Domingo

Yesterday was a nice Sunday. I made a great breakfast of pancakes, sausage, and eggs in a basket (bread with a whole cut in the middle with an egg dropped in, dad used to make them all the time). That was a great start to the day. I walked down to the church mid-afternoon to watch the group's dance practice. It's great seeing them get better each week, and also recognizing and knowing some of the words to the songs, knowing who is in which dance, etc. Martin was there.

I just looked back at my last few posts and realized I haven't explained who he is yet. Martin is an older guy, mid sixties I believe, who is originally from Holland but moved to MN in the late 60s and is now a U.S. citizen. He lives in Morris. He came down a couple weeks ago with Father Greg, he's here for a month. He's been here three times before, and has hosted a few people from here when they came to Minnesota. Martin speaks Dutch, German, and English, but no Spanish. I can't imagine being here without being able to speak Spanish. He is staying with the family that he and his wife hosted in MN. Apparently the communication is going ok, lots of smiles and gesturing I guess. He's a really nice guy, it's been interesting talking to him. He's a jeweler, and is giving some classes here about making and repairing jewelry.

Anyway. Martin was there at the practice when I arrived so I joined him in watching. As they were finishing up, he mentioned that he was about to go to a baby shower for Vianney, a woman from the parish (she's great, really nice lady with three boys). He asked if I would come with since being there without understanding what is going on and not really being able to talk to anyone gets a bit old. He asked and literally 10 seconds later Vianney arrived to pick him up. I said sure why not. It ended up being a lot of fun. I only knew Vianney and her sons who were there, but everyone was very friendly and outgoing. (As usual here). I had never been to a baby shower before, anywhere, so I didn't really know what to expect. We played various games as a big group, and a few that not everyone was a part of but I of course got roped into playing. One of those was where four guys sat in chairs, blindfolded, and four women, also blindfolded, had to feed us baby food. It was interesting. A plus is that the baby food here is sweet and actually tastes good, people eat it as a snack. I had my camera in my pocket so Martin took a few pictures.

There was a boat on a trailer in the garage of the house, and one of the men was telling me about how he goes fishing in it above the dam. He invited me to come with him sometime which would be sweet, hopefully that works out. I explained ice fishing...the guys thought I was crazy. One of the guys and his wife ended up giving us a ride home, they were really great. They're pretty young, probably mid 20s, and just got married a year ago. We had talked a lot throughout the evening. We stopped at her parents house on the way home to drop off some cake, she had me come in to meet her parents which was nice. Daniel, the husband, and I exchanged phone numbers to figure out the fishing trip and I'm going to go to his mom's surprise 50th birthday party in a couple weeks. I'm glad I said yes to Martin about going to the baby shower, otherwise I never would have met these new friends.

Javier jammin'.

"Don't scratch the pews, Jesus is watching you. Take care of them."

Gladys is a boss. ---I don't know why this picture is so small...

Jose found an extra skirt..

Jose realizing that I had my camera

baby shower party games..do they do this in the US too?

Carnaval

This past weekend through today was Carnaval. Carnaval is celebrated throughout all of South America, it's huge in Brazil. I guess it's kind of like Mardi Gras, but way bigger. There was no work or class or anything yesterday or today, but life goes back to normal tomorrow. There is tons of dancing, lots of costumes and masks, etc. I spent most of the weekend at the Brito's house. They have a grandmother (family here is referred to loosely, Andreina calls her grandma but she isn't actually her grandmother, it's not clear to me exactly who is related to her and how) anyway the grandmother is very old and dying, so some of the family who are closer to her and had money to go went to Maturin to visit her. Eudis, who lives in Minnesota now after marrying Robert Hermann, I met them both in December, came down to see her grandmother. (The woman is her actual grandmother). She's here in San Felix now so it's been fun seeing her. The last time she came home was in 2010 so it's really special for everyone being able to hang out with her. I'm not sure how long she's going to stay, I don't think she is either since she was on the computer last night looking at flights.

During Carnaval there are lots of people around throwing water balloons. (And ice balloons, and paint balloons). The water kind were kind of nice actually since it's been pretty warm, I was lucky enough to avoid the paint and ice filled versions. Today I went to the Casa Hogar to have a water balloon fight, and it was awesome. We filled up tons of bombas which was almost a fight in itself, had a nice little dance party, and then had some pretty intense fights. It was a great time. David got some good pictures. While dancing and whatnot we formed a circle and Maria called out different groups of kids like some of the siblings, the morenos, etc, and then "los gringos!!" which of course I'm the only one. One of the pictures below is from that.

I'm looking forward to relaxing tonight, skyping with some friends, and getting a good nights sleep. I don't have class tomorrow so I'm going to try to sleep in. Sleeping at the Brito's house usually means waking up to Gladys yelling "Flojoooooos", her being mad at us lazy youth sleeping in past 730. Or getting stepped on by her when she gets up so dang early. (I sleep on a mattress on the ground in between her and Andreina's bed). Gotta love gentle wake ups right?

jankiest slip n slide I have ever seen

epic

Semana de Justicia-Presentacion y Venta de Garaje.

