A little reunion

Lastnight me and my cousins Claudia and Becky went out. Finally!! We have been wanting to go out together for so long, but it´s hard because Claudia is always working. So we decided to go to Plaza San Miguel which is like a mall I guess but it´s kinda out in the open, atleast the 2nd floor is. We went there first and regardless of how cold and rainy it was outside, I was really craving some ice cream! I got two scoops for 3.50 soles which is only a little over a dollar! I got coconut and lucuma flavors ahh it tasted amazing!


We left and walked to this place called Texacana. They play live music and people go out and dance. We ordered some sangria and it had pieces of pineapple in it. So good..We also ordered some guacamole with these fried wonton things with cheese in them. I´m liking that alot more that just regular tortilla chips now. The music was really fun, we even got up and danced a little. We had a such a great time. The only thing that sucks is that smoking is permitted in all public areas. So when we left we stunk of cigarrette smoke. It was disgusting..




ready to go!


love these girls!


sometimes you just have to dance





Today we went to tia Nelly´s house for a little family reunion before she goes off to surgery. We ate ceviche, esceveche de pescado, arroz con pollo, cancha, cake, it was a fabulous lunch. well it wasn´t exactly lunch, because me and my mom, Becky, Fernando and thei kids got there around 3. We went to buy a cake at the grocery store after church and it was packed. We waited in line for atleats 45 minutes. I was starving so I bought an epanada to eat while I waited. On our way to tia Nelly´s house we came across a cute dog that apparently was hungry because he was carrying his little plastic bucket begging for food. It was the cutest thing!



Also while stopped at a stop light I saw through the back windows of the car, a little old man with a cane stopping by every car asking for money I guess. I took a picture of him from the car. He looked so sad.





But anyways, at the lunch we had a great time just laughing and being together. We also kinda celebrated tio Isamael and tio Benjamin´s birthdays. We got a guanabana cake and sang happy birthday. My tios are so funny. We all laughed probably 98% of the time! It was great. There were alot of us there but not even one fourth of how big the family is!


my mom and tio Ismael (he also goes by Cachupin and Loco)


tio Ruben, Tia Nelly


all of us


always laughing


Tios and Tias

happily shocked...

My tia Margarita, who was in ICU last week, for some reason was released on Friday. We were all shocked! Especially because when I saw her she looked so pitiful and was almost in a coma. We were planning on going to go visit her yesterday there but they called us and told us she was back at her daughter Rosita´s house. So we met up with tio Ruben this morning and we took a cab together and went to Mirtha´s house(my cousin, her grandaughter) we didn´t know exactly where Rosita´s house was so we went there first. Well noone was home but we were able to get a hold of her and she called Rosita to send someone to walk us to her house. Well we stood around for a while and there were atleast about 7 dogs running around or just sitting there. There were about 10 kids playing volleyball on the street, they had strung up a rope from two windows and were tossing the ball over it. I love how kids here play outside and aren´t just sitting on the couch watching tv or playing video games. That´s how it should be. That´s how I grew up atleast. Kids need more stimulating activities nowadays. Anyways, so this little cute girl walks up to us and says "good day" and tells us she is here to take us to Rosita´s house. It was the cutest thing. She was one of her grandkids. When we got to the house I was so worried for my mom to see her sister in the condition that she was in. I even tried to warn her. But when we went into her room (well actually it´s a bed in the kitchen) she saw my mom and recognized her and she could speak and was alert and everything! I was so relieved and happy to see that. My mom was so happy that she recognized her too. She doesn´t recognize everyone anymore. My mom had´nt seen her in about 14 years!!! That is just so crazy to me! I can´t even imagine not seeing my brothers for a year much less 14...We spent some time talking to her then she fell asleep. I ended up playing with Betsy and her cousin Luis he was about 5, she was 8. They were so funny and sweet. I gave her one of my rings and she was so excited to have something from the United States. We took pictures and listened to music and danced around the living room. My cousin Rosita gave me a scarf she had knitted for me and also a little hat. I loved it!! I want to learn how to knit. Maybe I should while I am here...Later on Tio Ruben went to the store and brought back "pollo a la brasa" which is like rotiserrie chicken but it´s even better. I can already feel myself getting fatter...Bleh!!!


me and Luis


me and Betsy


they are so funny and precious


tia Mimi, tio Ruben, Mami, Rosita, me and Luis

another birthday...

