried.
So little baby boy, named Franchesco, is being weened off of breast feeding. But Franchesco really likes breast milk and i think just the whole aroma around the feeding time. Anyway, to get him to not appreciate his moms boob, she smears mustard on it and when he asks/cries for some milk, him mom pulls out her mustard covered tit and chases him around with it. Yes chases him around cause the whole family is there cracking up thinking this is soo funny and completely normal. I have to agree it is hilarious cause Franchesco really does not like mustard and just seeing the family laugh while my sister has her boob hanging out makes me appreciate my surroundings so miuch.
My family here on the coast has a washing machine, i was sooo pumped! Sunday morning i went to use the washing maching thinking, i have it made in the shade (aka not having to scrub my clothes by hand in the sun) After the cycle was over, my mom told me to bring my clothes over to the washing tubs and proceeded to have me scrub my clothes by hand. Four different times. and then a rinse out cycle. WHY THE HELL DO THEY USE THE WASHING MACHINE??? have not figured it out yet either :( quickly became not so pumped, oh and of course they find me completely amusing laughing at the sweat rolling down my face.
I was also taught how to clean a fish, and brought to the lovely sardine "factory" The main reason i never liked/ate fish is that horrible smell before it gets cooked, not sure the sardine factory helped, and when i say factory i mean a tin roof about 100 feet long with tables of fish under it and men and women descaleing, then chopping off their head, tail, and intestines, in such a rythmic fashion you cant peel your eyes away. They get 30 cents a bucket and can make like $15 a day which is awesome since monthly family income is around $180 per month.
Me and my family are bonding and in a couple weeks i think i am going to start teaching an areobics class... yeah call me bo banks i am going to put these ladies through some serious cardio hahahahaha
Monday, May 17, 2010
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
of course it still runs
I am going to concentrate this post on my daily surroundings so whoever decides to read it has a better understanding on what i see everyday. I might get off track, sorry.
My little neighborhood is made up of 44 houses, not all of them are occupied, but there are 44 houses. They were placed in perfect order, 5 rows, with 10 plots in each, one is occcpied by a "park", another by a communuty center, another by a day care center, and a few others that have nothing on them. In two months i will be moving into the aforementioned day car center, fully painted with pooh bear, tigger, rainbows, and butterflies, but not gonna lie i am PUMPED! Why you ask... well the house i live in now is probably one of the more luxureous of the neighborhood. In total it is about the size of my family room including the bathroom in pennsylvania. It is cement blocks put together in a rectangle with a wall down the center splitting off the bedrooms. One side of the wall has a plastic couch, and a tv, also a bathroom with running water and huge shower, the other side was split into three rooms, mine is the middle. I originally thought that cement walls would be good sound barriers, but alas nope. They hear me every time i have explosive diahrrea, and i hear my dad snoring at night, though that just reminds me of home. What does not remind me of home, is a 1 and 1/2 year old nephew that i have. he is absolutely adorable and then he starts crying at 3 am. Still love him though, but i think i will love him even more from my own house. Hot water does not exsist, only water that was sitting in the pipes and the sun heated it up, but that ends in about t minus 10 seconds, never knew i would thouroughly enjoy a cold shower, but i do, i do a lot.
Other point. i would really really like to sleep until 9 am, and watch a movie in the middle of the day, or lay in a hammock reading my book. BUT (big but) my family is expecting so much of me, every day i wake up and they ask me what i am going to do, when i lack and awesome answer i see their dissapointment. I am living there for no rent and they feed me like crazy, so i really do need to prove my worth, but i cant wait to live in my own place. Oh and once i move i am buying a dog so i have an obligatory friend. Oh and i then get to cook for myself and maybe never eat rice again.
To get away from my town, that is to go to school, to get lunch, to get the internet, to see life, i have to either walk for 25 minutes and arrive soaked or take a truck. Obviously taking a truck is preferable, but they never come around, i end up waiting for an hour or more until a car comes so i can get on with my day. The cars here ligitametly look like they were found in a junk yard and with some gas and a high spirit they run. The other day i got a ride with my family in a short bus. Imagine, outside colored the brillant array of lime green, blue, and orange fringes. Driver sits on a lawn chair rigged to the floor, i sit on a metal bench. There are 5 full cracks going from top to bottom of the windsheild rigt infront of the dirvers face. The stick shift is just barely in reach of the driver if he stays in the low gears, reverse is out of the question, and obviously none of the meters on his dash have worked in years. Astonishingly enough I am comfortable.
