I know that my blogs tend to get long sometimes, so for those of you more interested in the goings-on’s at the Lodge and the development of the school (and not my spiel about my upcoming trip to San Diego), feel free to skip the first paragraph.
It has been fifty-one weeks since I last set foot on American soil and 90 years since my grandmother was born. I only wish her birthday were next week, as I would have then completed exactly one full year in Latin America without ever returning home; but then again, coming up short by a week isn’t so bad either (probably better than most of you expected! Ha!). In fact, her birthday is the sole reason I am returning back to the States’ and I couldn’t be more excited! Nearly my entire family on my mom’s side (about 25 people, ages ranging from one to, well, ninety) will be flying in either today (Thursday) or Friday and staying for the weekend to celebrate the life of our incredible mother, grandmother, and friend. I can’t express how lucky I feel to have the opportunity to return home for this wonderful event. If I had to rank the things I missed most from home, family would undoubtedly take the cake, and I will be fortunate enough to be surrounded by nearly all my family in this brief vacation home. (While on the topic, friends (a close second), food (Mexican, In-n-Out, Sushi), and football, would probably have to round out the top four; but I will return to that in a minute.) I am not sure about all that is planned for this upcoming Fentin Family Reunion, (and for those wondering, yes, we are absolutely the kind of family who normally has shirts made for these events--I’ve found my collection over the years to be great for any kind of manual labor) but I do know that Saturday night my dad is cooking dinner for the entire family, which will probably be the best meal I’ve eaten in months, while we celebrate the life of my wonderful Grammy. As for those other things I mentioned...I’m hoping to go out Thursday night with some friends and a few of the age appropriate cousins! And since there is “always room for one more at the Fentin’s” (a t-shirt slogan we once used…) I expect my friends to be coming and going (and possibly sleeping…Mac) from the house to join in any games (corn-hole, ping-pong, cards) or activities we will undoubtedly decide to take part in. Besides the delicious meal I am sure I will be helping to prepare on Saturday night for the birthday celebration, there are a few other delicacies that must be had on this trip home. (1) In-N-Out; for those of you yet to try it (or hear about it, living under a rock?), you don’t know what you’re missing, and I, in fact, had a 3x3 (three meat patties, three slices of cheese), animal style (topped with grilled onions, lettuce, cheese, pickles n tomato) with a chocolate shake on my way home from the airport last night. Many trips will be made to Roberto’s for their California Burritos and potentially some taquitos as well, at least one sandwich from Board-n-Brew, and if I am lucky (you’re reading this mom, right?) a going away dinner at Nobu! Last, but definitely not least, FOOTBALL. For those unaware, my 49ers are currently 2-1 (should be 3-0) and in first place in the NFC West. Since I am still unsure of when I will be returning to the States’ this coming weekend may possibly be the only 49ers game I get to see all year and thanks to my sister and her boyfriend ordering NFL Sunday Ticket, that is currently the only other plans I have set in stone for my time back home. I will be planted firmly on the couch, laptop next to me checking my fantasy teams, looking for my friends Isaac and Amy on TV watching the Niners’ destroy the Eagles on Sunday morning! (Hey, gotta be optimistic right?) That just about covers San Diego, now an update about the Lodge!
I realized I failed to discuss the people I am living and working with at the lodge in my last post, so I thought I would start there:
Henry, Margaret and Lucho – Henry and Margaret built and run the lodge and have been doing so in Bocas for six years (they have been in Bocas for eight, but it took two years to build the lodge). Henry is from Peru originally, but moved to Pasadena, California when he was five and grew up there. Though he is not exactly the most knowledgeable person about sports (my favorite topic of conversation), we get along quite well. Margaret is from England and the two of them met at a very small school in California (I don’t recall the name). Lucho is their three year old son who I will be watching on occasion throughout my stay. When he chooses to use his words, he has quite a thorough vocabulary, but he often chooses to whine instead. He will definitely be a handful on his “bad days”, but is a good kid at heart and hopefully won’t give me too many problems.
Hilda, Bolivia, Fidelina – three women who often hang around the lodge, Henry and Margaret give them as much work as they can find to help support their families. Hilda is probably in her early thirties and has nine kids, not sure about Fidelina, and Bolivia has more than I can count or remember. They are a bit shy around us gringos, but you can tell they mean well in all they do.
Mr. Kelly, Roger and Tio – The three workhorses on the farm/lodge. Mr. Kelly is the foreman and lives in his own house he built on the property. He comes from West Indian heritage and was brought up speaking their own dialect of English, quite entertaining to talk to. Roger is a bit younger, maybe around my age, and is a good work and also an athlete. He plays baseball for the Bahia Honda team and I’ve already gone to practice with them once and plan on attending many more over the next two months! Tio is, in the simplest form, a freakin worker. If I had to guess, he is the oldest of the bunch, but you wouldn’t guess it based on their work ethic as he is constantly on the go from chore to chore.
There are a bunch of others who come and go on occasion and I am sure I will get to know many more as the community feels more comfortable having me around. As for my schedule at La Loma…I mentioned in my last post I was going to be meeting with the community to discuss the pre-school and other potential opportunities to help. My first day of pre-school is officially on October 5th, the day after I return from the States’, and is from 8am-10:30am. For now, I will be giving classes every Wednesday and Friday morning, if all goes well we will hopefully add a Monday as well. Not only will I be giving classes to the 3-5 year olds in the community, I have also arranged to teach English to the indigenous adults every Thursday and Friday night from 4:30pm-6pm. There seemed to be a lot of interest in both the pre-school and English classes at the meeting, so I can’t wait to get the ball rolling and see how things go.
Thanks for checking out the photos and I’ll get back to you after my first week of classes!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment