Shakin´ my groove thang

Its week number two at the house in Huancayo and I must say I feel as I´ve settled into a routine. It is nice having a place to come home to that you are familiar with and where you know what to expect. I think I´m a bit spoiled right now, I´ve got my own private room with a key so I can just leave all of my things there and go out for the day with a few Soles (Peruvian currency) in my pocket and not have any worries. Its going to be a lot harder once I begin staying in hostels, it won´t be as easy to hang my hand-washed clothes accross the room if other people are there. They do have laundromats here (lavanderias), but the one time I went I specifically asked them not to dry certain things, and they did anyway and now my pants are at my ankles. I´ll hand wash as often as possible. Clothes dry in no time in the sun, but if it is raining or there is no sun for a few days, clothes take 3-4 days to dry!

This past Saturday all of the volunteers from the house, plus the 20-something family members, went out to a local bar. There were live local bands playing traditional Peruvian music. We entered the club (as a large group of white people), and I don´t think I´d ever felt so stared-at in all my life! We were definitely the only gringos in the place. These local middle-aged couples wanted to dance with the gringas (it seemed), so I started dancing and somehow really impressed everyone (including my friends)! The lady kept feeding me sangria, which I didn´t really want, but didn´t know if by turning it down I would be offending their culture! So, I did what I had to do, you know? The others joined in and we had a nice circle going, holding hands and making up steps to the local jives. I think we did pretty well, it was a ton of fun. Here are some pictures from the night:

Thirteen new people arrived yesterday from a college in florida, so now the house is packed and bathroom time is at a minimum. They just changed my schedule, so now I have one class at the Andean School, rather than two, which is MUCH better. Even though it wasn´t a whole lot of work, I was feeling pretty burned out and am thankful for the lighter load. Teaching is tough work! To Kara and all of the teachers out there, I give you a lot of credit.

I went to the weekly market on Sunday and bought lots of nice things to send home, gifts and souvenirs. Here is a picture of me with my new sweater. It is made of Alpaca wool, and cost about $8:

Here´s a picture of Angela, the youngest daughter, which I didn´t have for the last post. Isn´t she a cutie!

Also, I finished my weaving on Saturday! Here I am with my new blanket:

I´m so sick of rice and potatoes, I was hoping I´d last more than a week before I started craving other things. I´d been dying for cheese, so we went out for pizza on Sunday. It was supposedly some of the best pizza in Peru, which is disappointing. Also, all of the chocolate here has an underlying funky taste to it. And not the cool funk, like James Brown, but funk as in the way my dog smells after he´s been running in puddles. In fact, the whole town has this smell, like the smell of mud in everything, that starts to get to you after a while. I´m not complaining, just observing : )

Well, that will do it for today, I´ll write soon.

Joan