Pollitos!

I know I’ve been slacking on my blog lately, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t have too much to post. One interesting (somewhat) story I have is that my family bought some baby chicks (pollitos) that were injected with various colors. Here are a couple of pictures:

They make/made good pets. I say ‘made’ because we started with 5, and are now down to 2. I’m not sure what happened to the others, but the popular guess is that they were eaten by local dogs (with no trace left behind). They would roam freely around the yard, and in actuality they were fairly low-maintenance.

I asked my host family how long their feathers would maintain the color, as well what would happen to them when they’re older. The response was that they will eventually lose their coloring as they get older. As for what would else would happen to them as they age, the response was that if they are female they would lay eggs; and if they were male, we would eat them. Que barbaridad.

The other day while I was walking back from my neighbor’s house, I noticed Gloria’s brother (who is our neighbor) had stopped what he was doing to watch the baby chicks playing in the yard. The look on his face struck me in a peculiar way; here was a man who had endured many harsh years in his life, yet still found it in himself to smile in an innocent manner at the baby birds.

This small moment inspired me to write a poem. I don’t really know anything about poetry, but I like what I wrote so I’m going to share it here:

Pollito Amarillo

Who knows what evils this man has seen;

Yet the sight of the baby pollito still brings a peaceful smile to his face.

He stops in his tracks from his daily toil

To silently observe with contentment the actions of this tiny bird.

All the pain and hardship he has ever endured

Is forgotten in an instant.

And  It can only be speculated that this sight brings about memories of simpler times,

When as a child he was free from the concerns of this world,

And could focus on the beautiful things that pleased him,

And made him feel safe.

Let me know what you think.

What else?

I’m going to visit another volunteer in his site next week, which should be interesting. I’m meeting him at the airport in Teguz on Sunday (where we are picking up a female 'friend' of his, vamos a ver), and from there we will take a bus to his placement in Reitoca. I won’t return to Las Cañadas until Thursday. It should be a lot of fun, and it should also give me a lot of insight as to what volunteer life will be like in the future. I should have plenty of material for a new blog post a week from now.

Until then... Hasta luego.