¡Tu eres blanca!

Yesterday was our first fully “functional” day and it was AMAZING. We started the day, as usual, with breakfast at 8:00AM. Then we attended an interesting lecture on politics and culture in Peru given by Father Farrell, a Holy Cross priest at the Peyton Center. After the lecture, we had lunch which was so so so delicious! (I expect that the amazingness of the food will be a recurring theme in my blog because lunch and dinner are always delicious!)

¡Que rica!

We had steak with vegetables, yucca, papas fritas (french fries), and arroz (rice). After lunch we walked to Fe y Alegria. It was a really nice walk because it was warm and beautiful outside. It´s amusing to see how much attention we attract when we are walking around Canto Grande because it is impossible for us to blend in. During our walk, a little boy and his two sisters walked out of their house and towards our group. I could tell that they wanted to say hi but were feeling too shy because the oldest girl kept trying to push the younger one in our direction, telling her to talk to us. It was very cute.

When we arrived at Fe y Alegria, Chelsea and I were asked to help with a class of seven year olds who were working on learning math. It was so much fun! The kids were so so excited to have us there. We helped them with their classwork when they had questions and helped the teachers by preparing parts of the lesson and cleaning up the bulletin boards. The kids’ reactions to us are always so funny! One boy said to me “¡Tu eres tan blanca!”  which means “you are so white!”. Later, one boy asked “¿Why are you so big?” to which a little girl replied, “¡Because she eats!”

The most fun part was at recess, when the boys were playing with their tops (trompos) outside. I asked them if I could try and they all became so excited that I wanted to play with them. It was very funny though because they made the tops look so easy to use but it was not as easy as it looked! I failed epically and the kids really got a kick out of it, but they seemed to enjoy trying to teach me how to do it. Finally, because I was so intrigued by the toys, I asked where I could buy one for myself. They began jumping up and down, screaming, telling me that I could buy one at the school’s gift shop which is open during recess. I decided to go buy one and as I walked a hoard of children gathered around me and followed me to the gift shop, thrilled that I was going to buy one of their toys.  The funniest part was that, as Chelsea and  I walked to the store, several children stopped us to ask for our autographs! We felt like celebrities!

After Fe y Alegria, we returned to Fe y Alegria for dinner, which was, of course, delicious. After dinner we had a dance class which was so much fun! We learned about the tradition of dance in Peruvian culture and then got to learn and try out some of the dances ourselves! I am a terrible dancer, but I really enjoyed the experience and would love to get better at it!

Today was another great day working with the kids at Fe y Alegria, as I expect most of my days will be. But today was a little bit different because instead of working with the 7 yr old class, Devon and I were in a classroom of 3 yr olds (and let me tell you, they were simply precious!) We helped organize the craft for the day, which was gluing yellow scraps of paper onto a drawing of a plantain. The kids made a mess and had a blast and so did we. Then, we go to play with them during recess and we played a game called “el lobo” which means “the wolf”. The kids stood in a circle, holding hands, and circled around while singing a song until the designated “wolf” ran up to the circle to “eat” on of the children. Then they all had to run away from the “wolf” as fast as they could and run to the wall which was the “house” and the safety zone. It was so much fun and I was amazed by how well behaved and polite they all were, especially for beingonly three years old.

 

 

At about 5:00 we left the school to head back to the Peyton center for dinner which was, you guessed it, DELICIOUS AND AMAZING AND SO SO GOOD! We had Chifa! The food that Isabel(the cook) makes is just too good. Everyone is always having second and third helpings of everything!

 

 

 

After dinner, everyone went outside to try out their new trompos and Fransisco (one of the workers at the Peyton center) was showing us how to use them. Unfortunately, just about everyone eventually figured it out, except for me. I am still working on it but I am determined to become a pro by the end of my three weeks here.

After playing with the trompos, we got to meet our conversation partners, who are people from the area who we have conversations with, first in Spanish and then in English so that we can both practice our second languages. They were all really nice and funny and everybody had a great time. I look forward to talking to them again and hopefully having just as great a day tomorrow as I did today!

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