A few things

So to update the entry below: My host sister, Jenny, actually has gallbladder stones, so it is totally understandable why she was in so much pain and wanted to cry. I was mistaken. Although I still think I would be driven insane if I had her life.

Well, if my life isn´t driving me insane, these kids from the Environmental Workshop certainly are. On Tuesday, I sent them home 40 min early because they were uncontrollable. They couldn´t even form a circle. Ohhhhh, they are at that age: when girls don´t want to be near boys but at the same time they´re hitting each other and play-fighting just to flirt. At the end of the session today, I drove them out again (but we made it to 5:00, just on time) because they erupted into a knocking-the-boys-on-the-head-with-your-notebook war. And of course, the boys took advantage of the opportunity to reciprocate. Oh, the hormones.

Nevetheless, the exercises I tried out on them DID work. This time, I was able to get them to practice the "mirror exercise" (one person is the mirror that does exactly what the other person does). And I EVEN got them to practice it pair by pair in front of other people. It was hard for them to concentrate, especially since their peers chose to whistle and make smart comments at them...but it was an impressive first step at gaining confidence doing something while everyone is watching you, anyway. They did OK when I made them make different faces: happy, angry, sad, annoyed...and I knew they were not going to do this one, but I ended it on "in love". From there, we did little sketches. I tried to get them to do something they would find amusing. So the boys did sketches where one person stole the other´s girlfriend. They really liked that one. And I have no idea what the girls did since they wanted to all work together and I didn´t have to hold their hands to create their scenario. Unfortunately, their giggles and mumbles and turning their backs to the audience didn´t help me understand what storyline they had created. Oh, well. The point is that they actually performed SOMEthing in front of their peers. Although I had to start each group at least 3 times each, since one member inevitably lost control of themselves and hid their faces in their notebooks or took a seat. Fernando settled on just making really loud grunting noises instead of doing the scene. Kids are so strange.

Asides from that, my mangroves are doing really well. I went on Friday with a group of Cactus´ environmental camp kids. Cactus works in a really rural, poor area of lower Piura. Her town is actually composed of people who moved the town to an entirely new site because of the last significant El Niño event in 1998. For one of her girls, it was the first time seeing the ocean. That´s one of the perks of being in this line of work: offering new experiences to people who otherwise might never have had that opportunity. After I gave them a briefing about the mangroves on the hill where you can see a panorama of the area, we went down to a clearing in the mangroves. Luckily for them, there was a group of bright pink flamingoes within meters of the shoreline. That was a special treat for them, and for me.

Ever since we corroborated fishermen´s assertions that there is a wild cat living in the mangroves (which we doubted earlier) with our own eyes, I have been looking into the mangroves searching for it. It´s called the gato montés, and is a very shy cat that usually inhabits higher ground. As I was looking for it, I found a blue-footed booby just sitting there! The poor thing must have been wounded because it did not look alarmed at our presence, which is rare. It´s location was also rare: it´s hardly ever found on the shore in my mangroves -- they´re always on open water here -- plus they usually rest in rocky areas. It seems to have just given up since it is defenseless without wings that work. My "Mom, can I keep it?" side wanted to take it home and try to help it, but my skeptical scientist side knew that was just going to mean heartbreak and a big mess. I could just see the face on my host mom if I had brought it up. "Well, you said you liked birds!" haha. But alas, I believe that the booby eats small silverfish like herring and anchovies, and I don´t think that includes the canned version.

Anyway, that was the adventure for the day. Then we walked south to the beach side where a woman aggresively approached me trying to practice English. So annoying!