The Jones Household (where I am staying, about a mile outside of town)

The tractors pulling a stuck dump truck out...this is entertainment, folks!

The road you take to get to my house

My bus stop

My first day with the Jones family we butchered a cow. Gives me a new respect for how much work goes into a steak!

Some pics from Independence:

My old host family, the Parhams

Combination fish locker and soda storage. Your coke smells like snapper.

Jacob and the sunset. Crazy thing is this doesnt even begin to capture the colors. :)

Oh...hello again! Fancy meeting up with you...come here often? yes, I know Im not funny. Oh well. Dropped by Orange Walk to hopefully upload some pictures. Havent had much luck with taking them though. Its been kinda tough with all this rain. Things have been going well in Carmelita. I am meeting more and more people. Its now about 80% of the time that I am called "White Bwai", with the other 20% split between being called "Peas Coah" and "Mistah Jacob" granted my name is only used when someone wants something (ie me to "set it aff" meaning buy them a bottle of rum or a cigarette or something else. Remember, white people have lots of money, or so the stereotype goes) For such a diverse country there are tons of preconceived notions about what people do. For example, a few lines in a popular song; "White man pay di bills, spanish mon build di house, chiney man run di shop, black mon lay di pipe" (yes, thats a reference to a powerful sex drive :) Its interesting to say the least.

Yesterday was a good sunday, I spent the morning peeling corn, which means going out into the cornfield and pulling ears off of the stalks for harvest. After that I got to meet with a few of the village council members. Seems like I am going to have to deal with alot of the politics surrounding the village council and all that business. I will also have to work to make sure that I am used in the fashion that the Peace Corps has sent me for, and not just as another member/village council secretary. Hmmm. I have made some significant inroads with the school here, and I will be teaching remedial reading classes to special needs kids 3 days a week. Seems like a good way to get my name out there and begin gaining the village/kids' trust. I am looking forward to it, despite the fact that I have zero experience in this field. After this I am heading to the library to see what Orange Walk has to offer. The afternoon was spent playing ping pong, volleyball and dominoes. While I am still far from good at volleyball and dominoes, it was nice playing pong...a game that I am actually decent at. I got to beat up on some of the locals, and I was looked at as an asset rather than a liability for my team. Fun stuff. Ooooh...also, I got to ride on a tractor with 7 other people to go help a stuck dump truck out of a mud hole. This is entertainment. People in the village use their tractors as a means of transportation, its not uncommon to see a few beat up cars and three tractors parked outside someones house for a gettogether!

As far as health goes, I have a wonderfully itchy, red and annoying rash that has begun to work its way over the top half of my body. I think its a result to a newly discovered allergy to cashew oils. We spent a morning shelling them, and evidently the outside shell is highly acidic and pretty gnarly for your skin. Good to know. What makes it even more fun is the 1-2 punch of 90 degree heat and hundreds of bugbites. I feel yucky. Meh. I get to go in to see the doctor in Belmopan tomorrow though. Maybe Ill ask for steriods! But yeah, Ill live. its ok.

Yep...thats about all for now...keep commenting!

jake