A bit of this and that

There have been some up and downs lately on this roller coster. The summer flew by so fast I kinda got lost and some things haven´t got done like I planed and so that got me down a little bit. And I started looking at what is going on and I was feeling I had a few toes in a lot of things, and more things actually still in my head and that was frusterating. And I started to think about this whole development thing, well I probably think about it more then I notice but other day it felt like a big grey tropical storm cloud and I couldn´t find the sunny spots around it. It´s really hard sometimes with this D word. Real results seem so far out of reach. Although they assure us they come. And it´s hard to work without seeing a finished product. Motivation lacks and I feel lost in this huge maze sometimes. I also thought how much easier it would be, maybe, to do D stuff with infastructure or other tangible finished products and throw this human development, striving for sustanibility stuff out the window because it really seems theoretical in a way, comming, maybe, slowly just over the horizon. And that´s how I feel on a good day.

I never really got to any resolution but the other day I was teaching an english class, one of my little puddles I step into every now and then, and I felt good about it. Really the first time that has happened. There were 15 people in a room a little bigger then a small hallway and they were interacting with the course and I was supervising, a kid I have been working with for so long is doing the teaching for the most part. But I don´t think that is why I felt good about it. It was hot and I was sweating profusly and it felt great. Not uncomfortable and inconvenient. I welcomed it and was kinda challenging it because I can talk and sit and be comfortable and maybe be actually making progress with something but it´s not till my chest and back are wet with sweat that I feel I´m working. I´m sure I had this proud or boastful look on my face saying to that big grey hard to see through development cloud something like "Yeah look at me now! I´m sweating in your face! What!? Bia!"

On the sweating topic, it just reminds me of an experience I had the other day cutting my grass. Why the DR doesn´t use gas powered mowers or Uncle Tom´s supped up trimmers can understand. But I haven´t seen one push mover with those blades that spin around as you push or as Brain brought up the other day one of those grim reaper things that you can swing back and forth standing in an upright position. Instead they use the machette, in a very awkward and uncomfortable hunched over position with a huge swinging arm motion. But utilizing the wrist to achieve maxium cutting potential. It works but leaves a lot of room for improvment.

So anyway with a shortage of yard cutting tools at my disposial, and a lot of second thoughts about the pain this is going to cause to my arm and hand, I head out with a borrowed machette. Of course my grass is about a foot high and a lot thicker then I first realized which really slows down my super strong flying machette stroke. And I didn´t last more then 20 mintues at the max. Even after about 2 breaks to tape and retape awkward parts of my hand and fingures the blisters were just too much to handle. But I got through about half of the front grass. I waited about 4 days for my hand to heal a bit and then knocked out the other half, almost. One thing I that amazed me during the whole 2 sessions was how much water my eyebrows could hold. I´d never had that feeling before. It´s hard to explain but they felt really heavy. Kinda cool. Try it. Just get a machette and go at it.

Ohh and I should mention the presidents´ visit the other day. He came on about a two days notice to inagurate our new tech center/library and it´s amazing how quickly things got finished up around here. Literally overnight. But now it´s pretty sweet. There´s a library with tons of books (in a relative sense). At least more books then these kids have every seen before in one place. Which has gotten my head going once again with ideas to do here. Maybe I´ll finally hit that one puddle that´s suprisingly deep and fall in, into that one project that can give me a sense of forward progress. Right now I don´t want another thing to just dip my toes into.

That´s all. Things are well even if it may sound otherwise. I finally got luz after about a month and a half. Well it´s still not an all day thing by any means. I just ment I got my counter and wires connected. I forgot how powerful electricity and light can be. My one lightbulb felt like the whole sun had found it´s way into my house and it was uncomfortably bright. But it´s been great to listin to my own music again and seeing complete pages as I read isn´t bad either.

Ok. Adios.
Cuidense mucho.