deep in love

Right now, it is 10:12pm, the sky is blue, the sun is out, and the temperature is 59 degrees.

Today was the first day of orientation for all the new teachers in the district. I've met a lot of people, and been totally overloaded with information. But overall, it's been a good day. Honestly, I can't imagine a bad day here, other than missing my people.

I really need to start taking pictures of the village, and of everything around the village.

Tonight after dinner one of the other teachers here took a few of us berry picking. It is blueberry season, and apparently they are "big" right now, as in size. But not gonna lie, they are very small. And all the berries here grow right near the ground, so it was an interesting experience. We drove up a long dirt road into the hills, then hiked up through a swampy hill to where the berries were growing, and went at it. I found a really good patch, like, every time I turned around there were more. I was picking them by the handful. It was great. I felt very close to nature... haha. Like, the land is very good to us... Anyway, I got a bunch of berries, and then I got distracted by the view. I decided I wanted to get to the top of the hill, so I went on a hike uphill, but I felt like every time I got to where I thought was the top, there was more. But I finally made it, and it was breathtaking. We were seriously totally surrounded by mountains and hills. And from the top of our hill, we could look down and see my village, right on the coast. It looked like the edge of the earth.

Anyway, I went home with wet feet, a couple pounds of blueberries, and a smile on my face. I think I'm going to go for another short walk around town before bed, since it is still so beautiful outside. Now that it's not so cloudy it will really be bright. The sun doesn't really set until around midnight-ish, but even around then it's still pretty light outside. It will be day again around 3 or something, I think. It hasn't really bothered me, which I'm glad for.

I also learned this week that some villages, like, complete villages, don't have indoor plumbing, so the teachers use honeybuckets for toilets and shower at the school. Holy cow!! And then some of the new teachers with indoor plumbing are complaining about their housing? I'm like, did you even know what you were signing up for?

In summary, I am very happy here. And life is certainly grand.

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