Update

This week was a busy one work-wise. I have just put the finishing touches on a gargantuan forty-page report about every aspect of my town I could think of, which means it probably could have been even longer. It also was the official last week of school, although I had quit working there a week earlier due to finals. I went to the clausuras, or closing ceremonies, that the primary and secondary school put on which were generally longer than they needed to be meaning I got to bed at the horrifying hour of 10:30 p.m. two nights in a row. Still, I sat on stage among the teachers making me feel at least marginally important and got to see some interesting skits and performances by the students, particularly those of the primary school. There was a manger scene complete with live sheep that got a little out of control and some pretty inappropriate sketch comedy to provide some laughs for all concerned and the hot chocolate on the second night was appreciated.
I have also just put the finishing touches on my vacation request for February. It has shrunk from an extremely ambitious four-country month-long deal to a simple drop down through Chile to the tip of the permanently populated world and back up to Buenos Aires before heading on back. The shrinkage is due to the entry policies of my own dear country which are so stringent that countries down here have decided to follow suit, making the devil-may-care world traveler a thing of the past down here- at least for those of us without the monetary resources our lawmakers do. I’ll get where I want to go eventually, but I’ll have to waste some precious vacation time in Lima waiting on visas and shelling out the little I’ve got on intrinsically worthless passport-sized sheets of paper.
On the bright side, Christmas is around the corner and I’ll be able to talk on the traditions down here. Also, for New Years I hope to spend a little time with the volunteers in the area and celebrate it proper. Other than that, it will be a pretty dull winter as a good portion of the population will be heading to other areas to find seasonal work and the rain that is turning my courtyard into a swimming pool at the moment will be an ever-present friend. It’s not all bad as I’ll have plenty of time to work on a better English curriculum for the upcoming school year and I found a classic film shop with movies for a buck a pop that I would have trouble tracking down in the U.S. even. And, of course, with time flying this quickly down here Spring Training is right around the corner…