Americans and their Peanut Butter

HOLA!!

Just a quick update for you!

I started my TEFL class last Monday and so far it's going great! There are twelve other students in the class from all around the world and they're a lot of fun. We're in class from 9-12 and then 1-4. The workload is starting to pick up because we've started learning grammar and will have a big grammar paper and lesson plans due next week. Every Friday we have to teach a 20 minute mini-lesson to actual ESL students. I did my first one last Friday, which was a "How-to" lesson and it was a lot of fun!! The students are great. I taught them how to make a peanut butter and banana sandwich and they couldn't believe it's one of my favorite foods. One thing I've learned in Peru is that no one around the world eats peanut butter like we do. They think peanut butter belongs on toast and that's it. I heard the comment, "you Americans and your peanut butter" several times :) I love peanut butter. I had them actually make the sandwich and received great reviews. They were impressed that bananas and peanut butter was actually not disgusting. I have this week and next week left of class and the last week is teaching!

Last weekend some of my roommates and I went to a chocolate museum to learn how to make chocolate, from "bean to bar"! It was a lot of fun. We got to make our own chocolate (adding any kinds of ingredients we want--peanuts, almonds, coffee beans etc) and take it home with us.....Mine is almost gone :)

I would also really appreciate some prayers for everyone in my house...There's about 18 of us right now and of the 18 only about two are healthy. I just finished some medicine to get rid of a parasite and am feeling much better but everyone else is still pretty sick. Several other people have parasites, there's some kind of flu going around, and one girl is in the hospital with a respiratory infection. Because of the altitude, weather and thin air here, it takes a lot longer to heal and stay healthy. Thank you!!! :)

Plaza San Fransisco

This was actually taken on my birthday! A couple of my friends
and I went for a little hike because it was actually SUNNY!! :)

At the chocolate museum!

If you look closely you can see a rainbow! We've seen three complete
rainbows this week!!

Machu Pichu!!

I survived my four day trek to Machu Pichu and it was amaaaazing!!!! .....As was the huge bowl of ice cream I had today to congratulate myself :)

The first day (Sunday) we drove in a bus with the others in our group (all from around the world) to the top of a mountain....and then biked down the other side. The first half hour was miserable because it was FREEZING and rainy and hailing and so windy!! But once we got to a lower elevation it warmed up a little and was a lot more fun. Such beautiful scenery that, yes, I was able to enjoy despite the fact that I was biking along the side of a mountain next to cars and trucks. My parents are allowed to know that now, since I'm home :)

Day number 2 started at 6am with a delicious pancake breakfast :) (I ate enough carbs this trip to last me a good, long time...) We were originally supposed to start walking right from the hostel but because it was raining and muddy we piled into a truck like cattle and were supposed to drive about 10 minutes to get past the worst parts. BUT we only made it about 3 minutes because we ran into a landslide. There was a tree in the road and a truck in the river (everyone was okay) so we had to stop and start our walking!! This was supposedly the hardest day because about 2 hours of it is completely uphill...which, yes, was very difficult....And I can't imagine how much more difficult it would have been had I only been in Cusco a few days like some of the others in my group. We walked that day until about 6:00 when we finally arrived at our next hostel, exhausted and smelling very much like wet clothing. And, therefore, leaving our windowless room smelling of the same thing.

The third day only consisted of about 6 hours of walking. My friends and I were so ready to be there that we didn't even stop for our afternoon break. The scenery the entire way was absolutely beautiful and we got our first glimpse of Machu Pichu about two hours away from our destination. We arrived in Aguas Calientes around 3:00 and by 3:30 my friends and I had changed and were already sitting in the natural hot springs :) Well deserved!!!

Even though we were exhausted, we didn't have much time to rest. We had to wake up at 3:30am in order to be at the bottom of Aguas Calientes at 4:45 to hike up to Machu Pichu to secure a ticket up Wayna Pichu. Wayna Pichu is the huge mountain you see in the famous Machu Pichu pictures that 400 people a day are allowed to climb, 200 at 7am and 200 at 10am. Climbing it gives you a beautiful birds eye view of Machu Pichu. My friends and I were waiting at the bridge at 4:15 in order to climb 1,782 stairs to Machu Pichu and wait in line for a ticket. There are also buses that go up the mountain but you're not guaranteed a ticket, so we climbed!!! As if we hadn't walked enough! It was very very rough but extremely rewarding. After our climb, our guide gave us a tour of Machu Pichu, which was amazing despite the fog and rain.

We then climbed Wayna Pichu (another 1,500ish stairs) at 10am and sat at the top waiting for the clouds to clear so we could see Machu Pichu. It wasn't hard to miss because everyone started cheering when it came into view. We stayed on the mountain for awhile to get pictures and then climbed back down and this time took a bus back to Aguas Calientes....We were hungry and figured we'd walked enough :)

I arrived back in Cusco via train and bus around 11:30 Wednesday night and slept like a ROCK!!!!!! I had my last day at the daycare today, which was a lot of fun..I really missed the kids!!!

Monday I start my class, which I'm pretty excited about, although I hear it's a ton of work. I haven't taken a class in a while, so hopefully I can manage!!!

Thanks again for all your prayers and support :) I'm over halfway done with my trip and getting excited for summer hearing about the nice weather you're having!!

Abrazos!!

