bazaars and house shoes

April 20th, 2009

Today I exercised for the first time in 4 weeks! There is a soccer field at the school in our village that is almost a perfect third of a mile. So I did about a mile and 1/3 before I was dying! 4 weeks of not running and I lost everything I had built up. Not to mention Tricia was not there to keep me going.... sad. Then I played a little "keep away" the soccer ball with my host brother, Scott, Diego and a few school boys. For a while I wasn't "allowed" in the midde... as the person trying to get the ball back... even though it was obviously my turn. I told my host brother it was unfair and he was like "we're just trying to be gentlemen".... oh! That was nice. I told him I wanted to be in the middle and then I threw myself in the middle the next time.... only to get the ball kicked straight to me... *sighs*

My family called this weekend!! But for some reason my phone disconnects after 30 minutes of a call. it's happened 3 times now. I'm not sure what the deal is...Tricia and Mary An called today!!!!! It was the best morning EVER!!! It was so awesome to talk to them. I haven't really gotten homesick yet but I do miss my friends and family.

Thomas is sick today. He's got a bit of a cold and has been feeling bad since Friday... so today he skipped class to rest. It was a good day to miss. We just reviewed some vocab and got out early. Tomorrow we have Tech Day so we travel to another village for teacher training. Our language teachers announced today that they are not going with us. This will be the first time our group has traveled anywhere without them... I hope we make it back! :)

On Saturday the volunteers in our village all got together and went into the city. We checked out the Bazaar (a huge open air market) and I got some rockin house shoes. House shoes are a big thing here... you gotta get a pair or your whole family will ask you about them everyday! I also picked up some coloring books for our host sister and 2 cousins... they were a big hit!

Being here is starting to feel more and more comfortable... it gets more comfortable as the language becomes more natural. Although I still cannot understand about 85% of what is being said to me. That is the only frustrating part.. everything else I can roll with. But the language barrier is hard because there is so much I want to say. It was almost easier when I couldn't say anything because nothing was expected of me. Now I am expected to have conversations and there is so much I can't say! Grrr.....