Today is the anniversary of the horrible earthquake that happend here on Peru last year. So that was the main topic of many conversations through out the day. Who was where, what were they doing, what was the weather like, where did they go...but I love to hear the stories. They are so interesting and it´s pretty scary that all this happend just a year ago. My cousin Lucho told me that he didn´t even feel it! He drives a taxi but he is just as crazy as all the other drivers here and he said that while he was driving someone around that he noticed people running out of buildings and screaming and just people all over the place and he didn´t understand what was going on until he stopped to ask. I´m glad I wasn´t here for that!

We went over to tia Nelly´s house to see her for a little bit. And of course she ended up feeding us. Her food is always so good. We ate "pavita" which is turkey I think. I can´t really remember. Tia Daniel was there too. My mom was so happy to finally see him. He is kinda sick too. He has Parkinsons, but he is always so happy regardless. She brought him some new shoes that have velcro so it is easier for him to use than ones with shoe laces. It´s hard to understand what he says sometimes. But he is so sweet.


mami, tia Nelly and me

we were having such an exciting conversation, my mom was looks astonished


tio Daniel and my mom



Today is also tio Benjamin´s birthday so me, my mom, and tia Mimi went over to see him and have a "lonchesito". We ate sooo much bread and head cheese and sangresita (I won´t explain what this is because it seems pretty disgusting when being described, but it´s actually really good). We talked and talked and took pictures and just hung out. While we were all sitting around in the living room these little men that sell "humitas", a sweet tamale type thing, were outside of the house singing and dancing. They put on a little show and then ask whoever is around if they will buy their humitas. It was so fun to watch them. We all went outside the front door and watched and clapped and my cousin Carlos and his little nephew Alonzo even went out and started dancing around. It was funny. We asked them to sing and dance one more time for us. We did end up buying the humitas and they were really good. I had never seen anything like that before here.. We got home really late because it was another far drive. I wish everyone could just live close together. It would be so much cheaper.


everyone


dancing vendors


Carlos and Alonzo dancing






unwrapping humitas


yum!!

Sunny days..

My mom finally got here! We waited for over an hour at the airport. I really though I was going to pass out from being so tired! I can´t believe I stayed up all night! I havent done that in a long time. Well yesterday Claudia came early in the morning to see my mom. It was so sweet because they both started crying when they hugged. She´s always been really close with my mom since she was little. We had some tea and some bread and laughed and laughed.


I finally have my little mom back!


mami, Becky, me, Claudia


they are crazy..we laughed for about 10 minutes straight

The day is so sunny today! I was so hot I couldn´t almost take it..Definatley not as hot as Nashville, but since it´s been so cold and rainy here it felt like a huge difference! It felt nice though. I had never seen blue skies in Lima before.

Later that day we went to visit tia Nelly. My mom was so happy to see her! and she was happy to find her well and not looking like she is sick. We ate some food, rice and "cauliflor saltado" its cauliflower and steak with fried potatoes. It was delicious! Just like everything else I´ve eaten here is!

Today we went to eat at tio Ismael´s house. He lives so far away it´s always a long exhausting adventure to get there. We took a cab and I sat in the front because my mom is too scared to sit up front because of the crazy, horrible driving here. But I think it´s great. You never know what´s going to happen. I always have to tell my mom to close her eyes or not to look because she usually screams with terror. It´s pretty entertaining. The can driver ripped us off though, tia Mimi never tells the cab drivers the exact address to where we are going. She always says by what street it is or by what store. So when we get to where she says they just want to drop us off and then she says how its in the neigborhood coming up and they get mad. I don´t blame them though. So when we got to the street he said he would have to charge us more to go in the neigborhood. I knew he would end up charging too much because since I was all talking to him and having a conversation about everything he found out that we were from the U.S. so when we got to my uncle´s house he charged us 5 soles more! It was ridiculous because it was right down the street. But oh well. Now I am in charge of making sure tia Mimi tells the cab drivers the entire directions to where we are going.

