Mmmm…sheep blood anyone?

So, my dinner today was sheep blood with potatoes. I know it sounds totally disgusting BUT it was pretty good. I mean it is true that I do love some blood so maybe my opinion is a little bias. Haha. (This reminds me, I can't wait for True Blood's new season to begin!!) So, blood and potatoes get 2 thumbs up. Along with this delicacy, I had some milk with grinded wheat…so bangin.' But yea, that's all I got for you peeps! I hope food (and everything else) is as good as I remember it being! <3

p.s. One of the kitties peed on my plastic roof…gotta love it!

Happy 2 months!!

That is right! So, this means I am officially 2 months in site and almost 5 months in Peru. That hasn't been so bad. Ha. To think, I ONLY have 22 months until I complete service. It feels so long but I know it really isn't. Weeks are beginning to fly by and accomplishing anything is an everyday task. I am sometimes super exhausted just thinking of the possibilities but that just might be my daily hikes. Blah.

I am definitely feeling like there is so much to do and so little time. Time really scares me because there is no rewinding it.

On the same note, Can YOU believe that January 2010 is pretty much over?? Talk about time passing by…

Has someone invented that teleporting machine yet? :)

Doggie ear tragedy.

That's just it. The ONLY dog in Peru that I like is Cholo, the family dog, and he was attacked!! A stupid vicious dog decides that he doesn't like Cholo and begins a fight. This stupid dog also has a stupid friend dog that decides to attack Cholo. Two evil dogs against the nicest dog ever; needless to say, it was tragic to watch. The evil dogs almost bite off Cholo's ear and severely injure the his leg. Cholo didn't die thanks to the intervention of humans. My host grandma sees what is happening to Cholo and begins to yell for her son while grabbing a piece of wood and running toward the crime scene. She uses this piece of wood to beat the evil dogs; sometimes hitting their heads. Her son also has run to the crime scene and is profusely beating the hell out of the dogs; he also hits the evil dogs in the head. This only made one of the evil dogs run away while the other evil dog (obviously the more evil of the 2) continues to try and bite Cholo's ear off; he had no mercy! Finally, this evil dog's owner comes with a belt and begins beating him and it isn't until then that Cholo is free! So, to make things completely clear at one point the evil-er dog was beat by all 3 people at the same time and still did not let go. Soooo…there is reason to my madness. These dogs have no mercy and I do not want anything to do with them!

I HATE THESE FUCKING DOGS!

p.s. Cholo is doing well and seems like he will have a speedy recovery! I might go in search of dog treats because he deserves them for being the ONLY good dog in Peru.

Two thoughts: tupperware potatoes and hitchhiking.

Ok, so Tupperware potatoes was my lunch today. YUCK? Yea, a little BUT they were made and brought just for meee. I was going for a long walk with my host Grandma to town and she thought I would be hungry considering it was lunch time and I had ate a light breakfast. I ate my Tupperware potatoes on the side of the road and it was super hilarious. Every bite I took made me giggle. I just never thought that I would EVER be eating Tupperware potatoes. So, HA!

As for hitchhiking, that is my main form of transportation. Whenever I want to go down to town and do NOT want to do the hour walk, I have to hope that a car or mototaxi passes by and picks my ass up. It's just how shit is done here but it definitely is still hitchhiking. I get in a car (sometimes on the bed of pick-up truck) with complete strangers, that I always hope aren't crazy fucks, that take me into town. And yes, it is ALWAYS an adventure.

So yea, today was a day of both things: Tupperware potatoes and hitchhiking. I know you are thinking how lucky I am. Well, you are right! Ha.

Still living it up..one bark at a time.

So, I recently got an email from a good friend of mine that really knows how scared I am of dogs that said that she´s happy to know that they aren´t really a problem. I started to laugh because that is so not the case. I guess I haven´t really written about it and that´s simply because I try not to think of those beasts. Sadly, everywhere I walk there is a dog barking and ready to eat me alive or at least that´s how it feels. I expected this and it´s becoming ¨normal.¨ I recently began to do my house visits for the surveys I have to do in my community and I pretty much got bitten about 10 times. Almost....definitely doesn´t count in these situations. So yea, I yell a lot but luckily I never walk alone and that makes it better facing those beasts.

So, yea...I´ve started doing my house visits which is a super interesting time. Meeting people in their household is good because I actually get to see their health practices. I am also teaching!!!! It´s kinda cool except when there are millions of kids and I don´t know what do do with them. haha. I don´t know...everything is going well.

My mom is coming on March 31st which is super fucking awesome. I miss home a bunch sometimes but that´s life. I don´t think I´d trade this...I often feel like this IS the good life!!!

Life changing day.

So, today is a big day in my way of living. For a little over a month, I have been living in a huge dirt room with just a bed, a table, and a light bulb. Today is the day I got 4 plugs in my room. That’s like living the real high life; you don’t even know! I got to plug everything I could imagine and enjoyed every second of it. I’m actually still enjoying it! If you know me, you know that I looove electronics. I have an unhealthy attachment to most of my electronic devices and this one month or so has been a true struggle. Now that it’s all over, I think that I will actually buy some speakers and do it up like I used to back in the day. This is what is scary but supposed to be good – when you start feeling comfortable in such different and once unfamiliar situations. I am still in a dirt room (where I bucket bathe in so it becomes a muddy room), a table, a light bulb, and now 4 plugs and this does not seem at all uncomfortable. I still don’t have a window and sometimes use my pee bucket at night or in rainy days (it rains a lot here) but that doesn’t make me feel out of place. I feel quite comfortable having the little amenities that I do and I am not bothered easily by slightly gross things (like finding 2 tarantulas in the last weeks IN my room). I often wonder if this is because I know this life isn’t permanent. It reminds me of my old job where I knew I was only there until I graduated college. Although some things bothered me, they never REALLY got to me because it never felt like I’d be there forever. When I think about it now, I was there for a shit load of years and I grew super comfortable – Could it be because I wasn’t worried about permanency? I think I hate permanency; is that a problem? I would like certain people to be a permanent part of my life; does that count for anything?

This was just another Barbara-thought filled with a semi- update on life events…

As always, looooooove and miss everyone greatly!

p.s. Remember yoyos? Well, it has been the best thing I have “found” in someone’s room. I am easily entertained and “walking the dog” does it for me. YAY! Go YOMEGA!!!