Mothers day is a HUGE deal here. the school has a big program for all the moms to come, and as i witnessed, embarress themselves full time. The different grades make recycles outfits that the moms wear for a fashion show. They make them do potato sack races, and carry a lemon on a spoon in your mouth. Its two hours of making moms do ridiculous things, but they get presents for it. Then the whole weekend everyone gets wasted in celebration of their moms. I think i might try to bring this tradition back with me. They stay up drinking in the streets playing music, and dancing till around 4 or later. It was pretty incridible, as an outsider i kept having to remind myself that this is for mothers day. So i definietly drank one for you mom :)
Also if you read my last blog, i will let you know that i am not gaining weight. Not sure how it is possible but i recently saw a mirror, and got to see what i looked like. Havent really changed much, fit into my tight clothes a little better, and got somewhat of a tan going on. I can only attribute the lack of extra poundage on the extreme loss of daily water weight. but i am not complaining. I also went for a run yesterday and got chased for 10 minutes by a pack (10+) dogs, barking biting at me. I definetly peed a little bit as snapping mouths were only centimeters from my ankles, it was like i could already see the blood spewing. Made me run faster though, but probably not going to take that path again.
also i saw a real city, with life, and people, and restaurants of more than one food choice, it was incredible.
My little neighborhood is made up of 44 houses, not all of them are occupied, but there are 44 houses. They were placed in perfect order, 5 rows, with 10 plots in each, one is occcpied by a "park", another by a communuty center, another by a day care center, and a few others that have nothing on them. In two months i will be moving into the aforementioned day car center, fully painted with pooh bear, tigger, rainbows, and butterflies, but not gonna lie i am PUMPED! Why you ask... well the house i live in now is probably one of the more luxureous of the neighborhood. In total it is about the size of my family room including the bathroom in pennsylvania. It is cement blocks put together in a rectangle with a wall down the center splitting off the bedrooms. One side of the wall has a plastic couch, and a tv, also a bathroom with running water and huge shower, the other side was split into three rooms, mine is the middle. I originally thought that cement walls would be good sound barriers, but alas nope. They hear me every time i have explosive diahrrea, and i hear my dad snoring at night, though that just reminds me of home. What does not remind me of home, is a 1 and 1/2 year old nephew that i have. he is absolutely adorable and then he starts crying at 3 am. Still love him though, but i think i will love him even more from my own house. Hot water does not exsist, only water that was sitting in the pipes and the sun heated it up, but that ends in about t minus 10 seconds, never knew i would thouroughly enjoy a cold shower, but i do, i do a lot.
Other point. i would really really like to sleep until 9 am, and watch a movie in the middle of the day, or lay in a hammock reading my book. BUT (big but) my family is expecting so much of me, every day i wake up and they ask me what i am going to do, when i lack and awesome answer i see their dissapointment. I am living there for no rent and they feed me like crazy, so i really do need to prove my worth, but i cant wait to live in my own place. Oh and once i move i am buying a dog so i have an obligatory friend. Oh and i then get to cook for myself and maybe never eat rice again.
To get away from my town, that is to go to school, to get lunch, to get the internet, to see life, i have to either walk for 25 minutes and arrive soaked or take a truck. Obviously taking a truck is preferable, but they never come around, i end up waiting for an hour or more until a car comes so i can get on with my day. The cars here ligitametly look like they were found in a junk yard and with some gas and a high spirit they run. The other day i got a ride with my family in a short bus. Imagine, outside colored the brillant array of lime green, blue, and orange fringes. Driver sits on a lawn chair rigged to the floor, i sit on a metal bench. There are 5 full cracks going from top to bottom of the windsheild rigt infront of the dirvers face. The stick shift is just barely in reach of the driver if he stays in the low gears, reverse is out of the question, and obviously none of the meters on his dash have worked in years. Astonishingly enough I am comfortable.
Mothers day is a HUGE deal here. the school has a big program for all the moms to come, and as i witnessed, embarress themselves full time. The different grades make recycles outfits that the moms wear for a fashion show. They make them do potato sack races, and carry a lemon on a spoon in your mouth. Its two hours of making moms do ridiculous things, but they get presents for it. Then the whole weekend everyone gets wasted in celebration of their moms. I think i might try to bring this tradition back with me. They stay up drinking in the streets playing music, and dancing till around 4 or later. It was pretty incridible, as an outsider i kept having to remind myself that this is for mothers day. So i definietly drank one for you mom :)
Also if you read my last blog, i will let you know that i am not gaining weight. Not sure how it is possible but i recently saw a mirror, and got to see what i looked like. Havent really changed much, fit into my tight clothes a little better, and got somewhat of a tan going on. I can only attribute the lack of extra poundage on the extreme loss of daily water weight. but i am not complaining. I also went for a run yesterday and got chased for 10 minutes by a pack (10+) dogs, barking biting at me. I definetly peed a little bit as snapping mouths were only centimeters from my ankles, it was like i could already see the blood spewing. Made me run faster though, but probably not going to take that path again.
