Vacay

So I know that this post is a little overdue. Sorry, things out here have been a little crazy. So over the past week and a half I have been out traveling a lot. I spent about four days down south on an island. Our hotel was right on the beach and had an amazing pool. It wasn't a total vacation (there were still some things I needed to do while I was there) but for the most part it was a great four days of relaxing on the beach. It was hot though. Really hot. I've gotten used to living in the mountains and summers being in the mid-70's and the jump to 95+ degrees is a little bit of a shock. After we left the beach we went to Hong Kong for about five days. I think I suffered from a little bit of culture shock. Everything there is ultra-modern and it would be like taking L.A., filling it with Chinese people and then making it really humid. It was a good break though. While we were there we took in a lot of the sights of Hong Kong (the bay and the peak), went to a few museums, Disneyland, saw a couple of movies, and ate A LOT of Western food. It is strange how when you live in a culture so different that doing things like going to the movies is a nice break and seems so normal. After Hong Kong we traveled up north and spent a couple of days with some friends from college that just arrived. It was good to get to see them again. We got a little carried away with walking, talking and eating lunch and ended up missing our flight out (three traffic accidents on the road there didn't help either). Because we missed our flight, we had to fly back to our city the next day and, instead of spending the $10 on a hotel room, we spent the night hanging out in a 24-hour McDonald's. So needless to say when we got back to town we were exhausted. It was great to be back. When we got home it was about 60-degrees, the sun was shinning and there were mountains and clean air. Vacation is not only good for getting to go somewhere but also to help with appreciating being home.

Before we left my friend's local roommate had her parents come to visit. They live about nine hours away up in the mountains and they are in town to see the doctor about some back-pain. For the three days before we left town my roommate, my friend and I spent the evening teaching them how to play a domino game and then sharing with them. The father, who had never seen a white guy before us, has gone back home but her mother is still in town for at least another week. We are planning on trying to spend some more times playing games and talking to her.

In other news school has started back this week. I have class four days a week. I'm glad that I've been here studying with a tutor for the past five months because, even with having a head start, the learning curve is pretty steep. Class has already been good for my language and I'm starting to finally put some things together.

Finally, I'll be traveling next week. Two friends, my roommate and I are going to be traveling out a couple of hours to climb a 17,300 ft. mountain. It'll be an adventure to say the least.

Randomness

So I don’t really know where to start with the craziness of this past week. Actually random is probably a better description than crazy. It was all pretty normal, well language study and doing my usually weekly things, until Thursday evening. For the past couple of weeks my tutor has been bringing his cousin, who is eight, to our language lessons and I’ve been helping him some with his English. For an eight year old his English is really good. Well, during my Thursday language study I got to meet my tutor’s uncle. He is a very nice guy. He is kind of loud and speaks English really well. It turns out he is something like the regional gov’t guy, which apparently is kind of a big deal. I got to meet him and then he said maybe we could meet up next week. Well, I got a phone call from him at about 6pm and next week turned into meeting him and some friends at 7pm. So he picked me up and went to this random restaurant with all of these middle-aged gov’t officials. Several of them were in from the capital and I think they were kind of big shots. The whole thing turned out to be this college reunion that happens for them, so I really have no idea how I got invited to this. I felt way out of place though. The guy who brought me was a good host and he said it was great that he could work on his English again while I was there. I ended up sitting at the table next to this guy who was already a little tipsy when I got there. He was pouring some kind of local moonshine out of a clear gasoline container and he kept insisting that I drink some. I kept trying to explain to him that I didn’t really want to drink any of it but he didn’t really understand that because EVERYONE here smokes and drinks. So after about an hour we left the restaurant and headed over to another part of town. We ended up at this really cool restaurant/bar that is owned by a Frenchman and we sat outside and tea. There was also a concert that started with a girl singing, a guy on the keyboard, and another old guy that played the flute and saxophone. They weren’t bad except they kept butchering songs from American that haven’t been popular for at least ten years (if ever). I about died laughing when one of the guys sang ‘Don’t Break my Heart’ with this very thick accent. I also heard some John Denver, The Temptations, and Ricky Martin. The best moment had to be during the Ricky Martin song when two of the women and one of the men in our party got out of their chairs, climbed on stage and started dancing. There just aren’t words to describe seeing a drunk, middle-aged, high-ranking Asian official doing the cabbage-patch to a Ricky Martin song. Eventually I managed to talk my friend into taking me home, since it was his son’s bedtime.

