Second day
When I get a chance to transcribe it, last night´s journal entry is one for the books. I can´t even begin to describe the conditions here. My host family is larger than I thought: one mother (father deceased), nine children, ages 22 to 4, and four grandchildren (two who are not in the house but with their father somewhere, they´re eight, and the kids of the 22 yr old. The other two are 9 months and 1 yr, sons of the 22 year old and a 17 year old girl, respectively). They feed me plenty of food, but have very little left for themselves. They are living in what I might call a lean-to while we work on their house. Twelve of us, in a room that´s about 12 feet by 25 feet. Also sharing that space are about a dozen chickens and a bunch of chicks (the roosters crow at 3 am), untold cute gecko things and not so cute cockroaches the size of I dont know, the center of my palm. I don´t want to be the complainer, especially since I´ll live here for a week, but they live here all the time. And I´m so happy that we are helping this particular family. They need it so much. Last night, at a Bingo game (shh, Methodists arent supposed to play bingo), our family won a grand prize: a new refrigerator. I have been dubbed lucky. Well, as best I understand. Could be they´re calling me names... ;) We finished pouring the floor this morning and will start on the walls. I´m exhausted and quite homesick, and also trying not to dabble too much in white liberal guilt and just let the experiece speak for itself. I´m very glad to be here.