Cows Frogs and Viejitos

Ay Dios Mio... These last few weeks have been rough, living without water. But THANK GOD the water is back! We have water once again, falling like the fountain of life from our chorro. I was so so happy when it finally came- after not having enough water to adequately bathe or wash dishes for weeks- that when I saw the precious liquid flowing in abundance I rejoiced in overly dramatic song and dance. Hallelujah! I have to say, it was a good experience... one that perhaps will really make my Peace Corps journey complete... I now know how valuable and precious this resource is. Over the last few days of our drought morale was low... I was left with no clean pots to cook with, no clean dishes to eat off of.... I was beginning to lose faith it would ever come. Then that day my prayers were answered... I hope I don't have to experience that too often again in the future. I will never ever complain again about how the ducks and chicken stand over my bath water and poo in it... I will be glad just to have it. This experience of loss of water makes me even more passionate about securing this water project for the near 60 houses in my community that dont have running water... I can't believe they live like that, and have lived like that, for their entire lives.

Random side note: One chicken layed a few eggs on the floor where I take my shower the other day... I picked them up off the ground and ate them for lunch.

I love cows, but I hate them. I am so nervous walking around my community these days, in fear of a vaca brava that might come and try to coronear me- or stick her horn thru me. Ay no. Now I am almost never seen walking around town without a stick, and with much hesitation turning every corner. And when I do encounter cows, I am running into whatever house is nearby feeling nervous until they leave. Ever since my experience of being charged by an angry heffer and being saved by my neighbor Mateo for fighting it off, and ever since I talked to the woman who told me that was how her father died, I have these horrible visions that if anything were gonna kill me in the Peace Corps it would be the horn of a cow. Not the notable violence of the country I live in, but a cow. Haha... I am thinking about moving, yes still. I found a new place that is a possibility... and among the many perks of living there is the fact that I won't have to walk so far to school and the center of town everyday and encounter these frightening animals. What I do love about cows though- They are really really cute when they are babies, as you can see from some of my newest facebook photos. One was born last week and I named him Willy. And the cows that live at my house are nice and not scary... I love that I can feed them and give them whatever fruits and veggies I have that go bad, or whatever other undesirable foods I am given by friends and neighbors. I can never turn down food when it's offered to me... that's something that is extremely rude and offensive in this culture.

Another creature I am developing a hate for: FROGS. Effin Frogs. I remember when I was kid and I thought they were cute and I would go searching for them in the water meters on the street on Jenny Drive. Well little did I know how disgusting they are. I don't appreciate that now with the rainy season they are taking over my house... by the tens. I need to frog proof my house and do something about the gap underneath my doors. I am also proving to be a terrible frog hunter. Those suckers are really quite fast. I try to get to them and smash them with the broom and kill them so I can sweep them out of the house with ease... but it seems like no matter how hard I beat them they still manage to have the strength to hop away faster than I can get them out. And they hop quickly behind all furniture and hide and then I can't find them. And then they come out at night while i'm in bed making so much noise banging on everything and knocking things over and singing... and do you have any idea how substantial their excrements are? I mean... i'm talking decent sized turds, that smell. Hmph. I bet if I move to my new house I won't have this problem so bad.

The house I am in now and have been living in for almost a year is rather exposed to the elements. And when it rains water is flooding into my house from the side door creating a huge pool of water on one half of my house. It also brings in poo and dirt and nasty things... I've starting shoving a towel under the door, but mannnn.... what a life. The only thing about moving to this new place is that I will be joining a family... the living conditions will be a lot nicer, and I love this family... and I'll have the house to myself when I go to sleep at night because the kids that live in it and have their things there sleep next door with their grandma. Their parents left them to go to the US when they were really small and they've never gotten used to sleeping alone. But I love the family and the house is really pretty nice and spacious and their are cool young people around, including my best 20 year old friend Carolina. So i'm thinking I should do it... Just one year to go anyway. And time flies. And I'll get to know another part of my community better. But I'm gonna wait until August I think. Telling Marinita and Chepito will be hard.

This morning when I was waiting for the bus while sitting and chatting with my friend Hilda, I heard some man shouting all crazy. "What's that about?" I asked Hilda... She told me it was the old man that lives in the house across the street. He is old and blind and lives alone..... ??? How does one get by living like that? Maybe he was screaming because he had to go to the bathroom and couldn't find it and went all over himself. How does he find and prepare food when he is hungry? No one should have to live like that. Supposedly he has a daughter that comes once a day every day at 7 am to give him food.. but jeeez... that's not enough. Someone like that needs around the clock support. Hearing his story hurts my heart.

I have this thing about visiting the elderly in my community. There are a lot of sweet elderly women that live alone and I go and sit with them and we talk. They are so so sweet and I can tell it makes them so happy to get a visitor. Last week I was visiting with Nina Odilia and she was trying to gift me everything in her home. When I said I liked her purse she ran to her room and found this big big one that she had and gave that to me, and then she proceeded to fill it with most of her fruits and vegetables in her fridge and sweet bread and soup mix. I was like "No more, you've given me enough." But enough was not enough for her. How sweet she is. I couldn't ever eat all of that myself before it went bad. Now I feel like I owe her... I'm gonna have to buy her some fancy pan dulce next time I go to San Vicente for her.

Well that's all for today my friends... Time to go enjoy my weekend!