job offer

True to his word José showed up but around 10.45pm and I mentioned that I was starving. He told me to wait up and he would return in a second with dinner and otherwise if he would get hold up to call him. He came by when we had just finished up and we went to his restaurant. The food was nice and afterwards we went to another cafe and met his friends there. The funny thing was though that we bumped into one of his waitresses also from Germany. We chatted a bit in German and at the end of it she turned around to José and said I like her and she would fit in the team. Get this talk over with and hire her. Thanks for the flowers! I will hear more on that score Friday! Since it was all a bit hectic because I was starving by the time I got off my shift I hadn’t popped into Monoloco. Since I know that he will be upset with me if I don’t let him what I am doing and that I get safely home. I wanted to call him since I had kind of forgotten the time and it was already 1.10am. My credit on the phone had run out - bugger! I ended up borrowing José’s phone to call him and he was really mad at me. Not a very good note to end the night on! Oh well, José brought first Sandra home and than me.

I was supposed to get up early and had my alarm set and all but I had been up so often at night (visiting the bathroom) that I decided to stay in bed. Ema checked on me and I told her that I would be fine once I had some more sleep. I think it was the medication that is kind of aggressive! Oh well, I slept until Elmer called me and my brain isn’t working in Spanish when I just wake up so to understand much is next to impossible and get the right answers out as well o,))) The conversation was still a bit stilted but when he called me later in the afternoon it was fine. Only I was slightly distracted because the kids were moving my stuff around and not really to my liking. Yesika took them out of the room in the end. I told him that I would go out since I had seen enough of my room for a day. I wrote him the first letter in Spanish since I knew we wouldn’t have time to chat much being Monoloco night and it being FULL. He read it and than stopped by and told me okay point taken and now everything is fine again. Actually better than before since he finally got a few points! I was surprised as too how many people I know by now since there is always someone I chat with. Lots of them will be moving shortly either to travel or to go home. Morgan was asking me again if I could swap my shift around with him. I told him that I would have to check if I only have that one shift lined up and than it wouldn’t be a problem. It was a fun night and I finally had my cheese quesadillas which I just love with lots of guacamole. I didn’t drink much but Jordan (bartender) figured that drinking alone is no fun and that a tequila is just what my stomach would need. So we had one and I liked them before but now I REALLY like them with lime and salt. The others went over to Sin Ventura but I couldn’t be asked. I waited for Elmer to get of his shift. One of his colleagues was to give me a ride home but it took forever and his shoes and pants at the bottom were soaked. The boys had to clear the roof of the water and usually they end up wet as well ... He wanted to go home so we took a tuc-tuc! I don’t know if it is the weather but the motor sounded funny. We arrived safe and sound at my place but when they wanted to leave it wouldn’t start for the next 5 minutes ... He called me around 2am to tell me that he had finally gotten home. The motor was acting up some more and than they got stopped by the police on top and the guy didn’t have a license ... what do you do here? Right, pay them off! So after that chat I went off to sleep.

