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Published: October 26th 2012
I have a feeling every day is going to get harder before it gets any easier. Yesterday was a tough one. I slept from 9pm to 9am, just like I did the night before. I had an excuse the night before, as I was running on four hours of sleep, but I should probably stop sleeping twelve hour nights. That can’t be good for me. Anyway, I went into the bathroom, hoping for a hot shower and was disappointed once again. I did a sponge bath and then just put my head in the shower to wash my hair with my jeans and sneakers on. That turned out to be a bad idea- the rest of the day I had cold feet from my wet shoes!
I forgot to eat breakfast, grabbed my laptop, and headed up to the main office. The night before when I plugged my laptop in it wasn’t charging, but all of the lights went crazy last night, so I figured it was from the electricity and didn’t think anything of it. When I plugged the laptop in the in the office, it didn’t charge there either. I texted my dad that I thought I had a problem since my computer wasn’t charging even with the new charger that he was nice enough to buy me right before I left. As I was telling him about it over facetime, Erik overheard and used Spanglish/gestured to me that the outlet I had it plugged into didn’t work. He plugged it into a different one, I said “gracias” he said “de nada” and my dad said “oh! De nada! Good!” and the whole room laughed at him. I guess my dad was just excited to hear a word he understood (Love ya, dad!).
After a few hours of pouring through scientific papers since I can’t start collecting salamanders until I get ziplock bags, Erik came back and asked when I was eating. I said I didn’t know and he said something about hamburgers and I said “sí”. An hour later, I was eating un hamburguesa y papas fritas. I picked the tomatoes off of it and the other girls giggled at me. As for the mustard, mayo, and some other weird sauce, I just dealt with it. Another girl had gotten chicken and patacones (I think there’s an accent on one of those letters somewhere). Patacones are basically plantains cut like you would cut a banana onto your cereal, fried, and then smashed down, then fried again. They’re delicious.
After eating, I stayed in the office and continued doing research. When the other girls were done working, I switched over to studying Spanish. I’m not sure what Yolanes was doing, but I used duolingo.com to study. It started to get dark around 6, so I headed back to mi casa. I hadn’t eaten supper yet, so I went straight to the kitchen to make myself some Pb&J. Of course, the refrigerator didn’t work, or la refrigeradora no funcionar. I grabbed the pineapple juice, cheese, and milk out of the fridge and carried them up to the other kitchen, then went to ask Erik for help.
I’m not really sure what Erik actually does around here, but since he’s nice to me and Yolanes told me to ask him for help with my hot water yesterday, I hope he doesn’t mind filling the role of my personal handyman. Actually, I’m not entirely sure if he actually likes me or just finds my ineptitude with the Spanish language amusing, but either way, I’m okay with it. I knocked on his door and said “Tú puedes ayudar me? Mi refrigeradora no funcionar y no agua caliente”. At least I can get my message across. He walked down with me, but he had forgotten his flashlight so he asked me for mine. It’s one of my dad’s flashlights and he seems to really like it because it’s so bright. I brought him my lampara (flashlight), and he turned on the outdoor shower, and lo and behold, it came out hot. I said it wasn’t working upstairs, so he came up and checked it.
As it turns out, I was turning the wrong knob.
From there, he looked at my fridge and also noted that most of my lights weren’t working correctly. I kept saying “Ayer, no funcionar, pero hoy, funcionar” which means “yesterday, not working, but today, working”. Me cave-woman. He checked the breaker box, which was outside, and it still didn’t do much. We went back inside and one of my light bulbs had exploded all over my red couch. While he was talking to me, the lights kept going on and off. He kept saying “brujas” which means “witches” and then laughing. He asked me “Tu tienes mierdos?” which literally means “do you have fear?” I said no.
Then he caught a glimpse of my climbing gear in the corner and he started asking me how much things cost in the US. I’m now selling him my carabineer when I go back to the US, because they are apparently way more expensive here and he needs it for some sort of zip line. Yo no say.
When he left, I was kind of ticked off that I couldn’t have my Pb&J because once I opened my jelly, I didn’t have a fridge to put it in, so I settled for half of a peanut butter sandwich. Unfortunately, you cannot eat a peanut butter sandwich without something to drink, and my pineapple juice was all the way up by the office, so my only option was to drink the water. I had been brushing my teeth with it, but it’s untreated water that comes straight from a spring. They haven’t had any problems with it before, but I did bring my water filter from home and contemplated using it but said, “screw it” and drank it anyway. It tasted good, at least. Now, lets pray I don’t wake up puking my guts out.
All I wanted to do after the stress of glass all over the place and witches in my house was sit in front of a nice fire (it was really cold today!) and write this blog and practice my Spanish. I don’t think I’ve mentioned yet that the humidity here is 100%. That means that my own ability to build a fire goes down to 0%. I went through a whole box of matches plus some to no avail. The newspaper would burn for a few seconds and then fizzle out and the matches wouldn’t even burn sometimes because they were so damp. Eventually, I gave up, went upstairs and wrote this from my bed because it’s warm.
Whew… yesterday was stressful. I just keep telling myself it will all be easier once I know more Spanish. I just hope that doesn’t take too long.
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Grandma Linn
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Bless you
Hey, you didn't go to Panama to starve and be cold. How many warm showers have you now had? I am sending you hugs, warm hugs. Your grandpa was wondering about the humidity there. We wouldn't have guessed 100%. I'll bet your hair is curly. The weathermen and their computers are predicting the perfect storm for the eastern US next week. Too bad you will miss it! All interesting predictions--a billion dollars worth of damage, power outages (be prepared for several days without power), and get supplies so we are prepared. It sounds ominous. There are three storms coming together, Hurrican Sandy, a nor-easter, and one from Canada. I am going to make cookes right now. I love you Emily.