Friday, April 08, 2005
hi all
Good things:
My family loves me and I love them and we were all happy to see each other
I have been getting a lot of work done
Nelson, Fran (dona isables son), and CJ are great to wrok with
I found two good grocery stores inManagua where I can get some hippie food, and believe it or not, aji amarillo paste and aji rocoto paste, along with all sorts of american food
I have a new girlfirend, Ana, Isables daughter, who is great and we are going out dancing tonight
They all have been trying to not feed me so much fried stuff, and Ana has gastritis and the doctor told her less oil and salt and dairy and no meat. I teased her that now we can have the same diet
I am going to teach ana and Letvia (Fran´s wife, mother of Brian, daughter in law of dona Isabel) to make chickpea masala, and hummus, and papas a la huacaina
I think I am getting skinner, but eveyrone here thinks I am fatter than when I left. SO not true. Just ask Annie. Maybe they just remember me skinny, which is nice
Did I mention how much my family loves me and I love them?
My solar shower works great, and so the water is not freezing cold so hopefully I will not get sick
Met some new English teahcers here, Anita, Hillary, and Giorhan, and they are cool
Met up with my friend Puen again, the soil engineer who works on organic agriculture from Switzerland. He pretty much lives here now
My room is now much bigger, with a spearate part for me to sleep, and another part to serve as lab/equipment storage
Bad things
Hvae not been able to visit with people as much as I would like
In spite of 100% DEET, I have picked more than 100 ticks off my body and have at least twice that many bites
Two and a half weeks later and equipment I need has not yet arrived
Went all the way to Managua today only to find out my permits arent ready
Why cant they tell me these things over the phone?
Things are going a little slower with work than I would like
Did not get a grant
Have to pay my guys less, and take on fewer students, I will go into debt, but oh well
As you can see, much more good than bad...and here is a funny joke
Dona Lucia, the mother of MArlon, who worked with me last year and president of the Sontule cooperative, gave me tamal to eat. I do not like the tamales here so much, so I ate very litte. She asked me if I liked it, and I said, not really, no
so she said ¨Bueno, por eso, no esta bueno, esta mal¨ get it? if not, ask a spanish speaking friend
ha-ha
love
melissa
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