School

I`ve been here almost 3 weeks and although it was a little of a rough start it has porgressively gotten better over time! :) i`m teaching english in 4 classrooms, a different one everyday. as well as helping out when they need me. Emily and I live together with an older lady and we pretty much can come and go as we please. She has a beautiful porch that i try and sit on everyday. it looks out unto the mountains and the site it Amazing! the town is pretty small so as i walk i have run into some of the kids i have in class. they run up to me yelling, ¨profesora¨ it`s really cute and i love getting to work with the kids.

I spent my 21st birthday in Mancos, about 30 minutes from Caraz watching US vs Brazil final soccer game for the confederations cup. Even though we lost it started as a great game with us having the lead thtough half time. then, Ben, Emily, and the Richers (my leaders) came back to Caraz for a birthday dinner (hawiian pizza, salad, and delicious ice cream!) followed by a birthday cake/ little party at Ben`s house with his family and our whole hang. Who else can say they spent their 21st birthday with SST Leaders and their kids?! :) i had fun.

I was sick the past couple of days and the days seemed to drag on but i`m all better now! Let`s just say i got a lot of reading done, card playing, colored some pictures, and listened to some music in that time of just hanging out at my house.

So far so good!

Caraz, Ancash- 9 hours from Lima

Well i made it to my service assignment! i met my host mom and she doesn`t talk much but Emily and I can pretty much come and goes as we please. I hang out at Ben`s house a lot because his mom makes every meal for all of us. My 1st day at school was interesting... it was terible but the 2nd day was soooo much better!!! the 1st day i taught english with no warning and no time to prepare a lesson. i had no idea how to go about teaching english as a second language let alone to 3-5 year olds who don`t even know how to write their own language. it was very interesting, but i got things cleared up since the teachers all thought i was an english teacher back in the States. i had to tell them i wasn`t and that i am actually studying business. Whoops! the 2nd day i helped around the classroom and pronounced the english words for the teachers and they formed a strcuture that would work for the little kids. all is well and Caraz is a beautiful place! :)

Cusco- Machu Picchu

This week has been a ¨mini vacation¨ as my group liked to call it. We traveled by 2 planes, 2 train, and 3 busses all within 4 days! it has been a amazing week, but now i´m starting to feel the affects from lack of sleep. This week I got to travel to Cusco and tour some of the ruins from the incan time. It was exciting to see a place in real life that i had just seen a movie about in Spanish class last semester. it was Saqsayhuman! thats just say the people how built this were pretty brillent at the time...
The high light of the entire trip and being in Peru thus far was MACHU PUCCHI!!!
i woke up at 4:45 so that our group could walk to the train station, ride it for an hour, and hop on a bus all to make it to up to Machu Picchu by 8 or 9 am. But let me tell you it was sooooo worth it! We had a brief background about the place and then began hiking up sun gate mountain to get a view from above the ruins. It was a hard hike and 3 breaks later a group of us made it to the top! What a veiw from the top of a mountain. From there we hiked down and got to explore the city ourselves. it was AMAZING to see and actually be there. i have seen signs and billboards all over but the picture itself can not replace the memories and sights i saw that day! it was incredible and i am so happy i had the chance to go with my SST group.
Today, we woke up and said goodbye to 5 memebers of our group who are staying in Cusco for service. It was sad boarding the plane with them but i know only 6 weeks and we will all be back together again!
side note: the hostels we stayed in had hot water for showers!!! that just made my day! i looked forward to taking a shower these past 4 days since being on SST. it was great!!
Sunday i leave for service in Caraz, Ancash. Next to the 2nd largest mountain in South America. Looks like i will get to go hiking some more while on service if i get time on the weekends. i´m excitied and nervous since i have gotten to know the large city of Lima pretty well these past 6 weeks and now a new change is coming.
until then, i hope everyone is haivng a great summer!

