Crazy!

Wow, this week has been crazy! The first part of the week was actually much more exciting than the end of the week, but sometimes that's just how it is. Before I start talking about this week though I must, as always, discuss what I did last weekend. Last weekend was kind of particularly special for me because it was my birthday on Saturday.

This birthday was definitely different than any type of birthday I've ever had before, but in a good way. It was super laid back and low-key which I really wanted in the first place. For lunch, the family that I stay with on the weekends, made a casserole for me and wrote "Happy Birthday Lauren" and put a princess candle in it for me to blow out just like a birthday cake. haha I LOVED it!! Later, I went shopping (yay) and ate Pizza Hut for my birthday dinner. You have no idea how nice it was to be able to eat pizza. When you leave to go to a foreign country, you don't really think about all the food you are going to miss, but I had definitely been craving pizza. So, this past weekend was mostly certainly an enjoyable weekend.




Now, as for the week events...I found out that the kids go back to school this coming Monday, so Tuesday we had a big party to celebrate the end of summer as well as Carnival. So to prepare, on Monday they rounded up the 4 sheep here at the Aldea, and killed one for us to eat for the party on Tuesday.

I was so confused at first, watching the kids trying to herd the sheep into a corner, but I was soon told they were going to kill one for us to eat. I'm not going to lie, I was actually quite interested in it. I didn't get to watch them kill it, but I did watch them string it up from a tree, skin it, and cut out its insides. It was actually pretty fascinating. I took tons of pictures. haha plus, the kids seemed to really really enjoy watching it. There was always a big group watching the Tio's and they were always willing to help. When they cut the head and legs off, the kids fought over who got to hold the head.

When they actually gutted the poor sheep, they took time to teach us the different parts of the sheep. Such as the stomach (which was huge), the heart, the liver, the lungs, etc. So, it was quite education as well as really awesome to see!!!

Many of the kids watched the whole time.
(If you look closely towards the bottom of the sheep, the outsides are hanging out)

The kids trying to pull the tree back up after
toys have been tied to it

Tuesday then dawned bright and early. One of the first things that happened was that they cut down a tree and put it in the middle of the Aldea. I was confused as to why they put it there instead of just threw it away, but I was then informed that we tie toys and prizes to the tree, then put it back up in the ground, and then chop it down again and let the kids run wild trying to get something. So, us interns got to tie string around all the toys,then tie them to the tree.
For lunch all of the houses came together in the front part of the Aldea to eat together. We ate the sheep that they had killed the day before which was surprisingly very good. I really enjoyed it and it was fun to eat together with everyone. After lunch, we had the biggest water fight ever. I thought the last one we had was big, but EVERYONE participated for this one, even some of the Tio's.
Just as it was starting, we decided to fill up water balloons then run outside and ambush the kids. When they found out we had balloons, they kept trying to get into our pockets so they could fill up their own. We were also armed with buckets so we could fill them up and dump them over people. It was so much fun to see all of the kids having fun and some ended up ganging up on kids who were participating and dragging them over so everyone could dumb water on them.
After a while, someone got the fabulous idea to start smearing shoe polish over people. Once that started, others went to get more shoe polish to throw. One intern in particular was subjected to black shoe polish that ended up covering her whole face. But, we soon retaliated and went to our casa to get some paint that we had and we started throwing that at everyone. The kids who couldn't get a hold of any paint or polish just continued to throw water or started to throw mud. By the time the fight was declared over, everyone, and I do mean everyone, was covered from head to toe with paint/polish, mud, and drenched. It was one of the days that I will forever remember!!!!!

From L to R: Jayde, Lauren, Frances, Wendy

So like I said, the most exciting parts of the week happened towards the beginning, and the end of the week wasn't super interesting. We did just a lot of the same things that we do every week. Ever since we taught the kids how to play steal the flag, they have been obsessed with it and only want to play that. Even when we try and teach them other games, they play only to humor us, but then soon demand that we play steal the flag. But, I guess once you find something that everyone seems to enjoy, you might as well go with it. :D