Coconut+Hammer= Test of patience and skill

# of worms found in my veggies- 2 (cauliflower and corn)
# of seconds it takes to loose your appetite after seeing the worm- 1
# of boxes cut-up in an attempt to make the bases for the gingerbread houses- About 10
# of boxes that were not able to be used due to invasion of mold- 3
# of bags of candy we have prepared for the kids- 70
# of times we ate a piece of candy “making sure it was safe” when preparing the bags- lost count
# of bags of powder sugar I bought to make the icing- 20
# of times my debit card was denied when I went to pay for all the candy and groceries at the store- 3 (computer was down for the bank, had to wait about 30min for it to be online again)
# of sandwich bags bought for candy realizing they don’t seal- 150

Funky Food of the Week- Bull foot soup (soup with veggies and pieces of chopped up meat that looks mostly like skin or fat)

Foods that I eat now that I didn’t eat before Guatemala- Radishes and Papaya

Studies show that using plastic bags for gloves while working in the garden is not a good idea. Several splinters will result and they advise to use gardening gloves instead that you can borrow from another volunteer (already found a pair, workin on the splinters)

(playing scrabble in my house with some other volunteers)

I learned that when trying to open a coconut, it is better to use just the hammer, rather than a hammer and nail.

What We got Here- People selling fresh baked stuff. People will walk around town asking if you want to buy, banana bread, carrot bread, corn bread, homemade candy,
tamales. Also, if you see a house with a red light outside, that means they have just made something and it’s for sale.

What You Got There- Real donuts. The kind that when you squeeze them they self inflate.

What You Got There- The option of being able to turn on the heater when you are cold

What We Got Here- A true appreciation for hot teas/drinks and cooking fires to stay warm

“Lift and Turn!”- I was staying at Erin’s house (site over from mine) and her house is two rooms. One room is her bedroom, other room is her living room/dining/kitchen area. Well, in her kitchen sink is where you brush teeth so I went to brush my teeth and I couldn’t turn the faucet on and Erin told me “Life and turn!” (the little knob thingy) and well, I did, and broke the pipe off the wall and water went squirting EVERYWHERE from the ceiling to the floor in about a 10ft radius. I for whatever reason though I could put the pipe back on, ya can’t when water is rushing out. Erin grabber a tea pot to catch the water which was equally as funny and so I got a frying pan to deflect the water into the sink below. By then I was VERY wet. So I stood there, for 40min or so waiting for them to turn the water off. I was shivering I was so cold but laughing. So her owners were busy bathing when this all happened and it took about 15min for them to get to the room we were in. They weren’t exactly quick to react and decided that maybe they should turn water off. Ya think?!?! Next problem was the water main controls were underground covered by a manhole that was covered by cemement. So at about 1045pm at night they are banging away in front of the house with a pick-ax trying to break the cement. Meanwhile, Erin says to me when we were talking “Olivia, don’t move” and I said “why????” and she told me there was a spider on my head. Of course! So she said she would get it off, I couldn’t wait, so I threw my hat while screaming, all the while managing not to move the frying pan. So they finally turned the water off and I gave them a very loud cheer to let them know it was off. I ran to change into warm clothes as by then I was completely wet and VERY cold. I felt really really bad that I gave Erin’s house a bath on the inside, at least she thought it was funny. I will never forget, “lift and turn”.

I’m Such A Girl Sometimes- I went to visit a chicken and pig project one day and two of my coworkers were there castrating the baby pigs and they were SCREAMING/SQUEALING as loud as possible and it was horrible to listen to. Not so pretty watch either. I was trying to take a picture while not looking and covering my ears at the same time. Now that’s talent. Then it came time to kill a bunch of chickens for “lunch” and yea, gotten kinda use to seeing that. However seeing parts of baby pigs being pulled out of their bodies while they are squealing and moving around yea, that’s gross. Megan, I would be a horrible vet and I give ya props for being able to watch all that stuff.

My Jungle Needs a Trim- My backyard patio has gotten a little overgrown and its driving me nuts because I see the spider webs popping up and we can’t have any of that now. So I got my house scissors and just went to work on the backyard. Let me tell ya, when you got the will, trimming bushes and small trees with scissors isn’t so hard. Probably didn’t do much for the scissors but I was satisfied afterwards.

Since When Do You Have To Worry About Bread Being Stuffed- In the market, there are always several people that bring there baskets into town filled with freshly baked bread. So I found one selling wheat and I asked for two pieces of bread about the size of hotdog buns. Well, I got them home and I was planning on using them for croutons and well, they were stuffed with funky apple sauce stuff. Aww man! So yea, next time gotta ask if the bread is stuffed before I buy it.

“Call upon Me in the day of trouble, I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” Psalm 50:15

Update on Papaya Lady That I Gave a Cookie- She wants me to make her cookies and she will buy them from me. I have NO idea how much to charge so I said 1Q ($.12) each because I am not looking to make money off of this. So I have an order for 10cookies for next Sunday.

In the markets, some people have sacks and baskets filled with unidentifiable herbs and everything to me looks either like dried oregano or seeds. So one day I asked what each one was because I wanted to make pasta so I was trying to see which ones would work. Well, none of them. One of them is used for mixing with water and giving to babies in their bottles and then three of them are used for making a tea when the mother is in labor to help her uterus.

“Do it twice, faster, do it again, faster!”- I am teaching Excel and Word to my two group leaders I work with for the peaches and honey because well, they aren’t that motivated with the products but I figure if I can teach them how to use the computers, that will be beneficial. So we started with the basic “save, copy, paste, create new file…” stuff and some things ya click once, some things ya click twice. Well, getting them to double click is quiet the challenge and I have no idea why.

Aww… Christmas is Coming….- So the good thing about Christmas coming is my mom and sister are coming to visit and we are going to have a turkey stuffed with tortillas, black beans and eggs. Jk…. Sad thing is…these are the following things I have thought about: Making Christmas cookies and giving them to the homeless, the giving tree at church or in the mall, luminarias, Santa Fe, snow, decorating the house (I have a few decorations, making more), church, Kenny G holiday tunes at Borders, arts and crafts fairs, Starbucks 900calorie gingerbread holiday something something drinks, the after Thanksgiving sale at 5am (miss ya Em!) to name a few

“For I will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and give them joy for their sorrow.” Jeremiah 31:13


I believe my spiders can read my calendars. Whenever I leave the house for a long weekend, I come back and the number of spider webs has greatly increased.

Selling English Books on the Bus- We were on the bus one day and people always hop on, give a speech and try to sell the passengers something. This time it was books on how to learn English. Well the guy would say “this is how you say green in English” and he would say the word. Then a majority of the people around us would immediately look our way as if expecting us to say “yes, that is correct”. We were having fun with it because after a few examples, he would then say “this is how you say grandfather” and we would yell out the word before he could which was making everyone laugh.

So You Thought You See This Only in Africa- I was in a community one morning and there was this little girl in her mom’s arms that I couldn’t even figure out her age. I think she might have been around 2yrs old or so. I have never seen a child that skinny and frail in my life (in person). She had half a head of hair and was balding, was bone thin and looked like she was starving. My coworkers said she was malnourished. Then my supervisor said to me “these are the things you think you would only see in Africa”. It’s moments like that that make me want to continue to work for help/relief/aid organizations after PC. Seeing a kid starving is kinda a reality check.

“While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18

The weather people said its going to get to be as low as 11 below 0 degree Celsius where (like 14 degrees Fahrenheit) where I live later in the year. THAT’S COLD!