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.

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

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

Week of January 23

This week has gone by so fast, I can't believe that it's already Saturday. With that being said, I don't feel like a lot has happened since last week. Haha
One thing that probably stands out to me the most is my deathly encounter with the biggest beetles I've ever seen in my life!! Often times, when the kids find some sort of bug or something they think is so cool, they end up knocking on our door and it usually ends up being at like 8:30 AM. So we get the knock and then to our surprise we open the door to two boys holding the most gigantic beetles ever!

The kids told us they are called unicorn beetles or something like that. they are ubber scary looking too! You have to keep them seperated because if you put them down together, they start to fight with each others, which amused the boys to no end. They also found it funny to try and sneak up behind us and put them in our hair. Even though they didn't actually get them that close, it was still not funny! I however was extremely brave, for I actually held one....

As you can tell by my face, I was totally calm and collected during the whole experience...

After "playing" with these beetles for about an hour, my friend Jayde decided to get a good picture of her trying to kiss it. But, when she leaned down, the beetle suddenly sprouted wings and flew away. You have never seen 3 girls scream so loud and run so fast in your entire life. We had no idea that they could fly, I truly saw my life flash before my eyes....

During the week, we have art with some of the younger kids 3 times a week, so sometimes it's difficult to come up with ideas that a 3-4 year old can do. But, we did end up playing with play-dough. We had a ton of fun, and us interns felt like little kids again. My roommate Jayde made a cute little pig that on of the kids, Luis Fernando, fell in love with and wanted to keep. But unfortunately, we had to put everything back in the end. One thing that did surprise us was that one of the kids, Daybis was scared of the play-dough. We kept trying to get him to play with it, but every time he would start crying and run away. This is one of the first times, I have ever heard of anyone having a fear of play-dough!! If Oprah had a show, we could take him on  it and she could cure him. haha

Also during the week, we teach English to some of the older kids. They are so smart and catch on really quick. Right now, we are just doing basics like the alphabet, colors, numbers, and we added fruit this week. You can tell that some are much more interested in it than other kids, but that's how it is with any type of class kids take. Like I said though, the kids can pick up it quite quickly and soon they will probably now more English than I know Spanish...

Before I finish, there is one more story that must be told. Here at the Aldea, the government is doing an inventory of something like that. So there are like 4-5 guys walking around the Aldea doing stuff this past week. On Thursday, one of the other interns, Frances, was asked by this creepy guy kept staring at us this whole time he was there, to take her picture. Then, he gets some of the tia's (the women who basically run each casa and take care of the kids) to ask Frances to take a picture of the two of them together! Creepy, right? Well, the three of us are watching all of this happen and laughing hysterically but then one of the other guys, who is much older, asks if he can take a picture with all four of us. That definitely stopped our laughter. I don't really understand why people want pictures of us when they don't even know who we are, but it will probably happen again in the future unfortunately.