The 29th year
Dedicated to Dad for helping make Shocorco smile; to Jason, Elyse, Pilar, Kristin, Carlos, Meghan, and Meredith for helping to make my birthday so delicious; and to Elyse for being, well, Elyse. I miss you already!
Well, I´m officially 29 years old. And to celebrate starting my last year as a 20-something, I ate myself into a stupor - 3 days in a row! My celebratory meals included:
- Chili, cornbread and cake (thanks guys - you dudes totally rock!)
- Ceviche, seafood wantons, salty/limey beer
- Chineses take-out
- Pollo a la Brasa (rotisserie chicken - the best in Cajabamba!)
All of it made complete by being surrounded by increasingly dear friends and the voices of my family. Thank you everyone!
In Jocos news, I´m still enjoying candle-lit dinners. Despite rumors to the contrary, electricity is still sometime in the undetermined future (although the major of Cajabamba assures me it will happen soon). Sigh.
And the sweater I´ve been knitting? Yea, I´m still knitting it. I´m on the sleeves - the last major part befor sewing it all together and putting on the finishing touches. This has been a true test of my determination (maybe even more so than staying in Perú some days!) - who knew hand knitting a sweater would take so long or get so boring? Don´t get me wrong, I really enjoy knitting. My problem is I get to thinking about my next project and before long I´m antsy to start it. Doña Paulina has promised to teach me a new point that will make knitting the next sweater more interesting (and yes, there will be a second one! I already have the yarn.). But more interesting often translates into complicated - probably won´t be letting my hand work their magic on the yarn while my mind wanders.
I´m still teaching English, and even have an adult class now. Only one person shows up, but he´s very motiviated! But where my high school students are concerned, a pop-quiz quickly dispelled any thoughts of my teachings actually sticking. Discouraging, very discouraging. I´m trying to decide if I will teach in the high school next year. Sigh. I probably will. It does give me something to do.
The shining star in my work is Shocorco. We got the funding we needed to finish the kitchen roof at the school! It was incredible to see everyone´s face light up with huge, toothy grins - and even some giggling - when I told them the funding had come through. It was a reminder of why I´m here.
Update: On Friday, I was met by a 3-man party from Shocorco to buy the roofing tiles. They had walked 4 pre-dawn hours to meet me at 8am, but after a quick breakfast of noodle soup, they were ready to go in search of the perfect tiles. On Saturday, we met again in the early morning to arrange for a truck from the municipality of Cajabamba to pickup and deliver the tiles. All of which was taken care of by 8am! I giggled some myself as I watched the guys ride away in the truck, all waving and smiling at me. We are having a roofing party on the 10th of November to officially finish the roof and to celebrate. This naturally means guinnea pig, but for Shocorco, I´m willing to actually eat the little critter!
But the truth is, the rush of energy I experienced after getting over that brick wall in September has largely faded. I like to blame it on the rain - with it raining 5 out of 7 days a week, its hard to get motivated to leave my room. The spot I spent hours preparing for my garden has grown over due to the rain and (honestly) my delay in getting fencing materials (to plant without a fence is the same as not planting at all once all the animals get to it). I´m concentrating on getting to January when I go to Belize to visit Mom, Dad and Cody. The next couple of months will be busy with Thanksgiving and lots of Peace Corps stuff (including a trip to Lima for a one year medical check-up and update), but Belize is what I´m really looking forward to.
Well, I´m officially 29 years old. And to celebrate starting my last year as a 20-something, I ate myself into a stupor - 3 days in a row! My celebratory meals included:
- Chili, cornbread and cake (thanks guys - you dudes totally rock!)
- Ceviche, seafood wantons, salty/limey beer
- Chineses take-out
- Pollo a la Brasa (rotisserie chicken - the best in Cajabamba!)
All of it made complete by being surrounded by increasingly dear friends and the voices of my family. Thank you everyone!
In Jocos news, I´m still enjoying candle-lit dinners. Despite rumors to the contrary, electricity is still sometime in the undetermined future (although the major of Cajabamba assures me it will happen soon). Sigh.
And the sweater I´ve been knitting? Yea, I´m still knitting it. I´m on the sleeves - the last major part befor sewing it all together and putting on the finishing touches. This has been a true test of my determination (maybe even more so than staying in Perú some days!) - who knew hand knitting a sweater would take so long or get so boring? Don´t get me wrong, I really enjoy knitting. My problem is I get to thinking about my next project and before long I´m antsy to start it. Doña Paulina has promised to teach me a new point that will make knitting the next sweater more interesting (and yes, there will be a second one! I already have the yarn.). But more interesting often translates into complicated - probably won´t be letting my hand work their magic on the yarn while my mind wanders.
I´m still teaching English, and even have an adult class now. Only one person shows up, but he´s very motiviated! But where my high school students are concerned, a pop-quiz quickly dispelled any thoughts of my teachings actually sticking. Discouraging, very discouraging. I´m trying to decide if I will teach in the high school next year. Sigh. I probably will. It does give me something to do.
The shining star in my work is Shocorco. We got the funding we needed to finish the kitchen roof at the school! It was incredible to see everyone´s face light up with huge, toothy grins - and even some giggling - when I told them the funding had come through. It was a reminder of why I´m here.
Update: On Friday, I was met by a 3-man party from Shocorco to buy the roofing tiles. They had walked 4 pre-dawn hours to meet me at 8am, but after a quick breakfast of noodle soup, they were ready to go in search of the perfect tiles. On Saturday, we met again in the early morning to arrange for a truck from the municipality of Cajabamba to pickup and deliver the tiles. All of which was taken care of by 8am! I giggled some myself as I watched the guys ride away in the truck, all waving and smiling at me. We are having a roofing party on the 10th of November to officially finish the roof and to celebrate. This naturally means guinnea pig, but for Shocorco, I´m willing to actually eat the little critter!
But the truth is, the rush of energy I experienced after getting over that brick wall in September has largely faded. I like to blame it on the rain - with it raining 5 out of 7 days a week, its hard to get motivated to leave my room. The spot I spent hours preparing for my garden has grown over due to the rain and (honestly) my delay in getting fencing materials (to plant without a fence is the same as not planting at all once all the animals get to it). I´m concentrating on getting to January when I go to Belize to visit Mom, Dad and Cody. The next couple of months will be busy with Thanksgiving and lots of Peace Corps stuff (including a trip to Lima for a one year medical check-up and update), but Belize is what I´m really looking forward to.
posted by Kellie | 9:01 PM
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