Bests: My spanish is improving rapidly! It is so much easier to talk with my kids. They too are learning to use their language and they are extra forgiving of my blundding blubbering attempts at communication.

My keiki: All the kids in Peru are beautiful! They are just perfect little dolls. They have huge clear black eyes and warm brown skin and easy smiles. Their energy is magnetic and spongelike. I am in love! and they are just such a lesson in hope and apprectition.

Downtown Lima - the governement buildings and architecture. The buildings that are taken care of are really beautiful. I felt like I was in Europe.

The food - We went out last night to Tanta. A very western style restaurant. I had my first Pisco sour... ¡muy delisioso! and a cholopolitan (the best cosmo ever! made with pisco rather than vodka and fresh grapefruit juice. I ate aji de gallina: pulled chicken over potatoes with veggies all in a creamy cheese sauce with a side of white rice. And the dessert! we went across the street to a dessert restaurant which are very popular here late into the night (the can all serve alcohol too). It was lots of fun to be "out-on-the-town" with the girls.

Worst: Frustration over the communication barrier. I feel like I cannot tell my teacher how much a respect how well she does with the kids. She really is amazing. 27 3 year olds will work with scissors and glue for 20 minutes for her... that is amazing! More on language and daily life later...

One of my little girls asked me three questions:
1. What is your name?
2. Where do you live?
3. Where does your dad live?

I had to wonder about her father and her future... the future for a single mother and her child in this place is grim. And to have to face such situation like hers at three years old. I can´t even imagine.

The HUGE economic gap: riding through Villa everyday to work in a classroom that is so under supported then coming home to a huge, delicious lunch with fresh veggies and fruit. Then going out into a city with any opulent luxury the most posh of New York could desire. The gap is an emotional marathon really. You start and stop at basically the same place, but in between is miles of space.

More thoughts: In the US I feel like a confident, capable woman. I feel like I can be independant, take care of myself etc. Here I realize how delicate that confidence is. Here I cannot go most places alone. If it is early in the morning or late at night I have to have at least one other person with me. This means that if I want to pick up something from the store, I have to find someone that will walk there with me, and I can only go between 10am and 8pm. If I want to use the internet, send an email, update this blog, google something, find an address, all the quick and easy things I use the internet at home to do, I have to find someone else to go with me. And I have to wait for an ok time. And the easiest things at home... going to the mall, the grocery store, out to dinner, the beach etc. it's do-able but it's an extreme production. I have to find the place I want to go by asking my fellow volunteers for recommendations or reading the super generic guide books, then find the address, then make sure I have the right coins for what I think the taxi ride might cost, then rehearse how how to tell the driver the directions in Spanish, and rehearse how to give the taxi directions back to my house, then find someone to go with me, then I can actually leave. Once I get in the taxi (which are tiny, rickety, racecars that stop for nothing and nobody and the only part of them that looks new is the blinker because they don't use them) it's all just trust, that we won't wreck, that he is going in the right direction... I will have no idea until my watch tells me we should me getting close or I luckily recognize something familiar, or until he stops in front of what I am supposed to recoginize as my destination. It is daunting, intimidating, and nervewracking... but I am learning. Four weeks more to figure it all out, hopefully by then I´ll be an expert (mama - don´t be too scared :) I´ll hopeully be a pro by the time you get here).

Oddities for me:
There are stray dogs everywhere but no cats.
The public trash cans (in the city) look like just like Eve from Wall-E.
The martinis are double size

ps. the dude sitting at the computer next to me is super creepy. He is about my age and sounds like he is doing a voice over for a vampire porno. He has go jitters like a methy and enough lude english words to inform the whole place that he´s looking at Google Earth. I think his head might be attached by a screw into his nck because he keeps trying to squeeze it around a little tighter. And clowns must be popping up in the middle of his screen cause he randomly busts into laughter and then communicated with the clown in some ET sign language. I seem to be the only one that is even noticing, thank goodness on my left is a father and son researching the planets!

Anyway, today is Sunday, and we get to go to a new place to do new work. It's called casa de pancietas or the house for home workers. Here is a place where housekeepers, service people etc. can come to get free English lessons. After lunch we are going. For the couple hours that we are there, I will be teaching eng. one-on-one. This is my first visit there but from what I've heard its a great experience because the people are so eager to learn. I guess if you travel miles/hours for some on your only day off, that's dedication. I am excited.

More later... again as always, if you are reading this, thank you for your love and support.

Muchas Besitas!
margs