Easter etc.

Egg Hunt at the Ambassador's Residence

One week prior to Easter, I took Carter to an Easter egg hunt in the bushes of the U.S. Ambassador's residence. Carter ran into several of his buddies and loaded up on eggs. Him and his little crew got a bunch of candy but also had 4 or 5 popsicles before us adults could put a halt to the craziness. With all that sugar, it's no wonder that the egg and spoon race devolved into egg-juggling chaos, with Carter literally stomping an egg to smithereens. Jen was stuck at a baby-shower, so Carter and I eventually caught up with Farnaz and Paul and went to a favorite restaurant in Barranco they turned us on to, Punta Cana. No pretension, with keepsakes cramming the walls, and tasty earnest food. For instance, I had a tacu-tacu (typical bean-rice-pork combination) smothered in shrimp and aji sauce.

Closing Out The Month of March

When I came back from Patagonia almost 3 weeks ago, my work was piled up and waiting for me. My main client is treating me more like a full-time employee everyday, which is great and it's at my freelance rate, so woo hoo! But it is also challenging, interesting stuff; less pure design and much more a question of ideas and puzzle solving in the visual arena. Meanwhile, Claremont McKenna College sends me a job every 2 or 3 weeks and Marriott still wants an ad now and then. So by this last week, I was working long hours to meet all my obligations and regretting not being able to spend much time with Farnaz and Paul during their last week. Tuesday, after Jen had been off in the dunes training with colleagues for off-road driving, we all went to a farewell dinner and then I got up at 4:30a.m. to get them to the airport. In addition to all the other experiences of their trip, Farnaz left having logged over 250 new birds to her life-list. Later, home alone, I saw a totally new bird in our backyard…just a couple hours too late to make it onto her list. On Friday, after a night working until 4am, I finished just about everything that was critical just as Julio, Julito and Maureen showed up for an evening of tacos and Mexican Train dominoes.

They told a story about how near the holidays, the city police are more likely to pull people over for infractions, looking for bribes. They've decided to always accept the fine and never pay the bribe, so this week when they were pulled over they had a long conversation with the cop. He kept reminding them of the amount of the fine, about $200 while an $8 bribe would probably have gotten them off. They told the cop to go ahead and fine them, saying "That's the law. We respect the law." The cop just laughed. So then they mentioned Maureen's grandfather, a president of Peru known for his moral righteousness, and said the family just CAN'T pay bribes. So the cop let them go.

When you have had a little too much to drink, Lima insurance companies offer to have drivers come and drive you home in your own car. The service is a good idea anyway, but particularly for Julio having had a couple of cocktails and not wanting to give any other traffic cops on the ride across town an excuse to extort a payoff.

With Seguno and Franzua at Villa La Paz

Villa La Paz

http://www.villalapazfoundation.org

Saturday morning, after losing our way a little bit, we found our way to Villa La Paz out in Chaclayo, 45 minutes east up in the dusty Rimac River valley. Villa La Paz is a charitable medical halfway house for children who need long term medical care in Lima. Poor families, who can't afford the medical care, or perhaps even just the time away from their livelihoods in other parts of the country, send their kids. Their medications are paid for, they are housed and nursed, shuttled to doctor appointments and surgeries. For the next couple months, we will be volunteering there, mostly just hanging out with kids who just want for someone to interact with them. We walked in and were quickly adopted by the more vivacious of the kids; we talked and joked, sometimes literally just playing pattycake. At one point, we had to clear the terrace as several of the boys started an intense game of micro-soccer. The mostly grown burn victim had a definite advantage, but the club foot on crutches was pretty good at slinging that foot to boot the ball and even had the ability to use his crutches like hockey sticks. I'm sure I will do a longer post, describing the kids as individuals, but for now we were just getting introduced. That didn't stop one boy from asking for help with his pee bottle (which he seemed strangely bad with, pee got everywhere). Just before leaving, I helped bring a boy with braces drilled into his knees down for lunch, requiring two of us to carry and keep his semi-prone posture exactly unchanged. Next visit, I will try to remember that not all the kids can come down for soccer on the terrace and maybe a little visiting upstairs would be nice. Mostly, it was really fun, and I am not just saying that because it's the type of thing that "ought" to be fun. Even Carter enjoyed himself, and he wouldn't lie about that.

Easter

Sunday we had our little family Easter egg hunt, without a lot of fanfare. We didn't color eggs (the good eggs here are brown, the white ones all smell like the fish-feed the hens eat). I constructed a Peep from a couple of marshmallows and yellow food dye. Carter came home from school saying a friend told him that the Easter Bunny likes a glass of wine now and then, so a glass of merlot left out the night before will be consumed by morning. Jennifer appreciated the information and, sure enough, there was an upended, emptied wine glass next to the Easter basket in the morning. Meanwhile autumn is turning out to be my favorite season here, kind of like what Spring ought to be, with unclouded skies and warm breezes. There's still the dust and pollution, still…nice and sunny, perfect for Jen to take another marathon training jog and Carter and I to go down to the Parque de los Niños. 

The Sad Story of Hermie

A week prior to Easter, we were delivered an 8-week old kitten that we eventually named Hermie. He was skinny, dirty and a tad ugly, but we got him cleaned up. In no time he was sleeping as close to us as possible, napping in my lap as I worked. An endearing, helpless little guy. I even had to force feed him because he hadn't yet learned to do it himself. So it's heartbreaking that less than a week after getting him, a stupid household accident claimed him. Rest in peace, little Hermie.