also i saw a real city, with life, and people, and restaurants of more than one food choice, it was incredible.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
i would like some white rice, with some more white rice thanks
they feed me a lot.
they feed me alot for breakfast (three scrambled eggs, 5pieces of toast, and a block of cheese)
they feed me even more for lunch (hot bowl of soup, heaping plate of white rice with a cut of meat and potatoes)
then they feed me dinner (mountain of pasta with meat, with another half a plate of white rice)
there are some types of food you can shove down your throat, white rice would not be one of them. oh yeah neither is hot soup when it is 90+ degrees. Never knew, imagined, dreamed it was possible that activating my metabolism when i eat makes my body work hard enough to start sweating. yeah i am that obese single guy in the corner of denny´s gulping down his grand slam while dripping through his shirt.
I started my english classes, i teach about 6 classes a day three times a week. The one teacher just has me aid her in pronunciation, and grammer while she leads, the other teacher leaves. yep, just walks out right after he gives me a theme like the seasons or time. Cant lie though it is high entertaining. The kids, and when i say kids i mean high school, i teach a 19 year old, well the kids just stare at me waiting on my ever move, and they know almost zero english so i conduct the class is spanish, which is the enteraining part. a back a forth convo i can do, but a lecture for 45 minutes is totally another ball game. So i just start talking, and they are way too afraid to laugh at me so instead i just start cracking up cause i know i soud ridiculous, and i also make jokes that no one gets so laugh a little more. All in all they love me.
I had a class for 2 hours yesterday, 2 straight hours. after the first i asked them what they wanted to do. they replied SING!!! meaing me sing. so i did. i wrote down the lyrics and sang the second hour away. The one teacher returned to class... and took up a seat with the students to listen. maybe next week we will learn how to dance. Life in general is just ridiculous
i am starting a vegetable garden so i can one day eat a salad instead of more rice, and i went to a huge mall with a costco type store about 30 min from my site, and found snack packs!!! After a day of barely understanding what is going on, and constently looking like an invalid, the sweet taste of something familiarjust fills your soul with joy. Not sure how else to explain it, but the sight of a snack pack was like seeing the fountain of youth. I eat doritos, a lot of doritos, because i can relate the taste to something before 3 months ago. So sad and yet sooo satisfying.
and after rereading this we can all probably assume that i am getting fat...
Yes its an assumption cause i have not seen a mirror in weeks, i am now starting to understand why.
they feed me alot for breakfast (three scrambled eggs, 5pieces of toast, and a block of cheese)
they feed me even more for lunch (hot bowl of soup, heaping plate of white rice with a cut of meat and potatoes)
then they feed me dinner (mountain of pasta with meat, with another half a plate of white rice)
there are some types of food you can shove down your throat, white rice would not be one of them. oh yeah neither is hot soup when it is 90+ degrees. Never knew, imagined, dreamed it was possible that activating my metabolism when i eat makes my body work hard enough to start sweating. yeah i am that obese single guy in the corner of denny´s gulping down his grand slam while dripping through his shirt.
I started my english classes, i teach about 6 classes a day three times a week. The one teacher just has me aid her in pronunciation, and grammer while she leads, the other teacher leaves. yep, just walks out right after he gives me a theme like the seasons or time. Cant lie though it is high entertaining. The kids, and when i say kids i mean high school, i teach a 19 year old, well the kids just stare at me waiting on my ever move, and they know almost zero english so i conduct the class is spanish, which is the enteraining part. a back a forth convo i can do, but a lecture for 45 minutes is totally another ball game. So i just start talking, and they are way too afraid to laugh at me so instead i just start cracking up cause i know i soud ridiculous, and i also make jokes that no one gets so laugh a little more. All in all they love me.
I had a class for 2 hours yesterday, 2 straight hours. after the first i asked them what they wanted to do. they replied SING!!! meaing me sing. so i did. i wrote down the lyrics and sang the second hour away. The one teacher returned to class... and took up a seat with the students to listen. maybe next week we will learn how to dance. Life in general is just ridiculous
i am starting a vegetable garden so i can one day eat a salad instead of more rice, and i went to a huge mall with a costco type store about 30 min from my site, and found snack packs!!! After a day of barely understanding what is going on, and constently looking like an invalid, the sweet taste of something familiarjust fills your soul with joy. Not sure how else to explain it, but the sight of a snack pack was like seeing the fountain of youth. I eat doritos, a lot of doritos, because i can relate the taste to something before 3 months ago. So sad and yet sooo satisfying.
and after rereading this we can all probably assume that i am getting fat...
Yes its an assumption cause i have not seen a mirror in weeks, i am now starting to understand why.
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