First full week!

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Exciting news! I have internet! And if you don’t think this is exciting news, then you’ve probably never lived in the middle of a jungle in a 3rd world country where you have to walk down a dirt road in the heat to get to a road to get a taxi to get to an internet café, where you then use internet while unsuccessfully dodging mosquitoes and watching some chickens walk around. I’d much rather get bitten by mosquitoes in the comfort of my own room, even if I don’t get to see the chickens. (Update: So far the internet is not cooperating, and only lets me online for a few minutes at a time, at best. Here’s hoping it improves.)
Speaking of mosquitoes, they’re EVERYWHERE here. The only place they don’t really show up is the beach, but then there are sandflies which also bite and make you itchy. I’ve heard that as you live here for longer the bugs don’t attack as much, and I really hope that’s true because right now I kinda look diseased from all the bites on my legs. I’m still deciding if I want to take pictures to document it. I think looking back on the pictures might make me itchy again just thinking about it, so we’ll see.
Anyway, I’m guessing you didn’t come to this blog to read 2 paragraphs of me ranting about mosquitoes. I can’t promise it will be the last time, though. This past week has been really busy, with lots of meetings, setting up my classroom, and figuring out the curriculum. It’s definitely going to be a challenge working with such limited resources, but hopefully it will all work out. I have one more week of teaching prep before school starts. Crazy!
This weekend I spent most of my time at the beach, which is absolutely beautiful. The water is this amazing blue color, and has fantastic snorkeling just off the beach. It’s also the perfect temperature; refreshing and cooling without being too cold or hot. I’ve been going everywhere with the other teachers I’m living with, and we’ve met a lot of great people. The island is also so small that even though we don’t know a ton of people yet, we already go places and run into people we know (although we have a sneaking suspicion that when we’re not in our group of “the new teachers”, we may not be quite as recognizable as individuals).

Some more factoids (since transitional sentences take too much brain power, apparently):

Bug spray is the new perfume.

I officially don’t have hot water. Or air conditioning.

I found tofu and some soymeat in the big grocery store a town over. Yay for places that cater to gringos! Now if I only had a fully functional kitchen, things would be great (but they’re working on it! We finally got counter space 2 days ago.)

The stove in my kitchen is gas, and every time you use it you have to light the burner. I haven’t yet done this, and am convinced I am going to blow something up when I try. I also have no clue where to light the oven, not that I want to use the oven anyway because it’s too hot. But one day, it will happen.

Balliatas (tortillas with beans, cheese, and sometimes other stuff) have become the fast food/ snack food of choice when I’m in town. Speaking of which, there’s no fast food chains West End, the “town” closest to me. It’s great. Also, there’s no such thing as fast food here. Nothing is fast.

I’m now an expert at differentiating between mosquito bites and sand fly bites. It’s a talent, I know.

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