Dos y media

So, I apologize to those of you who read my blog who thought I had dropped off the face of the earth (my mom). I swear I am always running in a hundred different directions and I never have time to slow down!

Sunday I went to the boys' hogar to give one of the boys lotion for his face because it is incredibly dry. I walked to the center to meet up with my friend Amber because we were going to bake cookies. After she got off work, we went to El Mercado San Pedro to buy cookie ingredients. I seriously can't explain all that went wrong once we got back to her apartment to bake these cookies, but it was incredibly hilarious. I had to do metric conversions to figure out at what temperature Celsius to set the oven, which didn't even work for twenty minutes because we didn't realize we had to light it from inside. Then we bought cinnamon sticks because ground cinnamon apparently does not exist in Cusco and Amber was wrong when she told me she had a mortar and pestle, so she ended up "grinding" cinnamon in a plastic bowl (which later broke) with a jar of strawberry jam. Then, we had accidentally bought drinking chocolate which is essentially 100% cacao and incredibly bitter, so once the cookies finally came out, they were horrid (although Amber and her roommate's friend really liked them). I can't wait to do some legitimate baking when I get back to the States.

Monday morning was Ephraim's birthday (he's one of the boys at the hogar) and so I went to buy two cakes at a bakery in Limac Pampa (not that I expect any of you to know where that is). It was closed when I got there, so I figured I would just make a big loop around and look for another bakery on the way to the hogar. I seriously could not find one and so I went back to Limac Pampa. Luckily the one there had opened, so I bought two cakes for the boys. I had to wait around for the woman there to decorate them and when I finally got to the hogar, it was almost 10:30 (I usually get there at 9:00...whoops). Luckily the boys hadn't gone to school yet. Ephraim was really, really excited and the other boys were going insane about getting cake. They were being little heathens and so that kind of made me mad, but oh well.

That afternoon I went to my Spanish class and my professor was so wonderful. His name is Michael (I think) and he kept saying to me, "I never thought I would meet someone who knows so much about Juanes! And you're from the United States and you know all these songs that no one in South America has heard!" From that point on, we got along famously.

I apologize, but I have gotten to the point where I can't remember half of the things I've done this week! Luckily I am writing in my diary so I can remember. Tuesday morning, some of the boys thought it would be a good idea to tie me and some of the other volunteers up outside which just resulted in my falling down a few times. It's funny because even when the boys do somewhat jerky things such as that, I still love them.

Tuesday afternoon, I went to the girls' hogar with Jackie (she accompanied me for moral support because I really did not want to go). I told the director there that Thursday would be my last day. I needed to stop going because I really did not feel good whenever I was there and never felt like I was helping the girls in any way. So she seemed kind of upset, but they're so used to people coming in and out that she understood.

I cannot remember what I did with the boys on Wednesday, so flash forward to my Spanish class. That was really wonderful because all we did was joke around and hang out listen to Juanes for two hours. My Spanish classes can't even really be called classes because it's more like spending time with my Peruvian friends. I always laugh when other people I know tell me they have Spanish homework because I am so accustomed to just talking and occasionally reading stories with my teachers. Why would they give me homework?

Yesterday was a really nice day with the boys because we got to spend a lot of time outdoors playing. Two new volunteers came on Monday so it's been nice watching the boys get to know them better. One of them, Olivia (who goes to American, Adam!), was a gymnast for a long time and tried to teach the boys how to walk on their hands. It was so funny. Some of them were actually pretty good and learned how to do back bends!

In the afternoon I went to the girls' hogar for the last time and gave them all my old Beanie Babies. It was another volunteer's last day as well so we got to say good-bye together. They gave us some parting gifts which was really sweet. I felt kind of bad because I hadn't forged anywhere near the same emotional connection to them that I have with the boys. I am absolutely dreading my last day with them. I can't even think about it.

Last night Jackie and I went out with a bunch of people (I mean A LOT. I literally invited everyone I knew and I think we had around 20 in our group. Ridiculous.) to this really dumb gringo bar. I hated it and pretty soon left with Ashley, Danielle, Jackie, Arend (one of the new volunteers) and Olivia's friend Chris. We went to dance and there was this 60-something year old man dancing in the middle of the floor like he thought he was 25. If only he could have seen how ridiculous he looked...

This morning hardly any of the boys were there as some of them had gone to the Sacred Valley with their schools. So the other volunteers and I just played with the boys who were there and had a very relaxed day. I totally destroyed this ten-year-old boy Alberto in chess which I thought was kind of funny. He didn't understand the concept of jaquemate so I had to explain it to him three times. Then he challenged me to checkers and he suffered the same fate. Little kids are so funny sometimes.

This afternoon Jackie and I went shopping downtown. Oh, and I apologize to anyone expecting a postcard, but they are insanely expensive to send from here and I can't really afford to send as many as I had planned. Anyway, we went out for ice cream (chocolate and lúcuma, a match made in heaven) afterwards. Tonight we're going to go out and dance with some friends. Tomorrow morning we're going rafting on the Urubamba (I think) so that should be fun. Next time I write I'll try to be a little more detailed (and I little more prompt).

Cuídense,
Adrien