Juanita says....

Well, its been a really busy week! First of all, I`ve been trying for more than three days to upload new pictures to this blog, and only now is it working. So, please pardon the long entry. I will post additional pictures in a separate entry.

Sunday I visited the weekly market and bought some really nice things for practically nothing, all hand-made. It was so cheap I didn´t even think of bargaining with them. In fact, it was so cheap I almost bought things I didn´t even want! Hand-woven blankets for less than $10, hand-knitted sweaters and hats, hand-carved gourds, it was amazing. Later that day I visited a nice park with a Gaudi-esque style, very cool. After that we visited a place to get local food, and I tried guinnea pig for the first time. And cow´s heart. As in, I ate them. The guinnea pig was tasty but hard as a rock and really hard to cut into, and there was practically no meat on it. I´ll pass on the cow´s heart next time.

I began my volunteer work and classes this week. In the mornings I visit a local orphanage for girls to spend time with them and teach them some basic English. Visiting the orphanage has been a very special experience. These girls come from serious physical and sexual abuse, or were abandoned. Two of the girls even have children - one from her own grandfather and the other of her father - and they are only 14 years old. It is EXTREMELY sad. However, the girls are so kind and loving. As soon as we entered through the gates on our first day the girls came running up to us with open arms and gave us lots of hugs and kisses. It was really touching. They don´t have much, but the organization that I am working for, Tinkuy Peru, is trying to help. Once I took out my camera they had a field day. Here are some photos of the children:

They don`t smile much for photos but trust me they are very upbeat and playful. We introduced ourselves on the first day, and by the second and third were teaching them ¨Head, shoulders, knees and toes¨and ¨Simon Says¨, which I renamed Juanita Says (Juanita se dice) ; )

I go home for lunch, then head in the afternoon for the Andean School where I teach two English classes at 4 and 5:00. My first class was ... well, hell. It is a group of very young kids with no attention span whatsoever, it was really hard to keep them under control. On the second day I brought them paper and markers to draw a picture of themselves and write Ï am a boy/girl¨and ¨My name is ___¨. It was SOOO much better. My second class is more advanced and easier to handle, though I still needed help, so a new girl named Yvonne from Australia is now joining me in these classes, which is great. She gives death stares, while I play good cop. Here is a picture of my first, younger class. They sure are cuties though:

My Spanish class is after this. I have a teacher named Miguel who wants to study in the States, I hope he can do it, its really hard for people here because they don´t have a lot of money and there are many restrictions for visa, etc.

I began my weaving class in the evenings, too. Wasn`t I trying to get away from such a busy schedule??? Its been a little hard to find the time to work on it, but by the end of this week I will have made a blanket!

Two new people arrived from Canada - Amanda and Jeff from Ottowa. They are really cool and are staying for the same time that I am, so we have already decided to travel together after Huancayo! We pretty much have the same route planned, so we will go together. I am psyched, we get along very well. They just booked our flight to Cusco after next week! We will take the bus back to Lima and fly to Cusco from there, to avoid the 30 bus rid we would have to take, had we decided to go that route.

Hasta luego for now!

Juanita