My alarm went off but I woke up before it and got dressed. I had breakfast for the first time in ages and it consisted today of eggs and bread. I took the bus than to the project. The director told me what it is all about and that the other volunteers would tell me the rest. Oh yeah, he told me that I have to pay 25USD but I don’t buy that crap since I prefer to give them material or treat them to other little extras. Today we had 12 kids age 5-6 years and very different. Some very small for their age, others a personality and one girl never speaks but she is very bright ... In the morning hours they got tasks like writing numbers in their books, coloring and counting ... after about an hour they loose interest and run around and start showing off to each other. Around 10pm is a break for them and they get food. The milk with some weird looking grains look absolutely disgusting and more like water with color. The bread gets dunked in it and some of them eat it and others don’t. The kids are all poor and grew up around the market. They aren’t very clean (no lice though) but they get to brush their teeth after the break which is like a game to them. The girls like to cuddle while the boys run around and try to impress each other. After one day only it is clear to spot who has the authority there. The smallest guy but with the most brains. Last week the volunteers took them to McDonald’s and they took every scrap with them home. Some hadn’t been in school than so they got their treat today. I went with Ida and about 8 kids to the playground. They really are a handful. They don’t listen to anything you say really except when it is about crossing the street. Ida bought them ice-creams and they were really happy. I was beat after spending 4 hours with them and was rather dirty and grubby. I walked home and was very thirsty by the time I got home and am really thinking about getting a bike to move around quicker. I wished that I had time to take a nap but no I had an appointment with Marcela to go shopping. However, no reaction and she didn’t show up. Instead I bumped into Carmen who looked like a ghost. I asked if she was sick and she told me no but that she was still recovering from a shock. I was like did you get robbed or something. She is like kind of someone had run up her account to 8.000 EUR debts which explained why she was unable to withdraw money. It seems that is happening a lot here lately they somehow manage to make copies or something when we use the ATM machines because I heard that a lot of that has happening. She therefore had to deal with a lot of running around making a statement to the police, other authorities etc. she said she was glad that her friend was with her and just took over. It really pays off a lot to hang with the locals and they are always so nice and want to help you! I ended up in the internet cafe and writing mails and working on this entry. Elmer and I meet briefly and than we both found out that we had a misunderstanding somehow. I was here uploading PICTURES to my photo gallery - so have a look guys!!! Which took me forever to do so I was running late to get home. He came by and told me that he had the night off and what was I doing. I just looked at him and went what. He I told you that I had swapped shifts ... great! I was beat and all I wanted was to sleep so that was great communication. Oh well! He brought me home and I had dinner and called it an early night.

I got up, had my breakfast and was off to work. The kids were already screaming hola amiga. I got straight away books into my hands and they wanted me to make them some tasks. When I tried to get the boys attention to do their tasks as well it was like talking to a wall. In the end I made it a game and at least I got them to do some counting and got them to understand what the number means in regards to how many fingers you use. I guess that can be counted as a little breakthrough. The weather wasn’t great and it had rained a lot but we still took them over to the park. The walk there was good fun since the other class was doing a project and the boys had somehow managed to get hold of one of the boxes and started to fill it up with their idea of an island. They stopped like at every corner and gathered stuff and arranged it than. It was very entertaining to watch them do what they wanted. The girls felt like holding hands and even Kuki did. They are all very nice and most of them come for hugs and play with your hair and touch you and climb all over you ... you just have to love them. In the park we got them all some ice cream and they were happy. Than it’s started to drizzle and than pour so it was time to get back to the school. The boys were running from one tree to the next one ... in the end there were 6 boys with their backpacks in the tree and refused to go back. We had to pretend to leave to get them to come down ... they wanted help partly than or would toss their bags to us and climb like little monkeys out of the tree. What can I say except that I got a lot of exercise one of the girls was tired and wanted to be carried back to school. She wasn’t all that heavy compared to a European child but do that for 20 minutes and you feel your arms the next day. It was good fun and since we had still time to spare we played with playdoo for a while and had just lots of fun. I took the bus home this time since I had to get some sleep. I got home had lunch and a shower and retired to my room but sleep wouldn’t come. So I decided time to start doing some paper work and that kept me occupied for a while. Elmer and I were having talks as to when and where to meet during lunch. I came for the first time round his place and got to know his sister and her kids a bit more. My words had deserted me partly but what the hell. We left to watch a movie at Cafe 2000. There we bumped into Heidi, Hedda and Hanna. We had a bite there and than it was getting a bit chilly so we went back to his for a change of clothes. While he was getting ready his niece walked in with a book in English partly and I got to translate it. Elmer was in a great mood and started playing around. His sister and nephew had joined us in the mean time as well and we had good laughs all together. Eventually we left again and went dancing. There is just nothing better than that I can tell you! Dancing is just such good fun!!! I stayed at his over night.

