Mejorando

These past two days have been infinitely better than the beginning of the week. Yesterday I went to the lavandería again and spent the morning wandering around Cusco. I live really, really far from the center of town so I always see lots of interesting things on these excursions.

Yesterday in the afternoon I went to work with the niñas which was fine. I actually helped some girls with their homework instead of being hounded by twenty different people asking me to do it for them. So that was nice, even though homework for kids in primary school is just as tedious in Perú as it is in the States. I had the most pleasant bus experience on my way to and from my project yesterday which I´m sure will not be the norm. The most difficult part about these buses is you have to know exactly where you´re getting off otherwise you could end up in the completely wrong place. I´m learning the names of all my stops slowly but surely so I don´t have to rely on landmarks all the time to get me where I need to go.

This morning I went to work with the niños around 8:30. One of the boys, Richard, read me the story of Los Tres Chanchitos (The Three Little Pigs) and then we drew our own illustrations. I´ve always thought little kid drawings were really cute and his of these fat little pigs were exceptionally adorable. Then he recited the numbers 1-10 in English a bunch of times until he got it right. His English is already better than my Quechua. Then we went outside because another volunteer had planned something similar to a field day for the boys. So they had a sack race, a three-legged race and (after I left) a race balancing eggs on spoons. I missed the last bit because I had to go to class.

Class today was really good. My teacher and I talked a lot about the political climate in the world and I went on and on and on about Overthrow even though I didn´t mention it by name. He had planned for us to do some activity and read an article but we got distracted because I wanted to talk about Arbusto (Bush in español) and Iraq and Fujimori and Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path, a terrorist group in Perú during the Fujimori era) and everything else. Two hours was just not enough time! I think I talked his ear off...(hard to believe, I know)

Tonight I have to pick up my clothes from the lavandería and then I´m going out to dinner and dancing (sigh) with some of the other volunteers. Theoretically I´m supposed to have a city tour next weekend, but I´m going to try to rearrange that because I would like to go to Puno then to visit El Lago Titicaca. Fingers crossed.

Tomorrow I´m off to Machu Picchu!!! I promised Bailey that I would listen to "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in her honor. I have to wake up incredibly early in order to catch the train, so I´ll try not to party too hard tonight. Ha.

Nos vemos,
Adrien