Friday morning three of us took off on a bus at 7am to head out to another city to meet up with some friends. The trip up there was supposed to be a five-hour bus ride (which in actuality was 10 ½) and then a three-hour train ride. I think it was about the most miserable bus ride ever. We even took a different way back, which turned out to be a 15 hour bus ride, and that actually seemed a lot better than the one on the way up there. Once we got there the weekend was great. We got to spend some time with some great people and also got some great food. Sometimes I forget that there are actual restaurants that serve good normal food. There are definitely some advantages to living out in the middle of nowhere but as far as good restaurants and travel go, we are definitely lacking.

So things are going to be a little crazy over the next few days. I’ll be taking off this weekend for a little vacation at the beach. I’m looking forward to getting away for a few days before school and everything gets back into full swing. I’ll be gone for a while so I’m pretty sure this thing won’t get updated for at least a week.

Being Caught Up

Things have been good out here over the past week. Everything seems to be slowing down some and getting a little more back to normal after a crazy month in July. To be honest, things have been a little bit on the dull side. It has been great for language study though. I’m back in my routine of trying to get in five hours a day, including time with my tutor. And it feels really good to be fully caught up on emails and paperwork. I’m going to enjoy it because it will probably only last for another week or two.

This upcoming weekend I am planning on traveling with two others to meet up with a guy who lives in the province to our north. While we are there he is going to show us how to set a few things up that we might be able to use down here. It should be an interesting trip. None of us really know where we are going but we have a rough idea of where to get off the bus and hopefully catch another one. It should be a solid day of travel, then we will be there for about two days, and then spend a day traveling back. We will get back to town and be here for about four or five days and then we are taking off for a little bit of training/vacation. I’m definitely excited about that. I love it here and it is beautiful, but a few days on the beach are always a good thing. It will also be nice to have a few days to hang out in Hong Kong. Other than going to Disneyland I’m planning on eating a lot of good American food and maybe doing some shopping. I’m not really a big shopper, but considering that you can’t really buy much of anything here it will be nice to have a few options. You can’t even buy cheese here, much less anything really nice. And once we get back to town I’ll be starting school classes, so I’m pretty sure that I need to enjoy being caught up on things while it lasts.

A Little Bit of Down Time

So things have finally slowed down some over the past week. It has been raining a lot and it has been kind of nice to not have a lot to do that involves being out and about. This past weekend I did get invited to go to a local’s house for a party. I’m not really sure of the name for the celebration but I think it is basically for having all of the wheat harvested and all of the corn planted and having a lot of free time. So what better to do with all the free time than cook a lot of food and have everyone over. It was actually the family that I stayed with my first week out in the village, who are also related to the family I stayed with my second week. It was good to get to see everyone again and I think it was great for my language. I’m finally getting to where I can understand the point of conversations as long as I know the topic. Mainly it is trying to put words together that I know. And I can usually answer back with one-word answers. So basically I sound like a three year old, but it is better than nothing. The baby over there is about a year and a half and he has started walking around everywhere and saying a few words. It is humbling to have a kid who barely speaks saying things better than I can. The party was a lot of fun. The food wasn’t too weird considering that they usually bring out all of the really strange things for celebrations. We even had some things that I figured we would have somewhere back in the States (I mean, why haven’t I seen mashed potatoes that are deep fried into little balls back home?!?). While I was there it kind of struck me how much alike people are. Basically all of the women were in the kitchen cooking and getting everything ready and all of the guys were outside sitting around playing checkers or just sitting around drinking and talking. Except for everyone being shorter and speaking a different language I could have sworn I was at a holiday back in the States.

