Day 13

Day 13 June 2, 2011
Something I forgot to say yesterday was that I did laundry!! and boy was it an experience! So Caitlin, Sam, Marissa and I all needed to do a few things and we all decided we would do it together to help save on water and soap. Sam's room has a nice porch on it and we set the clothes lines up in the sun and started washing the clothes by hand......the water was sooooo nasty and I'm not entirely sure how clean they came but it was fun! It was a great experience, but I am happy to say that I will only need to do launrdy maybe once more while I am here. Then in the middle of class yesterday it started to rain! We all ran back to the house to bring the clothes in, but it was too late they were already wet. :( we ended to hanging them up in our room and they kind of took a long time to dry, but they eventually did. However, they still feel weird and not clean.....but this morning was awesome. We got up and finished up our homework, and ate breakfast. We were all sitting around waiting for Connie and Linda to get here so a few of us decided to go for a walk. Man was it great to go walk around for about 45 minutes in the morning! Once Connie and Linda got here they reviewed what we typed out for our next focus group and health care interview that we will be performing, and they gave us their feedback on everything. Next, we had one of the local girls who has been traveling with us read over our questions just to make sure that she thought the girls who we are going to be talking with would understand the questions. She gave us some suggestions and girls from our group read over our questions and provided us with feedback as well. Then once we were done with that we sat outside on a porch (the one where we hung our laundry) and sat in the sun for awhile. Man after about 10 minutes I was just about cooked! When we were all done we deicded to go into town and walk around again. To get to town we had to grab a taxi so we can become more comfortable with the local tranportation. Our taxi driver was sooo nice and played the best music! It was fun being independent and learning how to do things here. Once we were in town we talked to where the local women get water from (a spring). This was moving to see just how far they have to walk and what they have to do to get water, just like it was yesterday as well. After we saw this water we walked to a natural spring where people get water during the dry season. The walk was amazing! It was so nice outside and walking through the jungle was sooo cool! I took lots of pictures but it doesnt even begin to describe how it was. On the way back we stopped at a old chiefs house. He was like a little yoda man. Everything he said was just so wise and amaing. One quote that I really liked was something like this "Everyone shares two things; birth and death, the in-between is your personality." He was super cool. While we were at his house we shared a drink with himi and had some avocado (which they call pear). We continued to walk back and stopped by church and met a local priest. This was nice, but by this time we were all starving and wanted to get going to we quickly left and made our way back to the house by grabbing a taxi oruself. When we got back dinner was ready and waiting, but it was what we had yesterday for lunch....so I didnt eat very much so I am still hungy. I may eat a bar tonight which will help. Tomorrow we have two focus groups (each made up of 5-7 teenage girls) and we are going to the health clinic to see how it is runned and to interview a few workers. And throw in a random lunch with someone important! lol Tomorrow is going to be a busy day, and with today being so tiring we are all going to bed early. LOVE AND MISS YOU! xoxo!

P.S. Mini is doing great here and I am so glad that I have such an amazing boyfriend who got me her! :) The only downfall is that we have had to type up and do all our research on her and windows 7 starter sucks (no powerpoint and word is like half of the normal word), but that is her only downfall :) THANKS AGAIN JAMESY!!!!! XOXO!