Feb. 25 Update

Wow, This week has been so much fun!! Even though it may not seem like it, it's been a crazy week. haha

First off, before I talk about this past week, I need to go back to last weekend. Last weekend, I got to go to Chan Chan. Chan Chan is a really old temple that was built by the Native's here in Trujilllo before the Inca's came from the South and conquered them. The entire thing is huge and built out of sand, so this causes the problem of it being torn down by the winds and rain. So, even though some of it is still original, some of it has been reconstructed in order to see what it use to look like before. All I can say is wow!! I love history and the people that we stay with on the weekends, their daughter Candy who has become my Peruvian sister came with Jayde and I. She told us so much about the place and what different rooms were used for, I won't have learned or enjoyed it nearly as much if she hadn't come with us.

So, that was my weekend in the city. This week back at the Aldea has definitely been eventful. First off, one of the interns here found out she has lice!! haha  Some of the kids here have lice, so she ended up getting it from one of them. The other 2 interns who have been here for about 6 months say that it's completely normal and that both of us will probably get it by the time we leave. I WILL NOT GET LICE!!!!!!!!! There is no way on the earth that I will get lice (and probably because I say that, I will most likely get them). I have never had lice, and I never will.

This week for one of our art classes, we put paint on the kids hands and made hand prints on paper. It was surprisingly not messy. It took a couple of times for them to understand that when they put their hand down, they can't move it because then it messes the print up, but they did finally get it. After doing the normal just one color, we started to get creative and I did two colors on each hand, and ended up turning the hand prints into a flag. haha

Part of our day here at the Aldea is to do some type of sport or exercise in the afternoon. After doing the usual types of sports like futball and volleyball, it starts to get tricky to play games that they want to participate in. So, we ended up teaching the kids Capture the Flag at the beginning of this week, and I'm pretty sure I have played that game at least 5 times in the past 3 days. I have never seen a group of kids go so crazy over capture the flag. They would climb these trees that I can't even begin to describe how one could even climb it in the first place, and put the flag in it. And after every one game, they would ask if we could play again, and the same thing the next day, and the next....

On a fun note, one day we ended up putting our TV outside on our back porch and put on a movie for some of the kids to watch. Kids are not allowed in our casa (house), so we had to come up with a way for them to be able to watch a movie on our TV. They ended up watching "The Little Mermaid" which was so much fun to listen to in Spanish because they even dubbed the songs over. haha you have never heard "Under the Sea" until you have listened to in Spanish, that I can tell you.

Water Week

This week was pretty low-key. Apparently there was some sort of holiday on Monday and Tuesday so on Tuesday, we all decided to go to the beach. The beach is only like 45 minutes away from the Aldea and in order to get there, you have to take what are called combi's. A combi is basically a bus, but is in a normal van. We take these every weekend to get from the Aldea into Trujillo because they only cost s/2.00.
So anyway, we went to the beach and just sunbathed the whole day. The water was nice too and it made me realize that I can no longer go back to Utah where there is no beach or ocean.

The only bad part about this trip was that I am kind of dumb and didn't really put sunscreen on. I did put some on my shoulders and nose, but that's it and everywhere else I got sunburned so so bad!!! So, hopefully I have learned my lesson and will now put on sunscreen, especially when I go to the beach (which will be often).




Here is Peru there is a big festival going on called Carnival. It mostly takes place in Cajamarca, which is several hours away from Trujillo. What Carnival is is basically just a big massive water fight and the other interns here and I really wanted to go. Unfortunately that didn't end up happening because we couldn't find a hostel to stay in. But here in Peru everyone knows that it's Carnival and the kids have been saying for weeks that they really wanted to do Carnival at the Aldea.

So on Wednesday, one of the interns here named Wendy, decided for some reason that I do not know, wanted to throw water at me. So, it was hot, and I let her do it. Later, when the kids found out, they decided to chase her around trying to throw water at her. After Wendy was soaked, she decided that we needed to get Jayde, who is another intern. So we all got water in cups and bowls and waited for her to come over before we all threw water at her. The only problem is that this time it started an all out water fight with the kids and us three interns. It was so much fun and made me realize that you haven't ever really had a water fight until you have it with like 30 kids under the age of 14.

On Thursday, we decided to have a proper water fight. By this, I mean that we filled up water balloons and told the kids (and got permission) that we were going to have Carnival. Oh my goodness, you would think that we told them that Justin Bieber was coming to the Aldea. After filling up 2 big buckets, one water pitcher, and one trough/bucket like thing, we started. Those water balloons went so fast, but that didn't matter at all. Some of the kids grabbed the buckets and started filling those up with water to throw at each other as well as us interns. After, I was so wet, I could ring out my clothes, they were so full of water.