Down, Up, Down, Up

This week started off with a lectur eon natural medicine used here in Peru and the rituals preformed to make a person health. I learned that if someone is extremely sick ¨the medicine man¨ will put a ginnea pig over your body for a period of time, cut it open and whatever is not working properly in the animals body is the organ or system that is not functioning correctly in your body. from there they can figure out how to better treat a pacient. Very interesting!
When i came home i made dinner for my family. i made them pancakes and poached eggs with crackers, the kind my mom always makes at home. I had my sister here help me since the pancake box was in spanish but i´m pretty sure i could have done it on my own since there was pictures however the use the metric system and i wasn´t sure how much water and oil to add. They turned out pretty good and every ate their meal... not sure if they were being nice or if they really did like it. My mom was impressed by the fact that i cracked an egg and put it in boiling water and it made the poached eggs, broke up some crackers, put a little butter and your good to go! i was loving the food!!!
Tues. came and the group got to make jewerly, which I was all for! i got to make a necklace which i wore the following day! It was pretty sweet and i know many of the guys made things for their mother´s which was nice of them.
Wed. we met as a group at Jerrell and Janes house and talked with a lady about her abusive life and the 7 kids she currently has as well as how gracious she is to be working for us cleaning our plates and cups every week for money. it gave a different perspective on things and how grateful i am for the things I have.
Thurs. we took our Spanish final and spent the rest of the day singing, worshiping, eating, and playing soccer and volleyball with the students who study at the seminary (same place where we have our spanish classes everyday) it was a great time to meet the people we see everyday and get to talk with them. It was my 1st time playing vball down here and although the ball felt like nothing i have ever played with it was still a blast. Let me just say for the record this was the first time i played vball and didn´t sweat!!! what an accomplishment, i know! Later that night julia, Rachel and I went to this place where they have massive fountians and light shows. It was amazing and funny that we were all amused by water and lights. It was a beautiful, tranquil place to go and take your mind off the busy, crazy loud city of Lima. From there we met a large group and went to a discoteca where out dance instructor was professionally dancing in 10 songs throughout the night. it didn´t start until 9 and I left before it ended in the morning. It was a blast and a great opportunity to see many different cultural dances and customes. Jane even came to watch the show!
Friday morning was interesting since i didn´t get much sleep but we drove to el salvador which is a shanty town about an hour away. we ate lunch as a place where locals typically eat for a sol a day = 30 cents and the government finds the rest of the meal. We were served a soup with cow stomach and then a main dish of chicken wing and rice. not to bad and it was a lot of food for one meal. However we learned that people there live off of less tan a dollar a day and there is garbage all over. definately not a place where you want to live becuase many kids get sick and die. we spend about 2-4 hours walking around and trying to take things in. then Liz, Chelsea and I got to meet a women who lives there and talk with her for about 2 hours. it was nice to spend that time together getting to know a little more about the area and her life.
Sat came and it was time for the despedida... PARTY!!! It was a thanks to all of our host families for everything they have done for us these passed 5 weeks! It was crazy trying to oganize everything, but it worked out and it went very well. i think the parents really enjoyed it and got a kick out of some of the acts we had for them! we danced and had native customes that was the finalle to the show and the night! We made scocheroos, puppy chow, brownies, and popcorn (by pan) for our families to try a little of what we make in the US. My mom was loving on the puppy chow and asked if we could make it on sunday! :)
Later that night an entire district lost power (meaning the entire city of goshen lost power) and a group of 15 of us got locked in a building for about an hour. they told us it was unsafe to go out in the city when there is no electricty so we waited and talked.
Once the lights came bakk on i headed home safely! it was a new experience here in Lima!
Looking back this week was odd in the fact it went from learning about the people living in poverty to making jewerly, to hearing about a true story to having fun play volleyball and going to a show to actually seeing where this lady lives and how she survives, to having a party and saying thanks to our families. up, down, up, down but i enjoyed it all!
Next week: Cusco... Machu Picchu!!!!

One month has come and gone

Wow it is hard to think that one month has passed since being here! seriously time has flew by so fast. This is the last week of class and then next week I´m off to climb Machu Pichu!!! However there is a lot to still get gone before that time comes.

This week was a little more laid back then the last. Our group had an economic speaker come in and talk about the differences in Peru economics compared to the US. It was verry interesting from a business major point of view to hear how things are run here. Very much different then the US and what the government lets ¨slide by¨ here in Peru. Tues we then visited a Museum of Currency and we got to see all the different currencys Peru has had over the years. It was very interesting to see what their coins and bills looked like years ago and what they are currenlty look like and called. Some time ago it was called ¨Real¨ then the ¨Sol¨ and now the ¨Nuevo Sol¨. Anyway, Wed. was an exciting day for everyone. Jerrell and Jane (our leaders) tricked us all and had on the schedule that we were going to a bank. However, they didn´t share with us that we had actually gone there on Tues. so Wed. was spent talking and handing out envelops to each person. Inside each envelop was our placement for service. We waited and then opened them together. As i opened mine and read it, I learned I would be in a city named Caraz in Ancash. It´s about 7 hours from Lima. There I will be working as a teacher assistant in a preschool! How weird is that. Not like I haven´t spent time in a classroom helping my mom out or anything! :) It should be a great learning experience, since hey i get to go back to Preschool again except this time i get to learn Spanish! Emily and I will be living together in the same house, but doing different service assignments. The both of us will be within walking distance of Ben an donly an hour or so away from 2 other groups of 2. From what i have heard it is very nice and beautiful. We are right next to the 2nd tallest mountain in South America so we plan on spanding some time climbing up a little ways.
Friday we spent the entire day driving to Chinca and seeing the vast difference between busy Lima and Chinca. Things were a lot more calm and peaceful as well as more run down. It was a nice break from what we have been seeing the past month and we got to climb up a mountain or hilll i´m not really sure what it was but i had a blast and got some pretty sweet pictures!
OHHHH best part! Believe it or NOT! But i chewed on COW STOMACH! yup i sure did! I tried to swollow it but to spare you all I´l just say it wasn´t going so i didn´t swollow but it was in my mouth and chewing on it for a good amount of time. it was like rubber and weird texture but hey Funk paid me a sol to do it, which now thinking aobut it is only .30 cents haha but whatever! I did it anyways! :)

Eventful week!

