I noticed earlier this week that my back was starting to hurt. Sunday afternoon, on our way to the festival, I sneezed and I hurt my back (yes that means I’m old). Sarah noticed I was walking funny or limping and was laughing at me when I said I hurt my back when I sneezed. But I realized that it could be because I hadn’t exercised since I know my back starts to hurt after a week or two if I don’t.
(My classroom at Maximo Nivel)
During my Spanish class, I got a bit uncomfortable because I thought Sandra had called me “cute” after me talking about how cute some of the girls at the project are. I was relieved when I later found out she was just saying “nice/friendly” (amable).
(A Donovan fan!)
After lunch, I had to go to the supermarket to buy the ingredients for the ramen I needed to make at the project before getting on the bus.
I had to use my elementary Spanish skills to try to get some sliced beef behind the counter. I was a little uncomfortable in how the guy was handling the raw meat, knife, cutting board, and packaging/plastic wrap for the meat. He had no care in everything touching each other. He even placed the plastic bag on top of the raw meat to put a label on it before handing it over to me. *gasp*
When we got to the project, most of the kids were making thank you cards for their sponsors (if they had one. 3 of the kids still did not have sponsors 
).
Some of the kids wanted to arm wrestle me. Some of them double-teamed up on me. And I totally forgot that I still had a screwed up right shoulder from a soccer match from about 4 months ago. Yeah, I need to go to a physical therapist when I get back to the US because I might have just made it worse.
After about 30 minutes, Lesbi asked me to start cooking my food. She helped me, and as I watched, similar to the guy at the supermarket, she didn’t seem to have a care for sanitary conditions. Wooding cutting board (that’s all she has, actually) for the meat, and using the knife on multiple things (although, yes, sure, it’s being cooked). Okay, maybe I’m way more paranoid than most people in how I handle raw meat.
After about 30 minutes, we RAN OUT OF GAS! What? Yes, we had the meat in the large pot of chicken stock (water with chicken bouillon), and before it got to a full boil, we ran out of gas! Tino had to call someone to bring more gas (propane maybe). They said they can get it before the end of the day – hopefully within an hour. *gasp*
Thankfully, the gas came after about an hour and I was able to resume making the ramen. For approx 40 people. But, I messed up by not separating the ramen noodles from the soup base – instead, cooking them together, which made the soup get “sucked” into the ramen noodles, eliminating most of the soup! Ugh. I’m a terrible cook if I can’t even make ramen noodles right!
Luckily, most people, including the parent(s), seemed to like the “ramen” – some even asked for more. I had placed a small sheet of seaweed on top of each ramen serving, which were mostly in cups. The kids asked what it was (they thought it was “black paper”). Many of the kids actually liked it so much they kept on asking for more seaweed. I had only bought 1 packet (which came with 10 large sheets) thinking the kids may not like it, but we quickly ran out!
Because Lesbi made me wear one of her aprons while I cooked, I became “Cosinera Taka” (Cook Taka) for the day.
(The donated beans and corn flower that was distributed to the parents)
And what happens when a little child asks if they can use your camera and you give it to them?
I thought I'd feel guilty but it's starting to feel like I treat the kids similarly to my own. I miss my kids in different ways, but I also know I'm doing something good that I hope they can learn from and they'll understand one day. Adriana reminds me of my girls. She growls at me and I chase her to grab her, hold her up upside down and tickle her while she squeals.
So I ate 2 servings of my own ramen. Then, right before leaving the project, Lesbi gives all of us volunteers some corn bread. THEN I had dinner at home. I felt (and probably looked) like sumo.
After (yes, of course, another yummy) dinner, Chelsie asked if I wanted to go watch a local orchestra that was playing outside – so I went. Trying to be more social and getting out instead of being stuck inside.
I was actually quite excited to go see an orchestra play. The last time I did so was when I went to go see the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. I think I got to go for free because I helped usher a show. But I really enjoyed it. I have always enjoyed the sound of an orchestra way more than a solo violinist by itself. Unfortunately, though, I didn’t enjoy much of the orchestra we saw tonight. I am not exactly sure why, but it could have been a mixture of the sound (where microphones were placed for the PA system) and/or some of the players – most of the members were young – maybe late-teens. We thought maybe this was a local orchestra from the church.
On our walk to/from the orchestra, Chelsie and I talked about relationships – yep, one of my favorite topics. About how being open and honest just doesn’t happen enough – that most people are unfortunately just not trustable. Her boyfriend is (unfortunately) seeing 3 or 4 other girls - and she likes muscular guys. I learned from her that Lorena's father had abandoned her family, and Lorena has – like most young unmarried girls in their teens and 20s - an ideal, unrealistic image of what marriage/relationship is. I feel bad for girls who are grown up with such images thrown at them from all around. I think we ruin girls and their hopes and dreams because of that – the adults and society in general is to blame for most of that. We talked about not letting things out of our control bother us as the key to being happy – and what we wanted in 5 or 10 years. We also talked about how easy it is to get stuck in physical-driven relationships, but knowing how such relationships are unfair to both parties.
No comments:
Post a Comment