Summer tiiiiiimes, and the livin´s easyyyyyy

Summer in the district of Olmos (which really never ends, as it´s in the desert) is proving to be pretty amazing. Apparently, the summer not only brings hot hot heat, but torrential rainstorms, as well. Good ole tropics. We have yet to see the rain (which some volunteers have told me is not actually that bad) but it´s been HOT ever since I got to site almost 2 weeks ago. It reminds me of the two weeks I spent in Bahía de Los Angeles, on a field study-we take 2-4 hour naps in the middle of the day. Or at least sit inside and read or talk or just melt a little for that time. For some reason, though, they enjoy serving soup for lunch, right in the middle of the hotness. I don´t understand, but they don´t seem to mind it, so I´ll just get used to it.

To describe my town a little: It´s a casarillo (a small town) in the district (county) of Olmos. The main part of the town has about 1500 people, and there are 7 anexos (think, umm.......just a really small town), each with anywhere from 50-300 people. There are no paved roads, though the roads near the river Cascajal (the river coming off the highway, on the way to my town) are mostly graveled. My host family grows mangos, papayas, lentils, tamarindos (kind of like big beans covered in Fruit Roll Up), and sweet potato, and has 2 donkeys, 15ish sheep, 10ish goats, 10ish Criloe chickens, 6 ducks, a few pigs, a several guniea pigs. They ae busy bees (I think they have some bee boxes too, but I haven´t found them yet). They wake up at dawn, more or less, to start their days work. There are two daughters that live in the house, Janet and Maria Angelica, though they go by Pocha and Keke (pronouced Cake-a, it always makes me want dessert). They keep the house together, though Pocha works at the municipality 5 hours a day. Keke keeps her nearly three year old son, Fabricio, in line, while doing laundry, and general house stuff. I mostly just feel useless. I have a community diagnostic that I have to do in my first 3 months, and I try to look busy doing that. Fabricio has adopted me, and I spend a lot of time keeping him out of trouble, too.

Mostly, I sit back in the hammock and think about what great luck these people have to live here, and they don´t even realise it. The skyscapes are gorgeous, and remind me of what I think that Africa would look like, if I ever were to see it. The mountains are inviting, though they can´t understand why I would think about spending energy to go there (we´re very close to some small peaks, and I plan to explore them quite soon), and while it´s super hot, at least it´s not super cold and snowing. I used to think that super hot was worse, but I think that I can stand it now. The one problems is the water, of course, as there is a river quite close and it floods. But, there are people (supossedly) working on that.

The last almost 3 months here have left me missing things in the good ole USofA-
Carpet. Floors are either dirt or cement in these parts.
Plentiful vegetables
Cereal (we eat a combo of rice, potatoes, fried meat, fried potatos and fried eggs. oi).
english.
rock climbing.
constant interent.
constant electricity.
constant water (I´ve learned to take a bath from 1.5 gallons of water every other day. sometimes even every day).
mexican food.
toilet seats. (my training house had a toilet but no seat. this house actually has a seat, but it´s a latrine and I regularly see cockroaches in it. I don´t sit.)

it´s time to head to a meeting with the municipality and the local schools, so I gotta run! I explain more about it later.