What Are You Even Doing Up There?

Ok, so I haven’t updated in a long time.  Here’s what’s going on:

Two members of our region have moved to Ancash and Lambayeque.  Our diminutive region continues to shrink.  We may also lose Matteo and the end of the year to Ica, but that’s just so depressing that I won’t burn that bridge till I’m on it.  Here are the remainder (sin Matteo and one of our Lauras) during our Christmas in July family dinner (delicious) at our last regional meeting. 

Healthy cooking classes are resuming.  I’ve been approached by mamas while walking around town wondering when we’re going to cook again.  And apparently they were all saying that they wanted to cook with the gringa while I was away.  It’s really nice that folks like something that I’m doing.  The veggie scramble was a big hit.

The kiddos were on vacation for a week so I went out exploring.  I went hiking up a mountian I`ve been eyeballing with Leslie, the volunteer from Ondores across the lake.  We started with a sunny day and ended with snow and thunder-hail.

I also went and visited Grant’s site, Ulcumayo, for the first time.  I didn’t take any good photos, but we visited and organic milk farm and the two nice ladies that run it fed us a spaghetti mountain for lunch.  Grant is only an hour away, but he’s downhill in a valley and has a very different ecosystem.  More trees and songbirds. 

My family killed some animals.

Then they made pachamanca that was delicious, but made all of the contents of my digestive system  desperately tried to escape for several days.  I was trying not to poop my pants as I vomited.

But since then I’ve been doing some good work stuff.  I finally finished digging a micro-landfill at my house so we can clean up the yard and stop burning garbage.  Elka looks vexed because she dropped her oso in the micro.  I had to go fish it out. 

At Primaria Quilcacancha, I’ve got the kids started on a medicinal plants garden.  I taught them basic plant physiology and we went out and prepared the bed. Their homework is to learn about medicinal plants from their parents and bring specimens to plant in the bed we made.  I’m hoping for some serious thesis double-dipping here.  We’ll see.

I also made a cold-frame!

It’s like a mini greenhouse.  This took me an afternoon and a half, a lot of bent nails,some swearing, lots of Black Keys and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah!, but it was fun and turned out ok.  This one was a pilot.  I’m going to use it to grow veggies for the house and am planning to make more for the schools so they can grow their own. 

That’s about it!