Valentines Day Amor

Hello everyone,

So I thought I might just send a few little antecdotes for Vaentines day. Fun stuff really, easy read... haha.

Everyone in my town has told me that everything will be green after the rains (right now it is pretty brown and dusty... except in the feilds). So, I have been looking forward to see this tropical greenness I have heard so much about... while not really forward to the rainy season. Well, we finaly had a day of about 26 hours of straight rain and everything turned to mud and guck. The river grew about two or three sizes and the roads became amost unpassable for the motos. I was wondering how I would survive three months of that kind of rain. I was shocked when that day of rain happened to be a day of my classes and I marched through the rain a little late to my class to find 11 students waiting for me! What a pleasant surprise! Especially since my host sister told me no one would go, haha. Luckily, we haven´t had another rain like that, and in fact, it has been pretty dry. The river shrank a little bit and the water is clear again, bathable and cloths washing'abe! AND, everything is turning green! How cool it is to watch grass sprout up and the trees turn greener. It is making the hills beautiful and I will be sure to take pictures.

My wonderful little spunky puppy had got really sick the other day. I was very concerned when he was laying on the floor crying, with diarreah and would drink or eat anything. I was very concerned he might die, which is not uncommon for dogs here. That morning I went for a run, and when I returned, my host sister told me my dog is really sick! I said, ya I know, but what has changed? While I was gone, she had ¨passed the egg¨ over him to find our what was wrong. This consists of rubbing an egg all over his body and then cracking in a glass of water which they the ¨read¨ to find out what is wrong with the person or, in this case, animal. It is also supposed to help absorb the sickness. I guess it must have worked because he pulled through and is looking ten times better! He is playing again and biting everyone. The other day, he even followed me all the way across town for the first time... which leads to another story.

I was martching through town with my host sister to watch the boys play soccer and my little puppy Brandol follwed me there. Everyone got a kick out of meeting my dog and the kids a played with him. The funny part was, my puppy was greeted by a couple of guys that I don´t know personal by the name of ¨Cachimbito¨ which means ¨little Cachimba¨ which is the name of one of my friends here. Cachimbito spurred from a joke of when I first met my friend Cachimba and liked his nick name so much that I told him that was my dogs name (obviously not really, but a joke). The joke has spread like wildfire... hurray for little towns! haha. So now my little puppy has been givin the full name of Brandol Cachimbito Capitan, lovingly called Brandito by me.

My host Dad´s birthday came and went this Thursday, and he was very sad that none of his family from the City came to see him. He had even bought and killed a sheep for all of us to eat! The head of which is still sitting around in the kitchen which is jaw and big eyes taunting me. I tried hard to make up for his lack of family by drinking more than I usually do in site (which is still not much) and dancing with my host parents and siblings, trying to energieze them and keep up the celebratory spirit. I told him we will all celebrate again on Sunday.

Finally, I hope you all have a wonderful Valentines day! Here in Peru I will be celebrating at a Valentines Day dance (feels like grade school... just a little) where I´m sure attempts to marry me off will be made and I will have a good old time practicing my Peruvian dance moves. I also made Vday cards with my students which turned out to be a lot of fun, we wrote in engish loving expressions and everything and they got a real kick out of it. Also, there are rumors that my oldest host brother will be coming into town, so that should be a good time all around, the whole family together!

Hugs and kisses all around, lots of love, and I miss you all!