So after 5 full days of teaching (and 2 more to go before we leave Luz de Esperanza for the jungles of Quito), we are proud to report that we have survived and are getting closer and closer to the children as the days go by.
As far as our daily schedules go, the three of us all teach different classes at different locations so we are never in one classroom all together. Miss Jenny ("Yenny") is in charge of the Principiantes, children aged 4 to 7. Miss Lauren (or "Lorie") teaches the Primarios (ages 8 to 11) and the Secondarios (ages 12 to 15), as does Miss Candice ("Candyyy"). On Tuesdays and Thursdays, Lauren and Candice also teach a group of mothers, where an hour of english is followed by an hour of weaving. Peruvian wool weaving is an extremely tedious task, these mothers are so patient! Depending on the level of english and the appropriate age group, examples of our teaching topìcs include: numbers, colors, animals, fruits and vegetables..and cake baking (no joke, this was a huge hit actually). On Thursdays and Fridays, an hour of Sports is included too.
Highlights this past week include some field remodeling ...actually correction. Not some parts of a field but A WHOLE ENTIRE field that was literally the size of half a football field. This field was going to be the site of the future residence of the volunteers of the organization. So, on a beautiful, sunny Wednesday morning, the three of us, Marisa, Antoine, Antonio, Nilton and Ely arrive at the field and are told that have to manually level the entire field which, might we add, is at a 45 degree incline. To begin with, Nilton tells the girls to find extremely large rocks to mark the 4 corners of the field. Next, we move onto little rocks which will be used to line the borders of the terrain. Meanwhile, the men and Ely are busy shovelling earth further up the field. The girls are then told we are moving this newly shoveled earth to the bottom of the field using large, round rice bags. Up and down and up and down the field we go. The best part of the morning was when Jenny suggested the assembly line where we placed 4 people along one of the sides of the field and transported the earth from person to person. Not to mention the friendy bulls who would grunt at us thinking that the dirt we brought down was food. Check out the pictures to see how much the 7 of us accomplished, especially the one of Jenny standing on top of the pile of shoveled dirt. Sweet!
Our diet thus far has consisted of potatoes, soup and rice and potatoes, soup and rice. Every day. Peruvians really love their papas, aka potatoes, so our meals never stray from these 3 food groups. Health-wise, we have had a few issues with the water we think but we are all on the road to recovery (fingers crossed!)

Another highlight was when Jenny and Lauren were hiking around to recruit new kids for the school Jenny got stung by bees on her head! They got caught in her hair, and they don't sting like the bees at home either, they are way worse! Her head was swollen and in pain for quite a few days.
On Saturday we took a tour of a Gourd village, where the town people all reside in artisan houses and carve/burn designs or stories into the sides of the gourd (which is basically a squash). A local handicraft that has been handed down from generation to generation, these gourd designs are extremely intricate and even a small one can take up to three days. The artisans make anything from a napkin holder to bags and a variety of ornaments.
Yesterday night, we had our first dose of Peruvian nightilfe which was facinating to say the least. There is nothing quite like a Peruvian discotheqa in the US. The night began with a pre-game at the house with beers and pisco, the local liquor. Everyone asked us to teach them an American drinking game so we decided to teach Thumper. Note that the 60 year old grandmother, Eva, was also joining us for the pre-game. So she decided to play thumper with us and it was hilarious. Her sign was suppose to first be a dead fish (please try to imagine this), then she said she would be a horse and ended up looking like an egyptian, it was hilarious, but she wasn't too bad at the game. A particularly amusing incident on this night was the sighting of the extremely tiny window/hole located on the outer walls of the disco, from which people are supposed to pay their cover charge (dont worry, pictures are yet to come). When a person puts their head in the hole, there is literally no space for anything else so we couldn´t help but wonder how money or coats (since it was a coat check too) could possibly be exchanged?! As for interacions with locals, we were slightly surprised to find that Peruvian men are very polite (more so than Americans) and will always ask you to "bailar," or dance, by gently tapping you on the shoulder. They are pretty good about taking no for an answer too.

We also had one night where we played dress up. The grandmother has a bunch of traditional clothing, and to make money she charges volunteers to dress up in it. So we felt bad for her and decided to dress up. Pictures are to come. (Lauren's camera already broke so we are having some issues)

Tuesday was our last day, and it was quite sad. All the children were very sad to leave us, and the family was practically crying when they left us at the bus station. It was really sad, other than wanting to eat something other than potatos we weren't ready to leave. We had made good friends with the volunteer Antoine, and had gotten close with the family.
Next stop is Quito, Ecuador where we will be in the jungle with no access to internet so the next blog post may take a little while.
Thanks for checking in, we miss all of you!