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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ September 11, 2006 }
What is air conditioning?
Well, as you can probably tell from the title of this post, I have already forgotten what air conditioning is...it seems a distant memory of the past. I don't think any of us have stopped sweating since we've been here. It's hot, and humid and we sleep under a mosquito net so that doesn't help when it's hot at night and you're trying to sleep and there's this big net over you. I got sunburnt for the first time today and didn't even feel it because it's just been hot the whole time.
OK well I met my mom the other day. She's really nice but she works in her uncle's restaurant Monday through Saturday until 11 at night so I don't see her a lot- just at breakfast and then Sat/Sunday. My family is nice but it seems that they aren't usually all here at the same time. There are a few other volunteers that live really close to me so we walked around the neighborhood some on Saturday and Sunday. The families don't do a whole lot around here because it's really hot and because it costs money to go everywhere and there was a big economic crisis in 2002/2003 and they have recovered some but not totally, things are a lot more expensive than they were and salaries haven't increased any. It went from 1 dollar to about 16 pesos to 1 dollar to 50 to 55 pesos. Now it's 1 dollar to 33 pesos, more or less. My family speaks only spanish, except for my brother (who lives with the grandma), who speaks a little English. The other volunteers and I are trying to speak in Spanish but we don't all the time. It's hard especially when we are all together because it's a break to speak English, but we definitely can use the practice in Spanish. Our group has people who are beginners and a few who are fluent...and everything in between. I'm in between, but there are 3 levels of Spanish classes (and 3 sublevels with the first 3, if that makes sense)- they are basic, intermediate and advanced and I'm in one of the advanced but not the most advanced. I had my first class in that level today and it went well, there are 4 in each class. We discussed our families and took a test to see our grammar level in writing. Today is one of the girls' birthdays and some of us went out for a little while so that was fun. It's really strange when so many of us go somewhere at once because we really stick out. We aren't in the city, so I haven't seen any other gringos besides us yet.
OK about sending me stuff (because you will, right? :) )- they don't recommend getting big packages- nothing really bigger than a padded envelope, because the taxes through customs can be high. I can receive them, but it's better to only do so if it's something I really need, so it would be better just to send cards/padded envelopes. Great, can't wait to get some next week! Just kidding. I'll write more about training later when we get into it more and I know how it's going to be more than I do now because we just started.
I'm caught somewhere strange in the way I feel right now- I still feel really new here but at the same time, it feels like forever ago that I was even in Miami for staging.
Posted by katie on September 11, 2006 11:42 PM | Permalink
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Comments so far:
Hi buddy, padded envelopes, eh? okay.
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Posted by:
Shlee |
September 12, 2006 01:09 PM
I'll send you some pads in an envelope. No problem.
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Posted by:
Cory |
September 13, 2006 11:48 AM
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