More Hiccups (1/31-2/2)

Monday, January 31, 2011

We didn't do much, but tried to start a schedule to work out and eat well. We have been ding our Pilates and Zumba DVDs that we brought. We also went to Cotoca with the manager's two sons. Cotoca is in the outer skirts of Santa Cruz and it's one of the poorest areas in the city. The manager's son had served his mission in Santa Cruz so we went to one of his old areas. We first went to this place called Parque Fantasia. It was really fun, but really ghetto. There was no one there. Only six dogs who kept following us and barking at the horse randomly there. There were all these miniature versions of world sites and even a mini-version of the statue of liberty. There was also a zip-line! We hoped it was safe and got on it. So much fun!

Upon returning, Jose wanted to take us to eat at Tobys. Let me explain Tobys, Camilo said that it was feo and not very good. Jose always says the opposite of everyone else. So we thought we would try it ourselves. Jose said he would cam at 8 after I told him that I wanted to be home at 8 so I could talk to my family. So we called him back and said we would go at 6:30 or not at all. We walked there and it's just a fast food restaurant. It wasn't that good and a bit over-priced. Cristina was grumpy cause she wasn't satisfied and had to waste her money on that.

Sometimes she doesn't talk much so people are always asking her if she's alright or if she's mad or if she doesn't like them. She's never had that problem before, but here she does. I think it’s the culture…you have to be overly friendly with Latin Americans..something I learned on my mission. Anyways, it takes work to keep a conversation going, and since my Spanish isn't as great, (and I'm a bit self-conscious about it at times), this will really help here to learn how to start and keep conversations going. It is good practice for the mission I tell her. She is just used to being around people who do all the talking and so is used to observing and listening…which doesn't fly so well here. I try and push her out of her comfort zone a bit :)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The kids started school today. The roads were blocked off as we walked to the center. Cristina and I felt so proud of ourselves for walking all the way there without getting mugged or ran over. After crossing the street by ourselves for the first time, we looked at each other and I could tell we were both thinking the same thing: I feel so cool for doing this..ha ha (like a four year old again).

After arriving, we found out one of the employment specialists did not inform his stake of our workshop dates and now we are teaching the four-day workshops in three-days this week! Let's hope it goes well. We are pumped, excited, and nervous. There will be more people today and most of them will probably be older. So we'll have to explain things as simple as possible.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

We went to the center at two today so Cristina could send her dad's birthday package before he left Peru. Hermano Aguilar said he would take us to DHL at 2, but when we got there, he had forgotten and was far away. So, Alex walked with us to DHL, it took about an hour and it was HOT. I stepped in gum. Anyways, when we finally got there, they wouldn't let her send her package because it had sunscreen in it. SO she took it out, and then she didn't have ID, so she couldn't send it (The center still had her passport anyway). She was so frustrated, I felt bad, but I hated wasting my day and still ahd to do prep for our workshop tonight. We have had a lot of hiccups and things go wrong here. The culture, I think. We are really being tested on patience. Things don't work out for us lately. But at least, we are safe and healthy :)

Hermano Salazar picked us up tonight for our workshop. Only two people were on time. The rest didn't show up until after 7:30, which provides an additional challenge for us to teach all the material in the even shorter amount of time. Also, they had forgotten to bring a few essentials for us (markers, cups for the soda, the legos, name tags). We had to make due without.