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....