Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey everyone, I hope that everyone is enjoying their turkey day. This last week has been full of traveling. First I went to Santa Clara to visit my host mom there, since I haven't been able to visit or really even call her since I left. It is so difficult to get the stars to align to make phone calls that usually there are more pressing calls to make. So anyway, that was fun to see her again, she cooked me my favorite foods (including my platanos intentaciones) and she told me all about the eating habits of her last trainees she hosted, a married couple. They are the last ones, they will be moving the training site this next cycle. I will be going back to spend Christmas with her, and then I will return to Chichica to spend New Years there.

Ruperta had a new set of dentures this time, normally in the house she didn't wear her set of crappy dentures because they really were horrible and she would have been better off not to wear them. She never smiled for pictures because she was self conscious about her smile, even though she has a great smile. So when I arrived to visit, she asked if I noticed her new teeth. She told me that it was because of me that she was able to buy them, because she had saved the money that we give our hosts to guard our things while we are our of town, and she used it to buy her new teeth. She says that thanks to me she has her smile back!

While I was in Panama I also had an appointment to talk to Muchachas Guias, the girl scout association. It wasn't extremely helpful but I am really excited to get this group going. I think it will be really fun for the girls and for me as well.

Then I traveled to Farallon again for more training. Surprisingly, this was actually more helpful than I expected. We got more training on teaching English in one day than we did in 10 weeks of training previously. It was also fun to hear about what is going on in everyone's sites and catch up with people.

Currently I am at a resort in Cerro Punta, which is pretty nice and pretty expensive, but everything is nice and comfy including my bed. One of these days I will make myself a bed out of bamboo and buy a mattress, then I will actually be a little more luxurious in my house, as well as a table and a couple chairs. It's still pretty unfurnished.

I signed up to help cook, but since everything has been so organized and predone there isn't a whole lot for me to do right now. I arranged the veggies on trays and opened the cans of cranberries (campo style with a knife, since the can opener doesn't work), and later I'm supposed to warm the rolls and make the gravy. But that's not for another couple hours. It should be pretty tasty, I'm especially looking forward to the apple crisp and pumpkin pie.

After this, I will be returning to my site to drop off all my stuff, and then Saturday morning I will hike to Llano Nopo for a fair they are having there, and also to see the site of my newest neighboring volunteer. Apparently the day before yesterday he hiked clear out to my site but I wasn't there. So we're both going to be at the fair and I will probably spend the night in his community with one of his host families.

Well, since this is the dia de accion de gracias, I will write about what I am most thankful for right now. I am especially thankful for the good food and comfortable accomodations right now, it has been a long time since I ate so much fruit and cereal for breakfast, an actual hot shower in semi-clean conditions, and a comfortable mattress with several heavy blankets (it gets cold up here). I am also thankful for my family back home and all the support they have for me, and I miss you all but I am also quite happy here. I am thankful to have a job that I love, even though it can be frustrating sometimes it is something that I am grateful to be doing. I feel like I have grown as a person already and have learned a lot from this experience, and I hope that my presence will be even half as beneficial for my community. I am also grateful that I have had no real health issues, it would definitely detract from the quality of this service (knock on wood). So in all, I am thankful to be here and I am thankful that I have the support of my friends and family. Enjoy your candied yams, because that is the one important thing that is missing today. "The yams did it!"