My B-day

I have to confess, I didn’t realize that Wednesday was my birthday until my friend Monica (and spotted seal) wished me a happy birthday a day early.

This month is really busy, so I wasn’t able to do anything special in particular, but I figure I’d give you a rundown of what my days have been like.

A Day In the Life of Me- January Edition:

4:40am- Wake up

5am- Leave the house to walk to the ruta to meet up with the morning walking group

5:30am- Walking group arrives

6:40 Finished walking, go home

7am-Get home, feed small furry animals. Walk the carnivorous, non-litter box trained one.

8:20am-Walk across town to give out application to my business taller

9:30am- Get home and shower

10am-Go to Julia’s house to play Uno with her English class (learning colors and numbers)

11:30am-Start making norte style breakfast for lunch. We realize that 1) Julia’s stove is out of gas 2) cooking pancakes on a not non-stick surface is miserable. So we go to my house to finish the pancakes and scrambled eggs. I wash some laundry while Julia cooks.

[Julia’s perfect (no seriously) pancakes. They were wonderful ambassadors for Catalina, who has never has US style pancakes]

2:30pm-Finish lunch, I go back home for NAP TIME!

5:00pm-Wake up from nap, update roster for exercise class

5:30pm-Go to internet café to print roster

6:10pm-Arrive at the sports fields for the exercise class

6:30-7:30pm-Exercise class.

8:15pm-Get home, feed furry children, talk with Julia, start planning tomorrow’s health presentation

11:30pm-Go to bed

If today is any representation about how my 25th year is going to go, I'm going to be a very busy lady.

Happy New Year!

Meet Julia and Moab

About a month ago I was gifted by Peace Corps with a new site mate Julia,, at least for the time being. She will actually be living in a small neighborhood about 5 km north of me, but she is spending her first few months with her community contact who lives here in Campo 9.

I’ve really been enjoying having a site mate again; I’d forgotten how awesome it is. This might not be the same for all volunteers, but I definitely get more done with another Norte around. An added bonus is Julia just adopted a puppy. She knew she wanted a pet so I’d had my eye out for stray puppies or kitties. While we were inquiring about a goat for another volunteer, we noticed the family had a little puppy amongst their 5 or so other dogs. It was love at first site for Julia. She had to have her.

The only recommendation I gave her was that she should absolutely not pay for the dog. It is an adorable little thing, but a Paraguayan mestizo mutt through and through, and there are plenty of free strays that pop up all of the time. Also it would also encourage people to take advantage of Julia in the future, since paying for the dog would have meant she clearly didn’t have good money sense. Fortunately the family was fine with the adoption.

About a week later (yesterday), we went to the family to pick up the dog. As it turned out, there had been some confusion as to which dog Julia wanted to adopt. They thought she wanted one of the adult dogs for some reason. But we cleared it up and took the little bundle of joy to my house.

I told Julia she is welcome to leave the little girl at my house whenever she wanted since Julia is still living with a Paraguayan family, so the puppy last night with me.

After bringing her home, Julia decided to name her Moab (as in Utah), because the dirt there is the same as Moab’s fur. We call her ‘Mo’ for short. I’ve also been calling her Mojito, Mojo, and when she is being less than perfect…My Little MoFo.

This is Julia’s first dog, so I’ll be helping her train it up Norte style, in case Julia decides to take her the US.

I was the odd predicament of not knowing how old Mo is or what her eating habits are like. Turns out she can eat solid foods and drinks water, which makes things easier. I’ve actually recommended to Julia that she make Moab’s food, as opposed to giving her table scraps which is what most of the dogs eat, or the dry dog food, which is expensive and pretty useless nutritionally. Considering how small Mo is, Julia could probably make a week’s worth of food pretty cheaply and easily.

(Lila with Tia Julia, trying to steal her apples)

It has been a while since I’ve helped raise a puppy, and I forgot how much I enjoy it. As much as I love and adore Lila, I am a dog person at heart. Speaking of Lila, she and Moab are getting along quite tolerably. I have to watch them like a hawk to teach Moab not to chase or chew on Lila. Fortunately Lila is a good deal larger and much faster than Mo, so she can hold her own I walk out of the room for a second.

(Where is Waldo: Puppy Edition...Can you find her?)

(There she is! Taking morning siesta #3.)

What a wonderful way to spend New Year’s Eve. So much fun to be an Auntie again.