heroes and villains

March 13, 2011

Sometimes when I give kids writing assignments I myself will do it, or at least think long and hard about it. I found out earlier this week that my teacher had a meeting and I would be watching the kids. Found out just as class was starting, so I said hokay and then came up with something I thought might be interesting to them, this way it is fun and they are working. I asked them what super hero power they would choose. Most kids picked invisibility. Mine has nothing to do with saving the world, and we’ll see if I can even explain it. My super hero power would be to make my first shot when shooting hoops. I’m not asking to make every shot, because that would be straight up cheating. What I’m talking about is the first time you pick up the ball you swoosh. Take an old ball to a new hoop, swoosh. The first time you attempt the shot in the shooting session was just beautiful and made that perfect swoosh sound.

I don’t know if I’ve mentioned my plans to run a half marathon in October around a volcano, but that is the plan. At this point if things don’t change I’m going to hate life come October. I’m out of shape something sore. I’m blaming the rain, the rats, the roosters, the fact that that 5:00 comes awfully early, and whatever else makes it look not so bad that I’m not running. My diet is hit and miss. I feel like I’m either ravenous or not hungry in the least. I also feel like there is a correlation between who cooks and how hungry I am. If it is my Auntie I get full pretty soon. I’ve started to take strides into being more self-sufficient (slowly swallowing that guilt like M suggested). And then there are the times when we convince ourselves we can’t live with out McDos (McDonalds). Who doesn’t need French fries? And today I needed a lot… and a lot of chicken nuggets, and an apple pie, and a Green Apple Float. I also needed to go to a birthday party and have some fried chicken, a Coke float, and an ice cream dessert. I also needed to do this in roughly a two-hour time frame. To be fair we did have vegetables last night.

I’ve started to stroll around this town in hopes it can start the habits towards running. Now that the rain is gone I can go out and about. I want to get to know the community. I’ve had issues with feeling like I just work and commute. With the rain gone (and by gone I mean it stops once or twice a week) I don’t hate leaving my house. I love how friendly the people are and how tight it just seems. Reminds me of one those places I call home and how you can just walk across the street and spend a couple hours with your neighbors. Tonight I really needed that walk, see food consumed earlier, and it was a good one: a lap of each side of the high way.

However, it did trouble me when after my walk my Auntie told me not to look at people who try to talk to me. “Um, Auntie, that is kind of the whole point of me here doing this thing.” Joke la. I didn’t really say that. What I did say was, “Kay ano, atay?”

“Because there are mga bad people, that is why I never look at them.”

“That is why people think you are stuck up.” I didn’t really say that either, but over Christmas at a party her family joked and said she was the stuck up one, but not really she just looked that way. So again just joking. What I did say was that I’d be ok. I guess my super hero power wouldn’t help me fight all the many bad people in town either. For those of you who are now worried about me, know I wield an umbrella when I walk and the people are in fact nice.

I texted this conversation to my site mate and she said, ‘She’s coo koo.’ This time I’m not joking, she really did say that. I love that D! But she’s been here a year and has had no incident and people tell me over and over again how safe it is. But I guess not safe enough for me to live on my own.

Now, back to that seemingly superfluous super hero power of mine. This town is riddled with basketball hoops. How awesome would it be if every time I passed a game I took my stance, clapped my hands, said ‘Pwede ka?’ with a lip pointed head nod to the rim, got passed the ball, drained it, and then walked off an Americano legend?  Went to the next court and did it all over again. Pretty sweet, right? I haven’t drained any shots yet, but tonight I did catch a tennis ball that came flying out of nowhere at me, and kids did think I was some what awesome for it. Win!