Peter and Maryann had asked what projects we might get into, and I wasn’t quite sure what to say. I had a feeling that Monday would become full with the things of itself, but I did try to come up with a skeleton of what we might be able to do.
The first surprise of the day was the vet showing up a day and three hours early. I was expecting him Tuesday morning at 9:00 to dehorn three kids, but Monday morning at 6:30 worked out well. I helped him get a fire built before milking, which set us back time wise. But Peter and Dane were able to help him while I went on with chores with the girls.
After breakfast, we wanted to go visit José and Reneé and to pick up suero (cheese whey). We did not get left nearly as early as I’d wished because I could not get the milk for caramel to boil before heading out. Also, the suero buckets needed washing. We were leaving by 10:10.
We found José and Reneé busy as always. I was happy to see Fridt again, as it’s been months since we’d chatted face-to-face. They are all doing well and were pleased to see Peter and Maryann, Steph and the children. We’d all piled into the truck for the trip.
José said as he usually does that they miss church and want to come as soon as we have Pastor Levi back again. It’s a common refrain. I do hope one day we can get them to come to our house at least for a meal. But we are happy for the friendship we have.
We stopped at several places on the way home, looking for bananas because Steph wanted to make banana cupcakes, but we could find none. Abbey thought we should celebrate with ice cream. The two things aren’t connected, but Abbey can always find a reason to celebrate, especially with ice cream.
Steph pointed out that this was the first time the whole family had been anywhere since March, and I thought was reason enough to celebrate. Dear Miss Ruth from the States had sent a money gift especially earmarked for ice cream, so we sent her the photo evidence.
We’d not been home long, and I was working at sending Peter’s recorded message from Sunday out to people (that never did work for reasons of slow data) when Alicia called and said a truck with chala (corn stalks) was there, ready to be purchased. I asked Percy to go with Peter and me to look at it to be sure what we were getting.
We needed to get back soon because Jubinal had called and said he was coming to buy one of Lamar’s bred heifers. The truck driver said he’d wait, so we took off. Naturally, he was gone when we arrived. We waited and waited and then called him. He said he’d be there rapidito.
We waited some more. I sent Peter back to José’s to pick up the suero that hadn’t been ready when we were there earlier. By the time he’d come back, it was after 1:00, and another call had told us the driver wouldn’t actually be back today after all. Steph had messaged that Jubinal was at the house, so back home we went. Por gusto!
Jubinal had brought a client who badly wanted Kiara, but badly wanted a lower price. I knew Lamar didn’t want to come down, so I wasn’t budging. Jubinal asked me to call Lamar, which I did, but we both felt we shouldn’t come down.
So, then Jubinal called Lamar! And Lamar did come down S/100 ($30). That settled the deal. We just needed to load her up–she disagreed. Peter was witness to a very ungraceful summersault, the first in many moons, by yours truly. We did get her into the barn eventually by bringing the entire group of cows in; then onto the truck she went and away. Farewell, Kiara!
By then, it was after 3:00, meaning I was late going into town to sell. Peter and I grabbed our lunch at long last before heading to Izcuchaca. Rafael’s weren’t home, and I had no cinnamon rolls for Dr. Robert, so I had only a few stops.
At Abel’s, we found he was gone again, but the father-in-law invited us in. He wanted me to see that he’s been working on the project himself. His wife came down and told us how ashamed they are of Abel and that they are doing what what they can to get pressure on him. She even threatened him with a denuncio from herself because of the shame he was bringing on her home.
I didn’t think to get a picture, but the cabinets look very nice. The counter is repaired, the doors are done, the drawers are in. It is just hours away from being complete. I have hopes that it could be ready this week. You can pray about that.
From there, we went to do a little shopping. We needed a few things for the house, and Peter wanted a few things to take back with them. I got a panetone for Peter’s to try. We also needed bananas for us and papaya for Peter.
On the way home, we stopped by the building where we’d had church to give Peter an idea of where we’d been. The street was blocked with vehicles, so we didn’t get out to look, but he could at least see the doors.
The caramel still wasn’t done boiling after dark. I tried upping the temperature a little to speed up the process, and both times it boiled over and made a mess. The nice thing was we were able to sneak spoonsful of caramel off the stove, which we called cleaning up the mess.
Panetone and papaya ended the day on a good note. I got the children marching off to bed in time while I bounced about, putting stuff away in the kitchen. Steph made mango ice cream to sell, Maryann washed up snack dishes, and Peter got a phone call in to the States. He’d been trying, but hadn’t had success until then. I think his children were happy to hear from him.
So, what projects might we get into? Who knows. But we had a fun day.
Juan David 