August 6, 2005

9:15 AM
It is a beautiful morning here. The sky is vibrant baby blue with no clouds. The sun is warm but not intense. I am sitting on a front step surrounded by beautiful green plants o all different sizes. Every few seconds I here roosters crow (I have come to strongly dislike them and want them to shut-up). I am so lucky-lucky to be here. Seeing the smiling faces feeling the sun beat down on me, it is just so amazing. I want to paint a picture with words so that years later I can remember this feeling. It smells like dirt but not bad dirt, it is earthy. Straight ahead of me is a small white house, with its door open, it has a tin roof and two windows. It is simple but nice. In front of the house there is a small dirt road with pot holes and rocks. Then moving closer to me is a wood fence with an opening directly in front of me. There is a train that leads to the step where I am sitting. There is a tree with magenta flowers and small green leafy plants. A young girl is holding a baby boy who just looks at me and smiles. He is giggling now. He is so happy. Everybody who walks by is so happy. They all smile and say “Bondia.” I can’t speak with them but saying “bondia” is enough. The smile is enough. To the right of where I sit there is a bunch of trees-is is very shady and foresty looking. There is also a random satellite dish. There are palm trees every so often. The natural green has become my new favorite color. They path leads straight up to the house and the step where I am sitting. I am here, ready to make a change, ready to make my small contribution to the world that has been so good to me. It is much more clear now. My place in the world is definite. I want to help, I am going to help.


Same day 9:46 pm.

Today was another wonderful day in ET. After I wrote the previous entry we just sat around and talked. Megan went to Rice (where Lila is going). Talking about Lila really made me realize how much she means to me. She is a wonderful person and I know she looks up to me a lot and I really haven’t ever had that before.

Around 10:30 the rest of the Malaes (Ally, Mike, Sash, and Emily) came over and we walked to Emily’s project. She got a grant through PC to help the mission here fix up a building for a library, reading room, restaurant, and art center. It is a really beautiful facility. After that we shopped at the kiosk and then came back to Megan’s. We made (from scratch) tortillas. They were so easy and turned out SO good. When the tortillas were done we went back to Emily’s and cooked some more. We made tacos and they were soooo good. She made a green bean with peanut dish and then tomatoes and onions AND WE HAD CHEESE! They were SO delicious and I would rank it as one of the best things I have EVER eaten (I feel like I keep saying that about every meal we make together!) So after the meal we were really tired and satisfied. We just sat around some more and then walked/hiked to Emily’s friend’s house. It was about 15 minutes of up and down hills, not super hard but just hard enough. We got there and her friend Adalina (I like that name) was so sweet. She is 23 and has a 1 year old baby boy. She is beautiful and the baby is one of the cutest kids I’ve every seen. Her mom invited us into her house. It was a house that is on stilts. We sat up there and she showed us the tais (the traditional woven fabric) that she is making for Emily. Sash wanted to see how the mom made the tais so she took it down and showed us. She hooks herself in and somehow weaves the thread through-I took pictures because it is hard to explain. So we just hung out and talked until around 6 then we had to head back. The walk back was probably my best experience thus far. We started off with just us and Adalina and a couple kids. As we walked on-more and more kids joined us. They were a riot! We would make grunting noises at them and they would do the same back. It was hilarious. Every so often Sash would turn around and start to chase them. They loved it. Eventually we taught them high-5 and the rock. By the time we said goodbye there were about 30 kids all trying to give us high 5 and grunting at us. I know they want s to doing something “sustainable” but I feel that just that walk home had a significant impact on those kids. Just playing with them showed them that foreigners are good. I am so happy. Anyway we made it back and good a good soup (we were still all pretty full from our WONDERFUL lunch)

Megan made this dessert and my stomach is paying now. It is called brigadero-it is just sweetened condensed milk that you heat up and it becomes caramelized. She put chocolate and cinnamon in it. So good but now my tummy is doing flips. Then we did the dishes and walked back to Megan’s.

We go back to Balibar tomorrow. I don’t want to go. I had so much fun here. I feel very lucky to have been placed with the volunteers I was placed with. I feel so right with everything here and this truly is the first time I’ve felt this ay. It is really an amazing feeling to be living my dream. I wanted to see and experience a world different from my own and I set my mind to it-now here I am. Wow-just having this totally happy revelation about living my dream right now!