cosas nuevas

It is raining so hard outside with thunder and lightning (should I be using electronics?) which is kind of nice because today has been a lazy day and the rain makes it seem even more okay. I met some cool people last night....people that love the earth like I love the earth and people who love doing outside things just as passionately as I love them. They go to school at the same teeny tiny school that Julie went to and I felt like I had known them for years. Not to mention we have a handful of mutual friends. It was nice to have some good solid company even though I know it wasn´t for long. Today I talked politics and history with a man from Israel and a man from Norway. It was a really neat conversation because of our geographical and cultural differences. We are all about the same age and all speak English but other than that we were raised in totally different worlds. The regular guest came back from Roatan, Lucas from Tegicigalpa. He hovers a bit too much and sort of creeps me out. Good thing Nando, the night watchman, is here to protect me! I am waiting for Oscarito to come back from Sambo Creek with some sopa caracol for me.....It will warm me up perfectly after all this rain (like it is cold....HA!).

As far as work is concerned....I see myself getting sucked into the Banana Republic and unable to make it up the river. I need to set a schedule where I spend at least three days a week in the mornings along the river. I am anxious to go into the community and start talking to people. I am scared and nervous as I often am when I dive into new ventures, but I know it needs to be done and if I don´t make the time my life will be Banana filled all the time.

I have learned so much about myself in this transition. My personality becomes more and more apparent to me as I move through life. I am a perfectionist in such a bizarre sense. I don´t like doing things I don´t do well from the very beginning. Things I do have to be perfect all the time or I feel frustrated with myself. Learning the systems- or lack of systems - here at the Banana Republic have been tricky. I am trying to slide new ideas in and not torment my co workers (who call me jéfa, jejeje) in doing so. I got into one little tiff with Oscarito the other day because he waited days and days to make 200 copies for Oscar. When he finally got around to getting them done he wanted to go to some copy place that charges twice as much as normal because it was the only place open in the night. I could not rationalize to him that he could make 10 copies of the document at the expensive place and we would get the other 190 done at the cheap place later.... He felt that it was so urgent to make all 200 copies right then. Maybe it is needless to say that he never even had 10 copies of the document made.....it could be days before he gets around to it again. Do I intervene, or do I let him reap the repercussions of his laziness with Oscar? These are the idiosyncrasies of my days.