My savior these days!

At the waterfall!

The Waterfall

The whole gang taking a lunch break

Walking to the waterfall... right after this pic was taken my sandal got swept away in the river! Thank god Fernando was able to catch it!

View from the Cabins at the Girls Camp.

Welcome sign in Garifuna

The girls and Leala listening to the session.

HIV tot in San Jose with the local HS students.

Pretty picture I took at the cemetary in San Jose. All the graves were decorated for day of the dead.

I have recently feel in love with my space heater. I just got back from a trip to the coast helping various volunteers with their projects.

I first went to San Jose where Matt had his HIV tot. It ended up being pretty difficult and the kids at the HS were a little hard to handle because it was a night school and they were all riled up. All in all it after some yelling and constant asking them to listen the newly trained students got through their practica successfully and now hopefully understand how difficult it is to be in front of a group of students talking about HIV and sex.

From there I left pretty early in the morning for Tornabe where Jennifer and Amanda were having their abstinence girls camp. It was super fun and interesting to meet all the girls from various Garifuna communities (Tornabe and Sambo Creek). I gave a charla on friendship and taught them all how to make friendship bracelets. It was lots of fun and I can't wait to have a similiar type of activity here in Santa Rosa. And it was on the beach so that was a plus.

After the camp, I made my way to Sonaguera to see Mary's site and work on the monitoring and evaluation section of the new PLWHA tot. It was definitly a little toasty out that way especially since there was no ocean breeze to cool you off at night!

After M&E work, I made my way over to Santa Fe...a Garifuna community by Trujillo for my buddy Fernando's bday! It was super fun... we hiked to a waterfall to go swimming. AMAZING! I can't believe we actually live here sometimes.

After all that time in the sun and sweating my butt off... I finally came back home on Sunday-- just in time for the COLD FRONT! Apparently it was nice and wamer while I was gone... but now it is absolutly FREEZING-- hence my new found love of the space heater! I kept waking up lastnight shivering with my little nariz as cold as an ice cube! I need some more blankets. Brrrrr!