This and that

I woke up early the other morning, like I always do when I don't have to, and stood looking out my bedroom window for awhile.  The window slides open, so I can hang out my second story window and watch the world go by.  This morning there was a guy walking along this residential sidewalk and it looked like he was rolling a cigarette.  Then I realized he wasn't rolling a cigarette, but snorting cocoaine!  Just walking along, snorting....!

The other night I asked Cesar what the whistle is that I am always hearing in the evening.  Appraently the neighborhood pays for private security and the watchman blows the whistle to let the people know he is on patrol!

It seems that female constuction workers are pretty common here.  At least on the drive up to the school and at the school.  There is a crew of women working hauling rocks from one part of the school yard to another to build a wall behind it.  They use a piece of cloth loaded with rocks and two women grab the ends and carry it between them!  Apparently they are municipal workers and there are a lot of them!  At the school grounds there are at least 20 women working. 

For a couple of miles before the school, the construction is on retaining walls, sidewalks, and the park-like meridian.  Most of the workers are women, but I noticed that most of the workers putting in  the cement forms and pouring the cement are men.  The women do the picking and shovelng of dirt, laying the cobblestone sidewalks, etc.  It's such a disportionate number of women to men, that it made me wonder where all the men are.  I asked Patrick, the intern who has been here twice before, and he said he has noticed this before but isn't sure what is going on; whether the men have adandoned their families, or are working away, or what.  He did say he saw a sign on a bus that said, "Remember, you have a family at home"!

I saw a sign posted on a number of walls, advertising for a "senorita" to work in a shop.  Wonder what they would do if a "senor" applied.

Out my bedroom window, I can see Mt Chachani  (6075 meters, about 3650 meters (or over 11,000 feet  -  higher than the city), which I look to each morning to check out the weather.  Yesterday morning, after we had a cloudy  afternoon the day before, there was fresh snow on the top.  I can't get a good picture from my window due to power lines, and by the time we head to school, there are usually clouds sitting atop it.  Volcano Misti is to the right of Mt. Chachani, and is a perfectly conical shaped volcano of 5822 meters.  We head to the right of Misti to get to our school.

When guys get together and drink beer, they don't all have their own beer, rather there is one beer and one small glass.  The beer bottle gets passed, the person pours out what they want in the glass, passes on the bottle to the next person who holds the bottle until the first person finishes with the glass, and on and on.

Last weekend after being attacked with water balloons for carnival, my cold seemed to come back.  I spent my time taking it pretty easy.  Now, this weekend, I've got the runs and was unable to go to the beach with my host family!  I'm going to take it really easy, and end all of this sickness!  Next weekend will be a three day weekend, and I plan on doing something, just don't know what yet.