Its..hot..again...

Yes, its true. It has hotted on up here. I will say one thing though, moses has taught me that the best way to deal with the heat is chewing on ice cubes till you have a nice lil crushed pile and then laying on the concrete with them between you and the floor. granted i come away with a dirty belly, but whose complaining?!
Settling into the house is going nicely. I bake chicken and baked beans for dinner pretty regularly, just bought some flour and other assorted oddities to make pizza too. Ill tell ya what though, it gets kinda lonely at times. Lets go over a normal day (one that isnt filled with meetings or what not, just a kinda average time.) I usually wake up around 7, make some tea (thanks for the tea parents!!) And eat a pb&j. from there I bike to the gym and work out for an hour. afterwards Ill either go to orange walk and check email/go shopping etc or head on home. A shower takes place while I wait for a mug of coffee to boil. Mo and I go for a walk while I drink my coffee. From there I read, write letters, work on fixing up the house, clean, generally keep myself occuppied through the afternoon. (lunch happened btw) We take an afternoon walk to the tienda where I hang out for an hour or so with the shop owner, a nice guy named Cristobal (es un buen opportunidad para practicando mi espanol) Dinner, then i head on out to play volleyball and dominoes with the village.
So im settling in, but i still find it tough to not have a vehicle here. The seemingly easiest things are made so much more difficult with waiting an hour and a half for a bus, or not being able to get a stove back to your house or something random like that. i have heard some volunteers talk about how they are happy to not have to worry about a car...not jacob. I will be truly excited to regain my mobility...in two years :-)

In work related business i am finally getting the 4h club off the ground. We are holding our first meeting this saturday. I have told all the kids, put up signs, reassured all that they will be bribed by a free snack, but lets see who shows up!

So i received a hannukah package a couple of days ago and want to thank all of you who contributed. mr frasier, the newspapers and candy were wonderful. The papers have been read over more than once and passed on to the other volunteers. the books, the football, bandannas, everything was great to receive. thank you guys so much. (for all the rest of you, feel free to send me anything, anytime. even a letter. i promise to write back! I dont think I put up my new address, so here it is

PCV Jacob Hafkin
Carmelita Village
Orange Walk District
Belize

There is something kinda fun about not having any numbers in your address. Makes me feel...villagey :)

In other news, Xmas is coming up and to celebrate I put up a xmas tree in the middle of the village and got ppl to donate stuff to decorate it. its the first tree the village has ever had. I rode out on a tractor with one of the locals, 10 teeth and muscles like whoa. He used a machete to chop down a 1.5 ft wide tree in a matter of minutes. Precision folks. Hauling it and resetting it was an adventure. its about 25 feet tall and towers over the basketball court. Figures that a jew would be in charge of christmas...

Yep, thats about it. I should run, got a bunch of frozen and refrigerated stuff sittin here that should probably get into a space colder than 90 degrees. Plus Moses needs to go out im sure. We are working right now on "come", "sit", "lay down" and against his will "no" and especially "no biting" goodness. PS mom, dad, a book called "Marley and Me" was recommended, think you could send it down with the next batch of goodies?? thanks!

take care all!
Jake