December 23, 2003. Last night we celebrated the longest night of the year -- Winter Solstice -- with a crackly fire in the fireplace and toasted marshmallows ... and Hanukkah music from a local FM station on the radio. I didn't get to taste the marshmallows, so when Miss Jerrianne left the room for a few minutes, I absconded with the whole bag ... she caught me right by the bedroom door, where I was planning to hide them, for later.

The sun rose at 10:14 a.m. We didn't see it, because it has been snowing every day for a week, with the sun hiding behind thick clouds. Even on sunny days it takes at least another hour before the sun peeks over the Chugach Mountains and casts bright yellow sunbeams into the east sun room. After half an hour or so, the sun ducks behind the neighboring house's roof. The sun shows up on the other side of the house for an hour or two until sunset at 3:41 p.m. on the shortest day of the year.

Yesterday we lost 4 seconds of daylight, compared to the previous day, but today we gained 9 seconds ... so we made up yesterday's loss and gained 5 more seconds, too. The sun is very low in the southern sky this time of year, scooting along just above the horizon. Around St. Valentine's Day it will rise high enough to skim along the top of the neighboring house's roof, instead of ducking behind it. We look forward to that.

Still, we aren't complaining, because we get a lot more winter sunshine than the cats in Barrow, Alaska's northernmost village, do. The sun set there in mid-November and won't rise again until mid-January. They call winter the long dark up there ... and they have polar bears, too! But we'll get more daylight than we know what to do with when summer comes, and we really do love living in the Land of the Midnight Sun. Meanwhile, warm full spectrum fluorescent lights keep our spirits sunny side up.

According to Miss Jerrianne, last winter was very mild with very little snow. I don't remember, of course, because I hadn't been born yet. She said the previous winter was that way, too ... right up until St. Patrick's Day when a tremendous storm dropped about three feet of snow in one huge dump, breaking all records for 24-hour snowfall. This year the snow came late (November 8) but it just kept on coming. Now it's piled up over five feet deep ... a little more than double the seasonal average. It's snow up to our ears now ... and that's with me riding on Miss Jerrianne's shoulder!

The snowplows have been busy, busy, busy on our street ... they're fun to watch, but they are having trouble keeping up. Miss Jerrianne brushes snow off our front steps once or twice a day and then our snowplow man takes it away. Some of the neighbors have been shoveling snow off their rooftops and Miss Jerrianne will probably have to find a roof shoveling service to do ours soon. The spruce trees could use a shake, too.

We are warm and cozy indoors, now that the furnace is working again. Dozing in a double recliner in front of a crackling fire with soft music playing is my idea of an evening well spent. I wouldn't even mind not sharing in the roasted marshmallows if Miss Jerrianne would remember to keep that film canister filled with shrimp and salmon kitty treats handy ... and I know she wouldn't expect me to share them with her.

BTW, if you'd like to see and hear a jolly little preview of some animated music that I think is worth waking up for, click here, choose your viewing method, and wait patiently ... it's a fairly long download for each tune; the DVD would be a lot faster:

http://www.animusic.com/previews/animusic1.php

For more Miss Kitty adventures visit my web log:

http://www.jlowther.com/Pages/kitty/index.html

Miss Kitty

Here's most of an e-mail I sent to some friends telling them about my experiences in Morochata. You already know most of it, but here it is in print!

A lot has happened in the past 5 weeks.

What I Did:
played anthropologist for a month. whee!
helped deliver babies
ate kidneys, liver, stomach, and other Unidentifiable Internal Organs (UIO's)
contemplated a lot
graduated. I think.

If you're intrigued, read on. for accompanying photos, check out the Morochata album at http://community.webshots.com/user/kjswenson

I've decided that Morochata, Bolivia, just might be the most amazing place anywhere. It's located around 50 miles from Cochabamba; getting there involves bearing a dusty three-hour bus ride that first switchbacks up a rock/dirt road to an impressive pass and then descends into a deep, narrow valley that is greener and lovelier than Cochabamba's.

The town itself is home to around 4,000, most of whom grow tasty potatoes that are served with every meal. Every meal. Nearly everyone speaks Quechua and maintains a fairly traditional lifestyle. The only Mestizo inhabitants to speak of are the teachers and shopkeepers. I lived with one of them, a teacher at the local high school and relative of my Cochabambina family.

The place is quiet! I woke up around 6 every morning without an alarm, due to chattering birds and sun in my eyes. There is nearly no traffic of the mechanized sort. A few buses arrive around 9 every morning and return at noon. Very occasionally a truck loaded with produce passes through on the way to the city. But mostly I heard birds and intermittent protests from disobedient pigs during my walks to the hospital each day.

Every morning I walked the surrounding dirt roads for an hour or so before tackling the nasty climb to the hospital. Due to the altitude, guarding enough air to spit out the requisite "Buenos días" to anyone I happened to meet was sometimes a challenge. More challenging was the incomprehensible dialogue that always followed, in which the campesino would ask me something in Quechua. I'd do my best to guess what he or she might want to know, and reply in Spanish. After a few such exchanges I'd continue and hope I hadn't said anything ridiculous.

The Morochateños decided to oust their corrupt mayor while I was there and the process was great entertainment. From the hospital window I watched as most of town gathered in the soccer field below. They waved flags, shouted, and crowded into trucks headed for Cochabamba, where they protested and demanded the resignation of the mayor.

He had already fled, but they blocked the doors of the town hall with two massive tires and a group slept on the steps every night just in case. In a display of typical Bolivian protest, all of the roads surrounding town were blockaded with trees and boulders. So Morochata was even quieter than usual, until the mayor resigned nine days later and the blockades were dismantled.

Kjirsten

---

This and That
6
by Elaine Wold
Wahpeton, ND

A while back this letter ran in the Letters to the Editor:

Here's a request for Doug. Does he have the recipe for those pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting? Or were those Donnie's specialties? I'd love the recipe.

Janie supplied the name of Muriel as having an excellent recipe. We got Muriel to supply her version... Here you are, Marlene -- and for the rest, too.

Just checking my mail -- so, hope I am not too late with the recipe for

Pumpkin Bars

Mix together:
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups (or 1 can) pumpkin
1 cup oil

Then add:
2 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1 tsp. baking powder

Then add:
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup nuts

Bake in greased and floured 9 x 13 pan at 350 until done (40 - 50 minutes).

Frost with:
3 oz. cream cheese (softened)
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups powdered sugar

Sprinkle additional chopped nuts over top (if desired)

EDITOR'S POLICY: If you wish to subscribe to The Bulletin, simply send me a statement of that fact. If you wish to keep receiving it I hope you will contribute to one of the columns that are running in this family epistle (at least occasionally!). My e-mail address is dma49261@juno.com

---

---