Ive been here 3 months now!

My excuse for not updating my blog is that my poor internet access in my village does not allow me to, so only once a month at my capitol i get it. meaning I'm at the capitol!

I'm really bad at condensing things  and summarizing, so I decided to make some bullet points of my life here so far:

*I saw my first bull race just like the ones in the movies and saw 3 die, grosss.

* I danced Hyno (peruvian dance) in front of 900 people at my welcome fiesta. This equaled DISASTER. I tripped and almost fell a number of times.

* I now have an obssession with apples and empanadas. The empanadas here are like a heart attack on a plate, but theyre soo good. im pretty sure ive gained 15 pounds. the sombrero ladies taught me how to make it! i can now almost cook one food item!  the other night i went to a little old ladie's house (i think she's 80 years old), and she invited me to make them with her husband. She's going to teach me how to knit as well, she makes all her blankets and sweaters...i teach her english on mondays and wednesdays

*I drank pig's blood and felt like dying, but im alive again, whew.

* I was invited to ride a horse, but still havent been invited to herd the cows and horses and bulls yet...but i did get invited to milk a cow! i dont know when, but soon i will.

*the kids and yuth are currently teaching me how to play volleyball even though i constantly screw up and hit people and heads more than over the net

*I'm painting a world map with some of the students in the highschool on a wall in the school

*I'm attempting to teach english at the primario school. After day 1 about 15 kids asked for my autograph weird!  I didnt realize how much a "gringita" sticks out to them till now. i guess they like me, haha. Im trying to throw other topics in there, bc english isnt my goal at all. so far ive been able to tie in a self esteem lesson. hoping to throw more in there subtly!

* I finally have ideas on projects I want to take on, but I still have to wait a month or 2 to learn the language more and integrate. Im planning on using the kids as a source to get ppl to join me.

*I'm starting to like to DANCE! i hated hated hated it with a passion in the U.S. but a friend taught me Cumbia, thats the only dance i know so far. but I went to 3 llama fiestas in a row. One lasted till 4:30 am, and I literally danced from 10 pm till 4:30 am. I never know i'm going to fiestas till i get there.  I went to another community to watch the catholic church's band sing and right when i got back to my village, my host grandparents told me to get into their chicken truck with about 10 other ppl I didnt know. so i did and we ended up going to another village nearby and fiesta'd it up all night and slept on a mattress with 2 other people side by side on the dirt floor of someones hut/house with no electricity or water. I think 5 or 6 ppl crammed into that one room.  Ive learned to get very comfortable with people, haha. a very interesting experience!

*when im not teaching, i play with kids all day. Sometimes when I want to be by myself ill try to take side dirt roads to my destination, but i fail every time bc somehow they always know where im at 24/7--there will always be a group of kids attacking me with hugs and kisses. I was walking to the internet and i heard my name so i braced myself and three kids ran up and literally jumped on me haha. so  they gave me a tour of the village again for the 5th time.  I guess they feel they need to give me tours because its SO big. it takes about 10 minutes, maybe 15 to walk the whole village. pretty tiny.

*people here hate the rain, but i LOVE it. it never rains so when it does, i love to play in it. One day it rained so hard that all the dirt roads were big puddles of mud. Everyone was just waiting in their houses doing nothing so I got 5 kids to take off their shoes and play in the puddles withe me, and ive never seen the kids laugh so hard before! we played hide and go seek with the sandles and had splashing contests...i thought i was going to get in trouble with the parents bc we were ruining our clothes and i probably gave some kids the cold, but they were entertained and we had a whole audience of parents watching us and laughing. 

*I'm teaching the nuns and the students of the nuns at the convent english, and they want to learn the lyrics to justin beiber...hes even famous in a village. wow.

Things I miss:

-real coffee

-the freedom and cleanliness to walk around my house with socks, or better yet--barefoot

-being  able to decline mystery food that I know will make me sick in about 5 minutes.

-people understanding me and vice versa

-deep conversations

-not sticking out

-trident gum!

-skippy peanut butter

-sleep

-friends & family

-knowing what's going on

- a real bathroom

-the abundance of water (we get it a few hours of day)

-feeling healthy, feeling clean

Thiings I love:

-The kindess and tender heartedness of my host family

-the innocence and  happinness and naivity of these kids 

-the simplicity of life

-empanadas and chaufa!

-old sombrero ladies with their crazy stories

-fiestas

-cumbia dances

-living in an adobe house with thatch roofs

-washing my own clothes village-style (hands and a bar of soap)

-the laid backness attitude of the people

-how people get excited about the littlest things

-learning how to be independent and enjoying it

-running at 5:30 in the morning by the foothills

-being constantly amazed daily with Gods creation

-the art of music

PHOTOS!  more to come. in this order:

1) my family and their friends and i playing

2)outside my house

3& 4) my family

5)the park

6)the dirt kitchen

7) the peace corps ceremony at the Lima Embassy--whenever people from my village see this picture, they dont believe its me bc i look pretty crappy in my village....my last time to dress up and look nice for awhile haha. 

8)dirt kitchen again

9) me on a horse of my family's! I was too scared to ride it, so i posed. and the grandfather walked the horse down one street. great adventure.