A thank-filled week...

Once again, greetings from the Amazon! Well, what a wonderful first week I had here knowing I’m not leaving for some time and I feeling like my life is a little more in order. Although I enjoy the adventures living here gives me, having an idea what the next few years are going to hold has really helped to settle my mind (and the minds of my family and friends, I might add)! It's been fun telling my friends here that I’m staying awhile and the response has been, as expected, quite positive. Thank you all for your various responses, congratulations and well-wishes to my announcement last week. It’s always good to hear from home and I am never disappointed when I have mail in my in box...hint, hint! FYI-I figured out how to post a picture on this blog site. Scroll down to the very bottom and you’ll see me at my desk in the office here in Iquitos. I haven’t figure out how to do a slide show yet using several photos at once but hopefully I will soon. I will try posting at least one new photo each week.

This was a busy week. I worked every day, for 8-9 hours with lots to do but the evenings were full of social events. Monday night I was invited to a street party with friends. It was a lovely, warm evening with live music, dancing and cold beer. I tried something new at the party--grilled cow heart. You all know I don't like meat because, to me, it has little favor. But this cow heart was quite good and I will try it again. Tuesday, I went to the opening ceremonies of the "Olimpidadas Deportivas de Amazonas" (I think you can figure that out!) The games were between Perú, Columbia and Brazil. The opening ceremony was quite good, actually, with fireworks, music and lights. The fútbol stadium is new and it was a pleasure to attend. Thursday, of course, was Thanksgiving. As the only Americans here to "get" what Thanksgiving means to us, Pam, Peter and I decided to break bread together at the floating restaurant in the middle of the Itaya River. Try as I might, I could not find anything on the menu that remotely resembled a TG meal other than mashes potatoes. :) No gravy, though, and without the turkey and stuffing, it was a bit of a bust. BUT, it was absolutely beautiful as we sat in shorts, sleeveless tops, and flip flops with a wonderful, sultry warm breeze blowing through. The food I missed, the weather, no! And then last night was my first opportunity since my return to go dancing at a place here called "Exploción". Events don’t even begin here until about midnight so needless to say, it was a long night. But no worries, I had a three hour siesta in the afternoon in preparation and even got to the office the today for a couple hours of work.

I did a little apartment hunting this week but no luck yet. I guess something will turn up when I'm really ready. Shopped a bit for mattresses, microwaves, fans, etc. Doesn't sound too rustic, does it? I guess it's all relative. A few more culinary blunders--I found myself a little "lost in translation" as I purchased what I thought was sugar but turned out to be salt (I ruined a perfectly good bowl of oatmeal), then raisins that turned out to be small prunes with pits and finally more salt that turned out to be monosodium glutamate. Truly, it shouldn’t have been that difficult but somehow it was. I did successfully make a couple different kinds of soup this week, mashed potatoes with garlic and cheese, a couple of really good salads, and my favorite, camu camu juice. Now for those of you that don't know, camu camu is an Amazon rainforest fruit. It looks like a very large grape and it's loaded with Vitamin C (double what’s in OJ). To prepare it you boil the fruit in water for a short time until the skin pops. Let it cool, then pick through and pull out the skins and seeds. The skins are loaded with color and flavor. Then you add sugar to taste and blend it with ice. It turns out a pale pink color, like pink lemonade. This week I added fresh pineapple and that was very good. Camu camu is added to yogurt, too. It's a difficult flavor to describe as it’s tart but subtle and I love it. Apparently, some health food stores in the States sell it in powder form (or something like that) for a lot of money. It's a fruit that so far doesn’t travel well so when you all come to see me, I will make it for you fresh!

Did any of you go shopping this weekend for Christmas? I saw on-line that a Wal-Mart worker in New York State was trampled to death when the eager shoppers broke down the doors and pushed through. Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but aren't there horrible economic conditions in the States right now? Does anyone there need one more gadget or gizmo, especially from WalMart? And in that big a hurry? Although for some reason I find the story funny in a dark sort of way, I do think it's a sad statement on our lust for "things". So stay safe in those crazy stores and I'll do my best to stay safe on the crazy streets of Iquitos....