December 18

Well, it was tough. Seeing Victor’s family. His younger sister, Patricia, and his mom, Tania, are still just destroyed. When I saw Tania, she was silently crying as she sewed a dress for a neighbor. They spent all their savings on the funeral and now she has to work three times as much: giving pedagogy lectures at various conferences, teaching primary school, and sewing. Patri is only 15 and she took a part time job that she rushes off to after school. Victor’s 19^th birthday would have been this coming Saturday, so we’re having a picnic lunch at the cemetery. A strange thing to do, but it’s kind of celebratory. He loved ceviche, but it’s a bit pricy to pull off, so we’re doing a bbq instead. It should be interesting. Anyway, I talked to Patri and she said he left no note, he didn’t seem depressed, worried, anxious or anything. I have a friend who is a computer nerd, so we’re going to see if we can get him to hack Victor’s email to see if there might be some indication there. It’s just so senseless. And his mom is just a wreck. She isn’t your typical Amazonian mom. Most get pregnant really early and are young and kind of hands-off. This woman had her kids at 40 and 43 and is a respected pedagogue in the region. She’s really fantastic.

Victor had my motorcycle and it’s not in too bad a shape. It doesn’t seem to have third gear (boo hiss), but who needs third gear, right? Just kidding, I’m getting it fixed tomorrow. I forgot about the sun; I got a bit burned today, but then I went straight home for the waterproof, super expensive Burt’s Bees sunscreen I brought with me. I’m good and lathered up now.

Last night I had dinner with my dear friend Monica. She heads back to Spain for a few months on Thursday and it’s killing me! Every once and a while you meet someone with whom you have instant chemistry and it’s as if you’ve known each other for years. Monica is one of those people and how I missed her! We could have easily chatted way into the wee hours of the morning, but I had to run, so off to bed at 11pm.

Speaking of bed, look who visited me last night:

So disgusting. I’m not normally afraid of bugs, but you could HEAR this spider walking around. You’re not supposed to hear spiders. Ick.

I went for my first run in Peru this morning. From my house to the stadium, three times around the stadium, and back. About 4.5 miles. Man alive that cement does a number on my joints! Luckily tomorrow is a speed work out and it only costs about twenty cents to enter the stadium and use the fancy, squishy track.

Today’s meals:

Breakfast: papaya & strawberry smoothie. Not enough; I was famished until lunch.

Lunch: ceviche!!!!!!!!

Dinner: a fried egg and bread.