7:40 am- Alarm goes off.
7:50-8:20 am- Bucket shower, which consists of me throwing cold water on my body, hoping most of it gets clean and at least will help wake me up; Getting dressed-semi professional dress is required…flip flops sometimes make an appearance; contacts and minimal make up with earrings and daily face lotion with SPF= my beauty routine.
8:20 ish-9 am- Breakfast- Today is gallo pinto (rice n beans) with cream, cheese, bread and coffee-eaten while watching CSI Miami or The Dead Zone.
9am- Bike to a meeting in the house of someone who I do not know and where I do not know. Luckily I run into a neighbor, who shows me the way. Yay! (but not yay for long) I arrive at the house to find myself the only one here, standing in front of the nurse, who lives there, still in her bathrobe. The meeting, apparently, has been postponed until tomorrow.
-I bike to the Casa y Clinica(CCA), where I catch up with Xiomara and Christian.
-I go to print something, to realize that in my 1 minute walk from the CCA to the hospital, the electricity has gone out. Brilliant. I head back to the CCA and the lights come back on 5 minutes later.
10:30 am- Bike to the Gertrudis school to give an hour long charla on Domestic Violence to a great 6th grade class. Charla goes very well and I am greeted by a huge applause and shorts-my self-esteem and happiness is very high right now!
11:30 am- On my way back to the CCA, I stop for lunch at the comedor of Dona Teresa-it’s a small food stand with 2 counter seats and 2 tables located outside on the main street in between the bus station and food store. We talk about my trip home and cultural differences while I sip on homemade beet juice (which is actually one of my favorite juices here!)and eat chicken with rice, beans, tortilla and salad. Great company and great meal all for 30 cordobas ($1.50)
1pm- Head back to the CCA, where Xiomara and I discuss our 2 governments and how the education systems differ. For example, there are free universities here- FREE college…wow. But you have to pass a difficult exam to get in, so most of the people who go to school end up paying.
2pm- Bike back to the Gertrudis for my 2nd charla of the day only to find that the afternoon 6th grade does not meet on Thursdays…who knew? Not me.
2:15pm- lots of biking! Back to the CCA…Vago around for a little bit, read up on breast cancer etc..
3pm- Xiomara and I take a taxi to another health center in Corinto to drop things off. We drop by the houses of 2 brigadistas (community volunteer health workers) to get their info for a training. We are only about a 20 minute bike ride from my house, but the climate here is totally different- much more tropical. The front yards of their house and the surrounding houses have a well-kept rainforest feel with bright green leafy plants growing next to hot magenta flowers. The bugs are more pesky here and I am sweating more, but it is beautiful.
-Next we visit the house of a youth health promoter and make plans for me to visit his youth club next week to present myself and play soccer. After recruiting a group of boys to come to a few events, we hop on a big yellow school bus back to the CCA.
4:30pm- done with work for the day, I take my final bike trip back to my house.
-chat with my host family a little then head to the internet cafe
6:30pm- show my host sister pictures from home and of the wedding.
7pm- Telenovela numero 1- Pasion de Galivanes- great country novella complete with beautiful mountains, horses and of course: murder, husband and wife stealing and all around drama.
8pm- Telenovela numero 2- Cuna de Gato- very suspenseful story- tonight Deborah and her boyfriend find out that they cannot date because they are brother and sister, only to about 10 minutes later, find out that they are actually not related at all because Deborah’s father is actually not here father. He is only the father of her boyfriend. Very intriguing.
9pm- read, bedtime and sleep so that I can wake up and do it all over again tomorrow!
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