Meeting My Friend Diana... How i Met Your Mother Style

HIMYM- Diana

“I like Hello Kitty best when she is dressed as a panda.” Diana said.

“Wait so you like it best when one cute cartoon animal is dressed as another cute animal? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the Kitty in Hello Kitty?”

“No, she looks the cutest that way.”

I should explain. Diana was one of the other volunteers in my group and she happened to be one of the only other Asian American volunteers in my training group. We didn't really hang out during training but after, she was placed 40 minutes away from me and we began talking on the phone.

“I'd rather have a black belt than a black Denali” she said. Her ex boyfriend had driven one.

“Thats like a rich black dude's car.” I replied.

“No those are Cadillacs” she snapped back.

She was right, but I didn't want to admit defeat. 

“Cadillacs are for the old school rich black dudes. Denalis are more modern.” 

I laughed. You might be thinking that these types of debates are stupid... and they are but hey what else do you talk about for 3 hours. We had been talking about my nonexistent karate skills and how I could pretend to be a master and even teach a class. I had told Dee that my best friend from home had a black belt. But the back story isnt important. The point is this is how I met and got to know your Aunt Dee.

All in all Dee made a pretty good sister. She was easy to talk to didn't get boring and found me entertaining enough to keep the conversation going even after reaching the 10 minute mark.... 30 times. The current record was 5 hrs. You might think this is the part where I tell you about a friendship that blossomed into a picture perfect romance... Yeah right.

“Why am I still telling you this? You never listen anyway. You should listen to your sister more and actually talk to her other than when you need her to do something. That's the only time you call me these days.”

 She had that scolding big sister voice even though I was older than her.

I should explain. Again. Back in the beginning of my service in Peace Corps I was dating this girl named Natasha and needless to say, it had been a chaotic relationship.

“You have broken up and gotten back together like 4 times and you can't keep doing this to her. Its selfish and unfair.” She was right. Solid sisterly advice.

Diana and I had periods of talking a lot and talking not so much, mostly when I was dating a girl. She didn't like that very much. But in the end I always dialed her number and she always picked up. We spoke on the phone and visited each other a lot during our service. It was nice to have a friend close by in the same G as me. The shared Asian heritage didn't hurt. After our service we both ended up in California and as you know, Dee still scolds me today.

Kids, I guess the point of this story is that in the end, we all develop friendships in different ways and Diana and mine was a product of randomness. All I knew during training was that Diana was confident girl with a bit of kick to her. Then in one week we spoke for more than 15 hours. Now shes like a sister. Whether its black belts or Denalis, or some other ridiculous notion you connect over, make those connections and keep them because you never know and if I didn't, your Aunt Dee might have just been another random girl from Peace Corps.

Update on Life

So the other day I was trying to go to sleep and I felt something in my hair. I brushed it away and it dropped into my ear. Have you ever seen the Mummy movie where the scarab things burrow into your skin and kill you in a horrifying and gruesome sort of way? Thats what crossed my mind as I heard the beetle in my ear and felt it crawl deeper into my skull producing what can only be described as shots of terrifying pain as the idea of having a live bug lodged in my ear canal slowly making its way to inevitably gnaw on my brain entered my mind. Fortunately the bug climbed out after about 40 seconds. Gotta love Peace Corps. Anyway, I am spending a little time in a colleague's site helping him with some Peace Corps work and getting a first hand experience at another volunteer's life. It's a good chance to watch him do his work and compare strategies and experiences with his commissions and mine. I will be attending a couple commission meetings as well as essentially shadowing him in his community. His site, like mine, is campo yet in a very hilly and forested area completely different from my flat land filled with ranches and fields. As for work, I still have my 2 commissions going, one for fogons and the other for women doing small projects such as making soap and detergent. We had our first fundraiser for the fogon commission, a bingo mixed with volleyball 2 sundays ago. It was pretty successful with us netting around 260 mil. It takes about 330 mil without labor to build one fogon. so its a good start. There are about 15 people in the commission. In general the idea is to try to raise 20% of the total funds within the community and 80 % from local government help. I also just recently cleared a bit of land for my own garden which im excited to plant. I am hoping to plant vegetables I cannot easy access, broccoli, leafy greens, cucumber as well as spices such as cilantro and basil. My home still needs a lot of work including putting in several doors, a new window, getting a place to put plates and such, fixing some walls with cement and paint if I so choose. All these things will cost money that I do not really have but I will hope to do soon. Even though I am down here relatively in the middle of nowhere its funny, I feel like I dont have that much to say. I dont have internet and it is weird to not be able to google anything I want or need but after a bit you get really used to it. I guess thats it for now. As always feel free to ask any questions.