Esperame suerte!

Hola a todos. Heather reporting. If you are reading this, please know that I miss you, but think I never want to leave :)
I had some puca picante the other day, a local traditional dish made with beet and peanut sauce that drenches potatoes and pork. best served with a cold dark beer, which is very filling. there were leftovers, of course, and so i wandered the plaza in search of a hungry belly. usually not hard to find, but everyone was eating already! so i stopped to talk with Antonio, a sunglasses salesman, and offered the leftovers to some artisans sitting beside him. gladly! they said, and we all introduced ourselves. though i couldn´t stop staring at this beautiful peruvian girl, a guy named Ahmed was paying attention to what i was saying about ´chillin in ayacucho´... ´looking for a teaching gig´...and he said, why don´t you meet me here on monday morning and i can introduce you to the director of a language institute around the corner. what what!? ears perked, big grin, ´why, that would be great. thank you, ahmed´.... and now I have an official interview on friday. hopefully, on april 6th, i will be standing in front of a classroom full of adults eager to learn english. hence the title of this post: wish me luck!
yesterday i left the city for a few hours to visit the river watatas. tranquility! the river was filled with boulders smooth as seals from the continual rush of river over their backs. it was laundry day, apparently, because there were families lining the river washing clothes, blankets, shoes, mattresses! one family finished up, loaded the car, and drove right up next to the shore to wash the car. they were also taking baths fully clothed. brr! i tested the water, and thought better of hopping in. good decision, as it turns out. the pacha mama was thirsty and the skies opened up to quench her. it pouuuured! thank goodness there was a bridge for us all to huddle under, shreiking with the thunder rolled and the lightning struck. as the rain came down, so did some of the hillside. hence the boulders already in the river. exhilirating!
the week of semana santa is coming up, the biggest holiday in peru, and celebrated most vigorously in this very town. preparations have begun and almost all the buildings i walk into smell like fresh paint. i ahve to be very careful not to walk under the many ladders along the street, set up for repairs, and i wake up every morning, EARLY, to banging hammers and buzzing saws.
more pics are up on facebook. paz!
pax