fall is hot and the rain twinkles on my tin roof

Spotted: one golden Papaya on Wed, fruit day in La Via
Bought: for 2 soles 50
Eaten: this morning sliced in half attacked with spoon
accompanied by fresh from the cow milk
Issac and Jesus helped me out
they are just two of the many people that are in my house all the time. all the time.
I love my host mom, but times are tough with such close quarters, there are always parties and all the people she cooks meals for never leave and well i am feeling a bit claustrophobic looking to ammend the situation soon.

then i streatched for an hour because i went for a walk yesterday ending up halfway up the mountain- I went to check out the reforestation project the district is doing, saw the little coffee beans sprouting and sang songs with the five kids in the school. The teacher goes up and down everyday from my site to the school 2 hours away. Incredible.

I am sitting in the bank with Issac and Javier, Patty and Milagros just walked in. The house follows me wherever i go ahhhhh. I am using the internet and spontaneously dancing around to the brilliant techno jams Issac has chosen as our ambiant music this fine day. Last night we made tacos, we being Cheriden and her best friend Marisella, who makes toffee filled chocolates, and her family and tio came over and we rambled long into the night whilst devouring a container of Dulce de Leche.

I have a friend in the Mayors office. He told me the other day that if I hang out with him I will work, a lot. This is good. The rainy season is begining soon and though I will prepare myself with oodles of books and baking ingredients I hope to do something with some of the kids who hang around. So me and my friend are planning a summer school of sorts plus a rec center deal. So the kids have some options other than waiting for three months for the rain to stop. We are thinking dance, art, cooking, movies, theater groups, reading club, cheriden made a twister board I am ready to use that! really whatever they want to do I am game. Lately i have been having impromptu creative moment moments with my host brother and his cousin, they like to be puppets and move like sad and happy and angry and loud and quiet and surprised and shocked puppets, but only if their homework is done.

Another barnacle to my house runs a milk program for the kids in the smaller towns round us and we are talking of starting gardens to go along with the milk. Actually I dropped the idea one night over rice n meat and salad and guineo which they love here but its just kinda like a real unripe banana and coffee, coffee at night all the time but it is esencia that they make. Like a strong syrup that they mix into hot water. Of course I didnt realize how concentrated it was and the first time I drank it was vibrant and shaking for the next hour or so. hehe. So anyway the next day he and another engineer working with the coffee growers tell me they are 90% done with the planning for the gardens have talked to five communities and we just need to talk in terms of how much we want to plant and plan the budget. Yikes!

Went to the Parolles the other weekend. BBQ and swam in the pool beneath the waterfall. Durring the rainy season the pool overflows and makes another smooth waterfall, like a nutrual waterslide into another pool...cant wait! And they say Aguas Blancas is incredible, though a four hour hike into the montains it was just discovered after this last years rain washed so much sand and silt away creating a run of falls and swimming holes. It is totally wierd to have friends I am not working with, cant say the living feels much different than the boarding school in Bolivia but its cool to walk around a town with other people some I have never seen playing volleyball with a net they have strung up across the street.

So awsuuuume to have Cheriden here. A blessing really. She has been so thoughtful and helpful with my transition and I love getting to hear all about her service. It will be sad when she leaves but weird thing is she has family four blocks from mom and dad in Min. Crazy. Thursday means pulseritas, friendship bracelets with the girls in the boarding school. Reading a good bit, Loving listening to Javier go crazy with the stamps on all the bank papers right now, but I have been inside too long and am craving a peach and more coffee and raul should be home by now. Yesterday we played with his cars and we like to read together at night, I want to start on Harry Potter with him I think.

eep almost forgot! you know the smell when you enter a conservatory garden, especially in the winter and the fog and humidty and tropical madness enters your nose? I smelt that all day yesterday on my hike just around me all over. beautiful.


the nights a cold
and the winds a blowin
its the time of the scare crowin
chains a rattlin in the attic
scaring up a bit of static
whoooos gonna be running down those streets
the sound of pitter patter little feet
you know whats right around the corner
ghosts and witches, black cats and skeletons
dragons and pirates all out of order