Update

The sun finally found me! After three months in Guatemala, I now have my first sunburn. I'm actually really surprised that I was able to evade it for this long; my skin tends to act as a super UV concentrator and I feel like I'm burned more often than not. Luckily I brought a bunch of Irish caps here so I can protect my poor little bald head from further damage. I'm so glad this gives me a chance to stick out even more walking around here :P

Ah, but how did I get sunburned you ask. Let me tell you! It happened on my first day of interning with the gardener (okay, so I'm not REALLY interning with him, more like following him around bugging him to let me help him.) As would be expected on my first day, I was put to work doing menial tasks, namely bagging saplings for three hours in the sun. He showed me what to do and left me so he could go take care of his other work. It was actually really great, probably the quietest moment that I've had at the orphanage. I sat there on a log, digging out baby pine trees that had been started in the green house and then clumped together in the garden while they waited for bigger pots. I would fill a plastic bag with a combination of wood shavings and chicken manure, put a little tree in there, pack down all the filler and then line it up against the fence. It was mind-numbingly repetitive which is actually a good thing in my book. I love having time to zone out and let my mind wander, I feel like I dont have enough opportunities for that. I've watched The Karate Kid enough times to know that seemingly boring work assigned by master's in their field are never without lessons; lesson number one: wear a hat when you're outside. My head is on fire! And I know in three days I'll have to deal with a peeling scalp which is always horribly embarrassing.

The tree comes out of the ground. The tree goes in the bag. Repeat times 50.

The gardening was a lot of fun though and I told him that I want to start doing it every Saturday morning (which he seemed happy to hear). I'm hoping that as my gardening-vocabulary increases I'll be able to start learning a lot more from him. It helps that he has a special interest in foreigners, so maybe we can become chummy :) I'm already looking forward to next weekend!

After my garden stint I went into Antigua for English class with Juan Carlos. I worry that I started a bad trend with him, he's already asking if we can go on another trip together. Part of me is considering taking advantage of the offer since it's an easy and free way for me to see the country, but I really want to be having these experiences with my friends. I was able to brush him off but I know he's going to ask me again. I'll have to think about it this week. We did have a very interesting conversation this week about a wood stove he's building in his backyard though. He's using sugar cane and salt to cure it which sounds absolutely fascinating to me. I asked him if I could go to his house and check it out when it's done; the idea of cooking my food all with firewood is really appealing, especially if I'm going to off the grid. I doubt it would be something I could do all the time, but a wood fire pizza is always delightful ;) Anyway, I love to learn about construction and since I have limited masonry experience, it'd be a cool thing to see. And hello?! Curing with sugar cane?! Sounds super cool! He told me that he's afraid of spiders and scorpions (which apparently are NUMEROUS at his house) crawling into the cabinet he has for wood storage but he's afraid of using saws. If it looks simple enough I might offer to build some doors for him. Also, he wants to build a small pond in his yard and since I have some experience with that I might help him out with that too. He wants to build a filtration system that works with plants and rocks which sounds really interesting. I read about something similar a few weeks ago on a blog; its nice when different parts of my life line up nicely.

After class yesterday I hung out in Antigua with Charlotte and Stephanie. We went to see The Mechanic which was ridiculous but enjoyable since it was free. After the movie we went to this new American bar that went in a few weeks ago. I might have mentioned it in a past post, we went there a few weeks ago too. It was ok, not quite as enjoyable as the first time though (this could be because I didn't order mozzarella sticks last night). It's still nice hearing American music though. Nothing like some Sweet Home Alabama to make you feel like you're at home ;)

I hung out with my section today and watched Beauty and the Beast. For a lot of them it was the first time which I LOVE! I get such a kick out of them getting into the movie, laughing hysterically at the furniture fighting off the angry villagers and then getting amazingly silent when the Beast dies. It was a lot of fun.

