One week to go

In one week I'll be leaving Iracambi and I'm starting to feel nostalgic. Perhaps it's because it's a bit gloomy out and I'm listening to sappy music while working alone in the Center. But I think mainly it's because I'm really going to miss this place. I've never experienced anything quite like it - the people, the place - everything has felt so new and exciting. I'm shocked with how easy it was to fall into this life here with the bugs and the food and the pace of life. The people have definitely been the best part. Everyone is so different and yet we not only get along, I think we actually all like each other and our difference. And with very few distractions out here, we've really gotten to know each other.

So today I'm going to highlight some of the fun and silly things we have done over the last 3 and a half weeks.

This is when Cloves (Carminha's husband) introduced us to local cigarettes, tobacco rolled in corn husks with the addition of something that looked like charcoal which Cloves kept saying "It's natural, don't worry."

Tom tormenting Mischa, one of the 2 kittens. Of course after he did this I had to introduce him to "Hang In There" Cat

There was the night that Janet and I finally found the frog that lives in our bathroom. This is just before it fell into the waste bin next to the toilet.

We've been playing lots of games and this is us playing "Who Am I." I'm really terrible at this game, but I have been given some pretty difficult people like Russel Brand and Jamie Oliver.

We've done a couple of movie nights - though at an NGO people seem to prefer to watch depressing documentaries about the evils going on in the world rather than movies. So I've learned about the methane seeping out of the arctic shelf and how the WWF may not be all they are cracked up to be.

We recently celebrated Jet's birthday. His cake was what we were going to have for breakfast the next day. And I gave him a handful of peanuts as a birthday present.

Yesterday we went to Limeira to pick up some supplies and food. But I quickly learned there's not much to do in Limeira other than play pool and drink beer. And there are only 4 buses a day to/from Iracambi, so there's a lot of down-time. So we played pool and drank beer.