Animals

My experiences with animals IN ONE DAY...

• During my quiet time, Sarah rocked the rocking chair onto the dog's foot. The screaming and crying and whimpering that followed was WAY less than quiet.
• The cat came running into the house after we found him trapped in Sarah's playhouse. We chased him down to make sure that he went outside for awhile to take care of his morning business. However, he refused to leave the porch because the ground was wet from the rain last night. He just sat at the door and meowed.
• I dodged several piles of animal business taking Sarah to and from her morning lessons.
• The parrot is depressed... don't know if she is sick or cold or what, but she isn't speaking today and won't leave her cage. Great - nothing like having a depressed parrot! Are there parrot counselors?
• On the way to Iscos, we had to change cars and get into a collectivo. Although the animals were not present at the moment, they had obviously been VERY CLOSE to the people who were riding with us!
• Arrived in Iscos and was immediately met on the path by two bulls, a donkey, and a sheep. The donkey and the sheep didn't particularly cause me any alarm, but I'm from Texas and you don't just go walking down the path head-on with two bulls! And, by the way, they both had big horns! I survived and made it into the building to see our students.
• Left the building to walk to the park for recess, only to again meet the donkey in the path. However, this time he was rolling around on his back in the middle of the path and there was no getting around him. So we waited for him to finish his roll. Then we passed him and headed to the park.
• On the way back from the park, with 20 children in tow (ages 3 & 4 years old), TWO MORE BULLS, a cow, two pigs and several sheep turned onto the path directly behind us. The bulls were being pretty vocal about who should have the right of way on the path, and I was agreeing. But have you ever tried to herd 20 preschoolers??? It's like herding cats! We managed to get back to the classroom without being trampled, butted, kicked, or tossed - but we were a little muddier than we wanted to be.
• While we had Kid's Club, the guinea pigs (cuy) sang along with our songs in their high pitched squeeling voices.
• After Kid's Club, we left the building to catch a car back to Chupaca. Guess who was outside the door??? The two bulls, the donkey and the sheep! We did our best to quietly and casually walk by.
• A dog fight ensued while we waited to catch a car. Then one of the losers in the dog fight came toward us and decided to take out his sore-loser complex on Sarah via some ugly barking and threats, but she was saved by her faithful steed (she was riding her stick horse).
• We changed from the car to the combi in Chupaca and headed back to Huancayo. We were detained at one point because a huge passenger bus (think Greyhound or fancy tour bus) was stopped in the road. When we could finally see what was happening, we had to laugh... the entire luggage compartment below the bus was filled with sheep. They were trying to offload the sheep in the middle of the road and herd them toward the market area - tomorrow is animal market day. Amazing! An entire luggage compartment filled with sheep!

All of that before lunch...