are you there, blog? it´s me, renata

Hi everyone! I´ve had a bit of a cold lately, but today I took some Sudafed, which I don´t usually do, and now I feel GREAT. I wonder why I never used to take Sudafed? Now I think I´m going to take some EVERY DAY. (Just kidding, don´t worry, I´m not on the path to cold medicine-addiction… yet.) Seriously though, so awesome. And trust me, I´m going to need this Sudafed buzz to get me through tonight´s youth group meeting… I´ve taken to attending the Catholic youth group meetings every Wednesday, to get some street cred with the community and get to some some of the kids, and let me tell you, these meetings are unbelievably terrible and boring. Part of it, I´m sure, is that my level of Spanish only allows me to follow roughly 75% of the goings-on. Part of it is also that they routinely insist on spending 2 and a half hours on roughly 30 minutes of material. Well, 45 minutes of material if you count the prayers. But, like I said, I´m building some community confianza, and they´ve tempted me with their vague offer to let me go on trips with them. My biggest fear is that I will be asked to lead a prayer at one meeting. I discussed this with my PCV friend Keane, a fellow Godless-heathen infiltrating a Catholic youth group, and we brainstormed possible prayers… “Dear God, all of these people seem to believe in you, so…” “Dear Invisible Señor…” (PS no offense, Christians! Also please no one tell my town´s priest about my blog, okay?)

Anyhow, I´m writing this here in my school lab, anxiously awaiting Friday, when I go into La Vega to run some errands. I´ve been broke since Santiago, but now there´s more money in my Peace Corps account. I just need to go to a city with a bank to get it. Luckily, I don´t really need money—I´ve already paid my host family for the month, which covers my room and board, and I don´t have any transportation costs in my site, since I can walk everywhere. Pretty much all I need my spending money for is snacks and Internet. However, snacks and Internet happen to be two of my favorite things, so I´ll be happy when they are accessible again.

This week so far has been, well, kind of boring. The kids at school are having exams, so I can´t really observe classes. I´ve been installing some educational programs on the computers in the lab and trying to get teachers to do the survey I printed off. I also completed the thrilling task of updating all the anti-virus software on all the computers. (It is perhaps a sign of the current boredom of my life that I actually did find this process thrilling. I found deep satisfaction in deleting all of those dang viruses. Some of these computers had SEVENTY viruses on them. But now they don´t. Take that, viruses!)

I´ve also started planning my English classes and my technology summer day camp, so I´m getting excited about those. It turns out that my Peace Corps document kit has a pretty good English as a Foreign Language syllabus, so I´m going to adapt that. And my technology summer camp is going to be three weeks in July, with activities in the computer lab as well as good old outdoor games. Plus, a bunch of kids signed up for it, despite the doubts of my nun. According to her, there´s also a summer daycamp run by the mayor, one that offers free T-shirts. Apparently, as alluring as free T-shirts are, there are also plenty of children attracted by computers (and the American). Of course, we´ll see how many kids actually show up regularly, but I´m optimistic.

I´ve also been busy planning my birthday party. This year it´s going to be a highly classy affair, to be held at the United States Embassy. It´s not as impressive as it sounds, since the Embassy pool and cafeteria are open to all Peace Corps volunteers (and, I believe, all US citizens), but it should still be a lot of fun. The Embassy pool is very nice, and the Embassy pool house has hot showers. Perfecto. Plus, anytime a group of Peace Corps volunteers get together, it´s pretty much bound to be a good time, with Spanglish and “So, guess what my Doña did…” aplenty.