8/24/2010
Back and at it again.
Hello all and welcome back to the strange story that is my life, currently I hope your finding this well and life is treating you fairly.
Doing good I guess, when I say this at the beginning of most of my blogs im just saying im not depressed. I really haven’t had that depressing of a day since ive been here, I realize I want to be here and its my choice, it helps keep me afloat and keep pushing myself on. As I write this I figure I might as well explain some things that have made me depressed since ive been here. Not to be depressing but to give you an idea through another eye of what its like to live in a 3rd world country.
Abuse to animals, This might get kinda graphic so for all the animal lovers out there please skip this part and head on to the next section. . There are stray dogs, cats (some I have no idea if there stray or just wondering away from home for the day.) that I see everyday in the street. They are sometimes kicked or painted ( Yea this is a weird phenomenon I see once in a while, a dog with pink,blue, red, green spray paint all over it.) When I see them get kicked, which is normal, it hurts me a lot, they are normally really skinny to begin with and the fact they are hurt, hurts a dog lover. One encounter my friend and I were petting a bull dog, boxer mix that was adorable and cracked me up cause it just looked awkward all the time, not 2 minutes after words my friend said a guy saw us and ran up and kicked the dog ( at the time he was also spray painted.) I’ve also seen a kitten thrown not that far but I felt horrible. Just to bring this into context though, animals here are known to carry disease and some strays are just not safe, so people abuse them to keep them at bay. Not making it right in any way but hopefully this will give you understanding if you ever reach a moment to see something this bad.
Trash, Trash, Trash. I think I explained this before but its absolutely ridiculous here. Buy a candy bar in a store when you open it outside throw the rapper on the street. Finished with your chips, street trash. Buy something on the bus, rapper out the window. (The other day I had my window open and a tiny child tapped me on the shoulder and I turned to greet him, he proceeded to hand me trash and point at the window. I gathered my strength and let it go out to the abyss. I know, im sorry but sometimes you flow with the crowd.) Minor goal is to install trash bins around the city but I’ve heard there more expensive than I think.
Society here, This ones a bit hard to explain but ill do my best to explain it in a few words so I don’t dig a hole and get confusing. It really revolves around the fact that we have too much in the US. The thing to do to me, as it seams, is to sit outside the house and watch people. Many days I’ve sat with families and just watched people. Even for me now there are not a lot of activities to do outside the house. They have bars, ice cream places and a few restaurants and everything else is an hour away. They don’t really pursue any type of education after school, or not that ive seen.(I think this is because the idea of leaving or moving away is just unheard of or impossible in the minds of people. Also very they are very family oriented which is a great thing and keeps them close to help the family.) They find it strange that I run and work out get I some looks and some laughs, physical upkeep isn’t that important or understood.
In the states, I feel, we are giving the idea that we can be whatever we want to and do whatever we want. I’m not talking about freedom but of hope ( I think) We have options to take loans/credit get a home, start a business, go on an adventure, go to school, get a car, do anything. This doesn’t exist here, or at least the options seemed very limited compared with what we have. This makes me sad and confused, I don’t understand it. The possibility exist to start good businesses and is probably greater than even in the United States right now but it is not seen or understood by the people. (I stopped here and sat for about ten minutes thinking about it, that’s how I feel about explaining it, so im going to stop.)
Its not that sad though, it gives me strength to see the love of the community when a person passes on and the community comes out to mourn. Also how newspapers aren’t needed, the community talks enough that word of mouth spreads all information. Or that you know your neighbor and not by occasion but you know them and you help them however you can. Or even its safe enough to let your chickens run around and know that people wont take them for their evening meal (Yea I think about that too.) All and all there amazing but this is why im here, to do what I can. For all the others who want to pursue some type of path to help those in need of something, it exist and is probably looking for someone like you too.

Ive never been a good writer, it was rambling from my mind and hopefully made some sense. On that note some R.I.F.T

R.I.F.T
I farted in class the other day and it smelled horrible. I didn't understand what the kids said but I thought some kids made jokes about it. Only to find out later that day the whole room stank and they were talking about that. (I had a cold that day and couldn't smell to great.)
Ive fallen in love with all pigs, I see them all the time and just want to play with them. There everywhere and they just make funny noises and look awkward, ill be happy one day if I own a pig.
A group of people moved in right next door to me. I was told they were going to sell frijos which is beans or that's what I thought. They make a lot of noise and play music all the time. Just recently I realized lately they might have said fijos which is to fix, they might have fixed it for people to live in. I’m still confused about what they do, live there or sell beans, either its strange and there are about 5 people involved.
The new substitute teacher told me I was going to teach today. I told here theres no way I can do it without having a lesson plan and with my language level. When the moment came to go up and teach I spoke to here in really poor Spanish that I couldn’t do it. I think she got the message and continued teaching the class.
I went to the school an hour away in Las Colinas to teach. That week they were having some type of meeting and there was no class, it was my first time there. They showed me a field with coffee and banana trees I explained I might be able to help with this. After about 30 minutes, said goodbye, I walked off to sit and wait for the bus for 2 hours laying in the grass, in the middle of nowhere. The next time we would meet was in 2 weeks. Good Friday?
I watched a really drunk guy ride a horse down the street. Incredibly horrifying and hilarious.
Went to my directors house to speak to her about some stuff. I was told to go around back. I walked around the back and on my way saw some guys drinking under a bridge and then (I think) had to head through a restaurant to get to her. ( I was told there was someplace I should never go in town its dangerous.) When I stepped to the door and peered in it looked like a saloon out of one of the western movies. Lots of cowboy hats and everyone stopped doing everything and looked at me. I proceeded to nod my head and walk in the other direction. Welcome to the scariest place I will never go.

May peace be onto you
(Side note - . May peace be onto you was said by a person a worked with everyday as he left the restaurant at Yucatan Taco Stand Jax Florida. Also he was a good person and I feel like I should give credit where its due, his name was Jesse.)