Written January 19

I wrote that last blog after being down for more than a week. I had been lonely and couldn't find anything to do and then the camp didn't go well. But then I got back to site and immediately found out that everyone was excited to get back to work and quickly had my schedule booked for the rest of the month. A lot of that work was requests for help designing and building fish ponds, a project that development workers push to increase food security. So I spent the week digging and teaching technique for building and maintaining the ponds. It was good to have so much interest and I've been in a better mood these days.

It was also encouraging to find out that the camp wasn't so bad of a failure after all. If you remember, my kids didn't seem to have engaged at all and looked miserable the whole time. But back in Papayo at our first Ecoclub meeting, they brought themselves to the front and excitedly demonstrated the same songs and games that they had refused to participate in at the camp. I think the meeting went well. We mostly played around, but I also kind of tried to explain the idea of a youth group in general and how an Ecoclub would have an environmental focus. They'll come again because we had a good time and I can gradually introduce the educational and service parts of the organization. Bingo was a huge hit.

So work is going well at the moment. Hopefully this energy will carry into March when school starts up again and I'll be busy working with the kids.

Oh! Another triumph I've been wanting to tell you about. I learned how to wash clothes. After months and months of struggles, I realized recently that I have learned to do my laundry by hand and produce clothing that doesn't smell terrible right away. I use the little bars of soap from hotels, soak the cloths in a bucket for awhile, beat them on rocks for a really long time, rinse, and then hang them out to dry. The secret is to beat them more than you would expect to be necessary. Of my achievements so far in life, this is one of my proudest.

I thought you might want to know that for breakfast this morning, I had green bananas. Peeled, quartered lengthwise, and fried until golden brown. Lunch was fried potatoes. Those don't grow here, but somebody's uncle works up in the highlands where it's cold and sent down a sack. I don't usually eat so much fried stuff, it's just that I'm travelling tomorrow and I need to use up all the produce that people have been giving me. So for dinner (and probably tomorrow's breakfast) I made rice and pigeon peas. Pigeon peas supposedly grow in Florida. If you can, you should find them because they're delicious.