We’re very popular with the kids. It might be because we’re the most interesting thing happening in the village (to them, anyways), or because we’re different, or because we actually play with them. Or all of thses things. It makes for some pretty funny situations we observe or take part in, so I collect them and share them every now and then.

I’ve mentioned before how resourceful the kids here are. They make toys out of anything lying around, and have just as good a time as kids with “real” toys. Here we see some girls playing jumprope with several sweaters tied together. When I joined them, they were pretty amazed that I could jump rope. It was harder than usual, since they are SOO short. I wonder if their moms ever figured out why the sleeves of their clothes are always stretched out?  

Chalio is an expert kite maker. The kids around here all make thier kites about a foot in diameter, out of plastic grocery bags and wheat stalks. I made a big one out of sheet plastic and bamboo, inspired by the bariletes we saw in Santa Maria Caucais last year. No one here has ever been to the kite festival in the south, so they didn’t believe a kite that big could fly. “They make them 20 meters across in the South,” I told them, and they just shook their heads. There was no wind that day, so my kite never got airborn, and I felt pretty annoyed. Maybe next week.

Kids also like to draw. Yesterday, several were in here tracing Curious George from the book Emily likes to read to them. Kids bring us drawings all the time, and we stick many of them up on our wall. Here we see drawings by a bunch of different kids in our village, as well as Ronald (the nurse’s son) and the kids from my host family in San Luis. They draw cartoon characters, helicopters, skyscrapers, and some really insightful stuff, too: check out the third from the top, far right. It’s a gasoline tanker driving thtough a scenic mountainside covered in chopped down trees. Click on it to enlarge.

Our marker board is also very popular, and the cause of a lot of pushing and scuffling when several kids want to use it at once. The day I got back from a long trip, Chalio drew his favorite subject: Jaime. Check out my big ole’ backpacker pack!

Some of the older “kids” hang out with us, too. In addition to taking baking classes from Emily, Lina is helping me cure our sick chicken as Alberto looks on. She is the local chicken expert (her siblings poke fun at her for that, for some reason) and swears that acetometaphine in water forced down its throat will cure it. I guess we’ll see.

And in other news, we got a cow. Well, not actually us, but our neighbor Nas Palas. We were walking up the path to our house, and I heard a bellow that was louder than the Big Pig that lives in Lucas’s yard just down the hill. We came out of the corn field path to see Nas and a bunch of the family discussing the cow they’d just bought. “Jantaq tojol no’ wakax?” I asked. (How much did the cow cost?)

“1600, hombre!” he said. That’s pretty expensive.

“Why did you get it?” I asked.

“To fatten it up!” he beamed. Yeah, if they can successfully care for this young cow and sell it, they stand to make a bit of money. I have faith they will succeed; their horse is healthier looking than any other in the village, and they were equally diligent with their cabbage project a few months ago. Big risks can equal big gains.

Check out those ears!

Right now, the cow is tied up under our house to keep her out of the rain. (As my mom reminded Worldyone, our house is on stilts). But it’s already late morning, and she’s tired of being trapped down there. How can I tell?

MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!