30.6.05

it's been awhile

I have been bad about blogging lately. I was sick for about 4 days, so that's a good excuse. I'll use that one.

(btw, we didn't get to go to the amusement park. :( I was too sick. Not from the shots, but from whatever I had already. It was a pretty boring day for me, and I'm sure for my husband)

Today we've been learning some really heavy stuff. We're in a trainer class to train others how to grow the company. It's been fantastic so far. One of the biggest things they teach newcomers is to think of everyone they know that's never heard of our boss, and then narrow it down to five people. They are then supposed to go tell those 5 people before the next training session. But before they told us about the 5 people, the trainer just told us how the hardest people to talk to is your family. These past 3 weeks, I've really been struggling with the fact that I have family members I should have talked to before leaving home, and they've been on my mind daily. And guess how many have been on my mind - exactly 5! And then the trainer told us that we can actually talk to them here - by email or letters or phone calls. I know I'm being told to tell these people. I know that I know. So I'm going to write them letters, and hope that we can talk for the week that I'm home.

We also had to bring our life stories down to 2 minutes. 2 minutes for such a personal story. We had to come into our session today prepared with a 2 minute story. Then, the trainer made us all stand up and at once tell him our stories - except, we had to condense it to one minute! Oh it was hard, I was talking a mile a minute. But it was incredible practice to stop being afraid and distracted, and just do it! He told us if he had more time, we would have out loud shared ten times. But he only had time for us to share twice, and then share with a partner.

We had a special meal today. It was our third one to try out. The first time, we tried Middle Eastern food (meatballs and this cucumber pico de gallo stuff...oh I know, there is not Middle Eastern pico de gallo, but what else should I call it?), the second time, it was Caribbean food (tortillas, shredded pork, black beans and rice, and salsa), and today's was Pacific Islands food (rice and curried beef topped with bananas, coconut, raisins, sunflower seeds, and mandarin oranges). They were all pretty darn good, and the Middle Eastern one was especially fun because we were only allowed to eat with our hands, but today's was delicious. I could definitely have had seconds and thirds.

Training is about to start again. If it's as good as this morning was, I don't want to miss any of it.

1 comment:

Emily said...

hi,
I recieved a comment from you and this was the only way I could figure out how to respond. :o) No, it doesn't weird me out to be contacted by a total stranger...I like learning about how connected this world is. As for me, I am in Central America on a study abroad program with the Center for Global Education that is part of Augsburg College in Minneapolis, MN. Its an undergrad study program just for the semester focusing on sustainable development and social change. The mission is to learn through experiental education, from the perspective of those who aren't normally given a voice. Thus, we have "normal class" where we learn about the history of places like Nicaragua, and then we also meet with heads of government, former guerrillas, heads of NGOs, etc. Its been an adventure, that is for sure. As for knowing people in this region...if they are in managua, I'm sure that this program is connected with them because the communtiy is really tight.

What is it that you are doing exactly? I'm unfamiliar with what "c" work is.