Old photos, masks, and souvenirs

Today (Tuesday) was a great day. Spent all day cleaning the library/living room. Came across old photo albums and a collection of masks my parents collected from various countries. It was a long, hard day, but the room got a complete makeover -- bookshelves and walls included. I was amazed to come across early pictures of myself never before seen, at least by me, and found it especially interesting to find pictures of my parents b. b. t. (before BT). There were photos of my father at University, of my mother in highschool, and of my mother's first trip to Bolivia, 1969, when it was less touched by the rest of the world. Later pictures too, especially of Guatemala, El Salvador, Italy, Geneva, Oruro, and Brazil. Even found a yearbook of my 4th grade class in Campinas. Of 18 listed students, I counted 10 different nationalities (Brazilian, German, Dutch, Polish, Lebanese, American, Swedish, English, Italian, and Norwegian). I loved that place and all the faces and names were as familiar as ever. Found a teacher's report on my first few weeks of school in El Salvador, dated Jan. 16, 1976, and I quote, "B. seems to get along well with the other children, but again does not want them to work with her unless invited." Seems as if some things never change. Found out too the full names of my great grandparents on the Bolivian side. On grandfather's side: Jose Isaac Troncoso and Alejandrina Loayza Mora de Troncoso; on my grandmother's side: Juan Andrade Molina and Salome Castellon Caballero de Andrade. I'm going to try to find out as much as I can about the family history, while I'm down there this time.

Found time to break for a quick lunch; burgers a la Julia Child and my new favorite salad (the one w/ the raisins and grapes), with a not so good pinot grigio, but it was cold and we didn't mind too terribly much. We invariably reverted back to red and resumed rearranging and spent the rest of the time hanging paintings and masks.

On the animal front, Nemo and Augie have been introduced and, though they aren't fast friends, they do manage to stay in the same room, at least until Augie (who just wants to play) can't take it any more. Tomorrow, the dining room!