Missing my family and friends a lot today. Only 11 more weeks, sounds like so much even though I know it'll go fast :(

I can't end on a depressing note, so here's my latest installment of "Look at this super cute kid I found"

Immigration

Charlotte, Stephanie and I were walking home from the market in Parramos last week and we started reflecting on how quickly time goes here; one day it's Monday, the next is Friday, and before you know it you're at the end of the month. I pointed out that this past Monday was going to mark my three month anniversary here (3 months of 14 months is 21.5%, not that I'm counting or anything...) Very nonchalantly Charlotte asked if I had gotten my visa renewed yet. I FORGOT ABOUT MY VISA!! This is TOTALLY my fault. Two weeks ago a group of volunteers went to the capital to get theirs renewed and invited me along but it was last minute and I didn't want to cancel all the things I had planned at work without proper notice. I didn't think it was a big deal since I'm in the city several times a week for med runs; I could just do it one morning before we went to the doctor's appointments. Well things kept moving and I totally put the visa out of my mind. Good thing Guatemala is a lot more forgiving with their foreign visitors than we are at home. I ended up going this morning to immigration and got away with paying a small fine (50Q or about $6.50) on top of the charge to renew the visa for three more months (117Q or $15). They need to keep my passport for a week to "process my request" which is silly, but I go back next week to pick it up with my new extension stamp. They let you stay for three months when you arrive, then you can ask for an additional three months; after that you have to leave. I'm very happy to report that when my visa runs out in three more months I'll be high-tailing it back to NJ to spend a week or two with my family and friends, something that I'm already needing, so I can only imagine how crazy I'll be then.

Other highlights of my day include calming an angsty teenager, scheduling several more charlas (now I'm doing 4-5 a week. I'm starting to think that my med runs may soon come to an end), and then I spent five hours reading about ducks for the Livestock 101 class I'm teaching myself ;) That by far was the best part of my day. Did you know that some breeds of ducks can lay more than 300 eggs every year? That's the same as chickens!

Homesteading

As much as I've been loving my experience here, my mind has been focused elsewhere for the last few weeks. I've always been a planner; I love to have at least a basic idea what direction I'm heading in. I find that when my future is murky I tend to feel like I'm in a rut and depression charges in fast and hard. After spending a few weeks feeling super depressed here (and after determining that home sickness was a contributing but not causing factor) I figured that it was time to sit down and start thinking about what my new and improved one, three and five year goals were going to be. That seems to have hit the nail on the head because now that I have my cogs rolling, I'm feeling a lot more enthusiastic and focused. Naturally, that doesn't mean I have my plans figured out yet. Right now I'm just brainstorming, but I'm doing it at a much larger level than I have before.

This trip and the months leading up to it threw me into new territory financially. Quick background: I moved out of my parents house when I was 19 and aside from a one year stint at Mom's house (which was not done out of necessity), I've lived relatively independently since then. There've been times when things were tight and I had to borrow some money to stay afloat, but those were few and far between; for arguments sake, I've spent the last 10 years supporting myself yet like most middle-class folks, in a near-constant battle to keep myself in the black. The last few years I've found myself in jobs that weren't satisfying or enjoyable but offered a larger paycheck. I feel like I was always looking for more money to give me just a little more breathing room (and therefore a little more freedom to do fun things). I'm now considering going back to school for a degree I'm not terribly passionate about simply because it'll give me more money. Is this really how I want to spend the rest of my life, constantly chasing down a bigger and better job to match my bigger (not better) lifestyle? Do I want to be 50, counting down the years until I can retire and FINALLY start living the life I want?

Obviously the answer to that is easy. I want to live my life now, not pass it off until I'm old enough to retire and hope that my body will cooperate enough to allow me to still enjoy myself then. I want to do the things that make me happy, even if that means living on a meager amount of money and making heavy cuts in the way I live. Seeing how people live here has opened my eyes to how wasteful we are in the states. People here are way ahead of the game when it comes to reusing items and energy efficiency, not because of environmental concerns but because of lack of money. It's made me realize that living frugally is totally possible and would open up a lot more opportunities for me to do the things that I REALLY want to do with my life.

So I sat down and thought, if I had all the money I needed and could do anything I wanted for the rest of my life, what would it be? I'd want to live in a cabin deep in the woods, have lots of privacy but still be close to my family. I want to have the opportunity to travel and help people, but I also want to spend the majority of my time at home, so I can raise a family of my own. I want to do build my own furniture and dig out a root cellar. I want to spend all day in my garden and fall asleep under the stars. Why not do that now? I can't imagine anything that would make me happier.

I've wanted to "live off the land" since I was a little kid. I remember reading My Side of the Mountain and falling in love with the idea of being completely self sufficient and surrounded by nature. That's one of the reasons I love backpacking so much, I love knowing that I can survive with some basic tools and supplies, all the other crap I have is fluff.

