Monday 1/9/17 - Working Remotely

Today I worked from my new private office space; one of the partially finished upstairs rooms. It was perfect in that I no longer had to worry about disturbing the family at mealtime, and vice versa (I used to work from the dining room table, which could be tricky when I had to call into meetings during mealtimes). It was a productive work day while the kids were at school.

While I was working, Craig hung out in our casita. He was repeatedly visited by a little bird who tapped on the window with its beak and fluttered around looking for insects.

The kids came home from school at 1 o'clock. I had a lunchtime meeting, so I ended up eating in my office. Lunch consisted of quinoa soup, steak, rice, cauliflower, lentils, and juice.

We had a big thunderstorm during my meeting.

Whie I worked, Craig played with the kids. Sisa pretended to give him a haircut, using wooden blocks as clippers.

When I was done with work for the day, I joined Craig playing with the kids. We played with blocks. Yupanqui likes to watch what Craig and I build and copy it. They pretended the blocks were food items for sale "vende! vende!"

I did a couple of laundry items by hand in the outdoor sink, and hung them out to dry.

Antonio's uncle Juan Pedro was around the house this afternoon. He helps with odd jobs and Rosa provides him with food.

Rosa gave me a nice necklace to wear to the baptism. She thought it was too long and fixed its length for me. So pretty!

We went with Rosa and Abuelita to feed the pigs. Although the piglets had their own dish of food, they ganged up on their mother Juanita. One would distract her while the others ate out of her bowl. She was not pleased and would step on them or push them out of the way, and there was much squealing.

We counted eight piglets and thought we had yesterday as well, though Rosa told us that they only have seven. It turns out there is an interloper from next door, a black one who is a bit smaller than the family's alpha black piglet. Two adult pigs and seven piglets eat a lot, and having an extra mouth to feed because the neighbors won't keep him in their yard is a burden on the family. Rosa would chase him away whenever she caught sight of him.

It started pouring. Craig and I colored with the kids at the dining room table. Antonio stopped in at home and then left again. He is president of the community's public school and had to go get a burro to carry wool down the mountain from the communal alpacas to benefit the school.

For dinner we had spinach soup with canguil (popcorn), chicken, rice, broccoli, and potatoes. Antonio came home, and we talked about the baptism. He asked for our our baptismal certificates, which are required by the church in order to become godparents. Oh no! We had forgotten them! Since we had already gone through the formalities of baptismal paperwork twice for Sisa and Yupanqui, respectively. It honestly hadn't occurred to us to bring them this time. This could be a deal-breaker!

Luckily, I was able to call Craig's brother Steve via Skype and walk him through where to find the paperwork. He scanned them and e-mailed them to us, thus saving the day. Thank you, Steve!

Cachupin the dog was not around. We asked Sisa where he was, and she said that he hadn't returned from Quiroga. We didn't really understand this, but assumed that she must have meant that they had dropped him at the vet in Quiroga. We thought it must be something run of the mill, as nobody really seemed to be too concerned about the fact that he wasn't here tonight.

It was another school/work night, so we retired to our casita at 9 o'clock.
Yupanqui, Shina, and Sisa returning from school

Yupanqui, Shina, and Sisa returning from school

Yupanqui playing with Achi Taita

Yupanqui playing with Achi Taita

Shina and Juan Pedro

Shina and Juan Pedro

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