Things To Be Excited For

1.Visiting Heather and Kellen in Kato, Region 8. Excited to see their site and another part of Guyana. (August 24-28)

2. Going home for a week in September to see family in Arizona and California
(September 17th-24th)

{I leave Guyana on September 16th and fly to Barbados, where I stay for 15 hours, excited to sit on the beach}

3. Zach spending a week in Guyana. We are flying back together on September 24th and he'll be here until October 2nd.

4. Spending 7 days on the island of Tobago. Excited to see another Caribbean island and spending time with Heather, Becky, Princess, and Leighton. (October 26th-November 1st) 

5. Helping out with Chelsea's project, Food for Healthy Babies.

6. Close of Service (COS) conference {knowing the date to leave Guyana!}
(hopefully this will take place the first week of December).
  Updated 8/18:  just found out the dates are January 2-5, 2012.

7. Applying to COC for prerequisite classes so I can start nursing school. 

8. And one day, having a little puppy as cute as this lil' guy!

Coconut Oil

Oh my gosh, I learned how to make coconut oil and I'm so excited!
The other day Medex and I were talking and she said she wasn't going to cook with oil anymore because it's bad. Somehow we got on the topic of coconut oil and that turned into making our own.  Mrs. Gibbons (the cleaning lady), who's become one of my favorite people here said she would show us.  So today I went to the health center to learn how to make coconut oil.  It was so cool. Of course I forgot to bring my camera but next week I'm going to make my own and I'll post it on Hobbit Food. 
Last night Mrs. Gibbons grated 4 coconuts, blended the small chunks of coconut meat and squeezed all the coconut milk out. She let the coconut milk set in the fridge over night and carried it to the health center today.  All the fat from the milk floated to the top, it looked like custard and then she fried up the milk fat in a pan and eventually all the oil came out and we got coconut oil. It was pretty neat and now I have a small amount of coconut oil to cook with!
I told Medex a jar of coconut oil in the States runs anywhere from $15-$30 but here I can get it for free! I can't wait to try and make my own next week.
It's moments like today where I think how cool it really is I'm here!

Princess Hotel, MST, Tobago

I have great friends here who celebrated my birthday with me at the Princess Hotel! We had dinner (everyone got burgers) and then we went to the casino. The Princess Hotel is pretty fancy and it's the only casino in Guyana. In order to get into the casino we had to have our passports because rumor has it local Guyanese can't get in, which makes no sense to me but that's another story. The casino was pretty nice, better than I was expecting and we had a lot of fun. They had machines that played in US money or Guyanese money. I played on $1000 ($5 US) the whole night so I think I did well because I didn't lose.

The girls

Heather, Chelsea, Becky, Me, Princess, Tim, Tony & Kellen

Thanks everyone, it was so fun!

Heather made me this awesome beanie!! 

From there we all stayed at Princess' house because on Sunday we checked into a hotel in Georgetown for our 3 day Mid-Service Training (MST). It was good to be with the remaining 25 Guy22ers, talk about our successes and challenges over the first year, grant writing, safety and security for the upcoming months and life after Peace Corps. It's crazy to think we only have one more conference left! Close of service which is about 6 months away. Time is really flying!

Sunday afternoon we participated in another Hash House Harriers run around Georgetown and it was so fun! We looked like idiots running through the streets of town but that's okay. This run was different from the first run we did in Linden. It was more challenging in the fact that we weren't on one trail. Heather and I had a lot of fun walking/running together.

Exciting news!! Myself and these 4 girls are going to Tobago in October!! We booked our flight and room (hostel, which only holds 5 people so we booked the whole hostel) this week and we can't wait to lounge on the beach!
Our flight and room for 6 nights came out to $300, which is cheap. Luckily it's pretty inexpensive and convenient to get to a Caribbean island! It's going to be so much fun!
Tobago is a small island next to Trinidad. So we fly into Trinidad and then take a ferry to Tobago. I hear Tobago is amazing, can't wait!

I can't believe June is just around the corner!

I'm Off!

The next 3 weeks I'll be here and there!

Salt Lake City

The Bellagio, Vegas

LA, Lancaster

I'm so excited!!!!! See you all soon!!

In A Few More Days....

....I'll be cold!

I checked the weather for when I'm home and it's going to be a little shocking but I'm excited for some cooler weather. It's been so hot here the last few days.

Utah- 50's
Vegas- 80-90's
Lancaster- 70's

I guess in Utah I'll be cold, while 70 degrees sounds so nice.
I'm pretty anxious right now and I keep thinking it's a day ahead then it really is. Just now, I'll be home!

Here's a list of a few things I'm looking forward to....

