The Last of Peru....

I'm writing this last blog sitting at my kitchen table in MICHIGAN. I arrived home Sunday afternoon after over 24 hours of travel....It feels good to be home but I do miss my friends and kids in Peru!!

My last week in Peru went by very quickly. I went with two friends on a 10 hour bus ride to Arequipa, Peru where we did a two day trek of Colca Canyon, which is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. It was beautiful but a verrrrry tough hike, especially because at its lowest point, it is still at a higher elevation than Cusco. We spent the night in the bottom of the canyon and then woke up at 4am to hike back up. We arrived back in Cusco on Thursday morning and went to visit the kids for the last time. Some of the mom's came and the kids sang a couple songs for Mother's Day, which was adorable.

Now that I'm home, I'll be subbing, babysitting and cleaning this summer.....while at the same time looking for a teaching job for the fall :) Thank you all so much for your prayers and support during my trip, I really appreciate it and definitely felt them....You are all amazing!!!!! See you soon :)

Before the trek

We made it!!

Condors

Highest point of the Canyon...About 5,000 meters

Vamos al parque!!

The 2 and 3 year olds made it successfully to the park today and it was so fun!! The only big glitch was walking there through construction because everyone was AMAZED by the bulldozers. The boys I was with couldn't take their eyes off them, and as a result, walked veryyyy veryyyy slowly :) We were also walking through the street at this point and luckily a police officer helped get everyone back to the sidewalk because the kids were so transfixed on the construction, they could barely walk and we were holding up traffic.

Easter in QUITO!

I arrived back in Cusco yesterday after visiting some friends in Quito, Ecuador for the weekend. It was amaaaazing and so much fun. Quito is beautiful and much much bigger than Cusco. It´s more modernized and there are Kentucky Fried Chickens on almost every corner. We visited a little town in the middle of the mountains a couple hours away, hiked to a waterfall and rode a zip line. It was a great weekend and really great to see my friends again! Now I´m back in Cusco and working at the daycare :) The weather here is improving every day so today we took some of the kids to the park to play....I didn't know we were going to the park and was not prepared, so I am now fairly sunburnt. There were three volunteers and one teacher, and we each had to walk holding onto five kids which was quite difficult because the street was really busy and the kids were trying to run all over the place. But we made it in one piece with all the kids! They had a lot of fun... Tomorrow we´re taking the younger kids....I´m really not sure how that´s going to go because they are much crazier than the five year olds! You will also be happy to know that the daycare has a new puzzle policy after my friend and I spent several days organizing them and putting pieces where they're supposed to go last month. Last week a couple volunteers spent two days putting all the puzzles together so the pieces weren't all over the place. Now, each kid gets one puzzle and when they are done, they can give it to me and I hand them a new puzzle....ONLY IF their puzzle is complete :) It's working well so far! Hardly any stray pieces.

Quito from the top of the basilica!

La Virgen

Quito!

Basilica

At the top of the Basilica

GRADUATION!!

As of yesterday I am officially done with my TEFL class and am now a certified ESL teacher!! The class was a lot of work, but overall it was actually really fun. We taught three 20 minute mini lessons (one per week) to actual ESL students from the organization and then our last week we were given one one hour class to teach. I took one for the team and took the 7am class, which means I was at school every day by 6:30, leaving my house around 6:15. My classmates felt bad for me, but come Friday, when I was done with everything at 8am they were wishing they hadn't chosen an evening class :) The students were a lot of fun...I usually had two students for the first twenty minutes...and then the other six would wander in sometime before 7:30...Peruvian time :) It was a great experience and I loved working with them because they're always eager to learn and very grateful. Tonight we have a little ceremony where I'll receive my certificate and be completely done (which all the staff are making food for in my house right now...it smells and looks amaaaazing).

As of today I have been here exactly THREE MONTHS and have exactly THREE WEEKS left! Monday I start back at the daycare, which I'm really excited about, and I'll also be back taking some Spanish classes. I can't wait--since I've been learning how to teach English in my class, I haven't had much opportunity to speak Spanish lately. We only have three days of placement and classes next week because Thursday and Friday are holiday.

Friday I'm going to Ecuador to visit a couple friends who had been in Peru with me since I got here but left in late March to do the last month of their volunteering in Ecuador! I get back on Tuesday and will then finish up the last week and a half at the daycare :)

Illness update: we had a rough couple weeks in the house where the doctor was literally coming more than once a day. One morning I woke up and he was eating eggs at the dining room table. Most everyone is starting to feel better but the couple people who survived the epidemic.....are sick now. It even hit my class pretty hard. The week before we did practical teaching we had several out sick, including my teacher.

I haven't taken too many pictures since I've been in class all day every day but I'll try posting a couple from a biking trip I did a couple weeks ago..it was beautiful! And exhausting.

THEY HAVE KRAFT MACARONI AND CHEESE HERE!!!
It tastes pretty much the same....amazing.

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 :)