5/9 wednesday

today (well last night i fell asleep w my headphones in, which happened to be plugged into my computer.) so i woke up to the sound of skype messages and to my pleasant surprise it was JULIA!!! so i went up on the roof and we skyped and it was awesome!!! and i love her!! best way to wake up ever!

then, i braved another cold shower. i decided to jump rope first to get the blood pumping, so you know, maybe it wouldnt be as cold. yeah that helped for maybe a split second! baha, then it felt especially cold this morning. but i didnt get hypothermia, so today will be a good day! and i started off skyping w julia, so its already a wonderful day!!also, i never thought i would be so happy to use deodorant, but i pulled it out today and i was like, hello my love! bahaaa, im so pathetic!

the bichito was good today! milagros was lovin on me like crazy and it was fun! also, for donde esta, the ppl out here, they say don-ta? and they pronounce the double l sound weirdly. like for the word ella, they pronounce it like eL-ya. and amarillo is amariLL-yo. super weird. anyways, i read with diego today, then we did a puzzle. then i read with esmerelda! after most of the kids left, there were about 4 lil girls left and 1 lil boy.  we tickled and chased the kids around and it was a blast!!

after el bichito we went to the supermercado in banos to get some stuff (i got PRINGLES! and laundry detergent, haha) and we saw inca kola zero!! ----------->

crazy! i thought about trying it, but i figured all the flavor prob comes f the sugar, so i decided not to risk it! haha! then we passed by some artesanias and i bought some cool earrings and a couple of cool souvenirs for ppl :). 

its not safe at night in cajamarca (two white girls...), so we try to be in by dark. haha today it was like a race to make it home before the sun went down! i legit felt like will smith on i am legend!! haha!

5/10 thursday

so alyson was super sick today. she woke up w just kind of a cold, but then like an hour later she threw up and felt like she was going to pass out. she was getting worse so sandro gave her a blessing. i decided to stay home w her today bc she cant even process spanish right now, to be honest she cant really do anything at all, not to mention she looks terrible and im not about to leave her here by herself. even if sandro is here, bc she had no idea what he was saying and if she needs anything im not about to let her try and climb any stairs. so i got to play doctor for the day. porecita! which is also a bummer bc it was a super important day for us to be at el bichito bc we are going to start teaching english and computer classes at the school in puylucana, so we were supposed to meet up w the director to discuss lesson plans, etc. but i wasnt about to leave alyson alone. not when she looked this terrible. so thats what i did all day. basically we cant go anywhere alone, but i went to get us some bread on the corner in the morning and it was super liberating just being on my own! i loved it!

haha, then i made avena (oatmeal) for alyson and that was somethin else! its way different here, lemme tell ya! and it did not look like oatmeal when i got done w it! baha! alyson liked it tho, and i told her she must be sick!!

later we watched some movie w brad pitt in it, but it was from the 90's and his hair looked awful, so i lost interest and fell asleep. haha! at some point during the day i went upstairs and the fam was having some green rice stuff for lunch and invited us up! so we ate some soggy rice soup stuff (it was actually pretty good) and some green rice stuff. then, since molly's bday was the next day, we had some dulce thats super traditional in peru. it was super sweet but good. they eat SO MUCH here. they just always give us SO much food!

so night rolls around and the ninos, molly and kent, want to play. haha they are so much fun!    

so i play w them, then when its time for them to leave i basically have to shove them out of our room bc they never leave. like we tell them like 30 times and they just flop on the floor and wont budge. i am learning how to be more authoritative with children. you know, and just lay down the law. so we finally get the kids out and sandro yells up to me and tells me i have to call the other interns and get annalees passport info from her, then email eduardo about it. which isnt a big deal, but things like this are tricky down here. so i try to call the other interns (they dont have internet) and i cant figure out how to use the phone. im puting in the right numbers, but some peruvian operator lady was not havin it, so then i ask sandro and he says you cant call a cell phone # from a landline here. at least not his. go figure. and thanks for letting me know. so he says i have to use a payphone. so we go to the panaderia and hit up the payphone and i get the info that i need, then i send an email to eduardo. gah, it was quite a process!

