Chubby Bunny

“Change is the essence of life. Be willing to surrender who you are for what you could become.”

Last week was an adventure! I can’t believe I’ve been here in Peru for 3 whole weeks. It feels like I’ve been here forever, I feel so comfortable here and except for the fact that I still have to work on practicing Spanish every day, life is great! I feel like I got to experience a little bit of everything this past week. One day, I was going running with Natalie and Katie and as we were leaving the Aldea, one of the older girls handed me a sol and asked me to get her something from the bodega. So as we were coming back from running we stopped at the bodega and I grab some Chezetos which are like Cheetos. When we reach the Aldea, I hand the bag to the Tia who looks at me with a confused look and says I was supposed to get soap for washing clothes. Apparently they don’t ask for soap they ask for the brand name of the soap, which is where the problem was because I knew the word for soap but I just assumed she meant Chezetos when she asked me to buy something because it sounded similar. Needless to say House 1 had a good laugh on my behalf.

Lucho and Youli, gorditos! (the chubby toddlers)

This week I ate at house 2 with all the younger boys which was really fun! We had cow intestines this week; it’s hard to describe how it tastes. It’s rubbery and doesn’t really have that much of a flavor, I wouldn’t recommend it to those with a weak stomach. I got to play Monopoly with a paper board on which there were pictures of random people on the properties. One of the little boys, Miguel, said that 3 of the girls on the board are his novias, which is quite an accomplishment at 7 years old haha. I blame Justin Beiber.

Friday there was a fiesta for the children who had birthdays in January. There was a piñata, pepto bismal looking jello, sheep and lots of dancing! Earlier in the day there was a roast with a sheep, rumor has it that the sheep came from our very own Aldea. You see there are these four random sheep that walk around the Aldea and to be honest they don’t really do much, they keep the grass trimmed I guess but that’s about it. The kids are always saying they are going to eat one and it seems they finally might have. Only three have been spotted recently but I’ll keep you posted on their whereabouts! Also, for those of you who think all I do is play I’ll have you know I do actually teach valuable lessons like how to make a fish face! This little girl is named Flor and she picked up how to do fish lips in a matter of minutes and now does it every time someone says Pescado!

Pescado face :)

Oh the weekend how I love thee. This week our weekend adventure began with our combi stalling and turning off every couple minutes until we finally made it to a gas station 20 minutes after it started having troubles. Our next step was to find some Pizza since we were all craving a little taste from home and it was amazing! I’ll never take it for granted ever again. Step three was going to see a Peruvian band play which was really fun! Saturday we went to Hunchaco again..yep just another day at the beach! Where I had the most amazing fruit slushie, made with real fruit (and I mean not from a can that just says real in fine print but like legitimately blended from a fresh pineapple). Here’s a picture of the sunset for those of you who need something happy to look at!

Sunset at Hunchaco with Katie, Natalie, and Julia

Ps. the leprosy on my legs has all but disappeared!