Activities:
Meet Reggie!
Park City
See a movie in the theater
Go on a hike(s)
Massage, pedicure, manicure
Shopping
Yoga
Beach
Swimming (Vegas)
Spending time with friends & family!

Food:
Mexican
Sushi
Indian
In N Out
BJs
Starbucks
Olive Garden
Thai food
Clam chowder in a bread bowl
Frozen yogurt
Berries
Broccoli, zucchini, asparagus
Jamba Juice
Fudge
& the list continues....

Spring Fever

I have spring fever, which is weird since I live in the tropics. 

So it's not the spring fever because I've spent months bearing the cold. I've been trying to figure out why I'm feeling this way. Is it because I miss the seasons? Is it because I'm getting a little tired of the heat? Is it because I love the feeling of spring time? Is it because I miss home? Is it because I've been looking at people's blogs and reading about the change in weather and the light, colorful treats they post?  Is it because I want some of that spring time candy? Or is it because I only have 22 more days until I'm home? I conclude it's a mixture of all these things.

I know I've been writing a lot lately about going home, I'm just so excited!!! And the idea of being home may be consuming me just a little bit.

Happy Spring!

A Week Away

This past week was a good one! I was gone the whole week doing enjoyable things like getting to know new people, teaching, realizing how much I've grown, spending valuable time with friends, being captivated by pure beauty and peace & quiet, having deep, meaningful conversations, and the best part--taking a hot shower!

From Monday to Wednesday I was in St. Cuthbert's helping out with the remote training. I really enjoyed my time there and getting to know the 7 remote trainees. I taught lessons on nutrition, maternal health, infant & child care, and shared some of my challenges and successes with the group. It was a very boosting experience for me because these new trainees are full of excitement, eagerness, and hope. Sure they are anxious but they'll be fine; it's very exciting to see them start this journey.

I was suppose to leave St. Cuthbert's on Thursday but ended up leaving Wednesday afternoon and went to Georgetown, I got lucky and crashed with my friend Leighton, who had a hotel room in a pretty nice hotel (hence the hot water, I also got to enjoy TV and A/C). It was fun hanging out with her and I got to go to the other training site (the urban site) to meet the other 20+ trainees.

From Friday to Saturday I hung out with Becky and Princess we planned to spend Friday getting our visas for Brazil but of course it was chaos. It was pouring rain in Georgetown and we had many places to get to. First we had to get passport pictures taken, which look like mugshots. Then we took a taxi to the Brazilian Embassy where they gave us the run around, long story short, we didn't get our visas so we'll have to try again later. It's pretty frustrating to do things here because nothing goes smoothly but we'll get them and we'll see Brazil, even though the lady made rude comments about us being Americans.
To lift our spirits we eat at Pizza Hut (so good) and had soft serve ice cream!
Friday night we went to the Miss India Guyana pageant, which of course was an interesting experience.  It was suppose to start at 8:00p.m. and last about 2 hours. It ended up starting at 8:30 (not a bad late start) and was over at 12:30a.m. Overall, it was fun and I enjoyed watching all the dancing!

Jillian & me with 3 awesome trainees

Cute little girls

The house the PVCs stay in, yes there is no door

It was nice exploring the village

Morning chores--washing dishes in the river

Dressed nice for the pageant

Barbados!

I am so grateful I got to spend 4 days in Barbados!

It was a much-needed, incredible break.

It was interesting to experience the emotions of being away from Guyana and in a once more familiar life style; I was in a little state of shock the first night.

Before joining Peace Corps I took so many things for granted and although I’ve realized the joys of living a simple life, just being able to spend a few days in “normalcy” was so nice.

On the last night, as we were walking back from getting ice cream at Chilly Moos (like Coldstone) Chelsea and I were talking about life and the trip. I mentioned how it was probably one of the best vacations I’ve had, and I’ve been on some pretty cool trips. We started thinking about it and came to the conclusion that everything was a novelty… real restaurants, A/C, no bugs and bug bites, hot water, a washer and dryer, the blue ocean, swimming, not getting hassled and sipped at, a real grocery store, actually looking nice, not sweating like crazy, lattes, treats, TV, a mall, side walks, sewer systems…everything we’ve been without for the last 7 months. So of course it was an amazing vacation, it truly was so nice to enjoy those specialties! But it also showed us we really don’t need all that materialistic stuff, we are surviving just fine for now.

I love these pictures!

Flying over the island

At the airport, so excited for chia tea and bagels with cream cheese

Yay for blue ocean and white sand!

View from our condo

It was so nice

These nachos were so good!!

Snorkeling

Saw old sunken ships

and sea turtles!!! 

I love being at the beach, especially in the Caribbean!

It was heavenly to straighten my hair :) 

Celebrating at a good Brazilian restaurant 

Princess and I in Bridgetown