I have got to do many things this week that were ohhh so fun! On Tues. I got to meet Victor Delfin who is an amazing artist and very popular here in Peru. I felt so honored to meet such a great man! His house was enormous and it gave me a very different view of how some people are very well off and last week i saw how many people live a completely different life. I couldn´t look anywhere in his house without seeing some kind of art he had made. it was amazing and it really inspired me to want to be so artistic. From there we went to a University where my host father works as the Director of the school. I got to talk with students there in spanish and english and eat lunch the SST group. From there i got to go to a baking class and make the famous arroz con leche (rice with milk, like pudding in a way) and 2 other things that go on top. Everyone loves it here, except for me! All well. A handful of us went and saw Angels and Demons in theater and i really liked it. The movie was in english and based on Cathedrals and and religious land marks in Europe. I enjoyed it and it was nice to feel at home even for a few hours (their theaters remind me of home)!
Wed.- I got to visit a Cathedral and the catacombs. I´ve seen many cathredrals but never catacombs that i can remember and it was intersting. Way to many real bones and skulls from the 16th century for me! It was cool though.
Thurs.- We had a lecture on Peruvain dancing and then other people came in and taught us some of the dances. This was very interesting to see and then try and reanact! haha it was more funny watching other people try to dance. I aenjoyed it and my back didn´t hurt to much afterwards which i was never greatful for! I went shopping in Miraflores at a small market and found many hand made cravings! They were really nice and getting to see the person who took so much time in making such things was sweet!
Fri.- SWIMMING with the SEA LIONS!!!! i took to motion sickness pills and well lets just say they didn´t really help... I got on a boat out in the Pacific and it took about an hour to actually get to the island where the Sea Lions are located. From there the group put on wet suits, jumped in the freezing cold water and swam near the sea lions. At points i was a foot away from them but never actually touched one. They started making scary noises so the 10 of us out there backed off and gave them their space. it smelled like garbage out there with over 8,000 sea lions but it was sweet to swim with them and chugging the water was disguising. Let me tell you first hand! :) Besides that it was a blast and my motion sickness. Once on the boat the tour company gave us food and drinks! Jerrell and Jane (my leaders) made a picnic for all of us at a beach and they gave us PB&J sanwhiches. I have never seen so many of us so excited for PB&J!!! it was amazing and ohhh so comforting.
Next week marks 1 month being in Peru!

Being Blonde in an Unfamiliar Country

Saturday Rachel, Liz N. and I decided to go to the Flea Market. this would be Rachel and I´s 4th time going but I loved it so much it didn´t even matter! Every time I buy more and more things because they are so amazing! anyways, as Rachel and I walked back to her house we stopped and got a pop to drink as we were thirsty. We paid and left. Within a few minutes i had hopped on a combi and was heading home. The combiador came over to where i was sitting and asked for my money. I looked at my purse and was searching for my wallet. It wasn´t on top which i thought was weird because i had just bought the pop. So i dumped my entire purse out and gifts on the seat next to me and nothing. CRAP! but to my brillent mind i keep money in my pocket for the combi fairs in case there is no room to dig through my purse. I pull out of my pocket 3.5 soles and it only costs me 1.20 to get home! Wow that was close. how would i have explained to the person in spanish that i lost my wallet and can´t pay him. Thank the Lord that wasn´t the case and i´m always prepared. Once i got home i told my family what had happened and that i´m pretty sure where it was however, there´s no garuntee it is still there. I called Rachel and had her and her mom go back to the store to see if they could find it by the register. 20 minutes later i get a phone call saying they have it with everything inside!!! WOW i´m lucky, but i´ll find out for sure if anything is gone tomorrow at class. Let´s just say i´m not letting my wallet leave my side again! that could have been awful, but i thank the God that it turned out well for me! :)

Other than that i´m enjoying my time here and i love my family. I can´t wait until Friday when our group gets to go swimming with Sea Lions!!! i´ll let you know how it goes!
Until then have a great week at work or school or summer for some of you!
Rachel good luck on your exams and same goes for people in Goshen!