The Tale of Sadie the Dog and Espe the Cat

My 2 roommates and I just have made a move to a new home.

We already have a cat (reading the bible below)...and along with the new home we have inherited a dog...

and fish...

which we will keep until their owners get back a year from now.
When the cat first came, the dog would sit in her garden and the cat indoors and they would stare at one another. Usually in the morning, the dog would have some sort of conversation with her new companion.

Sadie the dog: (Woof woof) translation: Do allow me to present myself. My name is Sadie Block, do call me Sadie, it is simply a delight to have you here. And you are…?
Espe the cat: (silence)
Sadie the dog: (Woof wroof woof woof) translation: Very well, I shall allow you to preserve your anonymity. You know, there is something I have been dying to ask you…would there be a possibility of sniffing your rear in the near future? Do say yes!
Espe the cat: (silence)
Sadie the dog: (Woof ruff whine) translation: I find it quite rude that you won’t speak to me. Here I am, trying to carry on a decent conversation and you -
Me: (from upstairs window) -dumb dog! Be quiet and let me sleep in!
Sadie the dog: (Whiiinnee growl) translation: now look what you have done! One of the temporary masters is now upset with me!

As I speak basic Dog at best, I knew nothing of the broken understanding between the two animals. So when I had church friends over and the following conversation occurred, I made an uninformed decision:

Nadia: So do your cat and dog never play with each other?
Me: No.
Carlos: Why not?
Me: They still don’t know one another, I guess.
Josue: So why don’t we introduce them then?
Me: Hmm.
Christian: Yes, let’s introduce them!
Me: Well… Amanda and I were just saying that we should try and get them to become friends.
Josue: Then lets do it now!
Me: Sure, they have to become friends sometime. Just make sure the door is open so she can come back in if she gets uncomfortable.

So we put the cat outside. Sadie the dog jumped up immediately and ran towards Espe. Espe could have ran back in the house, she could have run upstairs even, but in her terror, she didn’t. Instead, she made three laps around the garden with Sadie running after her.
She finally hid behind a cactus.

Sadie the dog: (wroof grwoof) You finally made an effort towards our friendship! We are going to be the best of friends!
Espe the cat: (Merrooooww!!!) Over my dead body. Get away weirdo.

At the insult, poor Sadie, in unthinking fury, stuck her nose right into the cactus.
By this time, some of the guys had Sadie by the collar and Espe made her escape up all three flights of stairs to my room where I would find her later sleeping.

Sadie, however, had a cactus thorn in her snout. She did not even notice us removing it. Rather she was looking around the yard with eyes filled with lust for catblood.

That day, I learned a very valuable lesson: that friendship cannot be forced. The only other positive consequence of the blunder is that Sadie, having declared the “dog shun of silence” on Espe, no longer disturbs our sleep with one-sided conversations.

They now tolerate one another calmly, which considering the fights they have had, I believe is the most we can ever expect from either party.

You have no compassion for my poor nerves

While rowing through the jungle, we spotted a British couple and their guide entering a canoe. The wife was mid-thirty ish, had good teeth. The husband was a bit older and balding. We were surprised to see as they climbed into their boat that the husband was frightened about the whole ordeal and when he finally fell over himself enough to make it to his seat, he sat there stiffly, knuckles white as he grasped the canoe sides.

Mama whispered, “Look at him! He is so wimpy. Why do you think he even came to the jungle?”

And then, adding emphasis to her statement, we saw him pull out a cross stitch from his bag and begin sewing.

Of course, we began giggling and took some stealth photos.

We finally were able to compose ourselves again until mama said, “Well, it probably helps in 'calming his nerves.'”

Car Trouble

The mechanic decided to come and return the van of the family whose house we live in at the worst possible time today. Within the two minutes that he had it parked in our driveway, a troop of police officers came down our street this morning and gave tickets to all the cars which were even slightly sticking out onto the street. Every single one of our neighbors came out to see what was going on and everyone started yelling when they saw the ticket stuck on their car.

"Is this some kind of joke?!"

"Oye! We always park our cars this way! And you ticket us without warning!"

