Lucre

It's my third week of school and things are much better than my first. Not where I want the kids to be, but definitely better. The sticker deal is good, both the kids and I like it. Some kids are very quick learners and shout out the answers all the time and other kids couldn't tell you the answer even if you just finished going over the word. But then again, that's how any classroom is, right? In the picture to the left, we made pizza in class last Friday.

This past weekend I was hoping to plan out the whole week and get myself all organized but then I came down with a cold. I took Friday night easy but Saturday morning we got up early to go hiking in Lucre, out in the campo with all the mountains and valleys. With my headache and all, we headed out at 7am and met up with youth from the Huacarpay church (Huacarpay is a town name) in the town of Lucre and explored, looking where to buy chicken and choclo (corn that was put in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids machine and grew 75%. The pieces of corn are bigger than the states) and hiked for part of the day, crossing big creeks, collecting berries, taking pictures, and cooking on an open fire. I felt like we were on vacation with my shoes off walking in the grass in the middle of nowhere basking in the sun. We didn't get back until 6pm so by that time, I did not feel like doing any work. The following pictures are all mixed up, but they're all from the hike. If they're in the trees, it's something all Peruvians do, climb trees to collect these things that are like small cherries only they're too strong of a taste for me. One woman is washing her sheep. She had a whole flock that her and a couple other women were washing in the creek. It was really cute to hear the sheep baa-ing like crazy while and after being washed.

Sunday we had church and then a married couple came over to simply ask if they could get something shipped out with my friend when he comes, but this lasted from 2pm until 7pm. Luckily I had the idea to put a movie on so I was able to do some work while we watched Narnia in Spanish. That's how things go in 'warm-climate' cultures that are so 'warm' to others, focusing more on relationships than work. The States is definitely a cold-climate culture. Once when I came home and found my 2 roommates along with our empleada and 4 other Peruvians, I only kissed the Peruvians hello and one of them commented about how she noticed I didn't "say hi" to my roommates even though I said hello. Yes, I guess Americans are pretty rude.