peru #2.

This past week has been  full of so much good and so much adventure. Let me hit you with some highlights..

On monday I went to work at a school that last year´s volunteers built, but nobody was there.. we were confused so we asked a local man and he answered by telling us "yesterday was mother´s day!" We were still confused so he proceeded to tell us that all of the mothers, including the teacher, were too hung over to come to school. It was pretty funny. The people here look for any excuse to party and any excuse to skip school. You could say they´re my kind of people.

Later in the week I went to a rural village out side of Piura ( the city which I am in) to meet with a lady named Juana. She is a pro weaver and has even been featured in the Smithsonian (Spelling?). Anyway, she is super talented, but is having a hard time reaping the rewards of her skill. That is where I come in. I am going to work with her through out the summer on developing her own business, free of a mediator. It is going to be so hard, especially because I don´t speak a lick of Spanish, but I am up for the challenge. We want her to access international markets, and Iba (my country director) feels like her hats will be super successful in the US. Her hats are huge panama hats so I´m not so sure about it, but we´ll see. Also Juana lives in a house made of straw... just like the three little pigs. Meeting here there was so humbling.

On Friday we all went to a stake dance. Ha it was the best thing to ever happen to me. I felt like a super celebrity. Everyone was just kind of standing around before we got there and went crazy! They filmed us all night and when the dance was over they all wanted to take pictures with us. It was great. Just picture a bunch of rythm-less gringas getting down in the middle of at least 200 mesmorized Peruvians. Hahaha funny stuff.

Saturday we all got to go to the beach! Our landlord took us with her family and it was so movie-esqe. Really though. We went to this tiny secluded beach where we played volleyball in the ocean and body surfed. We then went to a tiny little restaraunt right off of the beach where I ate some shark that was caught that day! It was gross. I mean I just hate fish, but it was cool none the less. Then Pedro (our landlord´s husband) took us to a nearby port city and we took these little hand made fishing boats out to see the sea lions. It was a gorgeous day, one that I wish you all could have experienced.

We live in a couple of apartments above our landlord´s tienda. I live on the top floor and share a room with 3 other girls. It is a super tight squeeze, but I like the girls a lot. I am trying to learn Spanish, but it is hard because all of the other girls are so much further ahead of me. They just translate for me all of the time. Yes, I am the tallest person in this entire country. People stare at me all day long and sometimes they try to reach out and touch my skin because they´re so mezmorized. Weird? Yes, very.

My favorite thing about Peru so far... is probably the feeling of gratitude I have. I am grateful I don´t have to live in these conditions forever. The people here are all super great too. When they´re not trying to rip you off, they genuinely want to help you out with whatever it may be. My least favorite thing is easily the face melting heat. It hits 90 by 9 every morning and I can´t stand it.

Random facts you probably never cared to hear about Peru

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#1 We steal napkins from every restaraunt we go to. It sounds weird but we have to use it for toilet paper when we´re on the go.

#2 The car horns here are not normal. They are all funny sounds. A lot of them are cat calls or whistles. It was funny for like a day, now it´s just old. Hahaha

#3. The people here love American music, but not just any music.. .DISCO music. Ha They love to pump that stuff up until your eardrums hurt. Ít´s hilarious. "One way ticket to the blues" seems to be the crowd favorite.

Again, I´m sorry for such an informal post. Time here is so limited and there is just too much to say in too little of time.

Until next time-

lakin