A Few Minor Adjustments

I stole the title from a Peace Corps book. The humour should not be lost on you. It's a must read, so if you're thinking of joining the Corps or have already signed up ask your recruiter for a copy. If they don't have it get it from your post when you get there. I just recently read it, after 8 1/2 months in country, and it really eased me mind, as they say (they being pirates maybe). It helps to know that all the stress - the tons and tons of it - is normal. And knowing that actually helps.Yes, the house we moved into and only actually lived in a few days, has been condemned. Kuku doesn't look too surprised, does she. We still can't be sure what caused the rash - we've heard other malae get rashes too when they visit and the locals think Bek got it because an old lady died in the house a few years back and so it's now bad. But we had to find a new place and did. The owner of this house above was okay with it. She tried her best to help by sprinkling holy water in the rooms and burying bottles of holy water, salt and half a lime in the front and back of the house. But we moved everything down the road to a cement house. We even moved one of the bedsthat was already there which was a bad idea and the owner let us know a few days later.

And this is the new house. Bek says we should enjoy it while we can cause it's probably the biggest house we'll live in for a while. 4 bedrooms and an indoor bathroom, which is not a given here. There's a dirty fish pond in the front (not in the picture). The home owners are a young family and are related to our old host family. They have one cute baby daughter.

The other big news is we're coming home for few days. Yeah, a quick trip for Bek's sister's wedding in New Orleans. We're in Dili now getting things done - filling out forms and buying a few souvenirs.

There is actually more news. 2 more things. We had In-Service Training (IST) last week and it went really, really well. The self-proclaimed indoor kid of our group has worked with a UN program to create an entrepreneurship ( I had to look that word up) curriculum (that too) for middle schools. All the economics teachers inTimor have been trained in it and we as PCVs will help them along as they teach. It's incredible. Bek and I will go see some more training tomorrow while we're in Dili. Also, I'm about to meet an RPCV with Cooperativa Cafe Timor (known throughout Timor as CCT) to see how I can help them in Same.

Th last and saddest, or should I say sadist, news is that none of Kuku's pups survived. And the worst part is...we actually watched her...swallow...the first...stillborn...pup. Yes, and we're finally getting over it. But quickly to better news, we're going to develop some pictures later for all y'all, so don't go nowhere.