Any ideas for a catchy title?

I think I have hit a wall with my Spanish learning. I am sure it has nothing to do with the test I have tomorrow and I have spent all afternoon "cramming" for. :)

I really thought I would overuse this blog and bore people to death with the consistency and color of my poo etc, but I seem to be ignoring it. Sorry little blog and little blog followers! I know how annoying it is to follow a blog that is going nowhere. 

So I have completed 8 1/2 weeks of school now. I bet some of you are saying "Wow she is fluent and can start translating for the government!" But I can't. Unless Jack Bauer was there and then I would try my hardest!!!  Ex. President says to Jack in Spanish "The terrorists are coming. What are you going to do about it?" And I say to Jack, "Jack, the president says that the color of you eyes is luminous and your bulletproof vest fits so nicely over that grey waffle shirt". You get the picture. 

I tell people that I can get by. But I feel like I have been saying that for a long time. So am I really improving? I have to be. I know that. I live with a Spanish family that I talk to at every meal (and in between sometimes. And they are not just "pass the ketchup please" conversations). But now I am wondering how much schooling I need. Right now I am learning the polite way or more refined way to talk. For example, instead of saying "I ate" I can say "I have already eaten." Which is good to learn but at what point do I leave school and just start using it as opposed to learn all the grammatical technicalities. The people I will be working with in the mountains use Spanish as their second language so they will be telling me "I ate." I guess I am still thinking I just need to solidify. Which is what I said several weeks ago. :) Ah well. Just thinking out loud. I have at least 2 1/2 more weeks and then I will re-evaluate then. 

I met a lady on the weekend who I had heard about but not met. We were at a public speaking class. We got together for cake yesterday and talked for a while. She is a nurse as well and came down here 10 years ago. She runs a school for handicapped kids. It sounds great. The student to teacher ratio is low and they have a full time therapist (occupational I think). The interesting thing I got out of it was that when she came she felt called to Guatemala but didn't know in what capacity. Now she has developed this school of about 72 kids and is seeing such great results. She said that if God had told her what she would be doing in the first place she never would have come!!! I am in that spot right now. I have felt called to be here but I don't have the long term plan yet. I feel bad at times when people ask me what I am doing here, who am I here with, etc. and I don't have an answer. I know God will show me in his time but I still wish I had more to tell people! I am trusting in Him. 

I still love being here. I know that I am living relatively comfortably. And I don't know where I will ultimately end up, living in a dirt floor hut or not. But at this point I am going to fully enjoy having a washing machine in my house!!! But I think it is easy to live here. I think this is still God's grace for me. There are a lot of people who would have a hard time with it but I love it. Having said that I will say that I have had my moments of homesickness (or peoplesickness, not home so much). But never so intense that I have said "If I had a ticket right now I would go." I thought my episodes would be more frequent so I am happy about that! 

I was down talking with Aura and and a friend of the family. The friend is a missionary as well. We got talking about the clinic I am going to work in. Aura gave me the idea to write up a plan or curriculum for midwifes here on the care of premature babies. I think this is a great idea! Quite often babies are born early and small or just small and they often die. If I could make up a curriculum to teach midwifes in remote villages I think that would be such a good idea!!! Then they could start educating their patients on the care of their own baby. I am going to start thinking about it and talk with nurses at home about what to include etc. I am really excited. Aura also doesn't want me to leave! She knows that I have plans to move to San Lucas in Sep. so she told me tonight that I should try it for a month or so and if it doesn't work out then I can come back and live with her! Yay! She also invited me for Christmas. We have been talking lately while she makes dinner (I set the table, I don't go near the food. :) and I really enjoy it. It helps me with my Spanish but it is good to have someone to talk to. It is hard to make friends here as most people are transient. Here for a month or so then gone back to North America. 

Today some bees started making a hive right outside my door. I stopped that right quick! The way I stopped it was to have someone else knock it down. :) Then I saw a bee come later and was sniffing around for his new house and I didn't feel sorry for him!

