Operation Rabbit

Number of movies watched while trying to get over my cold AND flu I got at the same time- 5

Number of Jelly Beans for Operation Rabbit- 1940

Number of Baskets- 60

Number of kids that came- 75

Number of plastic eggs- 300

Weight of my suitcases filled mainly with Easter stuff from the U.S.- 100lbs between the two (never under estimate the weight of jelly beans)

Number of days till I come back to the U.S.- 180

Important Life Lesson- If you make chicken flavored noodle soup for breakfast, dont expect the noodles to still be good by lunch. They get somewhat mushy

First In My Life- I paid $.12 to weigh myself and my height. According to this machine, I am 3 oz overweight but otherwise I have not gained nor lost weight since coming to Guate.

What you got up there- Your house doesn´t stink

What I got down here- My house every now and then, particularly the bathroom, can smell abosutely horrible, and I have NO idea why.

Kind Stranger- On my shuttle in LA from the airport to my old office I was talking to this man and we found out that we went to neighboring high schools in NM and I told him about PC and the Operation: Rabbit project coming up and so when I got out of the bus, he gave me $10.00 as a donation. How nice of him!

Funniest Comment of the Week- ¨Olivia, when are we going to make cake!?¨ (this was said by a 4yr old sitting on a hill above a meeting I was in. Everyone started to laugh)

I read in Newsweek (International Version) that in a couple decades there will be more practicing Muslims than Christians in Europe. Woooowwww.......

Ironic Thought:

U.S. – People pay more money to buy their tomatoes on the vine

Guatemala- When people buy fruits and veggies in the market, they pull off everything possible right there at the stand that isn´t needed (i.e. brocolli leaves, carrott tops..) and you never buy tomatoes with the green stems on them.

Did you know the chickens here that are grain fed actually cost less than the chickens that run around wild and eat whatever they find on the ground. People think the wild chickens that cost basically nothing to raise, taste better than the chickens that are fed chicken feed.

While I was in the states, I saw a sign at a store for papayas and the sign read ¨Large Papaya $3.00¨ Thing is, the papaya that this store was saying is large is about the size of large grapefruit. That is what I call ¨snack size¨ down here. To me, a large papaya here is about the size of a bowling pin.

Thats an Evil Trick!- There is a road I take to one of my communities and so when we are on motorcycle, I think ahead and bring a stick with me to fend off the dogs that try to bite us while chasing our motorcycle. Well, one house that has about 3 dogs that chase us put a speed bump in front of their house (its a dirt road so they just raised and packed the dirt). So now we actually have to slow down in front of the dogs which isn´t very fair.

Major Life Changing Events- I was talking to a couple volunteers last week about what happened in Virgina. It happened on Monday, I found out Tues night, then Wednesday night I was in Xela for a security meeting with PC and another volunteer and I were in our $4 night hotel room with cable tv (we-hew!). CNN in English was only talking about politics and random stuff but CNN in Spanish was completely covering the event in Virgina so we watched 2hrs of that trying to squeeze out all the info we could on what was going on. It made me think of Columbine and how that affected the whole country and kinda like everyone mourned together. Now its happening all over again. Also, I can´t imagine what it must be like to be a volunteer outside of the US during 9-11. The country changed for those days following. Flags on cars everywhere, people singing the Proud to Be An American song and so on. But sometimes outside of the U.S., at least for me, you hear about stuff happening, you read about it in your Newsweek 2months later, but you still feel separated from it all. Random thought.

Duck! Where Did It Go? It´s Alive!- I was sitting in my room reading and this june bug type flying thing starts crashing into my light bulb and would dive bomb to the ground and do it all over again. At that point I am covering my head because it nearly hit me several times. So I decide to turn off my light, and turn on the bathroom light. So I get back into bed and I can´t hear the bug anymore. Thats odd... Then I feel something moving under me. Guess who flew off the bed rather quickly... I turned on the light and there was the bug. So at some point between me learning over to turn the light off and sitting back down, I managed to sit on this bug. So I put it in a piece of toilet paper and put it in the plastic trash bag on my wall. About 5min later, the bag starts moving, I had forgotten the bug was in there, thinking it was dead, and so assumed it was a spider or something else. Then it dawns on me that its the devil bug and so I run to tie the bag shut and I toss it out the door. That bug has a serious will to live and continue crashing into light bulbs.

Operation Rabbit- So after months of planning to do this project with my favorite kids here in Guate, it finally happened. It went pretty well though the week leading up to it was stressful since 5 days before we were doing the project I only had 2 other volunteers helping, had yet to distribute the flyers announcing it and the suitcase with all the eggs was still in the capital because it was to heavy for me to carry on my own.
Come Sat, 4 other volunteers and I headed out to Vista Hermosa. Luckily, my favorite male coworker got a truck Friday afternoon and we took the boxes and bags of stuff out to the community. Only thing we had to carry were the 60 hard boiled eggs but we found a pick up so hopped in the back and got there in a few minutes instead of the 35min walk. In Guatemala, there is a thing called the ¨Guatemalan Hour¨ which basically means Guatemalans show up at time that is later than planned. Just how they all are. You say the meeting is at 3, they get there at 330 or 4. Well, this was not the case today. We got to the house where we would be working at 9:45am and kids were suppose to be there at 11, well, they were already there. So they watched us set up and we tried to give them stuff to do to help which they of course were happy to do. We drank some coffee, had a piece of bread with the family and at 1045am we started. Carolyn, another volunteer is absolutely wonderful with kids so the 75kids that had come she was able to play games with them, sing songs, and get them divded into 5 groups so we had 5 stations (face painting, basket decorating, basket painting, rabbit ears, egg dyeing) and we would rotate every 10min or so. Meanwhile we put the parents to work to start filling the baskets with the paper grass I had bought in the states. Carolyn took the kids on a walk and sang songs and we finished filling the baskets and hid about 100 eggs around the area. Then the family made us a soup with beef for lunch and we took off around 2. The day went really well and minus us getting some not nice sunburns (sun was VERY strong that day).

Post PC Plans- So I have been getting asked what am I doing post PC. Well, thats all in God´s hands but at the moment this is what I think might be the plan. I end my service sometime around the 2^nd or 3^rd week of Nov. I will probably spend Thanksgiving in ABQ and then be in NM for about 2-3weeks to catch up on family, work with Megan on her wedding, see people I haven´t seen in awhile, and of course, eat some seriously missed Dions and mexican food. Then I will be spending Christmas and New Years in LA and also might be taking a small trip with family around then. Then in mid Jan hopefully will be going to the Bay Islands in Honduras with the other side of my family. I also hope to squeeze in Florida to visit an old friend as well as Idaho to see another old friend. I know it sounds crazy, but I think a lot of volunteers actually do some traveling when they get back to the states. Then I might try to take a trip to Europe with my sister for a little bit but that is still up in the air. As far as jobs, I have already started to familiarize myself with non-profit organziations in the LA area and will probably try to get a job around March or so. Also at some point I gotta buy a car. BUT, if you don´t have a job, you can´t finance a car but you need a car to get to your job. We will see how that will work out. I am not really stressed or worried about what will happen. It all works out J