my fav DR pix thus far

halloween fun

Thanks to my friend Judy's birthday, we had an excuse to throw a PCV Halloween Party in StoDgo. Although I had other plans for a costume, learning that Judy was going to be a bee and then finding some fabulous carbdoard trash on the side of the road, led me to become a honeycomb for the event. Two pieces of string, some cutting and a headband, and whaaalah! Instant costume!

Travis sported his "Nurse Shark" digs quite well.

On Halloween evening I realized I had done nothing at home to celebrate, so using the basin we normally use for dish washing, I created a jack-o-lantern. Recycled trash bags become a spider, and my mosquitero was my green blob costume that I used (with sound effects and lights off) to greet an unexpecting Trav when he arrived home.

I also used Halloween as an excuse to buy one of our favorite colmado treats--MasMas. A MasMas is 12 pesos of milk chocolate and usually a raisin or 2-- and sometimes even a peanut.

My muchachos were disappointed that the spider wasn't a pinata, but otherwise it was a great time.

Mural Painting

In Peace Corps training we were taught how to direct the painting of a mural. If you look back on my older posts, you'll see a picture of a water cycle mural that I did with another volunteer. After that experience of teaching kids how to use a paint brush, cleaning spilled paint, and dealing with general chaos, I swore to never do another. Never say never.

When I began brainstorming with folks from the UM project that I help with on ideas for environmental education in the schools related to coastal ecosystems, it seemed perfect to suggest a mural. Then somehow I took responsibility for it. And then somehow 20' x 8' sounded like a good idea, instead of the 4' x 4' murals we did in training.

Fearful and with a brush & pencil in hand, I pieced together drawings and pictures, and with the help of local artists, 2 murals have been created thus far, and more to come.

Each mural takes about a week. They were painted almost entirely by school kids.

This experience has been incredibly rewarding---it's fun to give kids an opportunity to do something they've never done before, it's something that will last for years, and it's a chance to teach about each thing we're painting. As you see from the 2 murals below, the idea was to teach about how coastal ecosystems are interrelated--hence the mangroves, sea grasses, beach and coral reef.

I love that together, we've created something beautiful (& educational) that will last. I'm also proud because I've conquered my fear of paint & artistic projects. No, I can't draw and paint an entire mural, but I can organize people to!

(will post a completed pix one of this ASAP)

Super Mario Kart

Alright, so I realize that there are MUCH greater priorities in development that I could focus on here, but sometimes those weigh me down a bit. So here's how you can help: some muchachos that I live and work near have a Nintendo 64 and Super Mario Kart (beepbeep!). We thoroughly enjoy it, but there's only one problem--there are only 2 controllers and both and on the edge of breaking. Soooo... here's the all call: Anybody have any old N64 controllers you could send my way? 1, 2, 3 , or 4 would be appreciated and used more than you can imagine.

Beep!beep!