This week has gone by so unbelievably fast. In just a week from today, I will be 22. That is so beyond crazy. Apparently there is a tradition here at the Aldea that when the intern's have a birthday here, the kids get to throw eggs at them. Why, I have no idea. But I really hope that it doesn't happen to me, I don't particularly want to be covered in raw eggs....

One Month Marker

 I can’t believe that I have already been here for a month. I’m not going to lie, the first week seemed to go on forever, but now time just seems to fly by. So, last weekend I ended up having the flu, so I didn't get the opportunity to update my blog. For that I am sorry, but I will try and make up for it this weekend by also talking about what happened last week.

Not last weekend, but the weekend before, the family that we stay with on the weekends took us to a country club type of place called “El Mirador”. It was fun and had swimming pools, a mini zoo, and other little things that kids could do. The only problem was that there were mosquitoes. I did not bring mosquito repellent with me because there are not really any in the city and I didn’t know we would be going close to where the Aldea is located. I don’t think I have ever had so many mosquito bites before in my life. There was one time in Moab that I got eaten alive, but this time was 10X worse. There were times where people who stop and stare at my legs and say things like “oh, I’m so sorry”, etc.

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I did survive however through the next week and my mosquito bites are starting to go away. New ones however have taken some of their places, but I have learned that it is just inevitable that I will always be covered in bites.

Last week was such a fun week. One day, we decided to get sidewalk chalk out for the kids to play with. I have never seen kids go so crazy before for something so simple. They didn’t really draw pictures, they just drew designs or we drew hopscotch lines and taught them how to do that. However, after some time had passed, some of the kids started to draw on each other. Looking back, it was only a matter of time before they would start drawing on themselves. There was one little boy in particular whose face was just covered in chalk. How it got to be covered, I do not know. We did end up taking the chalk away shortly after this happens, much to the disappointment of the kids.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, we do art with 3-4 year old kids. There are only 3 of them, so often times we will only just have one that ends up coming. This was the case one day last week. It was the day that we decided to do painting. I can only be thankful that there was only one kid that day, because even with just the one, it was stressful. Haha He absolutely loved painting and at one point we showed him that he could actually just finger paint. I don’t know how was more excited about using their hands to paint, Lucho or us. We definitely got into the paint as well. We painted his hands and then he decided he wanted to paint our hands. I ended up with bright blue hands and it didn’t really come off very well afterwards.

On Thursday of last week, when we played with the little 3-4 year olds again, we ended up getting out the big parachute. They had so much fun. We did everything from sitting underneath it, to putting a ball in the center and flipping it around. We also ended up putting two of the little kids in the middle and running around in circles, pulling them along with us. They just laughed and laughed and kept telling us to do it again. It reminded me of when we use to play with the big parachute in elementary gym class. It’s fun to know that things so simple that you found fun as a kid, can transfer over into a completely different culture but still get the same reaction. It shows you that we aren't really that different from each other.

Ok, and now on to this week. This week has been pretty low-key and nothing to terribly exciting has happened. On Tuesday, we took the kids on a fieldtrip to a pool/park. While there, they played a bunch of different games that the people who owned the park put together. They were grouped together with another ground of kids that were there and they mostly did relay races. It was fun to just sit there and watch them run around and have fun. After playing games and eating lunch, it was time for the pool. I have learned here in Peru, or maybe it’s just at the Aldea, people don’t really go swimming in swim suits. They just kind of jump in with their clothes on end bring other ones to change into afterwards. So, whether it is jeans or leggings, it doesn’t really matter to the kids in the least. Haha

Last thing before I sign off until next week. It is winter up there with snow on the ground and it's summer here with sun. But, that doesn't mean that we don't make snowmen here in Peru. Granted, these snowman are made out of mud, but we still make them! I wander upon some of the kids on day sitting in the mud, making snowmen. haha It totally caught me by surprise, but was fun to watch the detail they put into making them just perfect. Many of them have never seen snow and get excited when our freezer freaks out and we have to chip all the ice out of it. Even though I hate snow and the cold, it would be fun to see how they would react to it.
Well, until next week....

Sick

Hello everyone,
Unfortunately I have been sick this whole weekend, so I won't be able to get a new post up for this past week. I will definitely have one up next week though.
Sorry