Hello all! It has been more than a year since I have updated my blog and for that I am deeply sorry. Many of you (members of my family) have mentioned to me how much you had enjoyed reading my blog and wondered why I haven't been updating it.
Well, I don't have a good excuse, but I have many excuses to make up for the lack of a good one. Quantity over quality has always been my motto. First and foremost I got lazy, no two ways about it. When there is electricity it is easier to just watch a movie or TV show on my laptop than actually think and reflect about my life in a blog entry. So if it was nighttime, and there was electricity, zoning-out won-out over taking the admittedly little amount of initiative required to write something and share it with those who are interested. I realize that was very selfish so again, my apologies.
My second excuse is that there isn't internet access in my community or in nearby communities. So even IF I would have had the initiative to write a blog entry, I wouldn't have had the ability to post it online. Using the internet requires a trip to Barahona about an hour and a half away. There are places with internet closer but in my experience those places either don't work, are too slow to get anything done, or getting permission and the password is such a fight every time that it isn't worth it (cough, cough, stupid World Vision Office, cough.) So the closest reliable internet is in Barahona, at a pizza place called Pala Pizza.
Don't be mistaken, I am able to use the internet at least every couple weeks, if not once a week. It is just that in my limited amount of internet time I have to prioritize, and email, facebook, news and sports have just been higher priorities over the past year. The internet is so vast and so much happens in the world, that trying to catch up on it all in one hour every couple weeks is just so overwhelming that having access to the internet often makes me more stressed out than relieved. Trying to get all my work stuff done and also use the web for enjoyment never seems to fit into the amount of time I have so every session feels kind of incomplete. This is actually a lame excuse for not updating my blog in a way because the amount of time it would take to copy and paste a blog entry written off-line to my blog is minimal; I offer it to you nonetheless.
My third is and final excuse is simple: duncanpeabody.blogspot.com. Duncan's blog is just so much funnier than mine could ever be, and he updates it pretty frequently, so it just made more sense in my (lazy) mind to direct any and all interested parties in that direction. Again, bad excuse since none you know him, but I will say that I have been successful in increasing the popularity of his blog. Our family makes up at least 50 percent of Duncan's readership and 100 percent of his fan club.
Also, because he constantly cries about being overshadowed by Duncan, I would like to send you all in the direction of Justin Hitchcock's blog, justinsexcellentadventure.blogpot.com. Justin is best known for getting his front tooth knocked out by Duncan on the 4th of July.
But seriously, Justin's blog is very good as well. I highly recommend it, especially for the story about the time he, Amy, and Duncan drunkenly adopted three abandoned puppies one night and then regretted it in the morning. Here is your second place sticker Justin.
And for those of you who know me—which I assume anybody reading this does, otherwise you are weirdly interested in the meandering stories of a nobody living on an island—then you know that if I can't be the best at something, in my own mind at least, then I don't do it. Hence my subconscious resistance to writing a blog. Fear of having my writing pale in comparison to Duncan's, or even worse, Justin's, has prompted my mind to construct the artificial barriers to updating my blog mentioned above.
But no! I am here to say that fear of inadequacy will no longer hold me back from sharing my life with the nearly half dozen members of my extended family who are interested in reading about it. Wi, nou kapab!
One of my New Year Resolutions is to write more, or at least write something, and that includes this blog. So I am resolving, here and now, to update my blog more frequently, ideally at least once a month.
I'm back, if you'll have me. It only took me 18 months to figure out that writing about my life and work on a regular basis is a good idea, both for myself and for my friends and family at home. Better late than never I say!
While we are on the subject of new year resolutions, I'd like to share mine with you to let you know where I'm at heading into this next year and also to keep me accountable to my resolutions.
Personal
Eat better (cook, organize lunch with a family)
Exercise at least 3 x a week (running, soccer, basketball)
Push-ups, crunches, lunges, squats at least 3 x a week
Stretching, yoga, and relaxation for at least 20 minutes a day
Study Kreyol or Spanish 30 minutes daily
Write (blog, journal, Gringo Grita, etc.)
Professional
Stay in my site
Cogelo suave (take it easy), hang out and talk to people, compartir (spend time with my neighbors)
Lesson plan and execute the Sala de Tarea (after-school program)
Solicit books for the library with a library committee—form a library committee!
Kick ass with Actas (birth certificates), find a dependable lawyer to help with rectifications
Organize the committees and write grants for water & latrine projects
Meet with the mayor and get school transportation solved
Stay engaged & don't work alone