So this next month is going to be a little crazy again, but in a good way. I’m finally getting to take a little vacation, and I’m looking forward to it. Don’t get me wrong, I love it here and it is a beautiful place to live, but after having been here for almost four months I’m kind of wanting to get out of town for a while. So we’re going to take a trip in the middle of August down to an island to the south that is out in the ocean. We’ll spend about four days on the beach and then head over to Hong Kong for a few days. One of the girls is dying to go to Disneyland while we’re there and so I think we’re going to do that, see some sights, do some shopping, and eat some really good food. I’m also going to have some friends come down to visit me in September and we’re looking at going and climbing a 5,500 meter mountain out here. I’ve actually got to talk to a few more people about that one and make sure that we aren’t going to be getting in way over our heads. Information on things like that is usually kind of spotty when you talk to locals, but from everything I hear it should be doable. I’ll make sure and take lots of pictures!

Volunteers

This past week has been another crazy one. It has been really good though. We have had several volunteer teams out and I have been doing a lot with them. One of the groups has six college students and we have been showing them around and taking them out to villages with us. I’m a fan of having groups come out. I know a lot of people argue that money could be better spent by just sending it to people who are living in other countries instead of paying for travel, but I disagree. I think it is great for people to go on short-term trips because it helps them to catch a vision for what all goes on; plus a lot of people who end up overseas do it because of an experience they had while on a short-term trip. And from this end of things, it is really nice to have a break from the day-to-day routine. I know that everyone thinks it is exciting and different over here, and to some extent it is, but just like everywhere else there becomes a daily routine. So it has been a nice break to get to get to know new people and play tour guide. We have traveled out to some villages and done a lot of walking through areas. The group has also been great in that every time we go out to eat or do something they pay. I mean, I’ve been eating very well this week and have gotten two massages, so I can’t complain.

Other than that it has been a pretty typical week out here. I have been studying language quite a bit and am finally getting to where I can understand a little bit of what people are saying. Being able to speak is a little bit trickier though. I’ve basically gotten to where I can get the point of what people are saying then give out short one word answers that can usually get my point across. It is better than nothing though.

The Earthquake

So this past week has been pretty crazy. It has been good because I've gotten a lot of things done, but there hasn't really been a lot of down time. Most of this week has been spent trying to get some things together for school and my visa and also doing some things with people who have come out to visit. It has been very busy but a lot of fun.

On Friday I went over to a friend's house for his 2 year old son's birthday party. While I was there they told me that there was an earthquake to our south that had destroyed about ten thousand homes. Some people said they could feel it here but I was out playing basketball so I didn't notice it. So while I was there he got a phone call asking if we could bring some food, water, and medical supplies down and possibly help with disaster relief. So my nice slow weekend was pretty much gone with that phone call. I left from the party, threw some things in a bag and then thirty minutes later we were picking up supplies from around town. We got about 900 pounds of rice, twenty boxes of bottle water, a large box filled with medical supplies, 100 pounds of fruit and several boxes of dried noodles to take out there. I was a little worried that our truck wasn't going to make it on some of the mountain roads but it held up just fine. It was about a six hour drive down to the city where everything happened. The trip went by pretty fast and there is amazing scenery all along the drive. One thing that stood out was that there was hardly any damage along the drive down. Even once we got to the city we spent the night in there didn't seem to be very much damage. There were a few concrete walls that had fallen down but a lot of that could have just been from weathering and being old.

The next morning we got up early and took off to meet a gov't contact that was going to take us around to the area that was hardest hit. The area that we were in is very closed off. Anytime a westerner goes out there he must be accompanied by a gov't guide and they basically are there to 'make sure you do what you say you are going to do and nothing else.' Some of the guys we met up with knew this guy so he offered to take us out. I think our guy that we met up with is in charge of all of the schools in that region and so he told us that he would take us to some schools that were in the areas that were hardest hit and we could give them some supplies. He took us around to about three different schools and in all of the towns there were some homes that were cracked and damaged but there was nothing like the '10,000 homes destroyed' that was advertised. Most all of the homes out in this area are made of mud brick and straw and it is no surprise that some of them would have fallen down. Most every place that we went our gov't guide basically would say, "Look at this area. Look how poor these people are. They survived the earthquake but they still need food and we can make sure and distribute it better than you can." So most of the places we went we would have to leave food because we didn't want the man to lose face and not help us anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about giving poor kids food for the winter and things like that but not when there are people who have nothing because of an earthquake that happened just down the road. We gave most of our food away to the schools, which was fine, but we saved a lot of the water, medical supplies and the things like noodles that could be eaten right away.

