Around the last bend

My Peace Corps experience is winding down, more than 3/4 over already. I sometimes find myself thinking about how little I have accomplished compared to what I thought I would do at the beginning. It is hard not to compare myself to a college freshman who has slacked off (not that I have) the majority of the first semester and is now riding on finals week to justifiy his existence, especially when I look at what other volunteers have accomplished. But enought of that.



My host brother Enrique moved into his house before Holy Week, even though he did not have money for the doors and windows. He just went around town looking for junk boards and nailed everything shut except for one door - he installed an old one that his aunt gave him that she had replaced. Could you imagine moving into a house without doors and windows? Life is different here. A house is more like a work in progress. (side note: one of these days I will get to a fast enough connection and post pics on facebook)

Salad round 2 went better this time; no greens, just tomatoes, peppers, onions, cucumbers, carrots, and the same amazing Italian dressing mix. Of course some members of my host family were like a kid with a bowl of M and Ms who has decided he only likes the green ones - fishing around with their fingers to pick out what they liked. Thankfully other family members are less picky. No polite comments of discontent this time so I will chalk it up as a success or a least a partial one.

There has been a helicopter flying overhead for several weeks know. Apparently a Canadian company is looking into wind energy prospects in the area. The friendly neighborhood old man, who sometimes drinks to much (but was not drunk at the time) jokingly told me it was selling bananas and I broke out in laughter. Probably not so funny without context, but when you have random pick-ups occasionally drive through town selling random fruit the joke makes more sense.

English classes have started to throw me for a loop. I have learned that I am not made to be a teacher. The odds are not in my favor to start with: 1 few gradeschool students are dedicated to learning in a formal environment, 2 they are even less motivated when they know they will not be tested on the material, and 3 (most important) I cannot compete with the breakfast/lunch that often shows up late during the hour I´m scheduled to teach (even I would probably start drumming my fingers if I had to listen to myself while staring through the barred windows at food waiting for me on the other side). Then comes my ineptitude. The other day I was trying to get the students to pratice the "my name is..., what is your name?" exchange. I had hoped to have the students go around in a circle saying their names and asking the person next to them what their name was, but I could not get the point across. I exhausted every figment of my extremely limited teaching prowess drawing stick figures on the board in a line with arrows between them and the statement/question above each of their heads, but even this "brilliant" illustration got nothing more than blank stares. I had to settle for asking/responding to each student in English while they asked/responed to me in Spanish, but I even managed to botch that by confusing myself and slipping into Spanish.

2 of my host dad´s cows died prompting a sudden vacination campaign. It is something to see vaqueros in their environment. 2 man lasso teams ropping cows, and dragging the agressive ones over to a post to anchor them down; my host dad running around with syring in hand, slapping cows in the rear, jabbing the needle in, and half slapping the cow again to massage the pain, another running around slopping paint on cows horns or forehead to distinguish those that had already gone through the gauntlet. Although the paint wasn´t foolproof (some of the cows would fight smearing paint on other cows horns/foreheads) they really seemed to know which cows had been already. 70 some cows in around 2 hours; I have nothing to gauge that by but it seems impressive to me.

I did not get out to see the Holy Week festivities this year but it was not so bad staying in site. I was invited over to several houses various times for the traditional "sopa de pescado" (fish soup). Interestingly enough, some families make the crabcake-like fish "tortas" by letting the fish (previously gutted but still heads and all) dry for a couple weeks and then grinding them in the same "molina" used to grind corn and tossing the "polvo" (powder) into the crabcake-like mix. As gross as it might sound the soup is actually quite good (but my standards have changed so take that for what it is worth).

Thankfully the rains have come again. It was starting to get to the point that I no longer felt cleaner after bathing. The river was basically choked with sediment and algae to the point that the water that reached my host family´s pila through the hose looked "alive". And I actually have no room to complain - others had it a lot worse. My host dad had the almost daily task of breaking the hose down into it´s various sections to remove the algae/sediment clogs or the air buildup from low flows. He mentioned that having various sections also reduces the potential value to thieves but it makes it harder to maintain the hose system in flood flows during storms.


I have started research finally but it is almost like I have not. I am hoping to look at the relationship between rainfall and spring flow to infer something about groundwater conditions and recharge zones but I keep hitting setbacks. I missed the first rain at the end of March because, although I had a rain gauge, I did not set it up because the rainy season does not start until May. I put it up the following day to have a pair of oxen knock the fence down so I had to look for another location. I also had installed a plastic ruler in a spring fed pool to gauage the level of the water and it somehow walked off shortly after. I´m not sure if someone needed a ruler or did not want me messing around there. The community was hesistant to let me investigate the water source for fear of losing there limited supply in the dry season but maybe that will change now that the rains have started to fall. I missed a chance to measure the recharge rate of this soucre when it went dry once during holy week (probably due to the increased demand) because I could not find who had the key to the springbox to take measurements. I don´t want to ramble on so I´ll just leave it at "it has been difficult".


Here´s a little something to brighten your day. A little while ago I was seething after a bad day; laying in the hammock and trying to clear my head when the neighbor´s dog walks up and urinates all over the portable solar panel I had set out on the porch to catch the sun at the best angle. Lesson learned - It can ALWAYS be worse.

Peace,

Rob