5 Things to Be Happy About

I once had one of those page-a-day calendars with each day listing 5 things to be happy about, anything from getting Christmas cards in the mail to daffodils in bloom. So here's my personal list for today:

1. The joy of collecting rainwater pouring of my roof after having little to no running water nor rain for the past few months.

2. Discovering the trick to reducing the cooking time of beans from hours to just 20 minutes, mmm...protein.

3. The daily assembling of a full-blow baseball game that comes with the passing of the colegio (middle school) kids at the end of the day. Free entertainment and fun conversation with those not playing.

4. A governt agency that it on top of its game and asking me when they can come to my community to do their own planned event rather than visa versa.

5. Conversing with people in my community. This is one of the things that gives me the most satisfaction, yet it is one of the hardest to initiate. More often, I must make myself walk over, univited, to peoples houses, pull conversation starters out of thin air, endure akward silences in between...okay i'm complaining, basta, just gotta remember it's worth it once we get to talking and i think they really mean in when they say, gracias por su visita!

Love's First Kiss

Jess, Tony, Jenn, and Erin discover true happiness.

Kenya Photos

Reminiscing

The open African savannah spread before me, here I am, the present.
Yet the winds take my mind back, I'm on Shurfire, racing up the front field.
I can see my house with the two spotted dogs in front.
We take them hiking, way up to overlook Harper's Ferry.
Down below the Shenandoah meets the Potomac.
Where do you flow river? We went sailing once there.
In the Chesapeake, where was the wind that day?

I'm on my 2nd 8-hr flight and 3 movies later.
I'm stairing at the moving map.
We are passing washington.
Not toward home, but to panama.
This is where I sink or swim.
March was trying, April is almost up.
May is the month my community awaits.
Will their Peace Corps volunteer make it happen?


Erin, Jenn--It was great fun! Thanks for the opportunity to know another part of our world, another people; and to be charmed by both the differences and suprisinging number of similarities.