Monday, April 5, 2010

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

7 comments:

  1. Does your blog collect stats for people who read via RSS readers? I rarely click through to read your blog unless I need to comment (like now) but I have it in my RSS reader and I really appreciate what you have written.

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  2. What is that..? that you don’t know if you have a quality book in you.

    I think you have the best quality of writing just go for it! I will be waiting to read Maria's Garden

    :O) Maya

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  3. Good question Michelle. I poked around the help section of the stat tracker and didn’t see anything indicating how or even if Google Analytics is dealing with RSS readers. I guess I’ll just assume there are more readers than we thought and call it good. Thank you for being one of them.
    Tom

    Maya my dear friend…thank you for your enthusiasm and encouragement. I promise you Maria’s Garden will be written.
    Tom

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  4. hey Tom your not alone man! I have been so busy with teaching classes in Lima that for about a week now I haven't posted anything on my blog either

    My hits are down as well, probably because of this

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  5. Same here! So busy, life got in the way.. have not visited your blog lately. Please keep up the good (great) work!

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  6. Don't worry about it, my hits go up and down too. It's a normal part of blogging. I always love to read your stories, you have a gift for painting pictures with your words.

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  7. Hey, as for Montezuma's revenge, 1 - don't eat streetfood, unless it's been deep fried, is fresh , and/or is hot. Especially do not eat *Tamales* that were not made in your home. Every time I eat these I get the well known stomach growls that lead to you know what later on... I never eat them anymore, except if they were made by friends or family. I believe the reason is that usually these are made by the most poor people in the area, and are sold on the corner or to mercados, unfortunately these people usually do not have access to clean water, nor have education in sanitary practices, do not eat anything you did not see being made, restaurants are not so bad as at least the food was heated recently.

    When you are attacked by this evil demon, I found the best thing is a anti-biotic called Ciproflaxacina - ask for the non brand name version as its about half the cost @ 40 centavos a pill.

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