5/11 friday!

we went to banos today for my first HOT SHOWER in a week!!!!! it was awesome! i even washed my hair twice :D. ok banos is (banos del inca) is a small town between cajamarca and el bichito. its where the other interns live (with liz and miguel). it has natural hot springs which have been turned into concrete pools (but they still pour in the natural hot water) and they are fantastic! but basically atahualpa (the incan emperor) would come down to banos to bathe in the hot springs. how cool is that? so we chilled in the hot tub pool things then showered and it was wonderful!

as we were leaving we saw like 40 ppl w ice cream, and the sun was shining, so we figured we should get some too. and they had UVA ICE CREAM!!!! (ALISON!!!) AND COCO!! (mexican coco. like coconut!!) the uva was better in mexico, but it was still sooo good! i closed my eyes and imagined i was in mexico! it was amazing! haha idk what is going on with my hair, but this was a happy moment for me :)

 there was no bichito today bc they were doing mothers day program/presentation things at school! so we got the day off!! :) we went to Santa Apolonia with the other interns!

 its super bomb bc you go up this super steep hill and it looks really european! then there are these really cool circular stairs, which there are alternating sets of concave and convex steps, that lead to a cool looking chapel. off to the right is this beautiful hike thing which leads up to atahualpas throne!!!! atahualpas throne!! so cool! so sooo cool! dude if i was atahualpa, i would have sat up there too! it overlooks all of cajamarca! and it has a sun etched into it. which is cool bc he was like the sun-god emperor or something. 

           

 <---- atahualpas throne! so so cool!

 

so then, oooh i bought some super cute headbands and a cool purse too! i LOVE love love the textiles here (its probably not healthy). i just freak out when i see them!! bahaa!! anyways, so there is this like window restaurant (literally it is a window and its really cool) on that steep hill street and we got burgers there. and inca kola!! and it was delish!! we went and ate in some park thing, then headed home :). 

once we got home, we basically had to leave for what we thought was a ward talent show. (and we were told that molly and kent were performing) so we go down to sandros shop and ricardo showed up for his english lesson! so we got to speak w him in english and teach him some stuff. it was actually kind of cool bc we kind of got to know him in english!

so then we head to the church totally expecting it to be a talent show. baha not on your life! it was this (SUPER) weird mothers day program. that lasted for hours and hours. the kids got up and sang, then the ym/yw got up and did a super long (but cute) skit. then the moms got up and by that time my brain was fried and i could not tell what the heck was going on. 

                (oh yeah, i forgot! before this fiasco started, we met mercedes. she is probably the coolest lady we have met here. besides mamita. her husband speaks quetchua and her kids can sing the national anthem in quetchua. she told us her whole life story (thats the thing about ppl here. they are like, if you need anything, let me know. then they give you their address and tell you anything and everything there is to know about themselves) so she was telling us about these cool museums in cajamarca and these ppl that can give us the hookup. it was awesome...)

                so yeah, back to the show, thing, so the mothers do some sort of presentation and im like, ok finally its over. nope. they are forced to stand there while the mic goes around and the kids say nice things to their mom. meanwhile there is some obnoxious (and loud) strange latino music in the background being played on a tv right beside the kids (sometimes i do not understand these people). so that FINALLY ends and im like hallelujah lets get outta here! wrong. then its the husbands turn to get up and say something about their wives. SUPER awkward. im like, shouldnt this be done in private? nope. so when that FINALLY ends, we are hoping to leave but, wrong again. everyone had to go up and hug/kiss all of the moms on stage (you know, the besitos on the cheek..). so we are like aww, thats sweet... then sandro tells us we have to get up there. one of the most awkward experiences of my life. hands down. i just give them a kiss and say feliz dia. and it was weird to say the least. i gave patty a big hug bc she is sandros wife, but yeah. so then we are like, ok time to head out right?  wrong again. they brought out chica morada and started passing it out. and we are just sitting their awkwardly and ask sandro if we should help. so we go in the kitchen and start filling up cups full of chicha morada till its gone. we are forced to eat some rolls filled w chicken salad (yes, the church is the same everywhere) and then we have to help serve the cake. and FINALLY we have a closing prayer! FINALLY! then, it was the fastest clean up ive ever seen in my life! all the chairs were put away in probably literally 3 mins and ppl were sweeping instantly. then we FINALLY left!! what a night!

ill have more for you guys soon. sorry, the internet here cant handle much so everything takes like 30 years to upload! miss yall!

besitos, 

jilly :)