What else have I been doing? Just studying and trying to avoid the coffee shops as I eat too many treats. But when I am here "studying" I get distracted by the internet. I have now limited myself to a daily quota of internet use. 2 hours a day. I started today. I have been quite successful so far. At my half hour break I come home and check facebook etc. I don't think that should count as it is a break and I shouldn't be studying anyway. And writing this blog doesn't count because.... well I am on the internet as I write it but I am not playing. Even though I am not studying. Which is what the purpose of the limit was. So I would study more. But this is part of my "work" down here. :) To keep you all updated on my life. So hah! I still have an hour an a half of internet play time left. Except I think I should still study a little more tonight for my test tomorrow. 

Hope you enjoyed my scattered late, uninteresting update. Will try to be better! 

Naomi

I have every intention of updating my blog...

.....but not tonight. 

I can clearly see your underwear.

This is a quote from the guy who lives in the room next to mine. I had done laundry and hung it on the line. But I wanted to be discreet so I hung my underwear on the racks in my room. So Lori came to chat and then Yutaka came and was sitting in the doorway. All of a sudden in the middle of our conversation he pulls out the line "I can clearly see you underwear". It was pretty funny. Guess I will just hang it on the line next time. It dries faster that way anyway (I just lied. I don't think I can put my underwear out with 6 other guys living in this house).

So I have been terrible about keeping this up. I have heard from a couple of people. :) Sorry. And in less than an hour I am going to help out the surgical team so I don't have much time to write now. And I don't expect to have internet access out there. I will probably be too busy anyway. I am looking forward to it but still a little nervous. I warned the charge nurse that I will be asking a lot of questions. I haven't looked after an adult in the hospital in about 8 years!!! 

It will be nice to have a week off school. But last week went better. I am not feeling so frustrated. And I have been talking a little more with Aura (the mother of the family). I hope to be able to use some of my spanish with the patients this week. I think it will be a good gauge of where I am at. 

I will tell you quickly about my spider drama last night. A couple of days ago my teacher told me how she had to kill a young tarantula in her house (there aren't usually any here). Then yesterday at dinner we were talking about spiders and bugs and scary movies (it was a terrible conversation!). So I was a little jumpy last night. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when Yutaka came up and asked if I had seen the spider in there. Would I be in there if I had?? So he pointed up and I yelled and almost knocked him over trying to get through the door. Unfortunately I yelled a bad word and even more unfortunate was that Aura knew what it was (but she thought it was funny). So I scared him back into his hole. Yutaka and Juan Carlos (the dad in the family) sprayed a bunch of Raid in the hole but I think he got far in there and I don't think he is dead. So I am keeping an eye out for him. 

When I got into my room I reached across my bed to the little shelf where I keep my jammies. There was a big one on the wall!!!! (although I was informed at breakfast it wasn't that big) So I yelled for Yutaka and he came in to help me (I didn't know he is a little afraid of spiders as well). Being the good guy he is he hit it with my shoe. But it didn't die, just fell. So we were puling out DVD's to look for him and Yutaka was on the bed (to grab the DVD's) and I saw the spider on the bed. So I told him and he moved really fast!!!!!! All my yelling brought Aura and Juan Carlos (and this is all at 10 at night) and the bottle of Raid. So Yutaka used the raid (I could hardly breathe) and he still wasn't dying. So Juan Carlos whacked him with my shoe and took him out. Then he very kindly searched my bed (we changed the sheets and blanket) and surrounding areas for more. I have to tell you I was pretty scared to turn out the light. But my sister said it was better with the light off because then I wouldn't see them. HA! What does she know. She isn't here worrying that spiders will crawl in her mouth in the middle of the night! (Sorry Elaine. Probably should have stopped you a long time ago).

So that was my drama. 

I better go. Have a good week all!!!