head vs. heart

I was just reading a friend's blog and she had a critical comment from a former coworker who said something like "it sounds like this is all coming from your head, not your heart." Based on my own worries about my blog, I think her coworker was just trying to push her, knowing that she has more inside her that she wanted to read on her blog. Not just her observations and commentary. Those don't show what we all love about Alexa. When I first started writing my blog, I think I was so caught up in worrying about what my readers would want to learn about my Peruvian experience that I lost a lot of "my heart" from what I wrote. I hope that is changing! I am not writing this blog specifically to be a formal report on working in Lima. I am more interested in sharing my experiences, observations, fears, joys, and difficulties with people back at home.

I was really worried about writing a blog that was too formal and elite sounding. For whatever reason it feels like some blogs out there are inaccessible and snobby. Writing on a blog, depending on your readership, is kind of like trying out ideas and processing them. Those ideas might not be always from your heart, nor they might not always be the definitive answer on a subject. Your feelings of the subject might change. In Alexa's blog perhaps she was trying out an idea she had about her recent move to New York City, and in a few weeks, her whole opinion on that subject will change.

In any event, I do hope that I am getting some of my "heart" into my blog. My professors in college always told me that I try to squish too many ideas into too few words. I always assumed people could read my thought process when reading what I wrote. Or maybe I assumed it wasn't necessary or interesting to explain the thought process. Grace Burton, my spanish literature teacher, was the first person to point this out in my writing, and it led to a big change in my perspective of how I think, process, and write. She encouraged me to tease out what I am trying to say. Help the reader along. Show each step my mind took as it jumped from one concept to the next, instead of assuming that those were unnecessary steps to explain.

While I am writing this, I am considering the report I need to write to evaluate the water investigation I have done so far. I have to turn it in before Christmas, which I just realized is quite soon. I have been keeping myself busy at work organizing a fun recreational day for MDR TB patients who are in group therapy in metropolitan Lima. There are about 120 patients in total. Should be a fun day full of soccer games, three-legged race, the egg toss, and swimming. Meggie is coming the day before, and Socios has quite generously invited her to come along. Socios takes a while to trust people, including their employees and volunteers, so it takes a while before the volunteers can work directly with patients or community members. So I am very thankful and slightly surprised they are inviting Meggie along. After the fun day (aka paseo,) Meggie and I are heading up to a beach town on the northern coast. Then I am flying home to Boston for Christmas and New Year's! I would love to see anyone who is around Boston!