Teaching my first lesson already..

Today(or yesterday) was my first full day at the school. My ride came to pick me up around 7:15. I got to the classroom and there was only about 2 kids there, the school day is supposed to start at 8 but usually noone is there on time. The actual teacher wasn´t even there yet! Ha! That´s so funny to me but normal. The american missionary girl was there though. Her name is Hailee or Heidi I´m not quite sure. Everyone that tries to speak in english has such a thick accent I wasn´t sure what they said and I never even thought to ask her myself what her name actually is. Oh well. I really like her though, she showed me everything that they do there. It doesnt seem that hard. Atleast I won´t be teaching math or anything like that..I barely know anything about that myself. The beginning of the day was nice. The kids were still pretty tired so they are mostly calm. We had reading groups and I helped with the more advanced readers. Even though I think they might have been faking the fact that they couldn´t read what the little booklet said. So I just had them repeat after me. After that they had a worksheet to do. Haylee asked me if I wanted to teach them for that portion. At first I was like no way but then I thought about it and they are 5 year olds, they arent going to judge me and be mean! So I guided them through the worksheet and helped them learn about words that rhyme and vowels and constanants. They are such smart kids. Most of them have pretty good pronunciation in english too.

Well since it was still pretty wet outside they didn´t have recess once again. But after they had lunch the main teacher (I forgot her name), came up with the brilliant idea to let them go outside and run a couple of laps around the futbol court. Well once we went outside, me and Haylee lined them up outside. She had the boys and I had the girls. So then we all started running. But all of a sudden they werent running in a line anymore it was like a whirlwind of children running in all different directions screaming and laughing uncontrollably! There are 2 goal nets at each end, when the first few kids reached the last one they started to climb the net. I ran over there and had to pull them down and tell them to get down. Luckily they didnt reach the top. So as I pulled them down they ran off. I was relieved to get them down. But then this little crazy kid named Piero was rolling around in a huge puddle! And he had dragged another little boy named Franco with him! They were soaked! Haylee picked them up and then I look up and all the kids I had pulled off the goal net the first time had gone to the other one and were climbing that one!! Ahh! So I ran over there and tried to pull them off. But one little girl named Adriana, she is one of the cutest little girls I have ever seen (other than my nieces if course), was all the way at the top and she was stuck! She was too scared to get back down. So I had to kinda climb up and get her down. It was such chaos! So as we tried to gather the 23 kids I see Piero throw himself in the huge puddle again. This time he was rolling around in it! We got him up and not even 10 seconds later we see him push a little girl into another puddle! This whole idea of letting them run around was a disaster! But it was hilarious to me at the same time. The other teacher came outside and we took them all back into the classroom. She lectured them for about 20 minutes about obeying their teachers and then we had to get their clothes dry. So the ones that had soaked clothes had to change and we put their clothes in the dryer. It was craziness. But at the same time it was the cutest thing to me that they got so crazy when we took them outside. The rest of the day was kinda chaotic as well. Once something out of the normal structure happens it´s hard to get kids back to the normal routine. I did a little lesson about Italy and gondolas and the leaning tower. It was so cute to see them all sitting up listening to every word I was saying. I really love doing this. I wish I could go again tomorrow but my mom gets here in the early morning. actually in about 1 hour I am headed to the airport to pick her up with Becky, Fernando and tia Mimi. I am so tired right now. I think I might start hallucinating soon. I am going to try to take an hour nap before I have to go. I can´t wait to see my mom! I really miss her. I don´t know if I will be able to go back to teach at all this rest of the week. Im staying in El Callao and thats like an hour from Stefani´s house which is in Surco, so it´s even further away from Jose Galves. I will definately be going back Monday though.

Religious views???

