2017 is going to be weird for me. It's the end of my twenties, it's the first year of my life I won't step foot on my own continent (probably), and *comments about the presidential election redacted*.
The holidays were very quiet, with only four of us on campus: me, the principal of the school, and two students who stayed behind to take care of the grounds. On Christmas, I walked with my host mom and the two youngest girls (Zena, 9 and Esther, 7) to the nearby village where they were having a community lunch. The walk took about an hour, but was fairly cool with lots of cloud cover, which doesn't seem like a big deal, but here in Region Nine, that's halfway to a miracle during the dry seasons. The lunch was unremarkable, except for the introduction: one of the town leaders gave a prayer and then a long speech, which started with something about Jesus's birthday, and continued into "We're all Amerindian here... except Miss (pointing at me)... we're glad to have her here. I think she's a student or something..." and at that point I couldn't hear anything else he said because all of the stares were drowning him out. It was similar to wearing a Batman costume and a tutu to a friend's fancy dinner party: no one's mad, but it's a bit uncomfortable and people keep whispering about you.
New Year's was pretty similar, only there was a 3 1/2 hour church service before the lunch, which seemed a bit backwards, since back home my mother always insisted on church on Christmas, rather than New Year's. Presents were exchanged on New Year's instead, too. This lunch was devoid of awkward speeches about my shocking paleness, although it was brought up in several conversations. Not only do I stick out like a sore thumb, but I have the alarming tendency to go very red in the face from the heat. What can I say? At least I'm never at a loss for conversation. Forget ice breakers, most people just introduce themselves to me by going "you're turning pink!"
I'd love to tell you all about Orlenna's wedding, but I have gorgeous pictures of it that won't post, so I skipped that entry (still in draft form) to post this one, so you wouldn't all think I died.
For those of you who care about my Masters Degree Program, the first report's comments have come back, so ... so far so good I guess? I haven't figured out what I'm going to do for my Capstone/Thesis Project (which I'm putting in capital letters, because it is Wicked Important).
In other news, my host-family here has been trying everything I can think of to cook. Garlic bread was a huge hit, although pineapple upsidedown cake was a surprising disappointment (apparently the "cake" part was good, but the "pineapple" part they could do without.)
Iguanas have become my favorite thing here. Zico (my host-dad) manages to catch them somehow, and now brings them to me so I can carry them around for a bit. I get as excited as a five-year-old who is presented with a 10 pound candy bar. Stay tuned for WAY TOO MANY stories of iguana chasing. I'm pretty sure that's going to take up a lot of my time. Iguanas are the best.
I need a hobby (other than lizard spotting). I have more free time than I've had in years, and all I have to do in that time is write reports, which is terribly dull (though both my Peace Corps supervisors, and my Masters adviser tell me that reports are necessary and important), but no hobbies. Any ideas?
