Counterpart Workshop and the Treehouse

Happy friday people. Writing to you from the lovely little capital of Belmopan. This past week i went up to Orange Walk town to meet my counterpart (the dude im going to be working with for the next two years. Mr. Randy Jones is a young, charismatic and very motivated village chairperson for Carmelita. Orange Walk has a population of about 16000. All of us placed in the northern part of the country left on tuesday and met up in Belmopan. Since thebus system (think old US Schoolbus) is far from comprehensive we had to meet up the day before our workshop. Digression: I must eat more and beef up my backside. My ass gets numb after 2 hours on those seats) But anyway, we left on tuesday and all of us met up in Belmopan and spent a night in a hotel. The night consisted of presidential debates and a stinky mothball room and rum and coconut water. A fun little break from business. The next morning came far too soon and we left for Orange Walk. We met up with our counterparts and our new host families. Evidently I will be living on a farm about 3/4 of a mile out of town. Needless to say im psyched. The only drag to this fact is that i left my chaps and cowboy boots back in the states. At least I have a sweet REI hat that almost looks cowboy!
So Mr. Jones is awesome, ill be getting alot of support for whatever project i decide to do (digression #2: the village really doesnt have an established plan for exactly what they want me to do so i have a fair amount of leeway, esp for the first few months) So remember how last post i talked about the camping and rec center: I was talking to Mr. Jones about it and he mentioned how the Belize Boy Scouts have a camping/rec area in another village but it consists of barracks and bathrooms. Then he says to me "i want it to be really cool, you know, on the river, treehouses" This huge doody eating grin comes over my face and i think to myself "suuuuure, lets build some F**king treehouses!" Im psyched.
Yep, thats about it. Im gonna go eat some beans and rice...with chicken (since thats all they eat in this country!)
sotay lata
jacob