Mid-Week Ramblings

Wednesday, Feb. 8th

Just wanted to share a few random things about my week so far before these thoughts get lost or forgotten. 

It's been raining all week which has rocked Ascope's world. We've gotten rain everyday since Sunday and things are falling apart--- literally. Lucky for me, my house is awesome and my ceiling hasn't caved in or leaked yet. Others I know are not as lucky. Things here aren't built for rain so the host family, and everyone else around these parts, is a little worried. 

On account of the rain and everything falling apart, there is a rogue rabbit runnin' round these parts. The rain caused the rabbit cages to fall apart, hence there were some bunny escapes. Sadly, a few of the really little guys didn't make it through the rainy night. The older ones, though, just had fun running free until they were captured this morning by my host family. One little guy, however, remains elusive. Apparently, 4 adults couldn't catch him this morning, so they just left him out to fend for himself. When I saw him bounding around loose, I got really stubborn about catching and 'saving' him. He doesn't want to be saved. I spent about 20 minutes squatting and jumping around in rabbit poo trying to capture this little friend. I was unsuccessful. There was a point when I got him nibbling on some alfalfa in my hand  while he was under the cages and I almost had him, but he was too quick and I was too worried about falling in rabbit shit to be smooth enough to pull it off. Eventually, Piere came over to help me, to no avail. Unfortunately, not only were we unsuccessful in our rabbit hunt, but he also let me down in the humor department- which doesn't happen very often... although I don't know why I was expecting him to get this joke in the first place. I'll tell you about it anyway. As we were crouching and tiptoeing around the rabbit cages I said, "SHHH! Be vewy vewy quiiiiet." Lost humor for so many reasons. But really, when else would I be rabbit hunting, ever? I'll never get to use that line again. Sigh. And in case you're wondering, my friend who escapar-ed is still running free. I've heard Abuelo is just as stubborn as me in this conquest, and he and I share a fondness of the rabbits, so if anyone catches him it will be Abuelo. I'll let you know if we get him tomorrow. 

Had a nice run this evening on top of a good one last night. It's nice running after the rain. Last night I got a rainbow and a sunset, tonight I had a really nice peaceful run as no one was out on account of the rainy muddy murkiness. As much as I enjoy everyone cheering me on and shouting my name, racing me, giving me high fives, etc. sometimes it's just nice to zone out and enjoy a quiet afternoon. Both nights I ended the run by stopping to chat with my neighbor who recently had a baby girl. I love babies and this one is sooo cute. She has a ton of hair! Makes me really really excited to see pictures of little Vivi who is on her way... I have a hunch she's going to have some crazy-awesome hair :) 

Anyway, I did something a little extreme after my run. I've been considering it for awhile now and I decided it was time: I went public with my marathon training. Now, I know that some of you might recognize that I've already 'gone public' and sent emails, made a facebook post, etc. about training for the Pacasmayo marathon, so you might think that this is no big deal, but it is. When I say I went public with it, I mean I went public in Ascope... and that's kind of big. What I did was mention it to my two gateways into the social circle of my street. These are the kind of friends who know everything. And once they know, everyone knows. So to tell them that I am planning to run 42 Km in July means that now every time that I run, I will hear something about the 42 Km I am training for. As I had hoped, as soon as I told them, they called someone over from across the street to share the crazy thing I had just said. Worked. Like. A. Charm. Soon I had a small group gathered and people asking if they could run with me... even though I know they probably won't. In any event, I've just won myself a bunch of social pressure that will be key to me sticking with my training commitments. Thanks Greenwood for teaching me how to swing small town gossip to my favor ;) 

One more random thing- 

Today while leaving the school following my afternoon class, I walked past the English teacher's room. He's teaching 'catch-up' English classes for those who need extra help. This is different than the English class I am teaching and is part of a summer school program sponsored by the municipality which I think is really cool. Anyway, as I walked past I heard him playing 'Simon Says' with his class. I don't know where he picked this up. It could have been from the volunteer who was here before me, it could have been something he knew and has been doing in his classes for awhile, or it could be something he took from the workshop I gave all the English teachers of the province on Non-Formal Education practices. In any event, this made me really happy. I don't really care how it got there, non-formal education in a Peruvian classroom makes me smile real big and walk home happy. 

That's about all for now. I still can't add photos to my posts for some reason. I hope this changes soon. Hope you are all doing well. Miss you all a whole bunch.