An afternoon to Remember (3/23/09)

After class today, we decided to explore the finca (countryside) behind Mark and Jake's houses. They live on a huge pice of property, where everyone is somehow related. Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a grandfather, father, two sons and two daughters ages 3-12, and the two newest additions to the family, Mark and Jake. The grandfather, who must be in his 70's, brought out a flat soccer ball and insisted that we get a game going "in the street," which is actually a hilly dirt road with lost of slippery rocks. So we set up some goals with sticks and had a full-fledged game going, barbed wire being one of the boundaries and bushes the other, and abuelo turned out to be the MVP!

When we had had enough, he suggested that we go for our hike, which we thought was just going to be the four gringos, but the whole family came along, with grandpa leading the way. We hiked up a ways until we came upon a jungle gym made out of tree trunks, which included a see saw, "monkey bar," and a place to hang a swing, which conveniently grandpa had brought with him. Brigette and I were pressured into doing the see saw as part of our initiation. It was literally a tree trunk balancing on another tree trunk that had a split in it, with no seats of any sort or safety net. Fortunately she is an engineer and figured out how to balance our weight and not die. Then we all took our turn on the swing, and the whole apparatus creaked with every back and forth. Then the father rolled the dog down the hill. My description is not doing justice to the absurdity/amazingness of the situation, but trust me on this one.

We hiked up a bit more until we got to another dirt road, which of course meant we had to play another soccer game. This road was more level but was more like a dust bowl, and after two minutes in action all or our clothes were the same shade of brown, I was partially blinded, and my lungs were full of dirt. No one else seemed to be phased, so I tried to hang in there. Finally Brigette and I said we had to head home because it was getting dark, and grandpa wanted us to come meet his wife, but we promised this would happen next time. I can only imagine what else next time might entail...

3/24/09

Today:

- I passed by two cows and an old man with a machete on my morning run

- I had to act out constipation and diarrea in Spanish charades

- Ate banana potato chips!