I woke up and it was dumping rain outside. I had been planning to make a trip to Chota that morning, and walking an hour in the dumping rain with my laptop was not really my idea of a good time. I packed up my stuff anyway, because I had to send in an application for a Peace Corps committee called Women in Development/Gender Analysis and Development Committee. I’ll explain more about it if I get it, but the application was due and I didn’t want to type up my application on my Kindle and email it in that way. I also had heard from my mom that I should be expecting a package with Christmas cookies in it.
Turns out my rain coat is big enough on me now that if I open the armpit zips, lovingly called “pit zips” in my family, I can put my full backpack on under my coat and still zip it in the front. Who would have known how useful that would be? So I walked to the health post through the rain, and when I got there, Violeta started fussing over me, insisting that I was going to get sick if I walked to Chota in the rain, and didn’t I have a hat or an umbrella to keep my head dry? I pulled up my hood, shrugged, and resigned myself to walking to Chota. The last time I had waited for a mototaxi, it had been two and a half hours. Luckily, just as I was walking out of the health post, a truck came barreling by that actually had space. I hopped in and got to ride down the hill in a CAR! It was so exciting. Every big turn we made I grinned because I didn’t have to get out with all my stuff and run around the corner, only to jump back into the moto, drive a bit farther, get out, run around the corner and so on. It felt like total luxury!
I made a trip to Serpost where I got two packages, one with Christmas cookies! Then I went and hung out in Anita’s for far too long. I updated my blog, got to skype with some seriously missed friends, email in my WID/GAD application, and then head back up the hill. I spent the rest of the evening preparing for my English class the next morning.
And one point, I was just hanging out outside for a bit and noticed that Mr. Wickham was, shall we say, ruffling the feathers of Lydia. These are ducks, in case anyone missed that. Anyway, animals mate all over the place here, and I have sort managed to desensitize myself to it, but watching ducks mate would make any self-respecting woman cringe. Mr. Wickham pinned down Lydia’s head and neck with his beak, took full advantage of her while her head was smooshed into the mud, and then collapsed on top of her when he’d had his fill. I had half a mind to go kick him off, and decided I had done enough sitting for the day, and I went into my room to work on English class prep.
While I was preparing for English class, Celina asked me if I would keep an eye on Mishel while she went to a house across the way to give her condolences (an older woman had passed away). I said sure. It was a bit strange really, because she’d never asked me to look after Mishel. I told Mishel she could come hang out in my room because I needed to prepare for tomorrow’s class. She said she wanted to play with the puppy. She came in about every five minutes to ask me a question and then would leave. About twenty minutes later, I heard her crying right outside my doorway. I went right out to her and asked her what was wrong. I stroked her hair and she sobbed for her Mom. Celina had been gone for about half an hour. I grabbed my crayons off my shelf and some paper and brought her out to the table in the other room to draw. I read while she drew, and she stopped crying immediately. She drew two pictures and then got bored, so I took Uno off the shelf and taught her how to play. What became really annoying after a while was that she couldn’t remember you could put down the same color or the same number, so each time it was her turn, I had to tell her what color and what number she could put down. Lots of times she just wouldn’t see that she had the color in her hand. We played four games, and by the end of it I was trying hard not to get snippy with her, but I was not having much fun.
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