On pickles, reading and such...

Baile in Coclecito

Just finished watching Inception, finally. So behind on the latest thing. It is so 2010, right? I was waiting for it to blow my mind at the end, but I guess I had just heard too much before hand. *spoiler alert* I thought there might be a bigger bang to it than does the top fall, does it not fall. I love Marion Cotillard, didn't realize she was in it until I saw her. I have no idea why she did that cheesy Woody Allen movie, other than she did fit the part perfectly. Anyway,

Work related-

• Teaching computers to the neighboring community has turned out to be rather rewarding, they were super excited to have me back after the vacation home. Especially since the technology gods shone upon me and let the typing software I downloaded function and have a spanish language option. Tux Typing. Waaaay.

• Reproductive health workshop in my school required that I call in some back ups, namely other Volunteers, because I can't keep a straight face when addressing youngsters about various forms of sexual relations. Especially when they involve honest questions about animals, hermaphrodites and orgies. I'm trying to mature.

• Still waiting on funding for the solar panels in the school. Good thing I'm not holding my breath.

• Assumed the editor position of the Volunteer run magazine La Vaina and had the first successful printing. You can download a PDF of the September 2011 edition on the Peace Corps Panama Friends website here if you are at all interested in the happenings. Maybe if you are sitting around at an office job all day and are tired of checking your FB.

I was really gungho about typing out some real quality blog entries, jazzing up everything and putting up some new pictures. But I guess changing up the background will have to do. You will notice that I have added a list of the books I have gone through up until this point on the right. 43. Kind of on the low side, seeing as how I've heard some Volunteers speak of going through 70+ in their first year. Kindle owners. I've suddenly acquired a desire to read War and Peace before I finish service, just because it seems to be a very Volunteer-y thing to do. We'll see. Only a couple months left of the rainy season to get it in.

Big news here- I successfully finished the pickling process on the family sweet pickle, politically incorrectly named recipe and now have these two wonderful jars of pickles to enjoy:


They are delicious and my only regret is that I didn't cure more cucumbers when they were harvesting so many of them from the school. I'm going to try to make a larger batch next time.

To catch everyone up to speed, I did in fact have an amazing and wonderful trip home. I returned to Panama refreshed and ready to take on the next 10 months with patience and a positive attitude. As I have been saying down here, I've got the split life now. I am going to miss the other no matter which side of the gulf I'm on.

Well, for now, that it. Much love from Panama...