Then the lights went out in Chincha

Tuesday was a difficult day. Some days I wake up and can distract myself enough that I don’t think of all the things that are bouncing around in my head. Some days it’s easier to just smile, even if I know it’s fake because eventually it changes my mood for a little while. Other days it’s impossible, everything is grey and I want to spend it curled up in bed, with Shilo, in Mitchell, nowhere close to Pueblo Nuevo, and Tuesday was one of those days.

I can’t even remember why I was upset, but it’s usually the same. ‘ I miss home, I am lonely, it’s always friggen cold.’ In the afternoon I had a minor breakdown, okay a bit more than that, went to the Internet, wrote sob stories home and went to class. When I made it home at the end of the day all I wanted to do was having a shower, or bucket bath, whatever. I’d had headband hair for like, four days and was going slightly crazy. Just as the buns were all eaten up the power went out, all over. For a few minutes I sat there thinking there is NOTHING worse that could happen at this very minute. All I wanted was a shower, to listen to music and wait for Hollis to call. Hernando the father here is really good at making the best of any situation and didn’t let the family go without entertainment. By headlamp, candlelight and glow in the dark dinosaur Hernando cut out pieces of paper to play on a makeshift checkerboard and I helped Celeste with her English homework with the headlamp strapped to my forehead. (I knew it would be useful.) Eventually the lights came back on, but we were to engaged with each other to notice. We exchanged Spanish games for English games and English songs for Spanish songs. Everyone was entertained for a few hours together and I experienced another magical moment in Chincha that easily took over my dark and cloudy mind at least for a little while.