in a rut.

there are so many things that i just have a really hard time dealing with. my cultural-frustration threshold rises and falls depending on how much sleep i get, how often i have to deal with ridiculous messes, and the weather. (no really. life is complicated here in the rain. it kills my ability to be understanding).

lately, i've been in a rut. the cashier can't ring up my item and suggests i just forget about it? normally it wouldn't bother me. i'd make a snide comment and move on. nowadays? i'd call the manager and make a complaint. the concho stops at every corner and beeps, waiting for non-existant passengers? normally, i cherish the extra time to catch up on my novel-reading. nowadays? complain loudly to the driver about how late he's going to make me for work.

the rut lasts a few days (or weeks) and then something happens to snap me out of it.
i do live in a tropical paradise, afterall.

i was hoping the christmas cheer would do the trick, but with a new fiscal reform in store for the new year - raising taxes and prices of the "family basket", people are less cheerful than they normally would be.

so, this weekend i'm going to force some cheer on us all - christmas music all around, decorating the house and getting ready for visitors. it helps that i won't need to take a concho for awhile and yesterday finished most of my food shopping for at least a week.

any suggestions to raise my cheer?

our little garden

notice the lack of plants along the path

 



note the blue cinderblock seat

 the first thing amalio started doing when we moved in august, was to plant things in the desolate backyard.

the front and side yards have grass (a rare entity in this caribbean nation) and look nicer than the rocky backyard. but. amalio wanted to be able to plant and not have to cut the grass (with a machete or garden sheers) every week.



there are a few problems with putting so much into the backyard. the first being that the house is ALWAYS a mess. it gets neglected. but, who wants to stay inside when they've got this much beautiful space outdoors? beyond that, though, the house isn't ours. so we're not going to pour money into something that we might not be in for awhile. (our plan is to stay in this house for a long time, but who knows... the owner has like 17 ex-wives and one might show up someday wanting her place back!) we also haven't had a ton of time. so, we're working on it a little bit at a time, re-purposing things we have laying around or that we can get easily.



the green blocks are the new fat girl chair!



the first thing that i did, was to pull these two cement "benches" out from some corner and put them to use under the avocado tree. we picked up some used tires at the tire shop down the street, bought a few plants  and made a little sitting area.

two benches weren't enough, so we piled up some cinder blocks for seating. this past weekend i swapped the wobbly blocks out for the new "asiento de chica gordita" - a fat girl chair! it could be a love seat if you are willing to share

i also got to know our machete last weekend digging out a rut for the cinderblocks lining the mini-gardens. i tried just laying the blocks out but they looked ridiculous, so i dug them in a little bit so they weren't towering over the flowers. i was sore for two days, and since i liked it so much, i did it again to make another mini-garden. amalio then got the impatiens and some other flowers into place. now the back of the house isn't so lifeless.

we've got quite a bit left to do - but it's coming along nicely and it's a good project to get us off our butts in these winter months (ha!) hopefully we'll get the wall painted during vacation and another raised-bed type garden out there and then we'll wait for everything to come into bloom!!!

the hardest thing

stepanie. i miss you!

 people often ask me what i miss the most about living in the good old u.s of a. and the answer is... not much.

i miss real pizza, hoagies and tastykakes. i miss my family, obviously, and most of the events that are important - like my grandfather had heart surgery at the same time my eldest cousin gave birth to twins a few weeks early and my goddaughter broke her back. it would have been nice to be there, right?

i miss hot water and never having to worry about if the lights will turn off when i'm doing something important. and i never ever thought i'd say this - but i miss SEPTA and the CTA.

but what is most difficult is not what i miss from home... but what i miss from here.

not everyone who decides to pick up and move to another country plans to stay there forever... or even for a very long time. so, sometimes you meet amazing people, spend time with them, and then. well. then you're left to find new friends.

well, not quite.
but it is really hard to let people go - there is way more coming and going than there would be in a stateside life. and, believe me, when new people come around, you have to deal with a lot of newcomer crap. so, i've found, it's about figuring out how to choose people. which is not necessarily about choosing the people who are coolest, or richest or the most fun - sometimes the crazy is good, too. and sometimes you get it right and you know that the time that you spent with that person was worth it... and, well, sometimes you get it wrong and you feel like you've wasted a lot of time.