Yesterday I had the skype conversation with CDH for Justice Week. As nervous (and red) as I get when talking to groups of people, it was fun. Before any of the students got there I was connected just talking with Dr. Watson when my mom and little brother walked into the room, which was a nice surprise. Michael didn't have school so was able to come. Dani was also there of course. It's still weird realizing that she goes to CDH now. As students started coming in I saw a ton of people that I know which was really great, I got to talk briefly with friends that I haven't talked to for quite a while. Ms. Medellin was there, so a lot of the people here who know her got a chance to catch up a bit with her which I could tell everyone was really happy about. Jose Antonio and Andreina were both in the room, Jose made a couple short appearances but Andreina refused haha she stayed well away from the camera once the students arrived. I didn't see Zobz which was a bummer, I think she's probably still out after having her knee surgery. How I did for the actual presentation/more of a conversation I couldn't tell ya. Talking in front of people has never been a strong suit and even via skype I was nervous hah but oh well. Apparently there were about 150 students there. Hopefully I gave them a good idea of what I'm doing, why I'm doing it, and that it has been a positive experience that I think more people should look into. Dr. Watson gave people the chance to come up and ask questions which was cool, so I saw Mr. Gleich, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Medellin, Mr. Watkins, YOUNG MATTHEW, and more. When Matthew came up his head was above the camera so I could just see his torso at first but with the long-limbs and gangliness I could tell it was him right away. Kelly is home this weekend, so her and her mom both came which was great. I got to say hi to them afterwards for a minute, I'm really glad they came. Greg-wa was in attendance, Santiño Mikando (Ian Meeker) came to talk to me afterwards, I told him about going to Brazil soon. Antonio and Laney came up and said hi. Lots of people to see, it really was a lot of fun.

In other news, this weekend and into Monday and Tuesday is Carnaval. Which apparently is just one huge South American party. Here in Guayana they listen/dance to Calypso music, in other parts of Venezuela it's other kinds of music, in Brasil it's Samba. (Spellcheck is telling me I spelled Brasil wrong, I didn't understand but then realized it's spelled with a z in English, and with an s down here) I've heard about some of what goes on in these next four days, I'll get back to you on that once I see for myself.

Yesterday the Casa Hogar had a garage/yard sale. The Spanish in the title is definitely questionable, I'm not really sure what they call a garage sale. They were selling mostly clothes, but also various items like plate ware and sunglasses. I found a couple cool shirts for only 50 bsf total, $6 or so. A decent polo and one of those shirts made for sports like the kind of silkyish made out of some cool material shirt. You know what I'm talking about. So yeah that's great. Hanging out with the kids, helping fold clothes, assisting people find jeans that fit them, etc, was a good time. Did you know that to check if a pair of pants will fit you around the waist you can wrap the waistband around your neck? If you can touch the two sides together it'll fit, they overlap too big, can't reach too small. That's really hard to describe without actually doing it but hopefully you get the idea. You learn something new everyday. Or maybe that's common knowledge and I just was out of the loop.

I took some pictures of the different types of cars I see on the streets here. They range from really nice new Jeeps and Ford Expeditions and Hummer 3's (There's a huge black hummer on my street with big rims, it's ridiculous and looks so out of place), to rusted out barely functioning heaps that look like they'll be the burned out car on the side of the street any minute. There are a fair amount of those burned out stripped-of-everything cars around. But also a surprising amount of nice SUVs. So yeah I just thought that was interesting.

P.S. Father Carlos didn't show up today, once again. Got up early for nothing.

^^pictures Mr. Gleich sent me

Right after I took this picture they all starting pointing and telling me to take a picture of the lady on the bus..

Super blurry but.. green Kanye glasses and a green bedazzled shirt...seniors 2011?

Well hello Enrique

La maestra's daughter, such a cutie

Public bus. Signs in the windshield saying where it goes, also the guy hanging out of the front door advertises verbally and collects everyones money. Gotta be loud and quick with money for that job.

Another form of transportation, the busetas. Usually jam-packed. These and the buses are really cheap, between 2.5-3 bolivares.

cement truck

pineapple truck

from these..

..to this.

Fotos

I got the link to the shutterfly site the St. Thomas group's pictures are on. There are 1300 pictures or so (whoa), here are some from the time I spent with them.

At the Zoo

Claudia and the Gringos

Not a shadow: water color change where the two rivers come together, crazy huh?

On top of the waterfall

I introduced the guys to Venezuelan hot dogs...

They went over pretty well.

Colin introduced this girl to the first donkey she had ever seen

Epic late lunch after not eating all day, Fr. Greg pulled out all the stops

Plaza Bolívar

Group pic just before they left. On the far left is Jenny who makes all the awesome lunches I eat!