Stood Up

I haven’t posted in a long while.  Apologies.  I’ve been having a difficult time professionally.  Working has been like trying to run through chest deep water.  A lot of effort for a little progress forward.  I have a recycling competition going in one of the colegios.  The administration said they liked the idea, then once I explained it to the students and shelled out my own money for recycling bags, they reneged and are making me feel like the project is an inconvenience to them and kinda treating me like crap.  It’s very frustrating and I’m going to try to work with the individual teachers in that school rather than the admins.  There are a few other projects coming down the line, but it’s so hard to get anything started.  Folks act interested in my help but don’t show up or call back.  I really want to do good work here, but am not feeling super wanted. 

I don’t mean to bitch.  I feel like I complain a lot on this blog.  These kinds of work experiences seem universal for PC volunteers.  Luckily, I keep pulling from my well of good cheer and motivation and the bucket hasn’t scraped bottom yet.  I’m confident I can make it through; I just hope I get something meaningful accomplished in the meantime.  I’ve also found that my temper is a lot shorter.  I used to think that it was miles long.  I think it’s a function of being constantly frustrated. 

I think I’ve been pretty ok at dealing with things.  I go on runs or do P90X.  I hang out with my family.  Listen to happy music (I highly recommend Say Hey by Michael Franti or Daylight by Matt and Kim).  I’ve been reading voraciously and it’s nice to lose myself in a book.  Tom Joad, Hazel, and Bilbo don’t stand me up for meetings. 

Hope springs eternal and there are other things coming up.  The health post seems supportive of my micro-landfill project and there’s another colegio that wants to do a bunch of environmental projects, they just need to call me back. 

I’ve also taken the puppy plunge again. 

 

Her name is Elka and she’s 7 weeks old.  She´s more cheerful than she looks here, but this was one of the few moments she wasn´t jumping up and down or trying to chew on my face.  I always liked the name Elka for a daughter, but I don´t know if I´ll have one of those and I couldn´t find anything else that suited the pup.  I love her, but she reinforces my theory that babies of whatever species are cute because they have few other redeeming characteristics.  Can’t go on adventures, control their bowels, or sleep through the night.  Need constant supervision lest they destroy all your favorite possessions or happily ingest some fatal substance.  Elka’s a handful, but she’s healthy and happy so far and I’m really grateful for that.  I think she’ll be a great companion and Montana dog once she grows up a bit.