Just Another Beautiful Day

We had the third day in a row with sun and it was marvelous! I took the opportunity, with no clouds in the sky to portend coming rain, to do some laundry so now I have enough underwear and clean sheets to get me through the next couple of weeks. I ran out of pillowcases last week and have been using a shirt--that's kind of how desperate the situation was getting. I also got my daily fill of Vitamin D (and then some).  It was warm and sunny, birds were singing, kids were out playing. I think I've just been spending too much time in my house. There may be more rains coming Monday, but until then I plan to spend time on my roof eating and cleaning more clothes so that I won't feel like too much of a zombie if I'm locked up in my house for another week. And I went into the city and bought some groceries and treats to reward myself (I know, it's a silly selfish thing, but I really have been living off of pasta and rice for a while now and needed a hamburger to get a protein fix). I brought some bread to my host family and played some UNO with the kids. Then back to my house to work on grad school applications. It's been a good day and hopefully tomorrow will also be a bright, beautiful day.

As for work, we haven't been able to do anything. The government issued a 30-day 'state of calamity' because of all of the damage done to roads and bridges and, as part of this, has cancelled classes. Teachers went in anyway this week to administer tests and today I saw quite a few in the center of town turning in paper work and going to a meeting. It's safe to say that my work here is done as far as this year goes. Next week I have a closing ceremony for a sixth grade class and a meeting to discuss trash management in town with an NGO that is interested in supporting some type of program (yay!), so I still have stuff to do, but it's more laid-back. The school year will apparently start on January 9th next year, but will probably end up being pushed back a few weeks or so. I guess we'll see.

That's all. Just want to let everyone know that the rain is gone (for now) and that I didn't go too crazy holed up inside. Hope all is well and that everyone who can is enjoying the fall colors. This will be my second year without the colorful rolling hills of Gambier or raking up leaves in the yard during fall break. I guess we'll see where I am next year, hopefully somewhere with some color.