Lake Titicaca

Buenos días!!!
Just a quick update for you....

Lake Titicaca------I just got back from a three day trip to Lake Titicaca where I went on a boat tour of the floating islands and then stayed with a family on the Island Amantaní. It was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I've never seen water so blue and clear....and we were at an even higher altitude than Cusco so I got fairly burnt :) The family cooked for us and gave us traditional clothing to put on before we went to the dance in town. It was a lot of fun but we had spent the night before on a bus so we were exhausted and fell asleep verrrry early :)

Daycare-----the kids are SO cute. My friend and I were invited to dinner at the house of one of the ladies that works there, which was amazing! She made us crepes, mini sandwiches, ice cream and apple pie!! That's my kind of dinner :) Her name is Irma-she's so sweet and very appreciative. It was fun chatting with her because it's usually so busy and loud at work that we don't get a chance to talk. She was telling us that several of the parents of the kids also grew up in the daycare and it's kind of like one big family.

The next month-----The next month is going to be a little different for me. Tomorrow I'm leaving with three friends on a four day jungle trek to Machu Pichu!! Prayers would be appreciated because we'll be walking about 8 hours a day and staying in hostels each night...AHH. I'll deserve a huge bowl of ice cream after that if you ask me. When I get back I'll spend a couple more days at the daycare and then I'm actually going to take a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) class through the organization I'm here with. It's everyday 9am-4pm for four weeks and when I'm done I'll be able to teach English anywhere in the world. (Including the US......) I'm really excited about it because I would love to be able to teach an ESL class when I get home. After the class I'll have a few more weeks left in Cusco and will continue my volunteering!! I can't believe it's already mid-March!! My trip is flying by.

And since I'm procrastinating packing for Machu Pichu, I'll leave you with some pictures!!!! If you know me, then you know this is not an easy task. Chronic over-packer right here. And I have to carry everything with me so I'm realllllly trying to downsize!! It's not working so well!!

My favorite picture!!!! Chaska!!!

Aron...always eating. His food, someone
elses food....doesn't matter

Luis :)

2-3 year old room

Shawn had candy...and instant best friends.

Watching kids songs

Floating islands on Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca

Traditional clothes for our dance :)

Potato Overload

Ruby in front of her house

Last week I had the opportunity to spend four days in the Andes Mountains helping out a family in a tiny pueblo called Umasbamba about 45 minutes outside of Cusco. I went with four friends and we stayed upstairs in their volunteer house. The mother, Rafaela, and her two daugheters, Luz Miriam and Ruby (ages 14 and 8) were home with us all day working on their farm. Each morning Rafaela would make us breakfast, which was always some form of pasta, potatoes, soup and rice. Which we also had for lunch and dinner… They own a potato farm so I’m pretty sure I consumed more potatoes that week than I have in my entire life :) After breakfast we would go with her to cut alfalfa and feed their cows. She let me cut some but it only lasted about thirty seconds….apparently I was too slow. We would help make lunch, pick vegetables, and go for walks. Rafaela weaves bracelets and bags to sell so her and her daughters taught us how to make bracelets, which thankfully kept us occupied for hours inside since it rained every single day…ALL day…meaning we couldn’t do too much work outside.

Ruby and I!

Luz Miriam and Ruby were the highlight of the trip for me. Ruby is eight years old and was already holding our hands and talking to us ten minutes after we arrived. She is so cute!! She took us for walks and hung out with us in our room teaching us their native language, Quechua. We learned quite a few phrases…but decided we should probably perfect our Spanish before we tackle another language J

They asked us to make them dinner one night, so Rafaela took us back into Cusco so we could buy ingredients…we decided to make them a Thai dinner. We were pretty tired of potatoes so fresh vegetables sounded realllllly good…but the family wasn’t impressed. It was a little spicy for them and lacked potatoes :) We joked on the way home to Cusco that lunch was going to have potatoes. We were right. But don't worry, we've recovered, and are already back to eating french fries...it didn't take us long.

Soccer with Luz Miriam and Ruby

Since then, I have been back at the daycare!! We went back this Monday to a whole new crowd of kids. Schools start up again in Peru on March 1^st, so the daycare is starting a curriculum for the now 40 kids they have. We’ve done a lot of arts and crafts and danced to kids songs. But the number of kids has more than doubled so things are CRAZY. Every day when I walk there with my friend Shawn, we stop at the door before knocking and all we hear is screaming and crying :) The days are a little more structured now that they have the curriculum so usually when we get there the kids are working on a craft. At 10:00 we help wash their hands and hand out snacks…which is a difficult task because their snacks are in their backpacks and I have no idea whose is whose. So there’s a few minutes of chaos as the kids run around trying to find their food and yelling to me that someone stole their snack. There’s one little girl, the smallest one there, who always wanders out of her classroom and into the others. If there’s food on the tables, you can bet she’s going to steal it and eat it no matter who it belongs to. After snack time we listen to kids songs, do some more crafts, work on puzzles and attempt to clean up the mess that mysteriously appeared after snack.

This is how Peruvian women carry
EVERYTHING...babies, alfalfa,
groceries, rice, etc...

Everything is continuing to go well! I can’t believe it’s already March! We’re hoping the rain will start to ease up and it will start to get warmer…especially because I’m going on a four day trek to Machu Pichu in two weeks. I also hope it’s starting to look more like Spring for you all at home!!