A Quick Peak at the Day-to-Day

6.30.11

I am off this afternoon to our very first ever parents meeting in the library. Hooray. Progress. Or at least some remote kind of movement in some sort of direction. I hope I have sufficiently bribed my kids into making their moms come- if 15 or more moms show up, I’m opening the library an extra 3 hours for them on Friday. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times: bribery works. I hope it comes through for me today.

The real purpose of this blog entry, however, is to share with you all a quick peak at the day-to-day drama, or complete lack thereof, that is my life here in Bolivar. For your reading pleasure, a short theatrical work sure to keep you on the edge of your seats:

The curtain opens to me chatting with a local woman outside of the municipality. A group of doctors and nurses has just arrived from Cajamarca to do a health campaign in Bolivar.

Liz: Hi, good afternoon.

Lady: Good afternoon, miss. Where are you coming from?

Liz: The elementary school.

Lady: Very good.

Liz: And how are you?

Lady: Here I am. Regular.

Liz: Very good. Very good.

Lady: Doctors have come from Cajamarca today.

Liz: Yes, I heard. What are they going to do here?

Lady: A campaign.

Liz: What kind of campaign?

Lady: A campaign, they’re going to do. What will it be?

Liz: Very good.

Lady: The sun burns, no?

Liz: It burns. But at night it’s cold now.

Lady: At night, it’s cold.

Liz: Yes.

Lady: They have come from Cajamarca, the doctors.

Liz: Yes. From Cajamarca.

Lady: Have you eaten lunch?

Liz: Yes.

Lady: Do you know how to cook?

Liz: Yes, I know how to cook.

Lady: But you didn’t know how before?

Liz: Yes, I knew.

Lady: You already knew.

Liz: I already knew.

Lady: Doctors and nurses have arrived. They’re going to clean teeth.

Liz: Oh very good. In the health post?

Lady: Who knows? In the health post, maybe. From Cajamarca, they’ve come.

Liz: Right….

And scene.

I’m not sure there’s even a good way to follow-up that masterpiece. And I surely can’t tell you how many times I have had an almost identical conversation during my almost full year here in Bolivar. All I can say is that while Bolivarianos aren’t the best conversationalists, at some point you do get used to it. Maybe not completely. But you get used to it. To the repetition, to the complete obviousness of almost every statement, to the frequent mention that I am an incompetent gringa which, in the eyes of many, I most definitely am.

But, asi es. That’s how it is. And somehow I continue plugging along into my 11^th month in site with more than a year in Peru under my belt. Happy, healthy, and always just on the verge of being productive.

Lots of love to you all!

Liz