"@^*I&#"

The mechanic ran out and calmly tried to explain to the officer that he had just got here and needed to park the car that way in order to take out the other one. She was merciless and did not remove the ticket. A typical Peruvian policewoman doesn't take bribes and follows rules strictly while a typical policeman is more "sympathetic."

Here is a picture of the van parked correctly as well as furious neighbors. See if you can't find a lady in curlers.

Leaving Peru would be just as painful as being away from home does. I have got myself into a trap and the only way to get out is to chew off my leg.

Chatting with Dale online just now caused me to come up with the above quote. Sometimes, through talking with people I discover more than I would thinking through things out on my own.

Es solo un juego!

As two small figures on the screen kicked a footbol into a net my new dining room trembled with all the excited enthusiasm it was being filled with.

Half the room yelled "GOOOOOOOOOOOL!" while the other half slumped back in their seats in silent surrender.

Carlos collapsed on the kitchen table, eyes closed, and with the rest of his energy said in deep despair "No. It can't be. It just can't be," while at the same time Josue jumped into the air, gave his girlfriend a huge bear hug (which she accepted bitterly, not too happy with the victory). He then proceeded to run around the room a couple times yelling, then took me by the shoulders and shook me saying - "Guess who won Miss Page? Guess who won?"

He then ran to tell the guy in the bathroom about all he had missed.

I was asked all morning at church which Peruvian team I was going for "Universitario (U for short) o Alianza?" Now I am thankful that I didn't make a hasty decision. It will be a delicate process discovering which of the rivals deserve my confianza. (Confianza is a word commonly used in Peruvian culture which means deep, long-earned trust or confidence).

This picture was taken after watching Peru lose to Chile a few months ago.

"Somewhere out there is a lady who I think will never be a nun. Auf Wiedersehen, darling."

While vacationing with my family around Peru (see pictures here) we stumbled across this scandelous poster hanging from an eyeglass store.

Museo de Zoologia

One of my favorite museums we visited was a museum of very poorly taxidermied animals. They had an ROUS we promise - he had sharp, large teeth and was leering at me in a way that made me want to distance myself from him even though he was hardly able to jump on me and rip my shoulder off.

There was much marine life represented...

as well as a killer monkey...

and llamas in about-to-strike-you-dead positions.

Altogether a wonderfully haunting experience.

Ding Dong

I woke up yesterday morning to the doorbell ringing.

It was Darwin, our painter, who likely is much more funny and kind than evolutionist Charles Darwin

was. He was going to paint a room in our home that day.

The doorbell rang.

A short guy with a mario moustache came to get the van parked in our garage and leave a truck there. As he was pulling in the truck I accidentally pushed the garage door opener button without realizing it and WHAM it banged into the back of the truck. He said it was alright and left.

The doorbell rang.

A guy selling oranges wanted to know if I wanted any to make "excellent juices."

I said I was tempted but not today, maybe later.

The doorbell rang.

Darwin came in after his lunch break and told me about how earlier today the dog found the cat litter box and cleaned it out herself by eating "all the stuff that the cat made" (literal translation). I then successfully expressed incredulity and then a high level of wanting-to-pukeness in Spanish.

The doorbell rang.

It was Darwin, who apologized saying he had forgotten something on his way out.

The doorbell rang.

It was a group of woman whose apartment had an electrical fire a few days ago. A total of 4 (2 Americans 2 Peruvians) will be staying with us for the next few days. 3 of the women are missionaries who will be heading to Tarma, Peru to work there for 2 years. One will remain in Lima. They left quickly to head to night class.

The doorbell rang.

It was one of our guests, returning home after her night class.

The other 3 soon followed.

Then I fell to sleep.

Do you take pictures...or do pictures take you...

My family has a tradition of playing with picture themes on our trips together. Below are three collections of pictures from this last trip with some family in Peru.

Collection 1: interpretive tree dancing

Collection 2: Wedding Invite Silhouettes

Collection 3: Interactive Paintings

The Mannequin Returns

My mom and Brother Joel have been here for the last month and just left last night.

Joel found some more uses for my new mannequin arm and a Peruvian face mask...

...and we both found some new mannequins with which to pose while we traveled around different regions of Peru.