Names, mattresses and blogging
So, a few random un-connected things I wanted to mention...
ONE: Names- Americanization is big here. Man, do Salve's love them some American culture. Just now I was walking down the street and some teenage boy was singing along to Linkin Park...he knew every freakin word in almost perfect English....and the kid doesn't even know English! The weirdest part of the impression America is making here is with names. Boys no longer just have names like Jose or Juan...nope, here I have plenty of Melvin Stanley's, Marvin's, Elmer's , Arnold's, Franklin's, and Kelvin's. It is bizaro. Some of them sound like such proper English names!
TWO: I bought a mattress today and somehow this gave me a big reality check. The mattress really is more like a large egg crate foam thing so I was carrying it around with a new volunteer who I was showing around. As we arrived at the bank, the security officer started chatting us up. He made a comment about my new mattress and asked (as every Salve does about everything) how much it cost. I told him $35. Not to much. He then responded that that is how much he makes in one week of working at the bank. Now, I know that that's normal. That means his income is about $150 a month. That is about average or a little less. But, its been awhile or maybe never since I put it in such practical terms. Makes you think...
THREE: I met some of the newest group of volunteers who just got to their sites. As we were going around introducing ourselves I said my name is Addie....or Ade or Adelina. Right, when I said Adelina one of the new guys said out loud, "hey! i read your blog before i came here!" haha So funny! I loved it....oh but wait, it only got better a little later when I ran into him again in the market after the meeting and somehow we started talking about getting sick or something and I said how I had ringworm all over my body and the guy was like" oh yeah! i remember that!" haha oh blogging, oh peace corps.
that's all for now! have a good weekend all!
PS For those of you who have told me you are interested in helping out my library project...good news and bad news...good news: we raised all the money already! bad news: well, really not bad news at all just delayed...I will be working on writing my own grant that you will be able to donate to officially through Peace Corps (tax write-off and all!). But, it won't be done for awhile so stay tuned! Thanks for all your support!
ONE: Names- Americanization is big here. Man, do Salve's love them some American culture. Just now I was walking down the street and some teenage boy was singing along to Linkin Park...he knew every freakin word in almost perfect English....and the kid doesn't even know English! The weirdest part of the impression America is making here is with names. Boys no longer just have names like Jose or Juan...nope, here I have plenty of Melvin Stanley's, Marvin's, Elmer's , Arnold's, Franklin's, and Kelvin's. It is bizaro. Some of them sound like such proper English names!
TWO: I bought a mattress today and somehow this gave me a big reality check. The mattress really is more like a large egg crate foam thing so I was carrying it around with a new volunteer who I was showing around. As we arrived at the bank, the security officer started chatting us up. He made a comment about my new mattress and asked (as every Salve does about everything) how much it cost. I told him $35. Not to much. He then responded that that is how much he makes in one week of working at the bank. Now, I know that that's normal. That means his income is about $150 a month. That is about average or a little less. But, its been awhile or maybe never since I put it in such practical terms. Makes you think...
THREE: I met some of the newest group of volunteers who just got to their sites. As we were going around introducing ourselves I said my name is Addie....or Ade or Adelina. Right, when I said Adelina one of the new guys said out loud, "hey! i read your blog before i came here!" haha So funny! I loved it....oh but wait, it only got better a little later when I ran into him again in the market after the meeting and somehow we started talking about getting sick or something and I said how I had ringworm all over my body and the guy was like" oh yeah! i remember that!" haha oh blogging, oh peace corps.
that's all for now! have a good weekend all!
PS For those of you who have told me you are interested in helping out my library project...good news and bad news...good news: we raised all the money already! bad news: well, really not bad news at all just delayed...I will be working on writing my own grant that you will be able to donate to officially through Peace Corps (tax write-off and all!). But, it won't be done for awhile so stay tuned! Thanks for all your support!
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