m & E

New years was fun i made a doll representing things that i hate like domestic violence, alcoholism, and male superiority. and we burned it at midnight. if only i was so easy to burn social problems. i hosted a dinner party for my friends and then we went out to a party at my friends house dancing in the street until 4 am. The next day i painted our bathroom bright blue. nice spruce up.So my entirety for the moment is monitoring and evaluation. holding meetings with comittees planning for the year. writing and rewriting projects. visiting families and doing interviews to see what they know now so i can better develop teaching materials and then see in the end whether or not they learned. it is not glamorous or fun but arguably necessary. the recycling project i started in the high school is going to be accepted into the entire community and the municipality is going to use it as a small business. i am still waiting to hear whether or not they are approving the cook stove project but i am 80% sure that they will. the parent school is not going to be my problem this year i am only working as an outside consultant to develop the training for trash management and nutrition if those are themes they elect. I believe that it is a great project but i think that if i get stuck in charge again that it will fail when i leave. i want to get youth health promoters to teach sex ed but i do not know if that is going to happen. i am also trying to work with two of my friends to get a nursery going or growing ha. which would also be a small business for them. i just want there to be more trees in my site. i have two families that accepted guinea pigs into their homes witht he hopes that it will become trendy and more families will want to do it. I trained a guy how to build cement platforms for latrines and am working with getting families to buy their own. another small business for that guy. still working at the health post. I think that my municipality has a lot of hope with this new team they have. there are two younger girls on it and they are really moving and shaking. i started doing yoga and running with a friend. workout buddies are such useful things in a weight loss program. running was not nearly as hard as i had thought it would be and now that i use the breathing techniques i learned in yoga i can run farther without getting tired or feeling like i am going to die from lack of oxygen. i am planting right now because the rain still has not come but maybe soon, cucumber, radishes, and soy. I learned how to make soy milk way better than buying it. my host mom seems to be really supportive of the fact that i do not like meat and has been giving me practically none. so back to organics and veggies yes. oh though i am fearful because the dengue situation here is apparently serious this year and if i get bit i could bleed out. i am covered regularly with repellent. but nerve racking thinking that on little bugger could get the best of me. working out a plan with the doctors so that i can get to a hospital asap before i bleed out. just in case. i think i will be teaching a college prep course in summer school. which has me thinking about next year in my own life and where am i headed or staying or going. time flies and i hope it does not get ahead of me. i keep waiting for the universe to give me a sign. i am reading this book about how to end poverty. it is making me feel like if i really want to change the world i have to work on policy but i do not really have interest in that. hoping my friends do and then i can just influence.