Friday morning we had to get up early like shortly after 7am since we had to be at the soccer court at 8am. One team from Monoloco played another restaurant. I watched and cheered with the other handful of supporters and took some pictures. I met Victor’s girl-friend who was visiting from Canada. Victor is the boss from Monoloco. We girls had a nice chat and the boys were really into the game. He is a very good soccer player. They wrapped it up around 10.30am and Jordan gave us a lift back in town. We went to The Black Cat again for breakfast (money vs. food is great). After that I had a look at Mike’s place if I would take the room over there and I must say that it is very tempting especially having seen 2 other rooms as well. I don’t know if that will happen any time soon but it sure would be great! I need to have another word with Mike and Victor about the money side of things. Once we had completed the necessary things. We went back to his place and he freshened up. We were both beat and decided time for a nap. We had a quick bite before he started work again and I headed for Funky Monkey for the internet. I dropped by later and told him that I am going back home for dinner. I stayed in Friday night and watched a bit of TV till 11pm since I was tired.

Saturday was a bit hectic in the morning. The family was packing and leaving to Coban for the weekend. Yesika and the kids were going back for good since their one month stay is over. I can finally have some peace and quiet in the morning no more ramming the door in the morning like at 6-7am what a relief! I got my breakfast and also had to hurry along to get to work in the end I was running so late that I had to take a tuc-tuc. I waited for Abbie and we opened up the Cafe. I got to learn more new stuff which is great! The server at the moment has more and more hiccups and we are waiting for the technician to come by and fix it eventually we think it must be a hardware problem. The server went down so often that we decided to close the cafe for about 3hours. In that time I got to go to the bank and get smaller bills and than we started pulling unused cables ... that was a very dusty and dirty job to do. When I was done at 4pm I was ready to have a shower. Instead I went with Kate and Elmer to have a look at another place. Elmer and I agreed that it wasn’t that great ... we decided since I hadn’t eaten that much to have a coffee and cake. He went to work and I had planned to go home. On my way home though I felt like having a snack and stopped in a taco place. I meet Sarah there and we girls started talking and decided to go out at night together. We had agreed to meet again at 9pm. I had to stop by the supermarket to buy more toothpaste, cream, oil etc. and was running late to manage to meet the deadline. So tuc-tuc home and I was looking forward to my shower instead Milton was in the bathroom. I waited for him to finish and than it was just running around to get back in town (starting to be such a pain in the butt). I made it in time to Funky Monkey and chatted with Marcella. I left my backpack with Elmer and waited for Sarah. Marcella wanted to join us later on so we said that we would go to Monoloco and have a bite there. We shared a liter of beer and some food and ended up sitting in the furthest corner from everything. Elmer came by later for a brief chat. We wanted to move to another location with Marcella but instead it started to pour so much that it was pointless to move anywhere else. We got a seat at the bar and had some cubas and moquitos and had good fun. A very annoying and drunk guy wouldn’t leave her alone and started pawing us. Elmer saw it and basically told the guy to leave his girl-friend alone, the response to that was no problem I am interested in the other one. Haha … Sara told him in the end to get lost! It was raining so much so that took a tuc-tuc back to his place.

This mooring not much of a sleep in since he had to be at work 10am. I got up with him and stopped by in Funky Monkey to write some more. Than at 11.30am I meet Sara for brunch, we couldn’t find a place that we both liked so we ended up in the market. I had my all time favorite beans, eggs, rice, tortillas. After that we both started looking for things she needed some presents and I was hunting for a Germany bracelet and a shirt for the Mundial to wear. We did our shopping for a while and than we decided enough walking time to sit somewhere and have a drink. We ended up in Cafe 2000 and watched a movie there. Simon was there as well but he wasn’t clear on what he would be doing later so I upped and left with Sarah. She was tired and I said that I would write some more in my diary and than go home. Have a shower, read a bit and go to bed early for a change. I am just waiting for Elmer to finish up his shift so that he can also get his surprise - a Germany bracelet! I wonder if he would wear it at all or just ignore it ... the people her tend to be for Brazil. I have to read tomorrow more about what I have written and do a spelling check properly and than I’ll publish it and you’ll all have lots too read.