working at the university has brought a lot of newcomers in and out. working in ministry is also a revolving door. but, i think my life is enhanced by these "visitors" even if it sucks when they leave.

are we there yet?

this has been a crazy past few months. new job, old job, new projects, old commitments. at one point i bit off more than i could chew, and had to re-evaluate.

in fact, i think i'll be in constant re-evaluation. what is too much? what is not enough?

now, this first semester is winding down... and in sheer craziness, i signed up for more classes at the university next semester (because i think... maybe... i'm ready to jump into that? for a semester? maybe?)

i'm preparing a ton of materials in hopes to kind of swim through the semester instead of doggy paddling along. and it's made my past few days kind of hectic in my mind.

not in my real life because i've just been pre-planning all the stuff i'm supposed to do. not actually doing it. and tomorrow i plan to dive in and get it going.

and all i keep thinking is.... are we at christmas vacation yet?

hitting the wall

i spent a good chunk of my morning in this hospital today.

and i'd like to reiterate here how horrible the public health conditions are.

i avoid public hospitals when i can – not because of the doctors, but visiting is just an exercise in futility. this morning we took a student for a fairly routine visit, but every where we turned we hit a brick wall. first stop, emergency room to get a referral.

i’m sorry, we can’t do that. you’ll need to go to pediatrics.

there are no appointments left today, you’ll need to come back on monday.

look lady, this is kind of urgent. could you please just indicate the analysis that she’ll need? maybe some medicine? something?

no, ma’am, you’ll need to go the pediatrician.

i don’t really know how we did it, but we got the indication for analysis and headed up to the pediatricians. after arguing with the secretary about why we needed to see the pediatrician – eventhough she was “full” – we got permission to “talk to the doctor” to see if she’d made an exception…. except when we made it to the doctor’s door, she had already gone home for the day. nice. and no doctors were available for the afternoon, either.

they drew some blood and did the obligatory pee test (had they given her an iv drip, the visit would have been complete!) and sent us on our way, ready to see the doctor on monday, test results in hand. we head to the pharmacy only to find they have nothing that was prescribed.

we spent two hours in the hospital and accomplished nothing.

sometimes it’s like that. hurry up to wait. break through the red tape just to get held back by something else. luckily we don’t have to do this every day.

the wicked witch returns.

remember when i first told you about the wicked witch? i almost peed my pants trying to hold in my laughter... but over the past few months, i've confronted beliefs that scare me. the absolute lack of light in some of the things i've seen and heard hurt my heart. so i'm always trying to infuse some humor into my days.

this morning, as i stood welcoming students and speaking to our doorman, i noticed the local witch standing across the baseball field - she usually walks her granddaughter just far enough and then watches her until she reaches school. i waved, eventhough she wasn't looking in our direction.

a mom standing at the door says, "she can't see you. she's probably flying".

um, excuse me?

"yeah, she's probably flying."

but she's standing right there, i can see her.

"no no, she leaves her body while she's flying. it's her soul that floats around."

ok. so, does that mean she doesn't really need a broom to fly?

the menagerie.

it's no secret that my husband loves animals. and plants.

i think that the last seven years, stuck living in a third floor apartment sucked life out of him.

we joke about how the day after the big move, the house was filled with stacks of boxes, but all of the plants from the apartment were already lovingly planted in the backyard.

 

it wasn't more than ten days when henry and mickey came to live with us - and two japanese chickens that flew away (or were stolen) within the first 24 hours. the morning doves we had in the apartment came along, and soon we had a little dog, pongo, as well.

 

mickey the hen dropped some eggs within the first month, but they weren't viable and never hatched. when she started dropping eggs this time, amalio ran to the campo and picked up some that were sure to hatch.

 

he claims that mickey was depressed because she lost the last batch and didn't want her to be disappointed again. (i am not kidding).

 

welcome to the zoo, henny penny (yellow - and ä girl"according to amely), bambi and brownie.

 

up next? a rabbit for samil.