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Day 41 - 13 August 2005 week 5 nutshell monday started Português class, and oh how I miss kriolu with its lack of conjugation and shorter, easier to pronounce words. oh well, at least I’ll be able to use Português after my time here...even if it is only to talk to mama. and I attempted to start the website you see before you today. and look how it’s paid off! hahaha...it’s simple, but at least ya’ll back home know what I’m up to out here. on wednesday, we went to the only drug & alcohol rehabilitation center in the entire country. it’s a cool li’l countryside campground type center in the outdoors with military lookin tents and a self sufficient staff and clientele. all of the men here help maintain the place and keep it lookin cool (check for my Tenda El-Shady pics) while keepin each other in check. the place is somewhat religiously oriented and relies on higher powers to bring the men out of their bad habits. it seems to be a very inviting and variably effective site. so later on wednesday we all went (of course) to our usual red kiosk to hang out, play cards, and unwind after a long day of training. a friend and I ended up chattin and playin speed, war, egyptian ratscrew and other card games well into the evening, totally not payin attention to the time. then all of a sudden her host mom comes to the kiosk sayin that she’s been lookin for her frantcially and that my host mom had called lookin for me. I pull my watch from my backpack and realize it’s past 10:30pm! WOW! oops...neither of us had any idea we had stayed that late, and neither of us seemed to develop any desire to eat dinner the entire time (maybe the extra large lunch carried me over?) so that was funny...I called my host dad and let him know that I was comin home close to 11:30 (my long walk uphill is longer in the dark apparently). my fam was already asleep when I got home and I had to bang hard 3 times on the front door until my dad got up and let me in. how terrible I felt (what a bad kid I am). I said sorry and he said it was no big deal. hopefully that will be the last time I do that. on friday I watched Monsters, Inc. with my buddy (it’s her fave movie) and I almost forgot I wasn’t in the states. it’s amazing how I get sucked into movies to a point where I forget everythin around me. I wish I could focus that much on other things (like language and technical sessions). saturday was another trip to the city for internet and food. seems like everybody was in that durn city cuz we ran into different groups of folks EVERYwhere...can’t wait till I can just walk around my own city and find the things I need. one week till we find out where we’re goin! the anticipation has been building up and even the current volunteers who are around are all takin bets on who’s goin to which site. it’s great- they keep changin their guesses and seem to just be messin with our emotions since they remember exactly how they felt last year. are they all in on it? do they have any inside info? I wasn’t really buggin until the end of the week, but now I find myself messin with fellows trainees too...maybe just regurgitating the info I hear around the center or maybe I’m just speculating myself. who can say? the 6 day countdown starts now... <--- ka ten luz                site announcement --->