It’s
a rainy morning here in the RAINforest. I’m sitting in the girls’ dorm waiting
to check students into their rooms, but not getting a lot of takers. I think
they are hoping the rain will let up later so they can move in without getting
their things all wet. Of course, mud will still be an issue! Anyway, school is
starting tomorrow and I am very eager to begin my classes. I will be teaching
two sections of English 2 this semester, both 4 hours per week, one each for
the Education and Agronomy departments. Everyone here has been so welcoming and
helpful, it already feels like home. As I have helped with the dorm check-ins
Saturday and today, I have had the opportunity to meet some of my students, and
they seem like a fun bunch. It promises to be a great semester!
So much has happened since we arrived that we have hardly
had time to stand still, never mind keep our blog updated. Our previous post
was during an evening we spent in La Paz last week, back for more appointments
for our visa process. However, we do now have Internet access here on campus,
so we will be posting and checking email more regularly, so please do check
back for updates! Also, we have tons of pictures we will work on posting over
the next few days – of La Paz, of the drive here, of the campus and our
apartment, and of our new friend, Cookie. More about him later…
Jeff has decided he is doing a photo study of the many moods
of our mountainside, so he will be creating a photo album online and adding to
it periodically, although right now his computer is down, so we have to get that fixed first. Also we have found many beautiful birds and plants to
photograph, and we would love for those of you who are interested to help us
identify them. In particular is a fairly large black bird with a parrot-like
head. They are plentiful here and noisy – they often wake us at sunrise with
lots of loud squawking!! Maybe it’s a variety of rooster? (LOL)
So, about Cookie… His full name is Coquito, and he is a
tiny, adorable ball of black fuzz with a BIG kitty personality. He likes tuna,
people food leftovers, and being anywhere Delaney is, preferably ON her, if
possible. He came to us Saturday as a gift from Hugh and Hye-Jung, and he is
already a member of the family. His little jingle bell is a welcome sound of
home in our little apartment.
Jeff and I spent yesterday morning at the market in Coroico
shopping for this week’s groceriess, and looking for a few special things to
make our place more homey. (A teapot, potato masher and some sugar topped the
list.) Our refrigerator isn’t working, apparently some of the freon channels in
the freezer rusted through and let the freon out, so it has to be repaired and
recharged. In the meantime, I have to buy one big thing of meat (last week it
was our chicken, Bob, whom we ate on all week) and keep cooking it every day so
it doesn’t spoil. It helps that is “winter” here, so it’s chilly at night and
not so hot during the day. Keeps stuff from spoiling so quickly! This week I
bought 2 kilos of hamburger, cooked it up in the big soup pot with some onions
and garlic, then put all that would fit in a plastic container that our
upstairs neighbors put in their fridge for us. (Gracias Gladys y Carlos!!) Then
I chopped a bunch of tomatoes (there are lots of Romas at the market) and
cooked them with crushed oregano, pepper and salt, using my new potato masher
to crush the mixture up. Then I combined it with the hamburger I kept and stirred
it all in the big pot with some little macaroni-like pasta I found at the dry
goods store in Coroico. It was yummy, and there was enough left for breakfast
this morning. Bonus!
Delaney informed me that the power is out all over campus (I
understand this is common when it rains really hard like it was a little while
ago), so I don’t know when I will get to post this, but please know that we are
thinking of all of you and holding you in prayer. Please remember us in your
prayers and think of us when it rains!
Abrazos y paz (hugs and peace),
Susan
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