k - Sinchi Wonderful!

There are the fish ponds outside and all night long the water runs
through a pipe and drops about two foot into the fish ponds. This
simply makes me need to go to the bathroom 16 times a night! And the
bathroom is down the stairs with no rail, across the gathering room,
down some more steps into the night, across a short path and up into the
bath hut. There is never anyone around here at any time after we go to
our rooms, they pretty much go home for the night and this whole place
is deserted. Not that I really mind walking down to the bathroom,
but........ well, ya know. By the time morning rolls around I am way
ready to get up and scream down those stairs like a streak of lightening.

Today was a slow start. As soon as the first light of comprehension
hits my brain, my hands start to scratch at almost two weeks of mozzie
and sun flea bites, and then I look out over my little private porch and
am in amazement of where I am. Its so wonderful here and today,
especially, I found myself unwinding and really relaxing. Yesterday I
wondered what anyone did here for more than a couple of weeks, well, now
I see - people take life gently, there is no rush. A little garden work
here, a little more there, some craft works, shopping, cooking,
sweeping.... and so the days go by.

After this mornings classes, I walked back up to the tarantulas, but
they were still not playing and no matter how much Betty prodded at
their living quarters, no spiders came out. I hope to get one of the
guys here to show me them tomorrow night. Early afternoon was spent
making some bracelets with seeds. The string used is made from leaves
of the jungle plants - I had a demonstration of that the other day. It
takes about three days to prepare the string, to roll and dry it and
maybe even to add color from berries in the jungle. Its quite a process
and all the ladies do some stunning work. The seeds are drilled with
tiny tiny drill bits - if any of you can get some tiny drill bits for
me, please let me know! Thanks. Anyway, the seed it held between two
fingers and a akita/dremil electric drill used to make the hole. I
lost count of the number of times I could hear a sucking in of a breathe
as that drill missed the seed and hit a finger. Once I got the hang of
doing to knots on the bracelet, it was fun. I took about an hour to do
mine - Betty did hers in 5 minutes - start to finish! There is
definitely room for improvement there......

It really was lovely to sit with these women on the floor and chat.
Well, the chat actually went slower than the bracelet making, but we got
there somehow. between the five of us there and a chuckling man on a
bench behind us, we managed to figure out what we were saying - or at
least we thought we did. There was much laughter and hand signs,
pantomiming and eventually the volunteer, Galen, was called in as a
backup. He is learning Spanish too while here for 5 months, and
although his Spanish is not perfect - its a heck of a lot better than mine!

So I got two bracelets made and I love them! One is with tiny black
seeds and the other with natural bright red seeds. Then it was off to
see what things I could by from all their crafts they make. Oh boy,
what a choice. I wanted to buy something from each of them - they all
do beautiful work and different things and also I would have hated to
offend one of them if I bypassed them! So I went shopping, to
everyone's joy. I came home with a happy smile and a pile of goodies.
They are safely packed away already waiting to find new homes when I get
back.

This afternoon threatened a Big Rain, as they called it. When the wind
blows and things inside the gathering room start falling down, then you
know, they said. But no - just a gentle, constant rain that soaked the
already soaked everything even more. But it was good, and the hours
passed by with slow conversations.

Then the kids came home from school - well, that is like lighting a
cracker in a fireworks store! They are so full of bounce and energy and
questions and eagerness to learn English too. I showed them how to use
my camera and boy I could not get little hands off that thing for the
rest of the day! It was wonderful to watch and they laughed at the bad
photos and got shy at the good ones both of themselves and the photos
they took. When we were outside, they grabbed my hands yelling
something about a tortuga and I was dragged by widely smiling faces to a
smaller pond near the lodge. There, the smaller one, five years old,
grabbed hold of a nylon string and pulled. Out of the water came this
frantically flapping turtle attached by this nylon thread by a tiny hole
drilled in the edge of its shell. The kids were so proud of their
tortuga and happily posed for photos. Three of the kids were playing
with the candles at our table later in the evening and Karla, 8 years
old, who really got my heart, sang happy birthday to me while holding
out a candle in the palms of her hand. She then told to blow out the
candle, but to wait till she could get my camera and take a photo of me
doing that. The boy of the trio of kids there this evening, Johan, held
firmly onto his Power Ranger and a little blue car - his eyes lit up
whenever I asked him what they were!

Oh yes, earlier in the evening, right before dinner, the lights all went
out. OH MAN this place is dark in the dark!! We could see nothing,
nothing at all. Meliza lit a candle and we all turned around to the
sound of pounding feet. Three kids had come running - they were at home
alone when the power went out and ran to the gathering room and their
mama's. They were all a little flushed and were saying that it was so
dark out there that they were scared they were going to fall in the
river! Now I have to see where these kids lived and where they ran in
the dark tonight! No one was worried - this is normal here for the
kids, it seems.

It was a lovely evening learning from and teaching the kids English as
well, they copy sounds so easily and were proud when they got it right.
Lucia had gone up to her room much earlier - she does not feel
comfortable around the kids for some reason and seems a bit distracted
today, which is good, its got me off some of my lessons :) Anyway,
after a good long while of me being with the kids, Miliza (pronounced
Melissa) came across and we started talking. I quickly ran up to my
room for the dictionary I had bought in Tena and we exchanged a good
amount of information. One of the guys sat at one of the other tables
with the computer doing some work and he would chuckle occasionally and
give us the word we were looking for. He can understand a bit of
English but was not comfortable speaking it yet.

In the meantime, the two younger kids had switched on the tv, which is
all of 13 inches, one lay on two bench chairs put together and the other
on the floor, watching tv until they fell asleep. There was no noise,
no whining or crying - they just drifted off when they were ready.
Karla sat at the table drawing pictures for me and of me which drew much
laughter from her especially.

All the while there is a big pot in the gathering area, filled with wood
and termite nest, gently churning out smoke to keep the mozzies away. I
am not sure if it helps at all, but it smells so good! I wonder if that
was because of the termites or the type of wood..... oh wait - termite
nests are made from termite poop.

And so my day ends again under my mosquito net and frogs a-croaking ( in
a good way sis!), this time with two self made bracelets "a la selva"/
'a la jungle' and again a big smile on my face. I really do love this
place, this area and Miliza was telling me about a sweet little house
right on the Mishawalli River that is for sale........ sigh. Apparently
there are two German families and one British family living in houses
next door already.. The houses all have an amazing river view
and....... ok, ok, not this year......

Does anyone know why a rooster crows at night? This bugs me for some
reason. He sounds a bit hoarse tonight though and is not crowing as
much as my first night here....

Love light and joy
Annie

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