1. We (Matt and I) made hamburgers for dinner one night. Angela and Brandon came from Comederito to enjoy them with us. We got most of the family members who were around to at least try one. The only bad thing was that Daniel (Martin and Martina’s son-in-law) who had originally told us how much he likes hamburgers, ended up taking his daughter to the doctor that evening, and didn’t get back in time to join us.
2. We helped out one of the family dogs. We saw her (they call her la negra) limping around one afternoon while we were eating. When she passed by again, we could tell that her front paws had been tied together. Although the cord between them had broken, one of the knots had slipped and cut deeply into her paw, probably at least an inch. The cord was still tied onto her foot, so we decided to get it off. This was sort of a delicate process, involving two pairs of scissors (the first pair wasn’t sharp enough) and a stack of tortillas for confidence-winning (they feed their animals tortillas). I held the dog’s head while Matt got under the cord and cut it. I was really impressed with the dog: she just whimpered a little and pushed against me, but she didn’t growl or snap at us. Once the cord was cut, we thought we’d have to hold her again to pull it out, but she quickly discovered that it was loose, and got it off herself. Now she’s walking a lot better, and she also starts wagging her tale madly whenever we’re around.
3. We went to las Adjuntas, a neighboring village, to get Pedialyte for Lupe, Daniel’s two-year-old daughter. I mentioned in #1 that she’s been sick. She was born prematurely, and has some permanent mental/physical disabilities because of that. Sometimes she gets additionally sick on top of that, and she’s been in pretty bad shape recently. As it turns out, the family actually thinks that she’s cursed (I’ve had some seriously fascinating conversations with people here about witchcraft and superstitions), and that’s why medicine doesn’t cure her. Anyway, she hadn’t really kept any food down since Monday; all she’d had was Pedialyte, and they were running out. The stores in Santa Rosa don’t sell it, so we made the trip to las Adjuntas for them. The only hitch was a little puppy that wanted to follow us out of town. Fortunately we outran it, and I’m hoping that someone there took it in.
4. Erminia, Daniel’s wife, asked me if I would paint a picture on the front of their house. I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be painting. I am well aware that my taste is quite divergent from theirs, so I’ll just try to figure out what they like, and get it as close to that as possible. It’s also possible that they’ll have lost enthusiasm for the painting prospects by the time the house is ready to be painted, in which case I guess I won’t have to worry about satisfying their ranchero preferences.
5. We watched General Conference this weekend. For any of my non-LDS friends who may read this, General Conference is when the general leadership of the church (comprising the prophet, his two counselors, the twelve apostles, and other general authorities, as we call them) addresses church members around the world. Conference takes place in Salt Lake City, but it’s broadcast by satellite and translated into quite a few languages. Fortunately we tracked down the American missionaries here, who were watching it in English, and watched with them. I really got a lot out of it.
Sorry this is sideways...I don´t have the time or patience to mess with turning it around at the moment. Here I´m holding Martin and Martina´s granddaughter, Alina.
And it´s sideways once again. This is me painting the ceiling on a house for one of my students. I think she should have left it the original color, personally, but whatever makes her happy.
I love this picture...Alright starting with the woman in the red shirt and going clockwise, we have Beatriz, Martina, Erminia holding daughter Lupe, Daniel holding son Giovanni, Chepe, and Lola holding daughter Alina.
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