¡Muchas Gracias!

This post must start with an ENORMOUS THANK YOU!!! to my daddy, Stacy°s mama, Karen, James, Marley and Kristin Gold. Christmas Eve the mailman came running to my house with not one but four Christmas cards. It was amazing. You guys made my day and you can°t imagine how thankful I am.

What have I been up to lately? About two weeks ago I went to a nearby, rural community for a meeting. It takes so long to get there that the person I was going with picked me up at my house a at 6am. Unfortunately for me, this guy is quite the chatterbox. As part of my job as a business educator I am expected to dress in a professional manner. Yes, even though this is the Peace Corps. For that reason, I went to this meeting dressed in pants, dress shoes and a polo shirt. Imagine my surprise when we arrive and I°m told I need to climb a mountain to reach the meeting. I was too late to turn back so up the mountain I went...then back down it..across two rivers...and up another mountain. At one point on this trek I had the distinct impression that my guide could murder me and hide my body without anyone being the wiser. Luckily, responsible volunteer that I am my "host mom" knew exactly where I was, who I was with and what time I would be back. When we finally reached the spot where the meeting was supposed to take placee (on the side of a hill) I was told it had been postponed. To compensate, I helped harvest beans. I climbed the hill which had about a 60° incline...pulled the beans stalks out of the ground and carted them down the hill in a giant sack. Once at the bottom of the hill we dumped the sack onto a large piece of cloth. The next step (Im not joking) is to beat the stalks with a stick until all the beans pop out. I should have taken a picture of the blisters. On our way back down the mountain, I tripped and fell. I didn°t seriously injure anything other than my pride but I still have giant purple bruises on both of my shins.

The week of Christmas was one of mixed emotions. I went to a wedding and a funeral amidst all the holiday parties. For New Year°s Eve Im planning to head to the beach with some girl friends.

Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas!!!