sunday funday

This last weekend, I ate half of a chocolate cookie pie and spent the day at Jas' place watching Disney movies. We got really into the songs. As we sat there, drinking wine and watching Pochantus, we started laughing uncontrollably. This is our Peace Corps Life: meeting up with other Americans, not to have crazy wild parties, but to watch Pochohantus and eat cookies. Who knew that this would be Peace Corps?



The host family situation has cleared up a bit. That's one of the great things about being here- you really learn ALL of your flaws and your strengths. I learned that one of my flaws is that I hold things in until I burst. I'm like a New Orleans levee cerca 2004, and two weeks ago I had my own personal Hurricane Katrina. And people here really don't hold things in. I'm always in awe of my 14 year old host sister, who says every annoyance immediately (usually directed at her mother). "Ayyyyyy MAAAAAA!" she shrieks (usually right into my ear, since I'm usually sitting next to her, leaving me half deaf for the night. Teenage angst is LOUD.).


I finally had to talk to my host family and explain why I was so upset. They didn't really understand why being called "lazy" or a "pig" or a "man woman" or "someone who will never get married" was so offensive. I guess they thought that by saying these things, they would spur me to action, to become an insta-Martha Stewart. But I'm not like that- I hate being told what to do if I don't see a point behind it. So telling me to sweep every day doesn't hold weight unless I can personally see a benefit from it. They haven't gotten that. And they don't view themselves as insulting me, even though in American culture, being called a pig or lazy is extremely insulting. Oh well. The levees burst, I tried to pretend that they didn't by ignoring them, and it all came to a head anyways. After a year here, I am still butting heads with the culture constantly. Hopefully with a little love and better communication, it will all get smoothed out.


Cool things I get to do this week:

1. Meet a group of needy kids whose parents don't have enough money to feed them lunch, who get fed by and hang out with a group of church ladies. I am going into meet them on Tuesday and hopefully can do some fun activities with them after lunch.
2. Revamped my schedule to include the middle schoolers. HEYYY puberty and braces!
3. The rector said that he would give me the keys to hte pool and become an official coach, so I get to talk to the Cubans and see if they will cede control of the girls swimming team to me. Or let me work with them with all the teams.


So many things happening! I feel stupidhappy about it all, even though so much of the time, I am screwing up. But learning and growing from it all. That's the lovely part. I'm glad I had this host family freakout- now I really know how I process with and deal with being angry. I ignore it and wait for it to boil over. Not effective! Not useful! Completely counterproductive.


Hopefully some good will come out of all of this....