DRUMROLL PLEASE!

OH! Did I mention???

CUBA IS OFFICIAL!!!

We had a meeting with J, the FBC director this week and she told us who is going to CUUBBAAA!!!!!!

It turns out that me, E, the philosopher and P are all going! I’m so excited! It’s a wonderful group and we are all passionate about the project there. When she said my name for Cuba, it took all my self-control to not jump out of my skin in excitement. It definitely sounds like the most challenging project, in terms of having to work within a very strict, complicated, convoluted political and economic system. I can’t wait.

This morning, we had a training session with Julia, the Cuba project coordinator. She ran a 3 hour session on asset mapping, which was well organized, well structured and fascinating. She handed out little pieces of paper last night with our roles on it. A large part of the workshop this morning was role playing, pretending we were all part of a small NB community that relies mainly on one mill, which was closing. Each person was given a character who was part of the community and had different values, interests and needs. The point of the exercise was to see how a community meeting could map valuable assets that are present in a community, point out threats to those assets and develop actionable solutions. It was a great exercise and could be an incredible tool to use in latin American communities.

Yesterday afternoon, once again, we finished everything much sooner than expected so we spent the last hour of the day sitting around, speaking Spanish and going over some grammar.

A few people went on a booze run and brought back a bar. Needless to say, last night was a riot. Everyone blew off their steam out at the Rec centre and E and I initiated a great dance party again, DJ-ed by the Portuguese M.

E and I walked back to the Greenhouse with the DJ at the end of the night, said goodnight and then got hungry. She made popcorn and I made cake. We were missing an egg, so I sneaked into Cheerio super stealthily and stole an egg from one of the boys. It took all of my skills to not giggle hysterically as I snuck in. The best part was that the boys were in the kitchen talking, while I stealth stole an egg from the fridge, which is just in the other room, separated by a window. As I opened the fridge, I heard “Hey dude, was that you?”. I froze, tried not to giggle and heard “Yeah, man! Just getting some water.” I opened the creaky doors as quietly as I could, a raw egg in my sweater pocket, and BOLTED the 10m back to the Greenhouse. We didn’t have muffin trays, so I made the muffins into a cake. We sat eating popcorn, drinking water, eating yummy cake and watching Sex and the City as we sobered up.

We also made a sign that said: “Get out, go to Cheerio, WE ARE SLEEPING!” and put it on the door. I got to sleep in this morning! I woke up around 10:30 and heard E in the living room, just outside my door so I asked her to come snuggle. Then tall J showed up and got into bed with us. Lots of giggling and hysterical laughing ensued. He has gotten into the bad habit of imitating my giggle anytime I laugh, which just makes me laugh harder, which makes E laugh, which he then imitates, which makes her laugh harder, which makes me laugh harder… you get the idea. My abs hurt.

Now, we’re all running around, trying to get ready to go to St-Andrews for the weekend. An early car left at 10am with those who wanted to go check out the farmer’s market in Fredericton. Having worked on a farm for the past two weeks and knowing that NOTHING is growing yet, I decided I’d rather sleep in and get to St-Andrews a little later and skip the market.