March Madness (in reality, I'm not talking basketball... sorry folks)

So yeah...

I basically let February fly by without a blog post, but hey, it has 2 to 3 days less than all the other months, with stuff like my birthday to keep me way occupied, so deal. I'm making no apologies here :-P...

ANYWAY, March 2009.

Um... I've been here in Ecuador for 9 months, and while it feels crazy to wrap my head around that because the seasons and lengths of the days don't change here one degree South of the Equator, I still feel that sick feeling in my stomach when I think about how much time I have left here... (17 months until August 2010, but who's counting...). On top of that, I just turned 23, so the whole time-is-not-changing trick my mind played on me came to a crashing halt... I'm talking Mac-truck heading downhill without brakes and hitting a cinder block wall... that kind of a stop... suddenly I wanted nothing more than to leave here and go home to all of you. It passed though, about half a week after I got used to the fact that I'm 23...

And I also had decided before the fateful 15th of February that I would not be coming home in May like I had thought, but rather in August (there are a slew of reasons for this, so don't judge... the most important of which is that I'll be able to see my brother before he is deployed to Lord knows where, and I wouldn't be able to see him in May)...

So the last bit of February I spent severely homesick, making plans to forget the rest of my service and return to my homeland. Plans are still in the works now, but I'm trying to stick this thing out. But guys, this is hard! You don't realize it, but 2 years? That's a long LONG time...

Anyway, now we're in March... work wise things are moving along. This past week I've given charlas on Self Esteem and Measuring Values to my youth group, and I'm due to give another on Sunday. I'm also working on a trash management project with the volunteer in the next town over, where we'll be educating on the difference between organic and inorganic waste, doing mingas to clean up the roadways in our towns, and other assorted activities to get our towns litter-free (which is a real problem in this country). Other than this, I'm going to start teaching English classes for adults next Monday, and my youth group and I are starting to give literacy classes on Tuesday. I'm also supposed to be going with the health promoter to give charlas on Chagas Disease, which has begun to make a showing here in my province.

Outside of work, life is good. I've had family visiting (family of my host family, not my Cuban and Cuban-Italian lovies unfortunately--hey and by the way, to all my Tias and Tios and primos, you do realize you have an open invitation to come visit Ecuador, right?). The family visiting meant that I got to have sleep-overs like a teenager (which sometimes here, I really really do feel like a teenager), had the chance to swim in the river (which was moving really REALLY fast due to rainy season), and got to visit a waterfall... fun times all around. They're leaving next week :'( but it's just as well seeing as how I've got so much work-wise starting up.

Other than this, a bit of new stuff but not Earth-shattering... my host family has begun taking the cows to another property they have, which means that during the week I have the house to myself, and the weekends they come back. This has meant that I have had to fudge cooking and providing for myself. I've also given me responsibility of 3 dogs and about 10 chickens. And it just made me a wee bit lonely all around (don't despair... I can handle anything this country throws at me...). US tax season is also upon us, so I have the unsavory task of doing my taxes from here in Ecuador. Seeing as how the Presidente of the Junta Parroquial (the mayor, for all sakes and purposes) has really buckled down on my internet privileges, it should be very interesting to see how I manage to get those 1040s filled out... I might just have to hit him across the face with some bamboo cane, the big thick kind that the make houses out of, tie him down while he's unconscious, and then use the internet with him red-faced and yelling from the corner, helpless, powerless to stop me, muhaahaahaa... yeah, I'll probably just ask him really nicely :(...

Oh, new stuff at home though. My sister moved to Texas! Came as a shock to me too... (Mari, call me--I want to hear all about it)...

And yes, my pretties... I have nothing else to tell at the moment, and thus I take my leave of you and I bid you adieu. MUAH! Chao's.



That ending felt really abrupt. Whatev. We'll sum it up like they do in movies...

The End.