Volunteer Voices

Today was fun. We sat in on a local mothers meeting (a PTA meeting for the most part) and helped them pick up trash in the area. Its funny because everyone here, men, women and children all call white people Mista (mister) whether your female or male. So its funny to see kids come running up to you yelling Mista!Mista! Halo!!! Cute. I still get pulled away from our group to take some camio shots with locals. Americans..appearently dont get out here much. :) ..that and being a freak of nature with blonde hair, blue eyes and muscles...total shock and awe :) I feel like my English is actually getting worse, becasue I have to speak so much slower, and use common words..eliminate things such as conjunctions, adverbs... pretty much all the useless things in the english language. "We go, ya?" Makes more since then "Are we all ready to go?" -Ive actually noticed my entried getting shorter and a tad lack luster at times..Ill try to pep it up a bit. However spell check isnt working, but my spelling has always been this bad :) I can’t blame that on the culture. When we were picking up trash I thought about how Ellicott kids would totally dig this. I thought about Earth day with them, and how much they got into it this last year. They could not Wait to pick up trash. I thought it was funny, I was doing the same thing, just a long long ways away. I also gave a quick improv-to lesson on long jumping properly...(check out the pic on their form now eh? :) Im sitting now in a local government building..with desks that look like kids were playing school in. Im grateful to have any type of internet connection, but it is very slow, so I will upload the pictures tonight if I can. Its a "holiday." One where people have taken the afternoon off to pray..so It looks as though I have been left alone here for the moment. I can hear a rooster crow, geckos climb the walls and goats are eating up the soccer field across the street. Its been a pretty good first day so far.”

Melissa Burns ~ Indonesia 2009