Photos from the first 5 months

A few shots (not in chronological order) from the first five months, from building the house to visitors arriving

Carrying zinc sheets for the house

 Finished house and garden and hammock

 Chaco. Abuelo's dog and regular guest at my house

Home for my first three months

 Approaching the summit of Cerro Patena for New Years

 View from the camino up to Cerro Patena 

 Many volunteers gathered on top of Cerro Patena New Years day 

 Bumping nightlife in Cerro Pita

 Mina looking through a National Geographic with Edjo and Noidgi

Stars and headlamps every night

 Making the most of the porch space

 Psyched to have a guest

Mina working on the mural she painted in my house

Carrying wood for the house

Making the bed of the house on a rainy day

My host brother and pal

House construction

Day trip

Resting at the river

Harvesting mushrooms

First sight of the cordillera

Approaching Koroso

Cerro Pita is the hill in the center of the photo

Breath holding competitions in the river

Bed construction

Finished house

Interior post construction

host siblings

The first sprouts of the garden

Host siblings 

enjoying the transparent zinc

abuelo checking out my paper of yoga poses

my roommates in my host families house

host siblings one one the first few afternoons in site

gringo fascination still in full swing 

Onorio resting 

the tree of chickens, ready to harvest

 rice preparation

chopping down a tree for the house

noidgi

Onorio

the endless gaze of children

fun with gel

kitchen

post storm 

 outside of my host families house

cleaning the patch of land for the house

soccer

Cerro Pita's soccer field

Cerro Pita's traveling band

Wood gathered

Rigo

gathering firewood

y pa mi?

noidgi cooking rice

Norma with her chichi and rice drying in the background

The Curse of a Brain

Its another breezy afternoon, my legs kicked up in my hammock, a book transporting me to a land of familiarity. "Mira Tikän!" she shouts as she excitedly crawls up the porch to my house. The baby chicken head flops over Jessica's 7 year old hand, like a rag doll. "Noidgí lo pisò!" She says. I close my book and begin to stitch things together. The baby chicken, maybe a few weeks old, was stepped on by my 5 year old host sister however Jessica has usurped the rights to eat this feast and has excitedly arrived at my house to share the 20 grams of meat with me. "Bueno." I grunt, at this point used to eating hummingbirds and other birds who lost their lives to nourish a monster. "Si lo cocinas, yo voy a comer con usted." (All people are usted). She leaves. I return to my book, its fictional reality seeming more plausible than my own at the moment. Jessica returns. The naked chicken plucked of all its soft baby feathers and looks like a fried velociraptor. She rips of the head, smiles, and hands it to me. "Pa usted". Great. I take the head between my fingers, afraid if breaking its flimsy skill and inspect this delicacy. I wonder if its beak is edible, how the brains will settle on my tongue and if the skull will give the bite a crunchy texture. The meat around the skull looks quality if I could manage to nibble around the skull without getting cerebral fluid contamination and the eyes a small reminder off the birds short and simple life. "No voy a comer lo," I say to Jessica. Astonishment. But you est everything Tikän, she thinks. You ate that overly spicy, slimy, vegetable laden concoction called 'currí' and carrots raw and coffee without sugar but you wont est this delicious pollosito brain I've so nicely prepared for you? Astonishment turns to disappointment. How dare you refuse this calorie rich, freshly killed, carefully cooked, delicacy of bird brain I brought to your lazy, always studying self. Disappointment to redemption. "I'm telling abuela." She says aloud and takes off running. The baby chicken head is still in between my fingers, its expressionless beak mocking my reasoning. I throw it to the dog and without a moments hesitation the dog eats the morsel of meat.