Babies and the Bioferia

As most of you know, I often make reference to the number of women who are pregnant or have just had babies at my school. I really do worry that there is something in the water here that makes women incredibly fertile. The elementary principal got up at our all school faculty meeting on Thursday and announced that for the first time in years, there were no elementary staff out on maternity leave at the beginning of the semester - it is VERY rare!! My friends here have all had their babies and now it is fun to be able to watch them grow up. Last night we had a baby shower for little Maximo, who was born almost 3 months premature and spent a month in the NICU. You would never believe it to see him now at 5 months - he is a chunky little monkey and very cute. There were 4 babies under the age of 1 at the shower yesterday and I enjoyed snuggling a bit with all of them. Here I am with little Lucia Belle, just 2 and 1/2 weeks old. I love holding all these little babies, but I'm also very happy to hand them back to their moms and not have to take them home with me. :)

Now, to change topics completely, I finally went to the Bioferia this morning. The Bioferia is the organic market that happens every Saturday morning in Miraflores. My friend Judy goes every week and has invited me a million times, but I've never made it. After reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver while I was home (you HAVE to read it - it is the best book I've read in a long time) and thinking about eating locally, I decided I really needed to check out the Bioferia. After being there, I can't believe it took me so long. It is great!!! It isn't very big, but there are stands with organic produce, grains, ready made vegetarian foods, and little gifts. I bought some amazing cheese, a loaf of yummy wheat bread, some all natural granola, and some empanadas. Everything is so good, and so inexpensive. I can't wait to go back next week! I think it is going to become my Saturday morning routine.

Back in Lima

These are the extremes of my life recently. The snowy photos is from my brother's yard in Epping when I first got home at Christmas. Of course, there has been tons more snow since then. I think I can actually tolerate the snow more now that I don't have to live with it every day. It didn't put too much of a damper on any of my travel plans while I was home and it was actually nice to be snowed in at my parents' house last Wednesday. It gave me an excuse to stay in my warm fleece pajamas and read all day!!

Now I am back in Lima, enjoying a beautiful Peruvian summer day. As lots of you know, there are things about living in Peru that drive me crazy, but days like today make me like it a lot more. Yes, there are car alarms and sirens going constantly (the car alarm on my street that always goes off went off the minute I turned out my light last night and I'm listening to tons of obnoxious sirens right now), but there is also lots of sun and warmth right now and that makes me happy. I love that I am sitting next to an open window in a sleeveless dress and flipflops and I am not cold at all. Wearing sandals again makes me happy, so here is a picture of my happy feet this morning (good thing Sarah and I had pedicures a few weeks ago)!


And here is my view this afternoon - windows open, green trees, lots of sun. Life is good!! I had a great trip to the States and loved being home. I'm so thankful I got to see so many people and just catch up and feel like a part of everyones' lives again for a little while. I know I talked with a lot of you about some of my frustrations with Lima and my thoughts about coming back to the States. But I am also relieved to feel good about being back in Lima today. I still have a year and a half here and it would be pretty horrible if I started to count down the days already. I'm lucky to be able to live in both worlds - home and away - and am so thankful for both.

I'm off to meet Reada and Dave for lunch at Arugula, my favorite neighborhood restaurant. I'm excited to catch up with them and to see others friends as we all come back over the next few days.

Obama in Maine

Okay, I know I am WAY behind on updating my blog, so I decided to start with the most recent things and work my way back.

Barack Obama was speaking today at the Bangor Auditorium and my mom and I decided to go. We were told the doors would open at 2:30, so we got there around 2:15, expecting to maybe have to wait a little while, but not long. We were so wrong! When we arrived, the line stretched around the auditorium, down Main Street, and up the street that runs beside the auditorium for at least 6 blocks. It took us 10 minutes to walk to the end of the line. It was really exciting to see all those people there, especially since I didn't know how many to expect. We waited in line for an hour, at which point we had made it down to Main Street, but were still a ways from the entrance to the auditorium. The people in line behind us got a phone call from someone inside who told them that the auditorium was completely full and that Obama would probably be coming out to address the crowd outside. As much as I wanted to hear him, it was FREEZING and Mom and I had not dressed appropriately, so we were really cold. We decided to ditch our effort and go get warm. When we left the line, we saw that it still stretched forever and that there were still people lining up. It really was a neat thing to see all these people out to be a part of this. It made me feel good about the democratic process and the fact that people were inspired enough by this man to stand in the cold for hours to pack into an auditorium to hear him speak for a few minutes. When we got home, I found out that there were 10,000 people there today - 7,500 in the auditorium and 2,500 outside. Pretty impressive!!

I've been doing some more research on Obama, since I am really intrigued and inspired by him. I found this great video on YouTube that you should check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fZHou18Cdk
If you can't click on the link (I'm not so computer savvy with the links, so it may not be there), then go to YouTube and type in "Yes We Can Obama Song by will.i.am".

I'll be honest, it is pretty exciting to actually be excited about politics in America right now. It has been a long time since I have felt this way. Whoever you are supporting and decide to vote for, I hope you are feeling the same way too.