Suspicious boys, what are you up to??

It has started.

Carnaval season has arrived. Which means the random corners crowded with 8-13 year-old-boys, looking as suspicious as Tom and Jerry, are now popping up all over Yantzaza. Carnaval is not until February 14-17 but that doesn´t stop the youth from dousing every person walking down the street with water balloons. Especially hitting targets well known or easily visible (me meeting BOTH of those requirements...)

I was walking with a group of school girls the other day and there were about 10 boys huddled behind a pile of bricks at a construction site. I thought, how cute, they are waiting for their little novias! And then BAM! About 10 water balloons came shooting at us. Kind of reminds me of my American Girl Doll days, in the book about Molly and she wore a Hawaiian grass skirt to a Halloween party and her brother and friends soaked her with a hose. Her grass skirt ran green all over her legs....poor Molly. Poor niñas from Paulína Solís!

That´s ok. We´ll get those Rumiñauhui boys back soon (the all-boys school).

Last week my friend Diego, a dentist who lives next door, invited his other doctor friends over for dinner. He invited me and Grigs, as well. Diego and the other doctors are in their rural year here in Zamora Chinchipe. After graduating from medical school, every doctor has to serve a rural year in ¨the campo¨. These doctors are all from Cuenca (or Loja) so this is really out in the boonies for them. It was fascinating to listen to them talk about Yantzaza and Guaysimi, very much like how us volunteers talk about where we are living. What´s funnier is how much they gripe about things, and this is their own country! They should be used to the water and power outages, and the way things ¨run¨ down here. It´s kind of like a Peace Corps for Ecuadorians.

Went to Vilcabamba this weekend to hang out and watch some football. We were lucky to watch the Jets-Colts game and got half of the Saints-Vikings game when there was a lightning storm that knocked out the satellite. Looks like a good Super Bowl!

Gotta get back to super soaking...