Aunt Jemima

10/10/11

            Thursday we finished a tough workweek. I will always cherish the feel of the uneven banana tree straps of my thirty-pound wicker basket against my sunburnt skin. I was even lucky enough to either fall in the river, or simply end up in water deeper than my boots, three out of the four days. There’s nothing like the hour walk home in soaking wet socks. But I’ve got to say that my favorite part, would be the fire ants. If all the fire ants in the world were to be brutally exterminated, I would dance naked on their graves.  Oh, and did I mention the barbed wire? If it weren’t for the crazed singing, I’m not sure the group would have gotten through it. Enough complaining though, the point is I needed this weekend.

            We left Friday morning for the beach, yet again in the back of trucks.  I swear in the last two weeks I’ve spent more time in the back of trucks than any American since the 1950s.  That night we slept in tents at the eco-tourism lodge of the organization that planned our weekend. There is something so satisfying about setting up a perfect tent while Mr. Harvard struggles until you take pity and help him.

            The beach was a blast. To be honest, when we saw that they brought a digger for us to use to plant with at the beach, I was going to strangle somebody.  But our leaders kept asking Marcello (our host) when we were going to work, and he just kept telling them to “relax.” Beach bums. In the end we never did any work, and we used the digger to dig a giant heart-shaped Jacuzzi in the sand.  I even took two hour-and-a-half long naps. It was glorious.

            That night we had a the largest bonfire I’ve ever seen.  Although the smell was a little unsettlingly trashy… Marcello even got us marshmallows and chocolate when we requested them on a whim.  There’s nothing better for group bonding than a camping trip. That’s what we should have been doing in Costa Rica!

Sunday we packed our sandy selves into a van and returned home. Have you ever spent a three-hour van ride straddling the stick shift? It would be hyperbolizing to say I had, but it was pretty damn close. 

            On the way back we stopped in Santo Domingo to buy lunchmeat, and I felt compelled to buy a giant bottle of Aunt Jemima to bring home to Carolina and Victor. You see, at first they didn’t know what to do with the bottle of Vermont Maple Syrup I brought them, but once I had them try it on the fried pieces of friedness (I really have no better way to describe them) that we have every other morning for breakfast, they were hooked.  They loved the syrup, and asked if they could get it in Ecuador. And no, you cannot get good quality maple syrup in Ecuador. But I knew I had to find them a replacement, and Aunt Jemima would have to do. When I got home I explained that it is “mas peor” and “muy mal,” but “es de Ecuador.” They were confounded that the huge bottle I bought was four dollars less than the tiny bottle of the good stuff.  And once I had the syrup, I  just had to buy the pancake mix as well. Tomorrow I’m making them breakfast!

            Until Sunday night, it was a truly wonderful and relaxing weekend. Sunday night Dave informed us that he was leaving. He wouldn’t give us an explanation, which infuriated me, but we gathered that he has a lot of inner turmoil that he needs to sort through. Dave was the father figure of the trip, and a very soothing presence. I will really miss him. The powers that be say we will probably get his replacement halfway through China. It was a tough night, and is going to be a tough transition. I don’t really want to write about this anymore.

Love,

Katherine