Well tonight me, Stefani and Jose continued our little discussion about the Bible. This time I was prepared though. I had a list of Bible verses to show him. Well he came prepared as well. He had this booklet he got from his church I guess that explained how Jesus isn´t God. To me thats rubbish but I wanted to hear him out anyways. Well I won´t even write much about what we talked about it would take too long. But I had so much proof of what I was trying to explain to him but he would always have something crazy to say back to me that would completly try to disprove what I had to say, it didnt work though. I have decided that I will no longer talk to him about this stuff becuase I was just getting really pissed off. He would never even stop to listen to what I had to say. As I am writing this he is actually right here still argueing but he is talking to my uncle now. I decided that writing on here would be productive than to keep arguing. Well i am off to bed now. I have to get up and be ready by 7 am and it´s almost 2 am already.

Oh tonight my aunt made some Algorrobina for me. It was so good! I had a little glass and then she yelled from the kitchen to get the last bit. Me and Stefani both ran out of the office at the same time and I was still taking my last sip and my arm ran into the door and I hit my tooth against the glass. My mouth was full but I wanted to laugh but couldnt and finally when I swallowed I was like "I think I chipped my tooth!!!" Stefani had just taken a big sip and when i said that she started laughing so hard she spewed out her drink everywhere all over the table and on Paty and her mom! It was hilarious! and I really did chip my tooth a little though. That´s what I get I guess!

so it´s not an orphanage..

Well today was my first day volunteering. The pastor Juan Barrientos came to pick me up. My dad has known him for a long time now. He works for World reach. He is so nice and his wife is really sweet too. On the way there I asked him about the orphanage and he told me that it wasnt an orphanage it was a school..Well I sure felt like an idiot but I guess my dad was just confused when he told me the details. But really I didnt even care. I was happy to be working with children in any way. The town where the school is located is called Jose Galvez, Pachacamac. It´s about 20 minutes from Stefani´s house. It is a really poor town. The roads are all dirt and the houses look really run down. There is alot of trash and dogs everywhere. It´s really sad to see but it just makes you realize how different other parts of the world can be. It truly maks such a profound impact on my life and my way of thinking.

The school grounds are surrounded by a tall stone wall. It´s really nice inside though. There is a garden when you walk in and alot of space. I went to all the different class rooms and met everyone. This is a new school that started with 16 kids and now they have 90. They only have grades K4 through 1st grade. But each year they add another grade. The pastor and his wife had a church and they decided to start a school as well to help the poor kids from the little town get good education and have the opportunity to learn english too. The whole property consists of their house, the church, the school, offices for the directors, a playground, futbol court/field thing and they also have a prenatal clinc they just opened for unwed pregnant adolescents too. There are alot of american missionaries that work there as english teachers. They are all really nice too. One of them is leaving on Thursday to go back to the states to finish school and she teaches the K5. So that is the class I am going to help in. I went today to observe the class. Supposedly they are the least well behaved class in the whole school. But I thought they were all adorable. And I have been around bad kids alot and these kids are great! They just have alot of energy and are loud, but that´s just how latinos are most of the time! heh heh...Anyways, they were all pretty shy at first then one little girl came and gave me part of her orange, then another little girl gave me some banana chips. Then little by little they began to come around and start talking to me. They are all so cute! I just want to squeeze their little faces!!! I got there around 11:30, they would normally have recess at this time but since it´s been raining lately everything is wet outside so they just got to watch a movie in the classroom. They were watching Shrek 3 in spanish. I really enjoyed the time I was there today. After class I went to the pastors house and had lunch with him, his wife, and their daughter. His wife made this fabulous pumpkin soup. And also some garbonzo beans and rice. It was delicious!
Tomorrow morning I am going to come help again! I am excited to spend the whole day there this time.

So on another note my tio Ismael was supposed to have surgery this morning. Well they did some tests and apparently the cancerous tumors he has have gotten alot bigger and the doctor says they can´t operate on them while they are so large. He is going to get some treatment for 3 months and the have the surgery in November. It´s so wierd how both my tio and tia that were supposed to have surgery both got postponed..crazy