So for most of the afternoon we wondered if either: 1. We were getting the governmental runaround and not getting to see the area that was hardest hit (which was very likely), or 2. The media out here had blown things way out of proportion (which was also very likely). So at about 3:30 we took the guy back to his office and we made a call to go out without him and see if we could find some things on our own. We took off to the area that we thought the epicenter was at and we soon saw where all of the damage was. We started getting closer to another village and almost all of the homes had walls that had collapsed and were totally destroyed. I don't know if there were 10,000 houses that were destroyed but almost all of them in this small village were gone. The military had established a camp out there where they were organizing relief work and we went in and met with all of the officials there. They were very welcoming of us and I'm sure they did a good job distributing all of the supplies that we brought. We wanted to go out to some of the more remote villages that were hit because we had three trucks with us, but they wouldn't let us go out there; however they did allow us to take a tour of the village that we were in. We had a chance to walk around and talk to a few people and it was heartbreaking to see people who had lost everything. We had an opportunity to go and talk to a few people and they wanted us to take pictures and they all told us about what they had lost. We also had an opportunity to meet with some of the high up gov't officials in that area and make some new contacts out there. Hopefully this area will open up more in the future. People are still trying to figure out a game plan for helping the people who are living in this area.

So after all of that we took off and headed back home. I think we got home at around 2:30am and then were up and running again the next morning. It made for a long weekend but it was really good. This week there has been some visitors come from the states so I have been busy trying to get them set up and taking them around town. My roommate also got here on Monday night and we've been doing some things together. I was supposed to take him out to a village for his first week but we are putting that off until the beginning of next week. I'm sure that will be an 'interesting' experience for him.

The 4th on the 6th

So the crazy month of July has officially begun. There has been a lot going on this past week. A lot of people have been out of town and traveling and I have spent a lot of time trying to get things together for my roommate. He was supposed to arrive here on Saturday but there was some confusion with his ticket and he had to remain in the states until they got everything rebooked.

So the big event of the week has been our 4th of July party. I'm pretty sure that it was the most amazing 4th of July party that has ever been thrown outside of the states. We had about twenty people meet up at a friends house and then we had a cookout, games and some fireworks. One of the guys out here was in a big city over the weekend and he snagged us some American hotdogs and they were amazing. They have hotdogs over here but they are gross. I don't know how it is possible to make hotdogs any sketchier than they are back home but it is. So the American hotdogs were pretty great. One of the guys also brought a lot of marinated pork chops (there isn't a lot of beef out here) and those were pretty amazing. We had all the traditional sides and all of that. It is amazing how big of an effect food has on your life out here. There are very few things that can pick you up (or put you down) as quickly as food. Having a good meal can totally make the week. The college guys that are out here living in the village have had a little bit of a tough time. I think they've had pig heart at least once this past week. So they are totally understanding the point about food. They are living out in the village for a month, so they still have two and a half weeks left. I'm sure they will be having some more strange meals.

After dinner we played a bunch of games. All of the neighbors had fun watching all of the white people run around. I'm not even kidding, they brought out their cameras. The guy I partnered up with and I won most of the events. We had a wheelbarrow race, a three legged race, a watermelon eating contest and an egg toss. After all of the games we went out and had a fireworks show. I was in charge of getting all of the fireworks and, as you would expect, you can get a lot of them for cheap out here. So we had about a thirty minute firework show. It was a lot of fun. We even had the grand finale with some huge fireworks. There were definitely some dogs going crazy in the surrounding neighborhoods once we finished.

So it has been a good week out here. Lots of things are starting up this next week. I'm going to be pretty busy running around and trying to get everything ready. We have several different people coming out to visit and I'll stay pretty busy doing things with them.