I've been really inspired by a ton of blogs I've been reading lately, especially www.WaldenEffect.org. There are tons of stories out there of people who got tired of the endless grind and constant need for MORE, so they simply took themselves out of the equation. They saved enough money for a bit of property, moved into a tent or built a little shack and lived there debt free forever. You can grow plenty of food to support a family, raise chickens and pigs for meat and manure and use the trees for heat and fuel. I would have no mortgage and super low food costs, that accounts for a huge chunk of my budget now. My bills would be limited to property taxes, electricity (with the goal of eventually switching to solar), propane for cooking (which could also be switched out to wood if I got REALLY gung-ho), phone/internet (which I couldn't live without-at least not right now), gasoline and car insurance. There would be start up costs but once I was established I should be able to live a relatively cheap existence for a really great lifestyle. Also I'm actually have a huge advantage as a nurse because I can even work telephonically part-time and continue to earn a pay check.

If you're wondering where travel fits in here, I figure if I want to do a volunteer stint like I'm on now, the winters will be dead time. I can easily travel and volunteer during these times (provided that I had someone to feed my animals while I was gone).

I've been doing a ton of research into Homesteading (the practice of living off the land) and I know that I can make this work. I'm going to use the next nine months here to build up my knowledge base, determine how much I need to save up, and then work my butt off for an early (semi-)retirement in the next three years :) To help me on my way I've taken up another volunteer position helping out on the farm here. Staring Saturday morning I'll be out there building up a relationship with the head gardener who will hopefully take me under his wing and teach me all there is to know about growing amazing organic vegetables! After an "internship" there for a few months, I plan on switching over to the granja or farm, where I'll learn about raising livestock like chickens, goats, cows and pigs. Hooray for a free education!

Here are some pictures that have had my heart racing lately, enjoy!

This house is a cob house, a home thats made from mud and straw for around $8,000. Lots of homesteaders have them since they're sustainable and super cheap to construct! DREAM. COME. TRUE.

Puerto San Jose

Today was a nice tranquil day, perfect opportunity to fill you in on all the amazing planning I've been doing the last few weeks! Before I do that though, I have to comment on something. Charlotte pointed out to me the other day that I was starting to change my English vocabulary to mimic my Spanish. Since I only know a finite number of words in Spanish, I'm limited by what I can say. I never say "I had a super lazy weekend", I always say "My weekend was quiet" because I know those words. Another thing I say a lot is "I will return" when I'm leaving the office. Well the other day I was talking to Charlotte in English and said "I will return." She totally called me out on it, I would never say that if my speech patterns weren't being warped by this language. I just thought about that because I started this blog with "tranquil", I've probably used that word three times in my whole life. In Spanish quiet is "tranquilo" so I use it an awful lot here.

Oh yeah, I also have to tell you about my day yesterday! Usually on Saturdays I teach my classes at McDonalds but Juan Carlos has been asking me for two weeks to go to the beach with him. I don't know why he was so gung-ho about it, I never mentioned wanting to go to the beach with him and every time he brought it up I tried to skirt around the subject. I started thinking that maybe he's just lonely and wants to go to the beach, but has no one to go with him. I decided to go as a public service, but only this one time. He's a nice dude but we don't have much in common; its hard enough for me to make conversation with people I'm friends with. The idea of spending all day in a car with him isn't exactly appealing.

We ended up leaving yesterday afternoon and driving down to Puerto San Jose which is a town on the ocean directly south of here. The part of Guatemala that I live in is super high up in the mountains, this is what makes our nights so cold and keeps the day time temperatures in the high 70s, low 80s. Once you start going down in altitude and hit some of the valley farmland, the temperature jumps up. It was easily 90 out and I swear you could feel a difference in the breathability of the air. I immediately felt more comfortable and was really blown away by the scenery. The drive there was absolutely gorgeous; it was all fields of sugar cane as far as you can see in all directions. There were steep hills surrounding the farmland that had been cut into little plateaus called tablones. The farmers use this method not only to give themselves a flat area to grow crops but also as a way to get super nutritious soil without having to till the soil very much. It was hard to get a picture while we were moving but here's a random one from the internet

And here's sugar cane. It was so green!! (especially compared to the mostly dusty and dry corn fields that I'm used to seeing by NPH)

As we went further down in altitude the trees started changing from pine to palm. We stopped at a roadside restaurant that reminded me a lot of our trip to St Thomas: open air seating with large fans slowly turning, a thatched roof of palm leaves and a seafood heavy menu. He ended up ordering for me (not really sure why...) so I had fresh shrimp in garlic sauce. It was super delicious even though I'm not a huge shrimp eater. I was a little nervous about eating seafood in Guatemala but it ended up being totally safe. He had eaten there a few times without issue so I trusted that enough to take a chance.

