In Peru!

Hello from Lima, Peru!

We arrived Tuesday morning at 5 am, breezed through customs, and headed to our host family's house. We stayed awake just long enough to learn that the Peruvian plumbing cannot tolerate toilet paper. Right now there are 2 bunkbeds and 4 girls at this house. Monica and I, and two girls from the U.S.

We are staying with a young family who work with the volunteer organization. They have four children younger than 14. They are super cute but hard to understand! (As is everyone around here unfortunately- I'm getting used to being in a constant state of confusion). The parents speak no english and so we play an ongoing game of guessing and a bit of charades mixed in too:)

They feed us our weight in food at every meal. Here the main meal is lunch and it is served anywhere from 1 to 4 in the afternoon. Carolina (our host mom) is a wonderful cook and she dishes out our food for us. It is Peruvian courtesy to eat everything you are served. Yesterday Monica impressed me big time. She ate half an avocado and a banana in one meal (she has refrained from eating both these foods for YEARS).

This morning we took a taxi to our orientation. I don't know why there are seat belts in the taxis unless it's just for decoration! There were six of us so I ended up sitting on Monica's lap. I was concerned that I was blocking the driver's view but I don't think he looked out of the rear view mirror once. The streets sound a little like a band. Drivers honk whenever they want and maybe for no reason at all. There's also lots of yelling and shouting. All the taxis and bus drivers want to attract business to their vehicle.

At the orientation we met about 20 other volunteers from all over the world.

We then paid 1 sol cincuenta centimos for a bus to Pachucutek which is where the schools and baby houses are that we will be helping out in. Keep posted for pictures. We're going back tomorrow. It's beautiful there, but really poor. The buildings and houses are built on tall hills overlooking the sea.

Good days to you!

Shanna