This past weekend

Erich, a friend of mine who has finished his service, had his despedida (going away party) Friday night. I had a meeting with the development committee in my community Friday morning and was planning on taking the bus into the capital after the meeting.

First, let me write a bit about these meetings. The committee is a great group and they accomplish a lot in various cantons and caserios within the municipality. Also, the meetings never fail to be hilarious to me. In the December meeting I went to, people were talking about the exploitative ways of large corporations. Furthermore, they were saying, chain restaurants like Pizza Hut and Pollo Campero are overpriced and unhealthy. This, I could agree with, but of course they didn't stop there. Furthermore, they said, according to a study done in Costa Rica, pregnant mothers who eat at Pollo Campero run the risk of giving birth to a gay son, or a daughter that gets her period at a very young age. Yes, someone did actually say this. Myself and the two other volunteers at the meeting just looked at each other all with the same expression--'Did he really just say what we think he did?'

At the meeting last week, the man in charge went over the results of a survey that was given the previous month having to do with the upcoming elections. I am very pro-survey as a way of getting opinions from people who maybe do not speak up as much at the meetings. To give you all a proper idea of what types of questions the survey consisted of, I will give you an example. I think it was question 6: Do you want a peaceful or violent election? Amazingly, 100% of the people chose peace. Question 7: Do you want a candidate that wants to work with the Development Committee or one that will cut our funding? Now what do you think the Development Committee had to say about that? 100% in favor of a candidate who wants to work with them.

After the meeting I got a ride into the capital--which was awesome not having to take a bus--and I spent the night drinking too much and having a good time. I came back to my site Saturday afternoon to find that a note had been slipped under my door. Before even picking it up, I knew it was a love note. Only love notes, and usually those written by junior high or high school girls, are folded in such an impressively complex way. Needless to say I was flattered. These blue eyes get 'em every time.