Windy Weather

Today’s weather was crazy. The entire city was covered in a cloud of windy dust, sticks and dirt. From el comedor, we couldn’t see the city below us. The cooks had to eat inside since embers were flying all around the outside kitchen. On the bus ride home I saw entire trees blocking the road (resulting in bus detours) and trees fallen on electric cables (resulting in power outages all around the city). Many stoplights weren’t working and the house I went to today to paint with kids as well as my own house lost power. Walking home, I held both hands over my face and could only see the ground immediately in front of my feet.

One of the mountains that you can see from my house and during the my entire walk home had caught fire, with huge clouds of smoke rising along the neighboring mountains. It was insane. Accordingly to Valeria, this means within the next few days it’s going to be VERY cold. Rumor has it that it might even snow! And it never snows here!

During this crazy wind, I was able to paint a handful more of tiles with a few adolescents (yay for variety), and if I’ve counted correctly, I only need the kids to paint about 35 more!

Unfortunately, the worker did not come today either. He happens to be the son of Mari (la jefa), which is good and bad. While it’s handy to have an easy source with which to communicate, I also have to limit my harassment of showing up so I don’t appear rude. I told Mari that what is most important is that we start putting up the tiles on Monday, and as long as he stops by (even briefly, since our meeting won’t take long) just once this week to go over the plan to see what we’re doing, it’ll be fine. But I’ve decided if he doesn’t come by Thursday, I’ll look for someone else. I don’t care whom I pay to help me, whether it’s a son of a cook or not, as long as it gets done on time.