November 1st...

Well it feels like a Minnesota fall day here in Cusco on the first of November.  It's not actually that cold, but compared to days when it is sunny and dry, it is quite chilly and damp right now.  Plus, it's raining.  After an awesome Halloween weekend, it is nice to have an excuse to stay inside at the hostel here, drink hot tea, read, and rest all afternoon. 

So, this past week at school we spent the week talking about recycling.  Yuri decided that we would take the kids out on Friday evening to hand out candy and celebrate Halloween.  In order to dress up in costumes we each would have to collect recyclable materials to create handmade costumes with our students.  I was in charge of the Dolphins again, the four and five year olds, and we were going to use plastic bags to create our costumes.  I brought in plastic bags and wire with the idea of making fairy wings for the girls and we all decorated the bags with glitter and paint together.  Unfortunately, that was about the most that my little ones could do as far as being useful in the creation process.  Even that was pushing it since I definitely had to tell one girl in particular at least three times to stop putting the glue in her mouth.  I didn't even let them anywhere near the wire since when I brought it into the classroom one boy immediately grabbed for it and nearly stabbed his eye out.  I had to keep the scissors in my pocket as well since two boys were fighting over them and they ended up flying across the room.  I lost my voice again that night.

Anyway, Wednesday and Thursday we had extra classroom time to allow the students to complete their costumes, but as I said my kids were not exactly helpful, so I sent the two other teachers out of the room to finish the process.  They ended up making really adorable wizard's hats for the boys, and finishing the fairy wings with great success.  I, meanwhile, was stuck in the classroom trying to teach the little crazies about the importance of recycling and the meaning of Halloween.  I ended up letting them each tell me a story about a witch that apparently has been seen by all of them in their respective houses and made them scared but they were all brave and they scared her away even though she made one girl take her grandma to the hospital... at least they have good imaginations!

Friday was a stressful day.  Not all of my kids showed up, which of course was too bad, but also a slight relief.  With fewer kids, each of us three teachers were able to take a child in each hand once we went out to the streets.  If we had had more children, I probably would have tied a rope around each one's waist to keep them together and in a line and away from the streets.

 

Here are my little chuskis... so adorable!

 

Here you can see their wizard's hats... they didn't stay on very well, but that's okay.

 

This family reused cardboard boxes and were "aliens and robots."  So cute!

 

 

 

Here is Yuri showing how the giant dragon will be used.

 

This little girl was just precious.

 

Juan P, I think he's supposed be waiter??  

 

 

 

My little Illa (ee-ya).  She is just precious, but at times can be a little terrorist as well.

 

We made it out of the hostel and down through the streets, stopping first at Plaza de San Francisco and letting the kids practice their circus tricks.  In two other main plazas we stopped and made a big circle, letting each family of children parade through the center to show of their costumes, and of course, letting the older children show off their circus tricks (diabolo juggling, regular juggling, swirly things called spinners I think... etc).  We had big groups of people around us, taking pictures, asking questions and applauding.  We handed out fliers, and all of us volunteers that could were telling locals about the program.  It was fun to see so many people interested and excited about what we were doing. 

 

Here is Milton, one of the older kids showing off his spinning skills.

 

This is Sheyla, another adorable spinner.

 

 

Lucero and Diana showing off their skills.

 

Andres, throwing the diabolo up into the air with mad skill.

 

Here he is again, soo adorable.

 Finally, after parading around and showing off some more, we ended up at the Yanapay restaurant.  We went in one family at a time to receive our goody bags and take a family photo.  They we began the tiring walk back uphill to return to the school, walking slowly for the little ones to keep pace.

It was an amusing evening, and I'm very glad everything went so smoothly.  We were all exhausted though, I especially felt the tension I had been holding in my shoulders.... all the worries and concerns of the afternoon made me so tired suddenly.  We all returned to the hostel though to quickly change and get ready for our volunteer party at the restaurant.  The theme of the evening was "Out of this World" so I dressed up as a star with a white sparkly shirt and a handmade star shaped headband made out of pipe cleaners, keeping with the theme of recycled costumes.

The party was quite fun; we had our delicious pasta dinner buffet with apple pie for dessert, and then we played some awesome games that Igor and Montse had prepared for us.  One of the games was called Psychologist and poor Diana was the psychologist who had to figure out what was wrong with the rest of us.  As a group, we were given a disease and certain rules we had to follow.  Basically, we were going to be asked questions by Diana and our job was to answer as if we were the person to our right, meaning that as a group we had "Multiple Personality Disorder".  If we answered untruthfully however (according to that person), he or she would say "psychologist" and we would all change places, meaning that if Diana asked us the same question again, our answers would likely be different.  It was hilarious but Diana was so confused, and quite frustrated.  She and Juan P finally figured it out, but not until we'd all had quite a few laughs.  The other games of the evening were also very entertaining.  Around 11:30 we all headed out to have a few drinks and go dancing.  We had a blast, as always, just dancing in a big group and staying out until 2:30.  It was a great start to a wonderful Halloween weekend.

