In a van down by the river

So i went to a motivational talk on Tuesday with kids from the office. A traveling salesman from a company that sells motivational materials to businesses came to Ipala, and ADISO was invited to have their own private 2 hour session with him. It was actually pretty good. He was talking about telling friends and family how much they mean to you, having goals, and not puting things off. Who could argue with that? The best part was when he would ask somebody for a definition for a word and nobody would know the word. (reminder, i´m the oldest person in the office and the only college graduate.) For example, one of the the words was procrastination, which i didn´t recognize in spanish until he started giving us the definition. Another word sounded something like ¨sinergía¨, which again, no one was able to give a definition for. Sinergía, hhmm that sounds an awful lot like . . . you guessed in, synergy. Unfortunatley synergy isn´t in any of my spanish english dictionaries so i could be wrong about the translation. But he definatley said synergy. As soon as i realized what he was saying, i looked around the room for a sympathizer, but of course was unable to find one. No matter, i´m taking it international. Then the speaker tried to sell us a set of motivational books for Q2500 (that´s about how much i make in a month). He was going to throw in a dictionary, a bible, a microwave and a dvd for free. But we declined. He didn´t seem upset at all; I think he liked us.

Yesterday i climbed the volcano with the gang from the office for a going way lunch for nidia and to present the new director to the park guards who work in the areá protegida. I had a lot of fun. Except for the waking up at 5 am part. I hadn´t climbed the volcano since Easter Week. i finally got to see the finished results of a project we completed a few months ago. It included rest points along the trail (which have already been graffitied), an information booth (which is empty and locked), and a dock (which is now submerged under water because of rising water levels due to the rainy season.) We decided to take the beat up row boat out for a spin. We crossed the laguna and it took us awhile. Edwin and Carlos (my new counterpart) were in back and this cuban guy from World Vision – a christian charity - and i were in front. Until Luis told me he wanted to tap in because he´d never rowed before. And it showed. The Cuban guy was the only one with boating experience. Everyone else was completely oblivious to what was going on. When we go to the middle of the laguna on the way back, we decided to jump in the water. It was a lot of fun. Even Luis jumped in, with the life preserver because he doesn´t know how to swim. Edwin had to pull me back into the boat because i wasn´t strong enough to lift myself up. After he had taken off his shirt while we were rowing, he had asked me if i liked his muscles. If they are strong enough to haul my ass back into the boat, i like them just fine.

Today i´m going to the boys´ school for the last time. I was supposed to go on Wednesday but classes were canceled for some reason. And some teachers didn´t show up on Tuesday because of some meeting being put on by World Vision. So i have 4 classrooms to go to this afternoon, and at least 2 of them are planning something special for me. i´m really excited to see what it is. I bet there is food involved.

I am flying to seattle on Friday, october 7, getting at 5 pm or so. I´ll be spending the weekend in seattle and then heading to yakima Sunday or Monday. I´m flying to st louis on Sunday the 16 and head back to guate Saturday the 22^nd. Call me, visit me, be in touch. i´m so excited for chik nugs!