The rainy season has set in here in Sacsa, and although it has been abnormally dry according to my neighbors, we still get plenty of damp and chill. Pretty much every day, the clouds come creeping down the mountains and settle into town, shutting out the spectacular scenery and sometimes even the house across the street. The clothes don't dry, all my pants are spattered with muck, and there isn't much to do in the rain besides sit in my room. There is an undeniable coziness, however, to bundling up with a cup of tea at the kitchen table and watching bits of cloud wander through the patio.

The town plaza on a sunny day

On the homefront, the bathroom is finally progressing, my siblings often remind me after breakfast that we have to brush our teeth, and I have a brand new cement floor! My host family is always a trip, with the three kids behaving just like like siblings anywhere, picking on each other, fighting over the small spoon and the seat near the fire (mom, read: the window seat and the piggy glass), and playing together like angels when they think no one is looking. Those are the things that make me feel most at home- the 14-year-old boys stealing hats and shawls from the teenage girls (seany, I think of you every time), a bunch of farmers giving the NGO representative bunny ears in our group photo. And the other night I followed a tremendous ruckus to its source and found my entire family in a monkey pile on the bed, my siblings piled on top of my dad and my host mom on top of everyone. Of course, like all family fun, it ended with someone crying.

My front door

My daily activities have expanded a bit. I have been attending quite a few community meetings, gathering information, and working on lesson plans for English classes, which I am now teaching twice a week. My first class started slowly, almost an hour late, with only eight kids, but more kept showing up. At the end of the second class, there were 24 kids, two babies, and a dog, with four more kids peering in the windows. I had to kick everyone out at lunch time because everyone wanted to stay and color more.

The view down my street on a cloudy evening

My new favorite activity, though, or call it an obsession, is looking for cactus fruits called tunas. Erica and I conquered our first cactus together and harvested five fruits. Three had worms. But we thoroughly enjoyed the other two. Somehow that, more than anything, made me feel accomplished.

Erica working on picking a tuna, trying not to get covered in spines

Enjoy!