After lunch we finished our trek to the beach (in total I think the drive was about 2.5 hours). It was funny, the same things that I look for when we're getting close to the Jersey shore were here too; you see little roadside stores selling beach balls and inflatable rafts or cheesy looking motels with pictures of marlins and pelicans on their signs. I was getting pretty excited by the time we finally pulled into town. He warned me that the town was really poor so the chances of us getting mugged were a little higher than normal. He had me hide all my stuff in his car which is why I couldn't take any pics :( Better safe than sorry though. We passed the Guatemalan Navy Base which is kind of like our Coast Guard; they use large fishing boats and patrol the waters. They aren't really equipped for fighting, though they also have a separate Coast Guard too, so I don't really understand what their Navy does.

We parked our car at their Army base (which was right down the street from the Navy base and didn't look at all like an Army base. The dudes were just walking around in T shirts and shorts, guess they're not big on uniforms there). From there it was a short walk to the actual beach which was absolutely gorgeous. There were barely any people there (which is always a nice thing when you're used to overcrowded NJ and NY beaches). The sand along all the shores in Guatemala is black, just like Hawaii. I'm guessing this is probably due to volcanos, but I don't know that for a fact. The cool thing about black sand is when the sun is setting, it reflects back. Super gorgeous.

We walked down the beach and chatted for a while, then walked out on this stone pier and watched the waves come in. It was quite romantic, lol. Seriously it felt like a bad date at times, I ran out of things to talk about and I wanted to go home but didn't want to offend him. Eventually I just told him that I was tired and should be getting back so we headed out. The drive home was cool, we chatted about marriage a lot and since we have very different views on that, it kept the conversation flowing for quite a while. All in all it was a nice trip and I was glad to have finally seen the beach! I think it'll be a lot nicer if I go with my friends next time and maybe spend a night there, but at least now I feel like I've done my good deed :)

I really wanted to talk about all the things I've been thinking about for my return home but now it's late and I have to get up early tomorrow for a med run! Guess it'll have to wait until then :P

Wall decoration

Just wanted to share this. I finally got around to printing out some pics to remind me of all the things I have to come home to. This collage makes me equally sad and happy. Miss all you people (and many more people who I don't have pics of)

(Also, do you guys know that you can click on the pictures on the blog to get a larger view?)

If I knew a Bible quote I'd put one here.

I know you've all been glued to your computers waiting for this update, so here it is ;) Yesterday went wonderfully, total success. I'm still trying to round up pictures for you guys, I'll add them to this post as I get them, so check back. So here's a little account of how everything went down...

In the morning I got news that we were no longer leaving NPH property since the kids seem to get super distracted when they leave the gates. This was good news for me because that means the one or two mile walk dragging the cross through the streets was cancelled. We had a meeting with the Religion director and started doing another run through of the stations. Like last time we practiced, he got frustrated with the constant questions and ended up leaving after a few minutes. I felt like I had a good handle on the material though, and he was going to be there to guide us through so I wasn't too worried.

After a pretty unproductive day (I felt like we were all just trying to kill time before we had to start) we finally started getting into our costumes. To help make me look more authentic, the nurses made this crown of thorns out of REAL thorns they found in the woods. They were nice enough to trim the inside down for me.

Here's me trying it on (complete with my bloody undershirt- hooray for beet juice!)

All the kids were already gathered in front of the clinic waiting for us. We were all crazy nervous to walk out there; nothing like being the center of attention for a few hundred people. Here's me helping one of the Roman guards with some last minute costume adjustments before we have to head out.

