First things first I have been slowly working on that piece of art for a while now for multiple reasons. First, my computer doesn't like huge photoshop files and likes to choke on them, so I can't work on it very much at one sitting. Second it is a completely new style for me and it took some time to figure out and decide how I wanted to work with it. But after stewing over it for so long I thought I would upload it and let it see the light of day. I don't really consider it finished so there will likely be a future version fixed up and with a mild background.

About my life I have been feeling both bored on a relational level and hectic rushing around. Two more of my closest Peace Corps buddies left about 10 days ago and slowly but surely the reality that Peace Corps volunteers in a country are in a constant state of flux is getting to me. I mean of all the people I used to hang out with this time last year, one remains and because of my move she is really far away. So I have been dealing with a form of the loneliness that comes and goes here. Mostly it takes the form that when I am bored and need to talk to someone, I don't know who to call or text so I just sit around and keep my thoughts to myself. To top all of that off, my boss Bryan, who is amazing, is leaving to take a better position with Peace Corps in Belize at the end of the month. Sad for us, but amazing for the volunteers in Belize. Unfortunately I will miss his last days because of the vacation that I am going on at the end of the month.

However I have been running back and forth all over the place quite a bit lately. I have started to install and train people in other sites to use my database that I was working on so heavily and so far it has taken me to two different volunteer's sites. Both were decently near by and fun to see. I have also been putting lots of touch up work into the documentary and now another internet short that I was working on for the Municipal Development program here. These sort of became a rush issue to get them done while Bryan is still around and so that I can see Bryan before he is gone. I feel like I haven't really done any work in my town for a long time, mostly because the City Hall was closed until recently and also because I have been running around so much. I'm trying to settle down until Samuel comes so I can feel like I got lots of good community time in before I run off again. But at the same time it vacation time. It has been since last May since I really took anything that resembled a real vacation, so I am very ready for this.

New Years

In the spirit of keeping people up to date with my life and because I have been around lots of internet connected computers, I will let you know what I did for New Years.

I hopped on a bus with Kaya and went to a beach in La Libertad called El Tunco. That roughly translates to The Pig. I have heard two different stories about why it is called that, one is that a large rock in the water looks like a pig, the other is that when pigs were being created, they came to the beach to bathe and party and someone saw it. I am inclined to think both are false because I don't think pigs were "created" or that they came in from the ocean, also I think that the rock looks nothing like a pig. Anyway, a bunch of volunteers were there and we had a whole hostal reserved for ourselves. It was a bit of a mad house between my dog, the Crowe's dog and the various dogs that lived there and the multitude of volunteers. I tried letting Kaya have some freedom off the leash, but she quickly demonstrated just how much of a puppy she was, so she spent the rest of the time on the leash.

The actual party was a mixed bag of volunteers in various states of drunkeness and a few of their parents or embassy friends. I mostly abstained because I wasn't in the best shape for drinking and I had my dog with me. But I did enjoy the hijinks and the company. Plus I got a wicked sunburn, which may be worse than a hangover since it lasts a bit longer.