I did a mini post earlier this week where I made a countdown to a rough estimate of when Donna will be on Texas soil. If any of you watch the news, its also the day the world is supposed to end. Lets hope we get to see her first! :-P
We had a very busy weekend of chatting with Donna. Saturday morning around 3am, then Saturday night around midnight and Sunday morning around 6am. I usually know she is on due to my phone being able to connect to gchat. I missed her call on Monday and Tuesday night, so sad. She did get to talk to Mom and Afua last night. She has the right calling cards (for lack of a better term) to make phone calls, so that is some very exciting news for all of us. Still no word if any letters have made it to her. Funny story, Donna has been able to get texts out from her phone given to her by the Peace Corps, but every time Mom tries to call that number she gets a Russian man answering the phone. So we have this theory that all the "I love you" and "I miss you" texts that we have replied to Donna are going to this man instead. We don't know why though, so if any of you have international cell phone calling experience and can explain this conundrum, please let us know.
Without further ado, Donna stories!
"I had to close my laptop quickly at the internet café and I didn’t shut down my internet browser so I read my blog…WOW! I’m scatterbrained. Or ADD. I paid 60Q for the time I talked to you guys, which is AWESOME! I love how cheap it is. So like a $1 for an hour at the internet café.
Speaking of ADD, I didn’t figure out what made me sick but I am now snacking on some DELICIOUS cookies. Only 70Q to get a bunch of cookies and a roll (which I think made me sick). Earlier in the day, I had told my host mother that I would be home around 4 or 5 (durt or besh). So when I go home at 330, the house was locked up. HAHA! BUT I got to hang out with my host brother and the dogs. It was awesome. Once the mom returned she said that I made a big deal about being home later and asked me why I was home so soon. When I say big deal, it’s the funniest charades around. She did this awesome impression of me with limp wrists. I had to stop laughing to tell her that I got sick, which then caused her to get this really sad face and get me some delicious yogurt to help settle my stomach. I showed her the culprit and she thinks the roll was bad. I figure I’m just not use to some of the stuff around here. I’m praying that it was not the cookies! That IS my nightmare. I will bring back a suitcase of all the cookies from here (which I believe are from Russia). I told my host mom that I wasn’t hungry but really I wanted to rip through these cookies (member the ones that I won’t make me sick). I find it to be a good step that I don’t crave Fanta anymore. It’s amazing here. I’m not sure if it because it tastes different or if I’m just craving it."
It seems as though she is still having language barrier issues, which is quite hilarious. Although, I can say that she must like the blog if her only issue is that she is scatterbrained, I told her we love reading her stories that way the best.
"I love the days when I can relax and take in the culture here. It is amazing and so wonderful to be doing this. I just can’t believe I am here and getting to experience all of this. The Azeri culture is so rich with family ties and love, it’s so inspiring. I spend most of my day in love with everything even the bad times. It’s an experience that can’t happen anywhere else at any other time. It’s so hard to describe the feelings that I have but this evening I spent some time with a group of relatives and I just sighed and realized “this is exactly what I want to be doing”. I get to experience a culture from the inside. AND of course the food is delicious! You know what is funny, some of us are speaking Spanish instead of Azeri. Talk about using the language center of your brain. When I was buying some things at the magaza I told the clerk gracias. HAHAHAHA! I then stumbled and was like … ummm cox sag olun!
Tonight I had round 2 with an older member of the family. This time I was feeling more comfortable and of course this time she didn’t ask me which I liked better, Azerbaijan or America. She just asked me if I knew any azeri. So in Azeri I asked her how she was doing…and I think I did that twice. Come to think of it, I probably did, that would explain the confused face."
To explain the round 2, Donna met with this member of the family as was asked if she preferred Azerbaijan or America. According to the Peace Corps, this is very common. The people just want to figure out what the Americans think of being there. I believe Donna responded to her, "I love being here, but my heart is in America." I believe she should have said, "My heart is in Texas" but I digress...
" There is this strange thing that happens to me when I talk to you guys. I will leave the internet café and just trot along smiling and saying hi to everyone, then I realize where I am and have to put my head down. BUT it’s a great thing, I love the happiness I feel inside even when I have to walk looking down.
I am pretty sure that my host family has dial-up internet here..which is a bummer because if I brought the external modem I wouldn’t need to go to the internet café. Although, I do like the extra experience I get when I go to those places.
OH OH OH I am picking up words in the language now!!!!! This makes me so freakin happy! For me that is a major step in the right direction. I feel like I need to read the whole dictionary now. I love this. A couple of us are going to talk to the PC and see if we can get Russian tutors after all of this. I’d love to have two more languages under my belt when I get back. No, make that three. Why not throw in some Turkish while I’m at it!
Did I tell you that I LOVE this?!?! I just feel like so much of my life is falling into place. It’s (plugging in mosquito killer) as if the previous years were me collecting pieces and now they are all starting to fit together. Like all those years where I felt that I didn’t have a purpose, or at least a clear purpose, were just building blocks. I feel like my personality and experience is coming into play so well here. As well as my education. Some of the courses that I found to be so monotonous and annoying, I may be using more then I could ever imagine. Like in 2 weeks we will be going over experiential learning (the course I took in May).
I also feel so lucky to be with such a great group of trainees. All the different personalities but with similar goals makes for a beautiful thing. I love watching how this plug in kills the mosquitoes. They fly drunk then within 30 minutes there is none. I’m not going to think about what it is doing to my lungs or eye balls but at least I’m not getting eaten alive.
OH another thing, I have realized how horrible my grammar and vocabulary is. Previous sentence is just an example. HAHA! I really need to work on my fluidity and expression when I write.
I just got a text message about the futbol game going down tomorrow. I really want to bring my host brother and a trainee friend! It’s gonna be FUN! WHOOP! Now I’ll just have to study during the game or around the game. HAHA! Well scratch that, my host brother is having friends over. Maybe I can persuade them to also join! Who knows… I will go with the flow.
Ok now, time for bed!!! No more pushing it off. HAHA!"
Well, doesn't that last part just make you giddy for her?? It feels like she is getting into her stride and all the stress she had leading up to this point was worth it. That above is truly the Donna we know and love. This Peace Corps experience is truly the best thing for her. It fits her so well! I know that many of you are afraid for her (Unc Dav and Mom) and miss her (all of us), but reading this just makes all of that worth it. At least to me it does! :-)
I don't know if any of you caught the part about the modem, but if those of you who ship overseas, know a way to get Donna the modem and guarantee that it will make it there, tell us how. I think I speak for all of us when I say that she needs more internet time!!
That is all for now!
That concludes this edition of Donna News! Hope you enjoyed it.
Have a great evening!
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