Surprises

We arrived in Puno about midday and the Punaypampa Inn was beautiful. After a walk around Puno, a short rest, and two cups of coca tea, we stopped for lunch in a tarp-covered shack by the lake. Lomo Saltado - a dish of fried potatoes, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and meat - was tasty and pleasant except for the crunchy surprises left in the chicken chunks. (This experience inspired Dylan to become a vegetarian for the duration of the trip.) For 23 soles we took a boat out to one of the floating islands of Uros where we boarded one of the "merceded-benz" editions of the authentic reed boats of Lake Titicaca. Though we would have liked to have been warned about the additional charge ("Wait, what? We have to pay more?" "Yes, 8 soles, not 5, for a small group"), we decided we were not in a position to be selective, as we could potentially be abandoned on the floating island with no boat at all. The boat stayed afloat with the help of recycled plastic bottles covered in reeds and propelled by long oars. On the floating capital island, we were yet again accosted with buying opportunities. We resisted. The wind picked up as we returned to Puno with the setting sun.

Omaha in Tandem

The best part about going somewhere is who you're going with. The second best part is how you're getting there. Once those things are established, I think the magic will follow.

Good food helps too...

And a little adventure...

Growing

Newness

"Don't despise a day of small beginnings." Zechariah 4:10

Sometimes I want to know that my actions matter, and it's hard to wait to see that they do. And sometimes, I think I'll never see the mattering. But still: find value in the smallnesses, and continue.

Excerpts for Valentines Day

A Perfect Heart by Ted Kooser
"To make a perfect heart you take a sheet
of red construction paper of the type
that's rough as a cat's tongue, fold it once,
and crease it really hard, so it feels
as if your thumb might light up like a match,

then choose your scissors from the box. I like
those safety scissors with the sticky blades
and the rubber grips that pinch a little skin
as you snip along. They make you careful,
just as you should be, cutting out a heart

for someone you love. Don't worry that your curve
won't make a valentine; it will. Rely
on chewing on your lip and symmetry
to guide your hand along with special art.
And there it is at last: a heart, a heart!"


From Celery Hearts by Ted Kooser
"...but better this, by far,

than to be the sullen heart of artichoke,
stripped of its knives and heavy armor
and mummified for eons in a jar of brine."


Also recommended: "If You Feel Sorry," "Splitting an Order" and "Pocket Poem"

At odds

It was one minute before class would start and Derek* and I were waiting outside the classroom at Northstar High School. We were ready to talk about the types of accommodations students with learning disabilities should ask for at college. Jessica came bounding up to us, the first student to arrive. She pushed strings of blond hair out of her eyes and said "I did it! I applied! I applied to Southeast Community yesterday!" She's so excited, and we're not sure if it's excitement for college or her proximity to Derek, who's cool baseball cap and college-guy mustache has all the girls in class twitter-pated.

Inside the class, Cody slumps in 10 minutes late. Marian greets him with sincereity and warmth. He sits next to her and immediately plugs in his ear buds, shuffles a little, and takes one bud out. He smells of stale cigarette smoke and body odor layered on weeks of un-laundered clothing. His head is shaved, his eyebrows are thick. Only his eyes flick around the room. His head stays down. When Marian goes around the room to ask if they've applied to college yet, he shrugs, looks at her for the first time directly, and says "I don't know... I want to. Maybe tonight."

I remember last session. Jessica whispered to Derek after the same question. "I took a tour of SCC's campus. Does that mean I applied?"
How many gaps are there? and how easy is it to fill those gaps in 5 minutes?

Cody's staring at the wall again.


* All names are changed. Thank FERPA.

Rules for an Immaculate Heart (by Corita Kent)

1. Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.
2. General duties of a student: Pull everything out of your teacher. Pull everything out of your fellow students.
3. General duties of a teacher: Pull everything out of your students.
4. Consider everything an experiment.Be self-disciplined. This means finding someone wise or smart and choosing to follow them. To be disciplined is to follow in in a good way. To be self-disciplined is a to follow in a better way.
5. Nothing is a mistake. There's no win and no fail. There's only make.
6. The only rule is work. If you work it will lead to something. It's the people who do all of the work all the time who eventually catch on to things.
7. Don't try to create and analyze at the same time. They're different processes.
8. Be happy whenever you can manage it. Enjoy yourself. It's lighter than you think.
9. We're breaking all of the rules and how do we do that? By leaving plenty of room for X quantities." John Cage.
Helpful hints; always be around. Come or go to everything. Always go to classes. Read anything you can get your hands on. Look at movies carefully often. Save everything. It might come in handy later.