The stations were set up all over the property and we followed the same format throughout the whole thing. We would come to a station, the Religion director would read a Bible passage about the station, we would act it out, then all the kids would kneel and say a prayer. While we walked between the stations, they all say a song asking God for forgiveness. It was actually a very nice song, I wish I had some video to show you. Here are the kids kneeling when we first came out of the clinic

The first couple of stations went really well. As I alluded to before, we used beet juice to make me look bloody during appropriate parts. It was hard trying to smile at all my baby friends while "blood" was dripping down my face, they weren't amused in the slightest. This is when Jesus meets his mom. We didn't know how we were supposed to interact so we literally just stood there and stared at one another. I like to think that it was an emotional, knowing stare that clearly portrayed the deep emotional agony of both Jesus and Mary (rather than the awkward I-have-no-idea-what-we're-supposed-to-do-here stare that it felt like)

And moving on...

We continued through all the other stations. I'm not posting pictures of my brilliantly acted falls, but here I am shortly after my second one, checking out the crowd thats been growing.

Here I am comforting the women. I did SO GOOD at staying serious through all the stations. This is the one and only time I cracked up, and that's only because the nurses here were laughing and smiling under their veils as they "mourned" for me.

And then the moment we were all waiting for. The director wanted me to have blood coming out of my mouth to make it more dramatic. As I was walking to the station I had to put half a raw beet in my mouth and chew it down as quickly and thoroughly as I could. Then I held that goop in my mouth until he announced my death, after which I let it pour out of my mouth like a B horror movie. I had no idea what it looked like, I was worried that people were going to think Jesus was throwing up. The picture looks pretty convincing though! (Um and yeah, the cross was a little too tall for me)

For the record, my Mom's number one fear was that I'd be crucified in Guatemala! Luckily I walked away unscathed. As I was walking away from the cross, the director announced that we were heading to the next station. Next station?? I thought this ended with me being crucified!! I had no clue what the other stations were so i had to wing it. Thankfully the next one was me being taken off the cross, so all I had to do was lay on the ground and let people cry over me. After that, we went up to the cafeteria. We got there before the kids and the director told me to go hide in the cafeteria. One of the other nurses cleaned me up and turned my gown inside out so I looked nice and clean, then I went inside and waited. I thought, Oh this must be when they put me in that tomb. They're going to come in here to see me laid out. I lay down on a table and wait. As I'm sitting there I suddenly think, wait, wasn't Jesus gone when they came into the tomb?! Am I supposed to be literally hiding right now?! I freak out and jump up from the table. There's absolutely no where to hide in the cafeteria because it's just a big square room with locked doors, so I make a run for it and leave, hoping to get around the back of the building before the kids get in. The nurse who cleaned me up sees me and yells for me. "Where were you?! You were supposed to resurrect!" That's part of the stations?! I thought that was Easter, isn't that totally different?? I run out to the front of the building but the director had already declared it over and all the kids had dispersed. Luckily the day was still considered a huge success, despite the absent Jesus. We spent the rest of the afternoon eating cookies and chatting in the clinic about how awesome we were.

The whole experience was really great. I loved that the kids took it so seriously, apparently in the past they've had problems with the kids not really paying attention. Even the babies were silent through the entire two hours, though I'm sure it wasn't too hard to focus on the big bloody dude walking around. I was raised Roman Catholic but I've swung all over the place as far as what I believe. While I was dragging the cross around I thought a lot about the suffering that a person must have gone through during that time, to not only be sentenced to death but then to have to drag your death implement around while people beat and whip you. I thought a lot about his mom being there too, what she must have been going through and having to say goodbye to him while he's bloodied and suffering. Whether you believe that the story of Jesus is true or not, other people definitely went through this during that era. What an awful way to die.

On a happier note, last night all the volunteers went to La Familia, the little family restaurant/bar in town. We drank a ton of cheap beer and danced, then I came home and passed out. The end.

Night before my big day!

Yay, two days in a row, go me ;) Today was actually a really great day, super productive so I'm in a great mood! This morning I woke up and was completely dragging. I had juuuust enough time to make myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before crawling up the million stairs to work. One of the perks to volunteering here is that each house receives a freshly baked loaf of whole wheat bread every day! I cut it into super thick slices and usually eat it with just peanut butter, but they made white bread yesterday and I couldn't resist a PB+J sandwich on white bread, the ol American classic ;)

