third week

Hola!

Starting my third week of training in Peru and things are starting to feel more ruitine. The other day, I even had to explain to a combi driver that I had already paid for my ride and that I didn´t need to pay again... in Spanish! I was very proud of myself.

Otherwise, things are looking good in terms of health and weather, etc. I still have not had any diarrea... but it is so funny to go to training each day and hear about everyones bowl movements. It is not a shy subject at all and I am still getting used to that. I´m sure you Duffy´s would have not problem here! The food continues to be good. On Sunday, my host Mom mad fresh juice out of pinnaple and it was delicious! Also, we get current volunteers coming in frequently to tell us stories and tell us about potential challenges, etc. It is great to hear voices of people in the field so we can get a feel for what it might be like.

Today I thought I would primarily tell you all a couple of funny stories about things that have happened or things that I have noticed in Peru.

Movies... So, my first day with my host family, they asked me what kinds of movies I liked. The big thing they were interested in was that I don´t really like horror movies. Since then, I have watched a horror movie with the family because I wanted to listen to Spanish and spend time with my host family. I was relieved that I couldn´t understand a word, because I didn´t want to be scared, but they eventually put english subtitles on and my and my host mom frequently covered our eyes and squeeled. The other kind of movie that seems to be really popular among my family are Asian action movies with a lot of REALLY tacky fight scenes and asians speaking spanish. I find it really hillarious, but usually don´t know what is going on.

Parties... Well, I don´t really go to parties because I cant stay out past 11pm because they lock the door and I wouldn´t be able to get in. However, I did get to meet up with a couple volunteers this past saturday for about an hour out and one of them told me a really interesting story. Apparently, 4 year olds birthday parties are a BIG deal here and are better then some wedding parties in the U.S. For example, a fellow volunteer´s family had a birthday party on saturday for their 4 year old with clowns, tons of people and a Barney. Apparently, the Dad of the daughter works in Spain and they never see him, so half way through the party, the Barney took off his costume head and it was the DAD!!! Everyone was so excited and crying, etc. I guess no one knew he was coming. I thought that was pretty amazing.

Finally, on Saturday as well, I went to Lima to do some training at a University and afterwards went out to lunch with a couple other volunteers. The process of ordering food turned out to be an adventure because all of us were mediocore at best at Spanish. So, when the waitress came around to tell us what the menu was, we made a big production about wanting a written menu... but we finally came to understand that on the weekends they don´t have one. So, then the waitress listed all the food for us and none of us had a clue what anything was... only understanding the words for chicken and rice. So, she explained them all several times, showed us her written list, and we conversed for about 20 minutes about what in the world everything was. When we finally decided to order, we just passed around her notepad and put checks next to the food we thought we wanted. In the end, I had no idea what appetizer I got, but ordered a main dish of chicken and rice... to be safe. It was a pretty funny restaurant experience.

Overall, I am continuing to have a great time and do feel like my spanish is improving! I get more and more excited everyday to do to my site! All the current volunteers tell us to be prepared to feel like rock stars, and that we will soon have a new respect for Brad and Angelena because everyone´s attention will be on us all the time. I´m pretty excited to see what I can do!