Random Moments

I woke up around midnight several weeks ago to the sounds of the kitten tearing into the bag of beef jerky that I had been saving for a special occasion (not sure what that was supposed to be). Apparently I had fallen asleep without remembering to secure the door and the wind had blow it open.

My best man's best friend gave birth to 2 healthy puppies (almost makes up for the weeks of hell while she was in heat) that are almost a month old now.

I made a salad for the host family one day but it did not really go over well. No one really liked the mustard greens and parsley combo (not my fault they were the only greens the chickens left alone) despite the amazing (in my opinion) Italian dressing I made from a mix. My host dad nicely said that the leaves were a little past their prime. Most didn't even try it, but they did polish off the tomatoes I had bought and sliced to complement the salad - well at least they got their veggies. So I ate a family's worth of salad so it wouldn't go to waste and hoped I wouldn't get sick.

I used to think chickens were my arch nemesis but burros (donkeys) are now vying for that coveted position. I did not know that donkeys were so intelligent, but there is a pair in my community that have figured out how to open gates to make midnight food raids. Not only did they polish off my mustard and parsley (making a second attempt at a salad impossible) they have made repeated trips to munch the bush right outside my window making quite a racket that keeps me up all night. In there defense they did leave my peppers alone at least, and it is the dry season when food is scarce.

Speaking of chickens, fishing for chickens is hilarious. One of the guys in my community who loves to fish recently got a hold of a fishing rod. I was showing him how to cast it when one of the chickens in the yard decided the lure would be a tasty meal. Thankfully it did not catch up (can't imagine trying to get a chicken of a hook) but it followed the lure almost to the porch.

I recently went on a trip to a nearby community nestled in a picturesque valley below impressive cliffs but I was almost unable to appreciate the scenery. I don't know why I agreed to go along with questionable stomach status, but thankfully there was a latrine and even more surprisingly it was stocked with TP. I met a funny little guy there who kept cracking jokes - like how the cliffs were a fence he made a few years back and how I should take a picture of him as the tallest guy in the area (he might be 4 ft tall) - but his comments of "que bonito" (how cute) got old after a while. It made me realize just how thankful I am that I have lost some of the celebrity status in the community I live in - my whiteness, blond hair and blue eyes are no longer so novel.

A brief work update:

Regarding the water project, I heard through the grapevine that the property owner still verbally agrees to moving the dam further upstream for better quality but that he is no longer willing to sign a legal document granting permission. So the water project does not seem possible through that route at the moment. People are beginning to talk of looking into drilling a well when the electricity project gets completed (it is still kind of on hold though).

I started teaching English in the school again and I was pleasantly surprised how much the kids remembered. I won't have to spend several classes reviewing the ABCs so hopefully we can make more progress this year. I received another batch of letters from the school in the states and hope to motivate the profesora to have the students write response letters by the end of the month to potentially have time for more than one letter exchange this year. I am also working with the profesora and the equivalent of the PTA on preparations for a tree nursery and school garden to be started when the rains return.


I'll leave you with this insight:

The first bus is not always the best bus when you are on a schedule.