my new alarm clock

¨Bahhhhhhhhhhh¨

¨Hee HAW! Hee HAW!¨

¨Cockadoodledooooooooooooooooooooo!¨



Such is the morning here in Coral de Arena. Noisy and already getting warm at about 6am. Thankfully, I finally mejorar-ed (made better) my sleeping situation (it used to be just sleeping on a straw mattress) so it´s not QUITE a rude an awakening. Peruvians here do all their work realllly early because it gets about 100 degrees during the afternoon, so I tend to feel REALLY lazy as they are sweeping the front yard (just a bare dirt area....it makes me cringe everyday), the house, mopping, going out to collect firewood, (the kitchen gets OVER 100 degrees when they are cooking...I don´t know how they do it) already cooking, taking the animals out to pasture, and trying to keep the almost-3-year-old out of trouble. It´s a hard act to follow, and so far I´ve been following it up with a lot of reading in room. Where it´s only 90 degrees. So far I´ve plowed through 4 books in 4 weeks, and been to 3 different continents. Maybe I should get some real work done. But who wants to do that when you can read about African safaris, Indian spiritualism and Haitian unrest? I sure don´t. (If any of the Cuerpo de Paz higher ups, or people in general are reading this: I really AM working on working).



In general, though, living life here is a lot different in every single way. Just about every day I´m asked if I´m married, how old I am, and where I´m from. Sometimes the marriage question is followed by, ¨come dance with me!¨(if I´m at one of the plethora of Peruana parties), ¨do you have a boyfriend in the States?¨ ¨what! why not! you´re 23!¨ and the most recent one is "can you accept marriage proposals while you´re here?" If you´re wondering, Mom, my answer to the last one was a firm "No, but at least you were polite enough to ask." One guy has gone so far as to bring me mangos and coconuts. Too bad the mangos were green and moldy. It´s rather comical. My mayor says that it´s just the Peruvian way of joking and accepting me, and they are just joking. I find it many things, but "just joking!" isn´t one of them.



I have come to appreciate many strange things about the states in the last 3 months. Carpet and floor rugs are one of them. less rice and more vegetables is another. they eat no less than 3 pounds of rice a day, per person. i may have said this already. but I´m reminding everyone (all 2 of you that read this). cleanliness is another. water pressure. tv shows with at least half-substantial content. annonymity. open mindedness. no machismo. being able to communucate.
being able to talk with those of the male species without others thinking that I am dating them. and without the males thinking that i want to date them. oh man. there´s a lot more things. but so far, so good. recycling. that´s actually been the hardest one. I´m here to implement recycling programs, but it´s hard to live without it as well. call me a dirty hippy (you´d be right, it´s hard to shower with only a few liters of water) but it´s true.

well, i´m off to the land of the sand. until next time!