Books, Cars, Sewers and a Dog
Written May 1, 2009)
Dear Constant Readers,
I attempted to write an entry two nights ago, but I found I had little to say and my entry disintegrated into a listing of books and so forth. Yet not without good reason. Since arriving in Peru back in August, I’ve counted 26 books I’ve either read or, having read back home, read anew. These past two weeks alone I’ve read or finished five books and have working on two others, one of them being once again “The Power of Now” and the other being a biography of about an Italian Cardinal who, while residing in his home city of Bologna, mastered around 38 languages and over 50 dialects of the various languages.
The two projects I wanted to do in site were dry latrines (composting toilets) and a water filter system. Yet the population of my town has their hearts set on a sewer system. I don’t blame them, but I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the town, due to its remoteness, mainly. While building their sewer system, I was told they are going to put in a treatment facility for their potable water, which then rules out me wanting to work on filters. I’m not too disappointed about it; after all, the town should benefit, and I’m sure that there will still be plenty for me to help with, but I was very curious about seeing how these projects would go together. As I’ve never really been taken with the idea of working with people working with a form of technology seemed fun for me. Even as a little kid I could lose myself just building gadgets out of Legos, from submarines to miniature movie sets, complete with two or three cameras (many years ago my dream was to go into movie-making).
The last month has been busy as far as traveling goes. I went to Mancora (a beach town) for Easter and met several fellow PCVs there. Immediately afterwards I had a Peace Corps meeting on the topic of HIV-Aids education in our sites. All told, I believe I was gone for nearly two weeks of the month. In site, however, there has been little news with one major exception: the roads are repaired enough for cars to come up to site again. So I am looking forward to sitting down on the way to my capital city rather than hoofing it for three and a half hours. The rain has proven to still be present, however. There is rarely any sun to speak of, and although the roads are drying up, there is still plenty of mud. Still, as I am adjusted here, it’s not as bad as it might sound. I am also planning to help a couple of teachers teach English in the schools in my town. I have only helped with on class so far, the equivalent of a first grade class maybe. I have yet to see a shred of evidence that God blessed me with a skill to pass along knowledge in a classroom. But with a teacher there, I am willing to help, especially in terms of spelling or pronunciation.
Mostly, I’ve stated, I have been reading. I’ve also been diving into my French studies, with basically is me reading “The Stranger” in French by Albert Camus at this point. I try to make a point to study it every day I’m in site. It reminds me, however, that even though a few blog entries ago I said I was pretty well set on seeking a career in linguistics, I’ve thought more about it and have decided that for the moment I am not really in a position, nor really have the desire, to lock myself into any career path. I guess I have a general direction I’m interested in, but I’ve decided not to make too many plans and just try to keep my options open. Besides, if teaching at any level proves to be distasteful to me, as I suspect may be the case, I doubt a field in academia is for me.
On a note of local interest, my host mom’s dog died yesterday (April 30th). But its death was no accident. The dog was in fact poisoned by person or persons unknown. It wasn’t exactly a popular animal, and I myself had no great love for him. It wasn’t so bad that he slept outside my room, but because he whined and howled and barked into the night, I sometimes thought of throwing rocks at him (I never did though). He would chase animals and get into fights with dogs on the street, and that was the problem. So eventually someone decided they had enough and sabotaged his life. Even though I didn’t really like the dog, I still think that was unfair and especially unneighborly. Since he wandered off to die in the night, Orfelinda had to get fetch him. Being a five or six year old golden lab, he was too heavy for Orfelinda to carry, so she tied a rope around his neck and dragged him down the street to her house. Once there, she retrieved a shovel and I helped her car an iron bar known as a “bareta” in Spanish (I don’t know the English world) so she could break through the roots and rocks in her field to bury him. After dragging Sentimiento through a creek and to her field we dug a small grave. When she put the dog inside he didn’t fit. Orfelinda suggested finding a stick and mashing him into the hole, but we both quickly jettisoned that idea. After enlargening the grave we finally buried him. Overall Orfelinda had a very good attitude, but was still clearly very irritated with whichever fellow Rinconadian poisoned her pooch. And it’s kind of strange to not have the Sentimiento around, because whenever he wasn’t annoying me or terrorizing a pig walking by that should have been locked in its pen in the first place, he was actually a good dog to the family.
I guess that’s kind of a downer to end on, so let me see if I can find something else to say. As I wrote above, I’m re-reading “The Power of Now” and it’s much more powerful the second time around because I’m able to see better how a lot of the things the author Eckhart Tolle suggests. I still have been struggling to find the “Now,” as he calls it. Basically his point is that people have become addicted to thought. They get stuck in the past and the feeling it provokes, or they worry or strive so hard for the future, that in both cases they lose sight of the fact that both places are unattainable because the only moment a person is ever in is the immediate present. Most of what he says in the book is actually common sense when one stops and thinks about it, but it’s so basic that it’s easy to see why people lose track of the essence of what it means to live in the moment (a phrase which I think might be often misused). Anyway, I also like how the book is not religious, but rather spiritual, and how it can go with several different belief systems, as the individual case may be. Since this is such a journey for me, too, I can see how it applies to my life.
For all those who wish, please write me, I’d love to hear from you!