I got into the clinic just in time to join the other nurses in a meeting with the Religion coordinator about tomorrow. He handed out Bibles to all of us and my first thoughts were Oh crap, he's going to ask me to quote something, I won't be able to and then he'll realize I'm not religious in the least and take away my leading role! Luckily that didn't happen and he was kind enough to use page numbers instead of passage numbers so I was able to read along without issue. Turns out that this is a much bigger production tomorrow than I realized, I have to memorize lines and everything! It's just a short conversation that Jesus has with Pilot before he's condemned to crucifixion. My Bible is in Spanish of course, so I don't know EXACTLY what I'm saying, but I know that he's asking me if I'm a King and I'm saying that he's calling me a King, that's not the word that I've been using. Every time I read the dialogue, the song from Jesus Christ Superstar starts playing in my head. But what is truth? Is truth unchanging law? We both have truths, are mine the same as yours? (Crucify him! Crucify him!) The fact that I've been playing JCS non-stop for the last two days probably isn't helping...

So aside from my lines, I also get an awesome costume to wear. It's an old priests robe with a sash, I seriously did feel very religious with it on. Mom, you'll be happy to know that the robe fully covers me from my neck to my ankles, so no worries about me scaring away children with my flowing mane of chest hair. I got to practice the stages of the cross with a tiny cross they had in the office, including my three falls; gotta say this is going to be my best performance ever. I'm really glad I get to do this with the rest of the clinic, everyone there is super laid back and we were laughing a lot today. It's nice to be working with awesome people.

After the meeting I brought two kids to a med run in Chimaltenango. It went really smoothly but took FOREVER. By the time I got back half the day was gone. Waiting for me at the clinic was my cross!! This thing is gigantic! It's about seven or eight feet tall and HEAVY. They made it by cutting down two trees and nailing them together so it has a cool rustic element to it, but that also means I'm carting around the weight of two friggen trees for a mile or two. Hooray for exercise!

Okay, enough about my Jesus escapade. Other things happened today too. Remember I was talking yesterday about those traveling clowns that were teaching about HIV? Well the school refused to let them perform today! While I was at the med appointment they arrived at NPH and were apparently turned away. Tia Rosa told me that the principal at the school thinks that they're too vulgar and therefor inappropriate for the kids (because the said "vaginal fluid"!! Um, guess what? Vaginal fluid is a real thing! I'm going to try to talk to the director and get her decision overturned because I think that's bullshit. If I don't have luck and I end up having to give a much-more boring version of their HIV inservice, my goal is to talk about drippy vaginas as much as possible. There are girls in this school who have HIV and want to have sex, they need to know this stuff! Totally pissed me off.

After that I had another meeting with the supervisor of the Baby's House to plan all my inservices there. I have a ton of things to teach to her staff and she was super sweet to me, so it put me back in a good mood. The rest of the day was pretty good, I went into town and bought huge, fresh avocados which I promptly turned into the most delicious guacamole I've ever had. I love that avocados grow everywhere here; they go from tree to my belly in the same day, perfecto.

Speaking of fresh veggies, just have to share my haul from this weekend. This was purchased for a total of $6

Unlike American supermarkets, you always know what's in season here based on what's available. These little goodies were new to me, these are Jocotes (pronounced like Ha-Coat-ee). There's a neighboring town called Jocotenango which is famous for them (the suffix -tenango means "place of". Jocotenango means "Place of Jocotes". The story goes that when the Spanish came to this town they were so impressed by the number of fruit trees, they named the town for it. It was my first time trying them so I was pretty excited. Have to say that I was mildly disappointed, though I still ate an entire bag. They are the size of large grapes and have a big pit inside, so you eat just the skin and a tiny bit of flesh surrounding the pit. I've heard that they taste like mangos but that's not what I was getting from it (pretty good thing since I don't like mangos). This sounds really weird but it's so accurate that I have to say it. It smelled/tasted EXACTLY like the hair salon in JCPennys at the Rockaway Mall. I've always loved that smell, I go out of my way to walk by the salon. Whatever chemicals they're using there to treat hair are awesome. Anyway, that was the very first thing that popped into my head when I was eating them. They were kind of sweet but tangy to the point of being inedible. Hooray for new experiences though!

(I should add that I don't really know what signifies a ripe jocote, so I might have been eating ones that hadn't reached their prime yet.)

Okay, this has nothing to do with anything but I've had it sitting here on my computer waiting to be posted for days now. I thought you might like to see how floors get mopped here (since it's a little different than in the states). Enjoy!