This Saturday

We woke up saturday rather earlier than usual and managed to drag ourselves onto a bus to Pachacutec by 10:30. Whilst we were all still drooling at the modern-ness of the bus on which we were traveling, on came a man carrying an amp and sporting a microphone/earpiece headset as well as a large fanny pack full of cds he was selling. As the bus picked up speed, on came the music. Laura and I made eye contact as he started SINGING along really intensely with actions and the typical mariah carey earplugging. It was amazing, and amazingly hard to make it look like we weren't blatantly laughing in his face.

This particular morning we were heading to a new daycare-ish place that is being run by a pastor and his wife in a different part of Pachacutec than we usually frequent. Due to our different destination, we had to make a transfer of buses so we jumped off in ventanilla and sadly said goodbye to our comfy seats and spacious legroom (singing man had jumped off after about song three). We waited a decent amount of time until Lidia beckoned us over to a little combie (basically twelve passenger vans that act as buses) that was already entirely full. I just kind of raised one eyebrow and looked at the nine of us who were supposedly still going to fit in this vehicle and smiled. Only in Peru.

On we went, one after another somehow managing to push our bodies into the smallest corners of the combie and all getting in. About half of us were literally standing up with our backs pressed against the ceiling so that we wouldn't fall and the other half were piled in the small area where there were no seats. The driver had told Lidia that lots of people were getting off at the next stop. Which, of course, was a complete lie. By the time we stopped to let ONE person off, it had been at least fifteen minutes. There was a little girl who thought Celia and I were really interesting because we had white skin so while we were crammed up against the ceiling we had some fun playing with her.

When we arrived at the church, we were greeted by a room full of beautiful bright children working on school work. One of them jumped onto my lap and we proceeded to play some game that I still don't understand that was like hitting all my fingers and then I would say 'si' and then I would say someone's name and then they'd try to spell it or something and then crack my knuckles. Ha. The kids were also OBSESSED with our sunglasses. They all are, actually. I gave mine away to a little girl at the school at Pachacutec last week so I was wearing a pair of Laura's, but they all wanted 'foto con lentes'. We ate lunch with them which was, of course, a mix of rice, potatoes and some sort of meat. Lidia told us some of the stories of the children who were there; the little girl who was sitting on my lap had four brothers and her older brother, who is ten, takes care of them. Their mom comes home every few days apparently but doesn't actually do anything. They often don't have food. The pastor and his wife were so amazing, they were so loving and open and real. The wife is this big, dark, I almost want to say jolly, Peruvian woman who was wearing an apron and kept hugging kids and wiping their mouths and being their mom for the day. It was so beautiful. But so sad at the same time. Two of the teenage girls kept poking my hands and laughing at my skin because when you poke it, it changes colour. Their skin doesn't do that and they thought it was really funny.

By the time we arrived home I was nearly too late to get to the 'clinco antirrabico' for my daily shot. Last tuesday Laura and I went on a bike tour of lima (which was awesome, if anyone ever goes anywhere, you should take a bike tour of the city, so cool and our guide was so knowledgable and awesome). We were just biking down this street with a bunch of gated homes and even more aggressive dogs when one of the barking dogs just ran up and bit me. I was so shocked I kind of screamed and yelled to Jose, our tour guide, 'the dog just bit me!' So we stopped and cleaned it up and later went to the hospital where it was properly cleaned and I got antibiotics and now I'm almost done getting all my shots. I think tomorrow is my last day but I don't really understand the nurses at the clinic so hopefully someone who speaks spanish will come with me tomorrow just to make sure.

The past week or so has just been a sad week. I'm overcome with sadness and wanting to cry (and wanting my own space in order to be able to cry) at least once a day. The things I see every day are exhausting in so many ways. Teaching english today was so hard. I realized that I am really good at being friends with kids, regardless of our language differences, but I'm really bad at disciplining them in spanish (yeah, newsflash, I know). Some of the girls at La Punta have left; where, we're not entirely sure, but they aren't there anymore. Justin, Celia, Colleen, and Laura all leave this week. The specials seem out of sorts recently, Enrique, a 13 year old down's syndrome boy, ran away on Monday and I miss the boys at the orphanage since they've been in school.

I am trying to re-motivate myself. And to rejuvenate the feeling of empowerment and hopefulness that was so present in my self when I first arrived.
I will try to post some pictures soon.
love always.