Updates

“You can be the most beautiful person in the world and everybody sees light and rainbows when they look at you, but if you yourself don't know it, all of that doesn't even matter. Every second that you spend on doubting your worth, every moment that you use to criticize yourself; is a second of your life wasted, is a moment of your life thrown away. It's not like you have forever, so don't waste any of your seconds, don't throw even one of your moments away.” -C. JoyBell C

1. Kevin and the other pigeon are still alive! I have kicked them out of the house now because it was getting gross cleaning up after them, but they have become used to staying around in the back yard. Even though lots of other animals come around, no one has eaten them yet! And they have learned to eat by themselves so I don’t need to worry about them when I travel. 

   

   Kevin and her friend

2. The cockroaches are dying! I broke down and bought a cockroach killing spray. It’s been great to wake up without cockroaches falling out of my hair.



Dead cockroaches


3. The elections were two Sundays ago and it was definitely an interesting experience. Everyone was out and about voting and, afterwards, celebrating. The celebrations were intense- almost as big as Christmas! The politicians that my family was supporting won (they are doing a recount of the votes, but the results won’t change because they won by a landslide) so things are looking up in the house. For this family it means a better opportunity for finding work. There was a chance that my host mom was going to have to leave to find work in another part of Colombia if things didn’t work out. So I’m definitely happy that she’s staying!
4. I have gotten much better at stoop sitting… I still don’t last very long, but at least now I understand better what people are saying, I have a better concept of the context and who people are, and I have more to add to the conversation. I usually end up running off with some kids or grabbing a book to read, but I have improved immensely!
5. As far as cooking lessons, pretty much everyone here is sure that I can’t cook worth beans. Instead of trying to prove myself, I have decided to take advantage of the great cooking of my host mom (who lives next door) and eat with the family fried fish, coconut rice, yucca, chicharron, squash soup, and other delicious things. Now I just bake- bread, brownies, pumpkin bars, banana bread, carrot cake… I don’t like arriving at people’s homes to visit empty handed! My host mom jokes that I only eat bread and cake. I do love to bake and I am so happy I have my oven!

Playing with kiddos instead of stoop sitting