Well it looks like I had the 'flu (swine??) while trying to climb Chimborazo -  a cold, cough, sore throat, weakness/tiredness, and then a chest infection.  It's taken a couple of weeks to get my strength back but I'm feeling a lot better now.  It can be so frustrating.  It took most of my energy just to teach the daily yoga class.  But nevertheless I spent 5 days washing the  yoga mats  and blankets and cleaning out the yoga hall. My sister Vera would be proud of me; she's the clean and tidy one in the family.

Anyway on to more current subjects.  Like the lovely staff here.   A great bunch of people with ready smiles and a cheerful "Esta bien?" almost every time you meet. I love the way they all work in harmony with each other; it reminds me of the cooperative, ego-free way that people work in Purmushi, India, where we are building a school.  Mario who cleans the pool every morning and then cleans the many sand-blown windows also helps (unasked) produce meals, washes dishes, runs errands into the village, and helps out with just about anything.  Frey, who is about 50, is the carpenter.  A small, jocular man with impressive muscles and a weathered face like a sun-dried tomato.  He is up at 5am and helps to make the freshly- squeezed juice -pineapple, melon, papaya - and then starts washing dishes.  He spends most of his time building new doors and beds, or shaping the local stone into rectangular building bricks. He always stays up late listening to the crackly radio (literally held together with string) in the kitchen.  It's a sort of meditation.  Either that or he is just so knackered that his eyes are half closed. Fran is the plumber, electrician, handyman who installed the electric shower in my room -from which I got electric shocks till he earthed it.  Then there's the gardener Marco (he was the security man before, reading his Bible at the front gate).  Young Katy is Mario's sister and she stays with Mario and his wife, Maria and 3 year old Andrea.  They're all from Piura up the coast. Katy smilingly helps in the kitchen, or does the laundry now that Pilar has left to go back to her family in Piura. Katy lusts after my Aspire one  notebook. She's such a sweetheart.  Lupe is the cook just now as Vanessa had to return to Argentina for an operation on her arm - leaving behind her very pregnant adopted cat Estrella - l"ittle star". Now her 5 kittens are 3 weeks old and since Lupe was finding them a bit of a handful they now live with me. 

To be honest i find it very touching the way the young mother (probably only a year old herself) is such a good mother.  The kittens seem to feed about 12 hours a day and Estrella just lies there patiently as they all battle around her for the best feed.  And if one strays she just stretches out a paw to bring it back to the group.  When she gets a bit of time she'll come up on the bed for some petting and reward me by biting my hand or digging her sharp little claws into my thigh.  But I really do see the reflection of the Divine Mother in that nurturing, surrenderful way of caring for her children.   To be honest they're a bit of a hazard right now because they're straying from there little cardboard house onto the carpet and under the bed.  And since they blend in with  the carpet  I'm kind of terrified of scrunching one with my size elevens. 

Going back to the radio - it's on most of the day and for the most part I find Peruvian music very uplifting.  There are the usual themes, love and love lost, but not angry or discordant. And there are some very good  singers.  There's a boy band called the Stany Band who originate from around here.  They had a hit record which is often played on the radio - A Dios Amor. (To God, Love).  I was really impressed that there was a major hit record in praise of God.   But then Peruvians are a very devotional people.  I thought it might go down well at the Expanding Light centre where chanting and devotional singing are a regular part of the daily programme.  So imagine my disappointment when, after a few weeks I learned that it was "Adios Amor"  - Goodbye love - and not "A Dios Amor". Well it's quite a bouncy tune and doesn't sound sad at all. 

Love to you all

a Todos, Amor

Stan