Back to school

This week has been probably the most low key it's ever been since I've been here in Peru. The kids started school on Monday, which is just crazy to me especially because they go from about 7:30 in the morning to around 12:30 in the afternoon. They then are home in time for lunch but then do homework for 2 hours. Everyone, even the kids in kindergarten do homework, and it's so much which I guess makes up for only 5 hours or so. Ever since Monday, it has been so quite here in the Aldea, even when the kids are back from school, because they are all in their casa's doing homework. The school system is quite different over here, from what I have gathered. It is definitely not as efficient or as good as America's though that is for sure.

Before I start into to this week, I must as always, talk about last weekend. This last Saturday I took my first surfing lesson. I was very nervous, because I didn't know if I would even be able to stand up. They taught us how to stand of surf board, then we headed out into the ocean. Really the only problem was that our instructor didn't speak very much English. The part though was I was able to understand a good part of what he said, even though he did try to keep it simple for me. haha It took several times, but I finally was able to stand up and surf. At one point however, I was able to surf all the way to the beach (which wasn't really that far now that I think about it). It was such a thrill and I really hope to take another lesson while I am here in Peru.

So, this week has been really long actually. It hasn't flown by like most of the other weeks here. On Monday's and Wednesday's there is a little boy named Fabricio who is a little bit more than 1 year old whom we take to the hospital for physical therapy. So, it was my turn this week to take him, but this entails sitting in a crowed truck with sometimes 7 people shoved together in the back for several hours. Therapy doesn't often take very long, but when it's over I must sit there with Fabricio on my lap, and wait for the truck to come back, but then I must sit in the truck and wait until everyone else is ready to go back to the Aldea. It may not seem like much but it ends up being a very long day.

Women's Day Celebration

On Thursday we got woken up at 8 in the morning by one of the ladies who work in the office, to tell us that it was Women's Day. Now, we had no idea what that even was, but she told us they were going to give us breakfast so who was I to argue? So we hurriedly get dressed and go towards the office. We are unfortunately soon told that we have to blow balloons up instead. haha, ya that tends to happen a lot, saying one thing then something else actually happening. After we get the balloons blown up, we had to glue quotes onto them that say special things about women (I think, they were in Spanish). We take them into the women having breakfast to then be told we get breakfast now as well as one of the balloons. So, that was the excitingness of how I celebrated Women's Day.

Nicolas

Maria-Luisa

On Friday, I got to play with a little boy named Nicolas who is new at the Aldea. He is 2 years old and the sweetest little boy. I was able to play with him, one-on-one so we decided to color. We sat there and just colored in a coloring book, and then ate some watermelon together. It may sound boring and trivial, but often times I've learned those are the most enjoyable and memorial. Another time that I really enjoyed playing one-on-one with a kid was on Tuesday. Maria-Luisa and I got to play on the jungle gym that there have at the Aldea. We did everything from swinging, to the teeter-totter, to the slide. My favorite part was that every time she would climb up the slide, she would get up to the top then realize the slide was hot so she would climb back down. This happened several times even though the same thing happened each time. She is such a sweetheart!

Oh my goodness, I almost forgot something. On Thursday night as I was finishing dinner, one of the other interns came in to tell me they were unloading cobayas. Cobayas are guinea pigs, but here they aren't pets. No, here they eat them. I was so excited to see them though when they brought them in. They were just in the bed of a truck and then the kids put them in these crates to haul them into a big corral sort of place. Later, I found out that we are suppose to breed them, and then I don't know if the Aldea is going to feed them to the kids or sell them. I hope they sell them, I don't think that I can eat a cute little guinea pig because apparently they don't really look that different when they are cooked.....

Even though this week hasn't been that exciting as some of the others weeks here have been, I have definitely enjoyed myself. Sometimes the non-eventful weeks are the most relaxing and enjoyable.