The morning

Friday June 22, 2011

I know that things have been quiet the last couple of weeks but I have been swamped at work with a grant for the European Commission. I was working with the Health Communities team to try and get a huge grant together and we were attempting to do the impossible, complete this grant application in one week whereas it usually takes professional months of work to get the grant together. It was a lot of work but I think it all worked out as best it could and we did have a finished product to turn in.

Throughout the week it took a lot of concentration to separate my thoughts from the grant process and all of the stuff we were working on when I was at home. Thanks to barking dogs, racing thoughts, and one of the higher stress times while I was here I was having trouble sleeping and waking up quite early. Here is a thought from Friday morning when I woke up. .

When I left the house this morning to go make myself a cup of tea and a piece of toast I noticed that it had rained last night. This is only the second time that it has rained since my arrival here in Cochabamba and coincidentally both rains coincide with our travel weekends. I just pray that the rain doesn't follow us to Toro Toro. The ground was softened by the rain and the dirt look more familiar to me than the dessert like dust that I usually kick up on my way to the kitchen. The air smelled sweeet and spicy, hard to pinpoint but somehow almost like an Indian restaurant. The air I have become accustomed to smells like hay as we are in the dry season and all of the tall grasses are dry and ready for the cows. I looked up the hill on my way out the door and saw that the cows were indeed doing their job and were now grazing closer to our home and approaching the end of the tall grasses. The moisture from the soft rains still hung in the air, soon to be eliminated by the rising sun. Although any rain during this time of the year is almost unheard of, I am grateful for these showers and I just hope that the farmers are grateful as well and that these strange rains have not brought any undo troubles to their fields or their harvests.