8 month update

Language-
Spanish: Since arriving in my community, my Spanish has definitely become more fluid. However, I speak like my indigenous community members here – I use 20 or 3o verbs max to describe everything. This is not necessarily a bad thing. When I volunteered at a local medical brigade, people could definitely understand me better than an Argentinian native Spanish speaker. My vocabulary of bugs and animals has rapidly grown. When I leave the Comarca and enter Latino land though, I wish I had a more eloquent speaking style.

Ngaberi: My Ngaberi more or less plateau’d after the first 3 months. As much as no one here likes to admit it, in my area Ngaberi is a dying language and very few children speak it. I have realized that this has been a huge detriment to my learning because I spend a good amount of time hanging out with children. I can understand quite a bit more Ngaberi than I can speak (like the children), so I enjoying calling adults out when they speak in front of me and think I cannot understand.

Work- is going on pretty much as expected- there is good participation in my aqueduct project work and much less interest in my planned educational programs. Meeting attendance is steady but people arrive ridiculously late. I don't find it very fashionable. There is enough interest in a latrine project that I am planning on moving forward with it although it is a struggle working with such a “project” oriented culture. English class is going well. I’m excited to get started with the penpal program!

Life- Living without electricity or running water is surprisingly easy and peaceful, but then again I don't have to carry water and wash clothes for 8 kids and a husband. I eat extremely well- in the past week I was gifted 4 live crabs, 14 bananas, 3 plantains, 1 cabbage, 2 carrots, 2 potatoes, celery, and 2 other root vegetables. Well, maybe that was a particularly good week. I do enjoy hanging out with some people in my community but I stay pretty professional. The most scandalous thing I have done to date was to share a copy of Cosmopolitan with another woman. I meet up with my Comarca volunteer friends every few weeks either in other their sites, to do something work-related, or in the city of David or at the beach. It is a major source of comfort to share ridiculous stories with them and eat missed foods such as cheese, yogurt, pizza, milkshakes, etc.

Entertainment- I was extremely disheartened to have to miss the Shakira concert on April 12 in Panama City because of another commitment. On the home front, I tend to a constant slew of visitors. I enjoy gardening (green beans, a dying tomato plant, root vegetables, onions, peanuts), blaring my ipod speakers, making chakaras (bags), reading, and talking on the phone when there is promotion for free minutes.