PB & J is Universal

Today I got up about 6am, took a bucket bath, and headed with Patti to the gas station. It was a solid 25 minute walk. We met Evan and Bri there and waited for David, our tech trainer, to come get us. We all went to Santa Catarina to meet with the entire ecotourism crew. David taught us about the structure of politics and bureaucracy with municipalities here, as well as a management tool called SWOT in english and FODA in spanish. We met with our groups to discuss the SWOT analysis of our project and make an action plan. We're sure these things will evolve as we get further into our project, but it was nice to brainstorm and stay focused on goals.

We also got an assignment to make a map of our communities with a small group of similar people that will draw important things in the city and to create a calendar based on perceived important things in the community. We got back just in time for lunch today. We had steamed spinach, tortillas, and beef sausage. It was ok...

Spanish class was kind of fun today. We all enjoy our teacher, Mirsa, so much. We missed Brianna in class today because she was sick. She had told us this morning that she had fever and diarhea. Apparently it got worse and she was the first in our training group to have the pleasure of submitting a stool sample. In our medical sessions, we have talked SO much about bowel movements. I feel like I am almost a pro on that topic of convo. After class and updating my blog at the internet cafe, we went to visit and cheer up Brianna. We had some of our first non-Peace Corps convos, which was kind of weird. It is kind of hard to get to know people here on a personal level and not just the basic PC info.

We had tamales for dinner...then they pulled out the peanut butter and jelly...i don't think they realize just how much I love PB &J. It was quite a treat! I did my homework after dinner and am prob going to turn in early. Today was a pretty good, but long day. I'm excited about the fair in our town this weekend. Oh, and I just realized I only took one malaria pill instead of two last week...oops!

Adios!