Circus, Circus

Well, Christmas just got a little merrier after a visit to the Chinese Circus last night, here for a brief stint in Penonome, the regional capital.  As some of you might remember, last year I also paid a visit to the Mexican circus in Santiago, which left me in very high spirits after my first time photo shoot with an elephant.  Well, this time I was even more elated after having my picture taken with a tiger!

January promises to be super busy, have a crash course in computer literacy scheduled for the first few weeks with the neighboring community which has turned in to a lot of kids from my site begging me to take them over.  So, yours truly, being the sacrificing person that I am, has opted to give TWO classes, one for adults and one for children, during January, effectively limited my orange sucking time at the river to weekends and/or just Sunday.

Doing the next La Vaina magazine at the end of January as well, and it's patronales in my site!  Busy, busy, busy.

Heading back to share Christmas Eve in the community where I have been participating with the Posada in the church.  A couple of children dress as Mary and Joseph every night and go to a different house, singing for lodging.  It's very cute, and tonight they will be paying a visit to my house.  I was honored that they asked me to participate, seeing as how my interaction with the Catholic church in the community is decidedly limited.  Everyone will stay at the church until midnight or so.  Surprisingly, quite a few houses in the community have Christmas lights, which despite there seemingly needless use of energy, I enjoy immensely.

Christmas day will mean lots of good dinners, and later a baile with one of my favorites, Francisco de Gracias.  Hopefully we will go up to the fincas to spend a couple of nights and then back down for New Year's!

Christmas time means lots of time shelling guandu (pigeon peas) around here.  As in, yesterday had to shell a couple of pounds (read: 3 hours work AFTER collecting them) in order to get Henry to go to the circus with me.  He's so responsible.

I can't really complain, they're delicious.  I do complain about the price they're bought for in the community, about $2-3/lb.  Sold for $6 and up in the city, but only before the price drops after New Year's, where they will be bought for maybe a dollar in the community.  It is alot of work.

Having concerns about being SUPER poor, relatively speaking on returning to the States.  I will need a job, like right off.  Not wait around to see what happens after a few months, but RIGHT off.  But I confident everything will work out.  Got to stay focused on the issues at hand for the moment.

Okay, that's the update.  Enjoy the pics and Felices Fiestas!

Family portraits with a tiger!