I returned to site expecting a few delights:
1) Guinea pigs in the chicken coop I built before I left.
2) A fresh layer of dirt over my entire bedroom (it blows in the cracks in the door and window if I don’t clean it daily).
3) Fresh underwear!
Only one of those expectations came true.
Everything, including my bed and kitchen, was covered in a light layer of what they call “polvo” or blown dirt. I spent a few hours cleaning everything from my sugar jar to my sleeping bag, to by reading material.
There were no guinea pigs in my chicken coop!! Yay! Instead, the family dog had given birth and made that her family’s home. Thank god I wasn’t here for the birth because they drowned all the female puppies as a form of population control. But, we have 5 beautiful little male puppies that I just love to sit in the chicken coop with and stare at. Their eyes have yet to open and they are about the size of my palm.
Unfortunately, there were no fresh underwear to be found. Drat! The hand washing is taking a toll on my skivvies and I have had to throw away quite a holey few at this point. The rainy season, more than anything, keeps me from doing serious laundry. No Sun= no dry clothes and wet clothes do me no good. But, tomorrow’s plan is to turn my bedroom into a laundry mat.
As I was cleaning the dirt from my already cleaned dishes I looked up and a bull had entered the house. Yup, full blown torro loco had just walked in the front door. I yelled for Roxana and we both tried to make loud noises to scare the bull out, but, apparently the bull that was waiting outside to fight the bull that was inside was scarier than we were. Our house was a more comfy place for Mr. Bull and he had no interest in returning to the bull ring (no pun needed) that the street outside has become. The solution? Scare away the bull that was outside before the bull that was inside could do any damage. It worked. They both ended up trotting away down the street. The questions of the day were, where did they go? And, who is their owner? Meh. No harm done.
This morning Roxana woke me up and said, “The comvi leaves in 10 minutes, lets go visit my “cunyada” (the wife of her brother) in Lari”. I threw on clothes and splashed my face and we ran down the street, coats in hand and shoes untied.
When we got there I played with the family kids (human and goat) while Roxana visited with her sister-in-law. The whole family was very sweet and one of the kids (human) decided to come back to Madrigal with us and visit her grandparents. There are no comvis in the morning from Lari to Madrigal, so we had to hike it. It is such a beautiful hike, I never mind it. And, as it is spring here all the fields and flowers are just beginning to bloom. We picked mountains of wildflowers to bring back to the house. I was in heaven; we were all having a blast. “I’ll race you to the sheep!” “I’ll race you to the pine” “Don’t drop the cactus flower! It’s the prettiest!”
Now, my cold is calling me back to bed. This cold has sent me a fabulous reminder to thank my body whole fully. Yeah, my back hurts sometimes, and yeah I have a runny nose now, I even get a quick bout of diarrhea here and there from unproperly boiled milk or unwashed hands serving me alpaca. But, it could be so much worse. Seeing other volunteers go through intestinal worms or nasty parasites gives me a world of thanks for my hearty body and dumb good luck.
Knock on wood for me!
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