Carbohydrate Sunday

Sunday, October 3, 2010
Possibly my best and busiest day here in Buena Vista. First, I went to San
Gerardo with our soccer team where we got our asses kicked. Nevertheless, I felt
proud and protective of my students by arriving with them and claiming
them as my own. Catherine lives there so she joined me for the 1st
half of the game and then we stopped by her house where I fell in love
again with her parents. Margarita and Memo, THE most adorable human
beings. Margarita talks like she is both 1,000% excited and surprised
by everything she says. And Memo just looks bewildered but happy to be
there for the ride.

Leaving San Gerardo and heading back towards BV, Juan and I drove over to check up on his ganados (meat cows). In the end they made for a very anticlimactic
hour-long excursion because they were very suspicious of me and never
approached the gate. The best part of that afternoon was pulling over to
steal some lychees. Juan, a grown ass man and over six feet tall, climbed too easily up a
high tree that looked like it would break any second and then
proceeded to make me come out of the car with a plastic bag and stand
below him as he dropped lychees down into it. Our technique improved over time
but began with him dropping lychees at me without any notice.
I would just be holding up this bag, looking up for him and straining to see where he
was and yelling out in surprise (and fear) when suddenly the spindly fruits came raining down. Even worse, it then started to rain
and I couldn't open my eyes while looking up the tree, so
it was pretty much a lychee suicide mission. But we left with a full
bag and Juan, Flor, Marlon, and I finished most of the bag by the time
we got back in Buena Vista.
I was then dropped off at Priscilla's house. Her kids are precious,
and her parents are cool, there is no other way to describe them. And
I obviously love them because they make their own moonshine and always
offer me a grownup drink when I'm over. This time was a special treat,
as they put in some real BACARDI ® rum in my real CocaCola®. As I told
them, "you guys know how to party." To later drive the point home I
said, "You guys bring the party."
Got home around 6 and literally 5 minutes later Flor calls me from
Jessica's and tells me and Juan to come over and celebrate their
goddaughter Isabel's 4th birthday. So I went over, ate my third
straight meal at another person's house (potato and yuca soup at
Catherine's, potato and rice soup and rice pudding at Priscilla's, and
now rice, shell noodles, and cake) and hung out with family and cute
babies. I am obsessed with Gabriel (18 months) so I spent the first
part of the evening harassing him only to be left later for Juan for
the rest of the evening. I HATE balloons but even I was entertained
and supportive of the ghetto piñata idea to fill up a balloon with
candy and then chuck it at the ceiling until it explodes and violently
rains hard candies. It was a good night and I spent most of it
laughing.
A good, full day.