Ya es tarde...

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I´m behind! It´s so hard to keep up...Sunday was basically a much needed day off. We had an hour or so recap of the last week with Patricia, and a short look at what we will be doing in the next and then we fled to the market, where we wandered around, bought some stuff (I´m not telling!), had icecream (which, by the way, is abso-fricking-lutly delicious here, esp lucuma), ate lunch at El Abuelo, and regreso-ed. I meant to return to twon and get a few beer to share with all, but I never left my book, which is not so uncommon! It was really really nice to have a break. Since this is our last week we will have more structured time, but we have to choose a focus and do field research, and them some sort of presentation about it. None of us are sure what this entails, and Patti will give us NO direction. I think that we are a sort of anthro experiment. All of the groups.
On Monday we went to Huaraz by combi, which is basically just a REALLY crowded VW like van that hurtles back and forth at five minute intervals between Hauraz and Carhuaz, with people hanging out of the windows. Nah, there´s only the one guy hanging out of the window, shouting "Huaraz, Huaraz!" Very funny. And funky. we caught a taxi in Huaraz, Laura and I sitting in the trunk of the hatchback, to approximately where Patrick remembered Don Panchos to be, then wandered around until we found hom. Patrick promptly abandoned us and headed off to...wherever he goes. Don Pancho invited us into his clinic, which was a BIT small for the 6 of us, don´t know how 12 do it, adn then told us his dog could sing. And demonstrated by taking a toy sax off the wall and beginning to wail on it, his dog joining in with warbeling howls. It was hilarious. His dog also sits upright. On a bike. We saw pictures. He did a short little presentation on his clinic, showed us all sorts of jars and stuff, including a huge jar of Arnica tincture! And a snake, which he rubs on people for rhuematism...? That one was weird. We set up a time to meet him at his plot of land, where he grows his plants, and then went to the market, where I again bought things. How to resist!? Alpaca for 30 soles...the sweaters, not the animals. I would love to go back. We speedwalked to the cambio "station" and squished back on the bus, met Patti in the square in Carhuaz, and headed straight to Yungay for a World Vision meeting, which was much better than last time. Oh, and we stopped at the Ag school on the way there, which was cool, and I switched my focus from "I haven´t a clue" to "Cows are interesting." Might as well spend the 3 days we have left to research asking about something that I know a tiny bit about. Then the meeting, where we got in groups and discussed stages and goals of one of the many action cycles. But it was nice because we were smaller, adn more participatory, and less, um, useless, I guess. It was cool. So that was July 12th and 13th!

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