FINALLY I FIGURED OUT MY BLOG ISSUE!

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It´s only taken 3 weeks! You should have received a note I wrote about a week ago. I finally am at the cafe and have dedicated a couple hours here to catch up with all my friends. Sorry for the delay.

I´m forwarding now a note I sent to some family members earlier this week, so some of you have read this. I thought it was worth acutally publishing. Happy reading. More stories to follow--today!

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Greetings!
I got finished with work early today so I got a chance to get to the internet cafe today.
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On sunday i went to the catholic church (my first time) here in my barrio.
as strange as it was there, it made me feel more at home and at peace. it´s an open air church with just a roof and there was this dog walking around the alter and then finally settled under the pew of this man (maybe his owner?). The mass is the same, but 2 hours long--about a 30 min serman! It´s a bit like our masses in the 60´s --quite traditional. At communion we took the host by tongue like the olden days. My friend at the project, Oscar, said it´s because some people would take the host and put it in their pocket rather than in their mouth and then do evil (voodoo???) things with is. a bit
sacrilidgeous, no?! so the priest has to be sure it gets in the mouth of each person. after mass I stuck around wondering if maybe someone would welcome me. well they didn´t! there´s a park across the street and many families went there to chat, buy a snack at the stand etc. I saw a little lady sitting by herself having a snack so I went to talk to her. Turns out she lives pretty close to me and invited me over as i wanted to borrow one of her missles with the mass prayers in spanish. Her husband (now deceased) used to go to Pablo´s church. I live with his neice and the church is next door to me--it´s evangelical, I go there too!. but like everywhere else around here she had a grown son living with her and his family and other family members. Lots of kids. I have been just about surrounded by kids. I like that as you know!
The woman I live with, Jacqueline, is just so tired and weary (moody) as her 11 month old son has been very demanding and crying all the time and not eating so well. I think she is tired of my lack of understanding. When she gets tired and depressed she has no interest in slowing down her language to help me understand. but oh well. I decided I need to spread my wings a bit more anyway. tomorrow night (after buying about 6 more pair of shoes) I´m staying at one of the teacher´s house. It will be closer to the project and will save me some travel time. She lives with 3 older sons. It will be
interesting to see what her house is like. I don´t think she has indoor
plumbing. she´s about 42 I´d say--the oldest teacher. On sunday I will get up early and go with brenda, her daughter and Mother (where Kate stayed) to some very pretty town. I think I will invite myself over night as well. she says this town has a very beautiful catholic church so will go to mass there. She is evangelical so maybe will go to her church in the evening. So this will give me a bit of space as well as they washing area to make an indoor kitchen. so getting water right now is even more difficult than before! I can drink the water at the barrio so I carry about 3 bottles with me to the project each day. In my backpack with books and a small lunch. I drag all this stuff on incredibly crowded buses (you would not believe!) 3 buses then ride 25 min to the project on a bike. today Gabriel took us home instead, thus the reason I was early. I missed my exercise this pm however. Coming back it is on an upward slope and it´s windy and bumpy and quite a good workout.
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Still having a great time. the spanish is coming slowly, but I know I´ve got the year. somes days are good and other days are frustrating. what else is new?

love, nancy

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