Back to the beginning

The number of people reading this blog has dropped significantly in the past four weeks. While I can’t be certain of why that is, I think it may be because I haven’t written lately the type of articles, essays, commentaries or whatever you want to call them that is of interest to other bloggers and internet news services who typically reprint my stuff, which means referrals from those sites are down. It’s also possible that those readers interested solely in learning about Peru don’t much care why I don’t wear short pants, or that I think rap is some as yet undiscovered insidious disease that will hopefully one day see medical science identify and devise a cure for. The only reason I mention the drop in readership is because it has caused me to do some reflecting.

I installed Google Analytics because Maribel and I were curious to see who was reading our blog and from where. It’s kind of fun to look at the stats and see that readers from 6 new countries and 17 different cities have checked in this week. Fun but not important. I’m not interested in driving up the numbers nor am I concerned with growing this site. If through this blog I’m providing something…be it information or entertainment to others, that makes me feel good. But the primary purpose of this blog was and still is to record my individual thoughts and experiences for myself – sort of a personal diary left open on a table for passer-by’s to glance at if they’d care to.

Now don’t get me wrong. There are many purely Peru stories I’d love to write. “Maria’s Garden” is one of them. Maria is real and so is her garden. If I do the job with this story I can almost guarantee you will learn a lot about the courage, hardship and strength of character of a typical Peruvian. And you will love Maria.

There are several reasons why Maria’s Garden and other stories haven’t been written. For one thing it’s been too damn hot during the day to go out in the desert to research and take photos. I don’t remember it being this hot last summer, but this year it’s been miserable. Secondly, despite my last entry claiming the health benefits I’ve gained since moving to Peru, I’ve been pretty much house bound for the last two weeks - first with Brian’s Disease and then Montezuma’s revenge, which I thought I’d built up immunity against! Another reason is the English classes Maribel and I have with the artisans in Monsefù on Tuesdays and the Chiclayo police on Wednesdays. It takes more time than I originally thought to think of and write out lesson plans, make copies and deal with miscellaneous issues let alone teaching the class.

There is one other reason why I may have neglected doing the groundwork for blog entries. Lately I’ve started having thoughts that maybe stories like Maria and her garden deserve more than a blog entry – that one page with photos doesn’t get it. I’m not going to say I’ve started writing a book. What I will say is that I’ve starting compiling notes – about 6 hours worth yesterday alone (what else can you do when the baño may beckon at any moment?). I have a general idea what the subject matter, tone and direction might be, but at this point writing a book is nothing more than a thought. I honestly don’t know if I have a quality book in me. I think I’d like to find out.

Tom