Saturday night, Diana and I were given an offer to model in a runway show at a bar.  The show was for a lady from Ireland who has a handmade clothing store here in Cusco.  Her products are expensive, according to Peruvian standards, but they are SO gorgeous.  I was at the shop earlier that day trying on dresses and found one that would be perfect for the Halloween party Sunday night, and she asked if I would like to model that evening in her show.  I said yes, she gave me a nice discount on the dress, and I convinced Diana to do the show with me (which was difficult, but she fell in love with a dress as well so in the end she agreed).  We drank quite a bit before the show so she wouldn't be too nervous, and we ended having an absolute blast.  The whole group was quite tipsy, the music for the runway show was upbeat, and the crowd was very energetic.  The theme for the evening was "Vampire Ball" so we all had crazy hair and makeup, which made up feel like we were just playing dress up.  It was awesome.  Plus, a bunch of our friends were there so we were given a great deal of support. 

 

Here we are before we modeled...

 

And we are at the end, dancing to Michael Jackson's thriller.... bomb!

I don't have any good pictures of the actual runway session, but there may be a few on facebook...

Sunday night's party was even more insane...we got our tickets ahead of time to go to a place that is simply legendary.  It's called Fallen Angel, and the owner is this extremely eccentric and artistic gay Cusqueñan who throws these amazing parties just four times a year.  He absolutely loves to have been go all out and dress up, so he requires a dress code with a theme attached.  Apparently he has turned away his own friends from parties before because they were not dressed appropriately.  This party's theme was Pop Stars, so you can imagine how many people went dressed as Lady Gaga. A few girls from the hostel and I went dressed as the Spice Girls, and I think we were unique in that aspect. 

 

Spice Girls!! There were two of us dressed as Baby Spice, but it was just fine.

 

Here's the whole group, just before we left!  Even Yanapay the dog wanted to join in the group picture.

So, the party was phenomenal.  We got to the party around 10:30 and went right in to be amazed at how gorgeous the locale is.  There are red and black plush couches and love seats, animal printed and heart shaped.  Half of the tables are made out of antique bathtubs covered by a sheet of glass and filled with fish, water plants and beautiful lighting.  The whole building is all stone with arched entryways to every room and gorgeous angel themed artwork all over.  The center courtyard has a huge silver statue of a male angel and the ceiling is a pyramid of glass.  The DJ was amazing, along with the lighting artist, who both directed everything from balconies on the second story of the courtyard.  After we danced for a few hours, still just amazed by the spectacles around us, we became away that there were several drag queens walking amongst us.  They eventually got up onto various platforms to just stand and model and be intriguing.  It was quite entertaining. 

 

Diana and Me!

 

Renzo and Raquel (she helped us with hair and makeup).

 

Yuri, Janek and Lucy, three people pretty much in charge of all Yanapay.

 

Diana, looking very posh and trying very hard not to smile.

 

CRAZY drunk lady that got kicked out of the bar at least two times...  Mia and Amy looking worried and confused about why she kept trying to join our group.

 

Here's a glimpse of one of the fish filled tables.

 

Me on a luxurious tiger patterned couch resting my very tired feet. 

 

Here come the drag queens!

 

This guy was my favorite.

 

Look at those shoes!  They were SO tall!

So, we didn't stay all night, since most of us were still very tired from the night before.  We left around 2:30 (which was early for this party) and went to McDonalds.  Shameful, I know, but we were starving for unknown reasons and really needed some delicious cheap food.

Well, this week at the Aldea I am going to be working very hard on marketing again, since the girl from England who will be taking over is here now.  Her name is Lucy (see photo above) and she is very nice, but needs to come out of her shell a bit.  So, I'll be working with her this week on making a schedule for what we need to accomplish and how.  We have a short week at the school this week due to the day of the dead and the day of the living yesterday and today.  We went to school today but only had about ten kids arrive, with twenty volunteers... so we put them to work and organized all the classrooms. 

Finally, I want to include a few adorable photos of my favorite baby here in Peru, Washington.  I put my sunglasses on him the other day and he was just so adorable I couldn't resist taking pictures.

 

Well, that is about all for now.  My life down here is wonderfully entertaining and soul satisfying.  Every day I learn so much and am so thankful for everything that I have.  I am constantly amazed by the opportunities I have been given and how lucky I am.  I hope you all realize the same and know that I am doing all I can to help these wonderful, beautiful souls here in Peru.  Sending you lots of love!

ps.  I have decided to renounce any claim on Christmas gifts in favor of monetary donations to Aldea Yanapay.  Hopefully by December Lucy and I will have a bank account for Aldea Yanapay set up via an international bank so making a donation will be very easy.  I'll keep you updated!

Love, love, love,
Maia Jo