EAGLE VS. STOKES

I still do not venture on here too often as I still find it more than a bit self-indulgent to fester over my own happenings but today was a day of relevantsignificance for me. Today was my first full day....start to end in my new home town of Illimo, Peru. I arose after a night of sleep comparable to that of a truck driver chewing meth tablets on Interstate 95 (this is not to infer all truck drivers use meth--my brother in law is in fact a case in point). My new house is fine...my room is in the back of the house-modest but potentially comfortable....the problem with last eve was I had not a pillow, a blanket, or anything else to go along with my child sized bed......when I think of the spoils of home I usually lust most about my pillow top queen sized mattress that now sits in my mother’s guest bed room.....I then think of how many guests must have had a slumber on her and I go into a small bit of mental anguish thinking about her being used like that. I digress.....so the family...

Approaching two months in Peru buta more interesting milestone is fastly approaching- less a week before I am told where I will spend the next two years of my life. On Tuesday we are given our site assignments-from what I understand they do it in some campy way……fish it out of a pond in a plastic pod or dig it up in the backyard dog bone style type of activity. Fact is and remains this is a significant day for myself and all those I have been in training with. I will either be in the mountains or on the coast-in a large city with running water and internet or a small campo site with less or none of the previously mentioned. The list of potential variables goes on and on-the dilemma I sit in and it is not necessarily a bad one is that I do not know which I desire. Regardless of the path it will be drastically different than life as I have known it and that part holds a bit of fever and excitement. Last week we had what is referred to as Field Based Training-I continued with my ass...

The last time I was in a similar circumstance to this was in 1995. I was a recent high school graduate on the bad end of a terrible life experience. I was not ready to in any way to venture off to college and begin the next leg of my very unsuccessful academic career. Earlier in my senior year of high school my sister’s friend and then admirer Tomo Yamanaka stayed with us over the Thanksgiving break. He slept on the floor in my room. One night I arrived home relatively late and stepped over Tomo to climb into my bed….he was awake so we exchanged pleasantries after which he indicated to me that he thought “that God wanted him to ask me if I wanted to go to Japan”…..I of course had no idea how to respond but only chuckled in an appreciative way and let him know that I would most likely not be spending any times over seas in a country I knew nothing about….I did not even ask any follow up questions…I dismissed it and went off to slumber. Fast forward 6 months and one tragic life i...

I enter week three of my training in the same way I entered the first day-with a slew of unknowns. I just finished doing a set of pushups in my room cell block C style. No cushy gyms, hot tubs etc. here. Just the floor and my fastly shrinking body...well related to muscle shrinking...I am pretty sure I have consumed enough rice and beans to secure the next pant size will soon be in my grasp. I can eat a heaping mountainous plate of the stuff and be hungry one hour later....rinse and repeat style......so I just eat. Perhaps it is because I am home sick and perhaps it is because it is a comfort.....if they had bon bons here I would be chowing down omega moo style I am sure. Last weekend we ventured to Marasca (spelling-forgive me to all the genuine Peruvians that may glance at this-none-I in fact could not spell or tell you the place if a large weapon was placed to my dome at the moment.). However I can tell you it was quite an experience-travel 30 minutes on the paved highway and double...

I have now been in Peru for a bit more than a week but today buts the first full seven days that I have been within my home stay. It is a bit past 8 AM and it is Fathers day-Padre Un Dio. The odd thing about being away and realizing of course it has only been a week is not that I miss things terribly- it is the simple fact there is no remedy available. My father lives a bit more than two hours away from me in the States. I most likely would not have even seen him today but when I called him yesterday from a pay phone I was only able to leave a voicemail and when realization that I would not even get to speak to him set in it kicked the wind out of my sail a little bit. So I have attempted to remedy the situation by watching what I believe to be my favorite film "Stand by Me" in my mind it represenents and romaticices what growing up in the 1950's would be like. TV but only in doses and every event was a new one--things that had never been seen or imagined brought...

In an attempt to be pro active I have traveled with my dad to Washington-DC to be in a geographicaly sane position to report to a hotel by noon in Downtown. Driving through York, Baltimore, and then into DC by noon would have been a bit to stressful for myself-added on with my dad would have been like two withdrawing meth addicts within a cardboard box with the promise of a hit located somewhere within. So after yet another tearful goodbye to my stepfather (who I missed physically this morning when I stopped by), my sister, nephew, and niece we departed. Not before we (Philip, Philip, Kaleb) stopped by to my niece's school for a final lunch and emotional meltdown. My niece was not melting down because of my departure although I am sure she is sad or will be about me leaving but because she is scheduled to go to the dentist on June 20th. I have never seen her more agonized-after sitting silently in the midst of the crowded lunch room she suddenly lunged across the table whaling that...