The days don’t stop anymore. With laundry, cleaning, cooking, teaching, planning, organizing, and teaching some more, I barely get time to be “cool aunt lu”. Tonight felt so good when Roxana and Elvis came in to watch a movie in the usual Friday-night-fashion. It was the first time this week I actually had a chance to give them some lovin. After popcorn, fruit, hot chocolate (with crushed vitamins dissolved inside… I am SO becoming my mother) and a movie, the kids still weren’t ready to leave, so we goofed around in my room until I had to kick them out.
The world map is complete. We put the names on every country today. This weekend, Meche is painting the logos, and an image of a little girl leaning on the map, reading a book under the letters, “reading, we know the world”. It is so cute it makes me vomit in my mouth a little. And, it is finished just in time for the anniversary celebration of the primary school. So, when the parents come by for the celebration, they will see this project their kids have been talking about for the past month. Perrrrfect.
Did I mention the dogs in town finally recognize me? Instead of growls, now, I generally get paws on the chest. I proudly carry my scarlet letter/muddy paw prints on my coat around town.
The teacher quartet heard I could make that mexican food called “little donkeys” or “burritos”. So, yesterday I got an old wine bottle from the recycling and rolled out some flour tortillas. Meche’s son refused to touch them, but for the first time ever, Elvis actually said, “Que rico”- “how yummy”, and Roxana ate the whole thing! It has been over a year since I have eaten this, one of my favorite foods, and my mind kept flashing to Chipotle, Don Pablos, Trudy’s, and breakfast burrito stand on the way to class in Austin. Heaven.
On another line of thought, it is funny how my “homesickness” has changed. Before, it was a longing to be there. A longing to flee back. A longing to hug my mother and father. A longing to drive much too fast down Roachton Road blaring music with my brother. A longing to frost Christmas cookies with my grandmother at her kitchen table. A longing to sit with Tiffyn for hours and debate every philosophical topic we can come up with. A longing to sit in her house and watch Jamie paint. A longing to fix bikes in Larry’s shed. A longing to garden with Michelle in her backyard. A longing to concert-bounce with Aaron in sxsw or acl. A longing to cook a meal much too large for my dining room table to handle and eat with everyone I love.
Now, the longing has changed. I am happy here. I want you all, here. I want to show you what I have learned. I want to live my life here, with access to you. To stand on the side of the canyon with my parents’ proud arms around me. To horseback ride with Matthew. To show grandma how I am mastering handmade egg noodles in my little hut. To wear alpaca hats with tiffyn. To just see how Jamie would gaze at the harlequin sunsets here. To glide down the mountain paths on bikes with Larry. To tend to the chacra with Michelle. For Aaron and I to bring art here, where it has rarely, to never, been.
While I know that all these people that I love will never know this place, I know that their presence here is felt none-the-less. I love and miss you all deeply, but know that I am happy and healthy here.
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