Farmers are the same the world round.

So it seems that old farmers are the same the world round. A new friend was showing me his old truck, the first and only one he’s ever owned. He’s over 60 now and told me how he bought it when he was 18, and still single mind you. Of course he added: “They just don’t make them like they used to.” He showed me where he broke the frame hauling too many rocks, but luckily he had just learned to weld, and had it fixed it short order. He said all he’s ever had to do was add grease and replace tires. 100% true – it went just like that – but wait, we were talking about his WHEELBARROW!

Another video!

We also celebrated the near-finishing of another water project in another community. The family we were with this day had just seen their faucet running for the first time, and their very cute five-year-old was so ecstatic that she was putting on all kinds of shows for us, including the one in the video. Later she insisted on washing everyone's dinner plate, which she marched proudly to the faucet and washed while making goofy faces and laughing.

Here's two of the kids of the household and their house. They're holding Flat Stanley, a paper doll thingy that we were taking along as part of my nephew's 2nd-grade class project.

The kids again (the 5-year-old's name is Leidi, pronounced "Lady"). Very cute. They're standing behind a fondo, a big cast-iron pot used to make chicha.

Mother and baby trying out the water at the new faucet.

Andy and his dinner (also featuring Flat Stanley).

And while we've got him with us (and because we couldn't share this one with the 8-year-olds in my nephew's class), here is Flat Stanley obediently NOT urinating right here.

That's all for now! Good night!

Video! Andy getting down with his bad self:

Yay! We recently completed a project in which we worked with two families to pipe water from a spring to their houses. So, of course, we had to party, which led to Andy dancing, or something like it. His partner is the woman of the house, who later in the evening laughingly told me that she probably should be worried about becoming lazy now that she doesn't have to carry her family's water from far away (doubt it, since other work she has during the day includes carrying wood so she can cook three meals for her family and whoever is working with her family, doing all the washing, and, oh yeah, also doing almost all the same work that her husband does in their potato fields and markets). The guy at the end of the video had decided the world needed to know his name, so he's shouting it at me and the camera.

Here are some other fotos of the celebration:

Lest you think I wasn't getting in on the fun.

The parents of the families and us at the spring. About 10 seconds later we were shaking out beer bottles and spraying foaming beer all over the place.

I didn't know this girl's name five minutes before, but her parents had left the party for a minute and she somehow decided I was the safest one to latch onto. Perhaps, compared to the rest of the partiers, I just looked pretty tame and cozy in my tan sweater and brown shawl (it was cold).

Other than dancing, this is what the party involved...a lot of people sitting around talking and pouring eachother beer or chicha (fermented drink homemade from corn).