Tristan Foy
Dear Constant Readers,
I attempted to write an entry two nights ago, but I found I had little to say and my entry disintegrated into a listing of books and so forth. Yet not without good reason. Since arriving in Peru back in August, I’ve counted 26 books I’ve either read or, having read back home, read anew. These past two weeks alone I’ve read or finished five books and have working on two others, one of them being once again “The Power of Now” and the other being a biography of about an Italian Cardinal who, while residing in his home city of Bologna, mastered around 38 languages and over 50 dialects of the various languages.
The two projects I wanted to do in site were dry latrines (composting toilets) and a water filter system. Yet the population of my town has their hearts set on a sewer system. I don’t blame them, but I don’t think it’s in the best interest of the town, due to its remoteness, mainly. While building their sewer system, I was told they are going to put in a treatment facility for their potable water, which then rules out me wanting to work on filters. I’m not too disappointed about it; after all, the town should benefit, and I’m sure that there will still be plenty for me to help with, but I was very curious about seeing how these projects would go together. As I’ve never really been taken with the idea of working with people working with a form of technology seemed fun for me. Even as a little kid I could lose myself just building gadgets out of Legos, from submarines to miniature movie sets, complete with two or three cameras (many years ago my dream was to go into movie-making).
The last month has been busy as far as traveling goes. I went to Mancora (a beach town) for Easter and met several fellow PCVs there. Immediately afterwards I had a Peace Corps meeting on the topic of HIV-Aids education in our sites. All told, I believe I was gone for nearly two weeks of the month. In site, however, there has been little news with one major exception: the roads are repaired enough for cars to come up to site again. So I am looking forward to sitting down on the way to my capital city rather than hoofing it for three and a half hours. The rain has proven to still be present, however. There is rarely any sun to speak of, and although the roads are drying up, there is still plenty of mud. Still, as I am adjusted here, it’s not as bad as it might sound. I am also planning to help a couple of teachers teach English in the schools in my town. I have only helped with on class so far, the equivalent of a first grade class maybe. I have yet to see a shred of evidence that God blessed me with a skill to pass along knowledge in a classroom. But with a teacher there, I am willing to help, especially in terms of spelling or pronunciation.
Mostly, I’ve stated, I have been reading. I’ve also been diving into my French studies, with basically is me reading “The Stranger” in French by Albert Camus at this point. I try to make a point to study it every day I’m in site. It reminds me, however, that even though a few blog entries ago I said I was pretty well set on seeking a career in linguistics, I’ve thought more about it and have decided that for the moment I am not really in a position, nor really have the desire, to lock myself into any career path. I guess I have a general direction I’m interested in, but I’ve decided not to make too many plans and just try to keep my options open. Besides, if teaching at any level proves to be distasteful to me, as I suspect may be the case, I doubt a field in academia is for me.
On a note of local interest, my host mom’s dog died yesterday (April 30th). But its death was no accident. The dog was in fact poisoned by person or persons unknown. It wasn’t exactly a popular animal, and I myself had no great love for him. It wasn’t so bad that he slept outside my room, but because he whined and howled and barked into the night, I sometimes thought of throwing rocks at him (I never did though). He would chase animals and get into fights with dogs on the street, and that was the problem. So eventually someone decided they had enough and sabotaged his life. Even though I didn’t really like the dog, I still think that was unfair and especially unneighborly. Since he wandered off to die in the night, Orfelinda had to get fetch him. Being a five or six year old golden lab, he was too heavy for Orfelinda to carry, so she tied a rope around his neck and dragged him down the street to her house. Once there, she retrieved a shovel and I helped her car an iron bar known as a “bareta” in Spanish (I don’t know the English world) so she could break through the roots and rocks in her field to bury him. After dragging Sentimiento through a creek and to her field we dug a small grave. When she put the dog inside he didn’t fit. Orfelinda suggested finding a stick and mashing him into the hole, but we both quickly jettisoned that idea. After enlargening the grave we finally buried him. Overall Orfelinda had a very good attitude, but was still clearly very irritated with whichever fellow Rinconadian poisoned her pooch. And it’s kind of strange to not have the Sentimiento around, because whenever he wasn’t annoying me or terrorizing a pig walking by that should have been locked in its pen in the first place, he was actually a good dog to the family.
I guess that’s kind of a downer to end on, so let me see if I can find something else to say. As I wrote above, I’m re-reading “The Power of Now” and it’s much more powerful the second time around because I’m able to see better how a lot of the things the author Eckhart Tolle suggests. I still have been struggling to find the “Now,” as he calls it. Basically his point is that people have become addicted to thought. They get stuck in the past and the feeling it provokes, or they worry or strive so hard for the future, that in both cases they lose sight of the fact that both places are unattainable because the only moment a person is ever in is the immediate present. Most of what he says in the book is actually common sense when one stops and thinks about it, but it’s so basic that it’s easy to see why people lose track of the essence of what it means to live in the moment (a phrase which I think might be often misused). Anyway, I also like how the book is not religious, but rather spiritual, and how it can go with several different belief systems, as the individual case may be. Since this is such a journey for me, too, I can see how it applies to my life.
For all those who wish, please write me, I’d love to hear from you!
Tristan Foy
posted by Tristan | 7:15 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home