A Day “Off”

Special Note: We are trying to pull off phone calls tonight using an unusual wifi situation. If you get a call from a strange number between about 2:00pm and 6:00pm California time, you might want to answer because it might be your DIRTy! They will be sitting on tree stumps outside when they talk to you, but we are excited that we think we have figured something out. They are having better luck on WhatsApp than cell phone calling, so if you have WhatsApp, watch for contact there.

 

January 11, 2026

It’s Sunday and our hosts don’t work on their community projects on Sundays (not counting “tourism,” as in the kitchen workers who are helping support us – and whom we are also helping support). So we kind of had a day off, but it really meant we had a chance to catch up on the many other chores that go half done or undone on other days. It was clear enough from the smell in our oca that laundry is one of the things that is not fully under control. 

We had arranged for a late breakfast because a lot of us hoped to sleep in since we didn’t need to hurry to work. You’ve probably already guessed just from the structure of that last sentence that we weren’t entirely successful at staying asleep. By the way, we mentioned that a few people were feeling the effects of our travel, our work, the heat, dehydration, and other forms of stress. Not to be too specific, but we are happy to announce that we are all pretty much back on solid ground after a few situations had turned a bit . . . fluid. We think you know what we mean. 

Our nocturnal oddity last night was that one of our sleeptalkers blasted out an announcement that started with something like “Ladies and Gentlemen!” and then called for something unknown. Someone decided that the need was for a barf bag, which we have, so we produced one. But no one needed a barf bag and everything was fine. We all just turned off our lights, stopped prairie dogging over the edges of our hammocks, and went back to sleep. No problem. And then at our normal-ish wakeup times (6:15 for Shawny, 6:30 for the kitchen crew, and 6:45 for the rest), we almost all just got up. 

That gave some of us time to go to the Catholic church down the riverbank. We went on our own because we forgot to arrange things with Dona Odila. We were welcomed warmly and we could tell that they were talking about us and our projects early in the service. After the homily, they invited us to speak, so Sofia spoke on our behalf and expressed our gratitude for the welcome we have felt in Anã. The churchgoers rejoined the others just as they were starting breakfast. 

After our breakfast (that included savory doughnuts – with ham in them), we started kicking in on cleaning up our camp/home. The dirtybirds did huge loads of laundry (by hand) and we even enlisted a local woman to come teach them how to do it well (but NOT to do it for them). We went through our “school bags” to see what extra items we brought along but are not using that might be helpful. We found some good ones. 

We also spent a good long time in the river. It was nice to do so without work stints on either end (though it is also nice to do it between those as well). We got to just stand together and talk about things we wanted to talk about, which turns out to be something we really like to do. 

Shawny and Jesse made arrangements for our upcoming excursion by boat to visit other similar communities to Anã. We’ll tell you more about that plan later. 

We are posting this report before our reflection session and induction ceremony into the Order of the Purple Bike. We’ll update it once those sessions have happened. Sorry we had no internet last night to post yesterday’s account. We’re trying . . .