Feliz cumple Sarah!

The past couple of days have been really fun.

Tuesday me and Lauren had our "end of semester party" with our amazing group of 6-9 year olds. Tuesday night was Ellie's last night, the volunteer from London. A big group of us all got together including Jason, Roberto and the Horacio boys,we had some beers and hung out. Gladys made Arroz con leche for dessert with Masomora (which is this purple sauce made from corn with assorted fruits). Together, they are absolutely heavenly. Random fact: There's more that 3000 types of potatos in Peru. Crazy. I eat a lot of potatos here.

Wednesday was Sarah's 24th birthday! Wednesday and Thursdays are our days off, so we went into Lima. Side-note: I am the youngest one in this house by far. The person closest to my age is Gladys, who is 23. The oldest volunteer is 28right now. For Sarah's birthday, me, Gladys and her woke up at 6 A.M. and went to Via el Salvador which is an old people home which is another non-profit organization in Lima. The people there are very poor and absolutely precios. We got there just in time to serve breakfast for them. There was this one lady named Delia who was deaf and mute. She was so happy though. She hugged me and showed me her photo album and all of her favorite beaded jewelery she had made. I hung out with her for a while. Her mother was with her too, nearing her nineties and did "translations" for Delia. After breakfast, there was bingo. I helped a table that didn't know the numbers in spanish. So the whenever any number was called out, I showed them where to put their bingo marker. After bingo, was prayer time. I listened but I mostly helped the older folk follow along in the book. We then served lunch and many of the "ancianas" put half of their food in a tupperware to save for dinner. All of the people in the dining hall then sang "Feliz cumpleanos" for Sarah and another women in the program that turned 91! Some of the people there only spoke Quechua so it was a little difficult to communicate. Delia gave me a beaded necklace that she made. It was so sweet of her, I will keep it forever!

For lunch, the three of us met the rest of the volunteers, Lara, and a new volunteer named Lindsey at the seafood restaurant "Punto Azul". I had fish and pesto pasta, which was delicious. Everyone else had ceviche but I didn't think my stomach could handle it. David discovered he doesn't like ceviche and ate half of my meal. (It was huge). They sung happy birthday to Sarah, again and gave us really cool hats and balloons! After lunch, we all went back to Lara's and had tres leches cake and beer. Tres Leches is a moist cake that is soaked in evaporated milk. Absolutely delicious and creamy. We all went back to Huaycan and said goodbye to Ellie unfortunately. She will be missed lots!

We've all been loving on each other lately because our entire group leaves at the end of July/beginning of august besides the three new volunteers.
Last night, me, Lauren and Gladys had a sleepover and we took the mattresses off our bed and all cuddled for the past 4 nights. It's sad that we'll all have to be in different cities come August.

Thursday Kat and I went to central Lima and met up with the new volunteer, Lindsey. We went to Plaza de las armas and el museo de oro and el museo de literatura peruana...which I must admit was the most boring museum I have been to. Kat and Lindsey tried their first Alfajor (YUM). We went souvenier shopping and saw llamas in the park. It was a great afternoon. That night, we all came back and met up with Miguel and Jason. We played foosball at the carnival and see-sawed in the park like kids. Then we got sports equipment and played a few games of volleyball and a game of soccer. It was really fun and we played until after midnight! Time flies.

Friday was my last day with Los Alamos kids. I bought them some pencils and pencil sharpeners and I played bingo with them and gave out jump ropes i bought. They love jump roping, but they dont have a jump rope, so they were really happy when they got one! It was really sad saying goodbye to them all! Friday night we went to Kenko, as per usual...except I got really sick...thanks stomach ulcer.

Saturday was the "jovenes field trip". The age range for this field trip goes from about 15 to about 27. I loved it because my two tutoring students, Moises and Juan who I tutor 3-4 hours each a week got to go! We went to Circus Shengdu, which was a Chinese Acrobatic show. Everyone enjoyed it! It was really cool! Afterwards, we ate at Pizza Hut. So American. Only thing is, that Pizza Hut in Peru is a billion times nicer than Pizza Hut in the United States. It was seriously a gormet family restaurant. I was pleasantly surprised.

Tomorrow, Monday, I leave for Cusco with David, another volunteer here. We are going to be gone until Saturday so I am so excited for the adventures we are going to have! I can't wait to see Machu Picchu! I'll post pictures as soon as possible!