Getting to the end of the week

Im down in the city for my one day opportunity to buy everything I need for the week. I am lucky that there are 2 buses on Friday so I dont have to rush around as much. I can take my time here to walk around more and enjoy it. I need to buy some shorts today at the Paca shops, think thrift shops, all the stuff from Goodwill and the DI, yes, the DI, thanks SLC, ends up here and you can find some pretty good deals. I got lucky to be in a town that isnt as conservative as most here, and I am able to wear shorts playing soccer. Side note, I have seen girls teams playing ball in full on traditional traje. Anyway, so I get to wear shorts when playing, so I am psyched. I also need to find a few more casual t shirts since my job involves a lot of physical work and hiking, which I am loving.

I was invited to a birthday party of one of the sons of the girls who works in the hotel. It was fun to go over and feel a bit more accepted into the coummunity. It is all about gaining confianza here, that is confidence. It happens little by little, but it is key to working within the community. We were treated to fried chicken and a veggie salad and luckily I could trust the food since Sara cooks in the hotel and knows gringo stomachs. All of the veggies were cooked, whew! We also had a big blue cake for dessert. We sang Happy Birthday in English and at the end, there is another song that I love¨...Ya queremos pastel, ya queremos pastel... lol! It basically means, now we want the cake, now we want the cake! lol! At the end, Sara pushed her son´s face in the cake and it was all blue! He was so surprised! It was funny, I have never seen this tradition here before. Luckily they cut the cake differently here, for some reason, they dont cut the middle of the cake, they just cut the part about 5 to 6 inches in. All throughout the birthday party for there was so great music blasting and I was like, yes, I love this family. My town is all about the music and so I fit in perfectly, it is integral to my daily happiness to have good music.

So, I am learning to whistle more here too. Everyone in the community whistles like a bird when they approach or to get your attention. Not the bad whistles, like the macho guys on the corner, but more like a bird whistle. It is kind of cool, you know someone arrives based on their whistle and you whistle back to let them know where you are and they just find you. We also have tons of birds at our site and we are trying to compile a bird book of all of the birds in the coummunity. There are some gorgeous ones. My counterpart can make almost all of the sounds of them. We are going to start going out to record sighting and try to put together a catalogue since I think the place has great aveturismo, birdwatching as a tourist activity, potential.

Anway, I was invited to play in a soccer invitational at another town on the 18th so I will head over with the girls. It is fun playing, although, I am still learning the ins and outs of the game.

What else, laundry, need to remember to get that in earlier. I did some yesterday, put it out on the line, forgot about it, and a huge storm came in, needless to say, the clothes are still out on the line 24 hrs. later.

Im off to go food shopping now, lots of canned beans, canned chicken, tomato sauce, oatmeal and pasta. It is tough to get in fruits and veggies here since they go bad fast in this hot climate and almost impossible to find more at my site. We have banana trees and mango trees, but we´re waiting for them to ripen. Also, I am going to start learning to cook the native herbs and plants with eggs since that is the local custom. I am learning the different plants, but I need to make sure I have a local expert come with me and show me exactly how to prepare them. Also, there is a bee hive with 25 bee boxes with honey. This weekend I am going to learn how to smoke them and get the honey out. Oh yeah, and we´re going giant frog hunting too.

Hope all is well!
Cheers!
Tara