Wow, it has been a long time since I have written! I am going to make this short and sweet as I hope to make it more of a habit to post frequently to actually keep people updated on my life :)
I just made the strangest dinner I have ever made, but it is quite tasty! It only cost 3 soles, which is just over a dollar, so that's the real fact I'm focusing on. I had a package of angle hair pasta which I overcooked so I have pasta mush covered with a strange sauce of carrots, squash, tomatoes, garlic, leftover pesto from a jar and oregano. Not bad! I should have cooked the carrots longer and pasta less, but it will do and it is filling me up. I was too distracted by my music and taking advantage of having the hostel kitchen to myself so I was singing and dancing instead of really paying attention to my cooking.
This past week I started working nights in the Yanapay restaurant to earn a bit of money but I have been quite tired out at the end of the day with school in the morning with my kids as coordinator and work in the evening as administrator. It is nice to have the extra experience and money though, that's for sure.
Our Christmas at Yanapay was fantastic. We painted faces and got all dressed up for the kids. The general atmosphere was very crazy and lots of fun.
A lot of old volunteers were there along with other visitors from Cusco and people passing through which made it extra busy and fun filled.
Yuri got all dressed up as usual and pretended to be a Christmas character (an elf I think, with stripes?) and the kids just loved that. It was very entertaining.
After passing out presents we had music and dancing, hot chocolate, and finally, fireworks. it was very successful and very tiring.
We also had a party with the workers to exchange Secret Santa gifts, and on Christmas Eve we had a volunteer Christmas party with the same objective followed of course by lots of food and lots of dancing. Another successful party but we were all quite exhausted by the end of the week!
For New Year's I decided to go a lot more slowly and take in the New year sans parties and festivities. So, I decided to go to Arequipa with Leo. It was great decision and we had a lot of fun. We went to Mollendo, which is a small beach town right on the coast about two hours from the city of Arequipa. The waves were gorgeous, the water was warm and it was mostly overcast but I still got sunburned... We pitched a tent right on the beach though so it was completely worth it.
We even got to see a wedding! Leo totally got right in there and crashed it in his bathing trunks. He was crawling on the sand taking pictures, right up in their space. Very awesome, and the people didn't seem to mind. They were the ones who chose to have on the beach after all. Plus he got some great pictures!
Well, now I am back in Cusco, hanging out at the hostel and the schools and the restaurant, as usual, pining the loss of many great volunteers that have left in the past few weeks. It seems so empty without them! But, that is the life of working in a volunteer organization. People come and go so quickly and the leave wonderful impressions on our hearts but have to go on with their lives. I wonder when I will move on with mine...
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