(Saturday, June 26, Day 10)

“The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.”

Phrase of the day: No gustas dormir, huh?... You don’t like to sleep, huh? (I’m sure that was bad Spanish)

Yeah, every evening my host mother asks me if I’d like to go to aerobics in the morning with her. I always pass because it’s so early, but this weekend I figured I’d give it a shot.

4:40am – Wake up.

Thankfully that still feels like 5:40 to me! So really not that bad.

5:00am – Aerobics.

It was nuts. First off, it was dark. (The sun isn’t up until about 6:45 or 7 here, and it sets at about the same). The aerobics took place outside in a park, and it was about 50 degrees or so (that’s your picture; it was too dark to actually take one). The ladies (I say “ladies” because 95% of the people were over 35 and female) move super quickly. So quickly that I could not keep up to save my life. If you know me pretty well, you know I can’t/don’t dance. Well the same goes for aerobics I learned!

6:45am – Shower / Get ready.

I’ll leave the details out, but it was pretty exciting.

7:30am – Begin washing clothes.

Another new experience! Not the washing your clothes part… I know how to put detergent in a machine (maybe not how much detergent, but still!) It went like such:

1. Pour detergent powder into a large bucket; fill with water and clothes, and let sit for an hour

2. Place clothing onto rock table and scrub bar soap onto clothes (really, more soap?)

3. Scrub clothes with brush

4. Use ridiculous amounts of water to get soap off of clothes.

5. Hang on lines to dry.

6. 2-3 days later (because it’s cool here), clothing is dry.

Yeah, next time no double soap action when she’s not watching me.

8:00am – Breakfast.

The usual. Eggs, Bowl of fruit, Juice. (Nope, I’m not eating breakfast when I come home).

9:30am – Go to the market.

Host “mother” wanted to buy some things, so I went. It was a zoo. Like literally, animals, vegetables, fruit, and grains everywhere!

10:00am – Visit my host “parents’” job at the flower(roses) plantation.

After the market we went to the rose plantation. I would have taken pictures, but the security level there is pretty ridiculous. (next time though! I know what they look for now, haha). Thankfully I didn’t see any child laborers, so all was well. They actually work in the kitchen. They prepare breakfast and lunch for the workers… about 250 people.

10:45am – Wash more cloths.

Yeah, there’s no way I finished in 30 minutes. Not with all that soap!

12:00pm – Go to see the horses(and apparently bulls).

As part of the month long festival for San Pedro, today was a horse lasso event. There were tons and tons of cowboys in an arena. To my surprise, it ended up being a lasso-a-bull competition. Another new experience to add to my day. We left after they began to lasso the bulls; definitely not my thing.

1:30pm – Crucial lunch.

Soup with chicken, some type of beans, cheese, corn, rice, french fries (they love those here), and chicken. Yeah, those three plates/bowls are all me. This only happens on Saturday; usually I eat normal sized meals.

2:30pm – Realize washing clothes takes a gazillion hours here, but finally finish.

3:30pm – Meet up with some other trainees.

6:00pm – Somehow end up at a cock fight.

Yeah, no idea how that happened, but something new again, right?

6:10pm – Leave after realizing how horrible cock fights are.

Oh my that was bad. I guess if we had thought about what it was exactly, we wouldn’t have actually gone in, haha.

8:00pm – Homework.

Yeah, they like me in when it’s dark, so I figured I’d begin on our 20 pages of homework. Priceless!

Yeah, this was way too long, but if you made it this far, congrats! Let hear about your weekends.