Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

Don’t worry, I didn’t title my blog Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain because I’m crying or in any way sad. I did it because the rainy season is starting, and I had an interesting conversation with someone about my eyes.

We’ll start off again with an update on my project. My grant got approved, and the money was just deposited into our account this past week. The plan right now is to buy all the materials for the 40 pilas this week and start construction as soon as we can. I’m getting all anxious now that everything is coming together, and I really hope I don’t mess anything up. At this point, everyone is trained and the plan has been reviewed over and over. I’ve got full confidence that the construction will go well, but I just can’t help but think about all the things that could go wrong. I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out…I’ll keep you guys updated on how it all goes.

My other projects are also going well. I’m still teaching (just gave a test this past week), I’m still looking for funding for the latrine project (come on Global Brigades, you know you want to help me out), and I’m still helping with the water board for my protected area (and I’m starting to understand almost everything they say in their meetings…stupid Spanish)

For holy week (semana santa), I went down to Costa Rica to meet my family. We stayed in an all-inclusive hotel on the coast. Now, I don’t know how many of you guys reading this have stayed in a place that’s all-inclusive, but I never had and I had never been on a cruise before either. I couldn’t believe it! Almost anything you ask for, they just give it to you. Just like that. I felt a little out of my element to be honest with you. It was such a drastic change from what my life is like in my village. We also got to do a bunch of activities like zip-lining, horseback riding, waterslides, hot springs, and jungle tours. It was a really sweet vacation, and it was great to see the family too.

So the other dad, I was chillin’ in my host family’s house, just chatting. My host bother’s daughter, who is about 18 or 19, was talking about babies. She was asking me about my plans to have a baby, and I told her I’m not interested in having a child with anyone while I’m serving in the Peace Corps. She told me that I should have a baby down here because I have pretty eyes. I said I wouldn’t be living down here after my service, and she said that I should have a baby and then give it to her. It wouldn’t matter that I’d be leaving; she could take care of it by herself. She just really wanted a baby with blue eyes. I could have it with anyone I wanted, just as long as I gave the kid to her. Keep in mind that this was a very casual conversation, and we were laughing the whole time. I told her I was gonna tell my friends back in the states about her offer, and she was totally ok with that. I just found the whole conversation interesting and I wanted to share it with you all of you back home.

Not much else is new, I went to visit a buddy of mine, Eddie, last weekend in the southern part of the country. The volunteers down there all got together for a going-away party for two volunteers that are finishing up their service and leaving next week. It’s much much hotter down there, but we still had a good time. We found a place to play paintball, then we went to the beach for a few hours, then we had a nice dinner and chilled. I don’t leave my site that often for anything but work related stuff or to use the internet, so this trip was a really cool change of pace. I was shocked that there was a paintballing place down here. I’d never gone before, so that was an experience in itself.

Ok, well there a quick update of everything. Hope all is well back home.

Peace.

Miles