Today, Friday November 30, 2007

530am – wake up and run. Am determined to get back into the structure of working out that I had before –if I don’t do it every day it seems I don’t do it at all. Have done well these past three days! Have to finish by the time sun is fully up at 630am

630am – shower, eat breakfast of yogurt and homemade granola, and hot water w lime

730-9am – prepare for reading club, mostly which involved hiding in my room from the 20 kids who showed up for reading club two hours early. Actually at 830 I brought out onto my porch (where the kids were all waiting) a huge pile of books and was pleased to see them excitedly reading for half an hour til class officially started.

9-10am – reading club, we did an activity where the kids wrote their name and then drew pictures of things that began with the same letter (my example showed “lorena” and then a drawing of a “libro”). Helped a 3 year old and some 8 year olds learn how to write their names. Kids got to play or color or whatever when they were done – they go crazy for coloring books and the tiny seashells I brought back from uruguay

10am – went to help a friend understand how to use the new photocopier she just bought, which is actually a computer printer that also makes small numbers of high-quality photocopies. Terered afterwards in anticipation of the hellishly hot walk home

11am – walked home, stopping to buy some veggies and yogurt along the way, confirmed with a principal a meeting for next week out in Planta 2 to maybe get some activities going there over the summer (note: that “confirmed” meeting hasn’t happened yet)

1130am – cleaned up the house after reading club, made squash-tomato-rice medley for lunch, did the midday ritual of cleaning my face and my feet with lovely cold water

12pm-2pm – nap, which I’ve become surprisingly good at despite the soul-crushing heat. My AAA battery for my fun clock that also has a thermometer just died, so I can’t tell for sure how hot it was today, but I’m betting it’s close to the previously hottest recorded midday temperature of 37.5’c, or 99.5’f (note: a few days later I borrowed a battery from Mary and saw midday temperature climb to 38.5’)

2-3pm – Arrested Development break. I can’t help it, I have these borrowed dvds for only a couple weeks, and what if my computer suddenly breaks or we lose electricity for days – I have to plan ahead and just watch the entire first season as quickly as possible

3-330pm – tried to not be so hot and wait out the sun, planned a bit for next week’s English class but I was hot and bored so finally decided to leave the house. Took a “power shot” of peanut butter for energy in the heat

330-530pm – visits with Noemi the Supervisora, then with a girl also named Lorena who wants to join English class, then with my friend Gloria who’s about to marry a Paraguayan guy twice her age and move to Mexico, then finally found a watermelon to bring home (and some delicious-looking carrots), terered for a minute with a friend and her 21-year old brother who proclaimed that he and I are going to get married on February 3. He didn’t realize I understood his guarani.

530pm – decided that instead of walking to the far-away house of the nurse with whom I do the radio program on Saturday mornings I’d just send him a text message to confirm. (note: even tho he confirmed by text he never showed up on Saturday) ate a tiny slice of watermelon (it’s way tastier after overnighting in the fridge), a bit more yogurt and some popcorn and settled in for even more Arrested Development. Had a glass of chocolate milk too.

830pm – tired, despite the excessive napping earlier. Will go to sleep soon if the neighbors turn down their radio. Have been woken up recently in the middle of the night by very insistent moo-ing from a cow that must be standing 5 feet from my bedroom window. Hopefully the cow will sleep well tonight, and I can too.

Five more months, 150 more days like this? I can’t tell if I feel happy or sad about that.