New Address

Before I forget yet again...

My friends in Trujillo who live in a better place to receive mail than me, are going to let me use their address so here is is.

Marie Esther Tello/ Samantha Thomas
MZ "D" Lote 37 2° Piso Urb. La esmeralda
Trujillo- La Libertad- Peru

So, if you were holding off on sending something via instructions from my mother, the hold has been lifted. If you have sent something to the old address no worries I can still receive it but let me know, and the date it left. For all things sent in a box, please send me an email letting me know the date you sent it so I know to be expecting it cause the mail folks here just aren't so timely sometimes. Letters go directly to the house. Anyways that is that. Love.

Birthday Birthday

     Well as many of you who love me and know when my birthday occurs annually without the help of Facebook, my birthday was this past Wednesday, and it was a different birthday. Normally I would have celebrated with many of you as we have done for many years, going out to dinner or trying to surprise me. I would have celebrated with my family, mom would have made my birthday dinner and a cake for me. Instead I celebrated with a wonderful bunch of people I didn't even know on my last birthday. But I thought I would share how the day went for all of you who missed it.
      Well school, went really well except that a kid showed up 45 minutes early for school- I got over it because the kids were really well behaved and the day went wonderfully. After all the kids left and I was about to head upstairs for lunch with Hermana Maura and company, her and Katy (daughter in law) came down singing happy birthday to me bearing a pudding desert that they made for me. After lunch I was able to get a whole hour nap- which was glorious, and afterwards my Peruvian mothers came by to give me the traditional Birthday hugs. When Wendy and Auden arrived, and I received a huge birthday to you hug from Keili. We played, Kevin came a bit before church and we all had conversation in English that was above the level of a 5 year old, which was nice. After church Auden and Wendy took us to Pizza Hut. Pizza hut here makes me laugh, because it is a very nice place, with no sketchy salad bar in the middle, and the waiters are all wearing ties and such.
      Pizza Hut was completely packed so we had to wait a bit, we got a booth and ordered and then we seemed to wait forever. That was because they burnt our Pizza, so we got free garlic sticks, and after like an hour total we got our pizza. It was good, it could have been better if Peru knew about free refills. O and I found 10 soles under the booth, it is still in debate as to whether it fell out of the Lujans baby backpack or not, but it was my birthday. The day ended at the house with a red velvet cake Wendy made for me with cream cheese icing- so good. And then the Lujans stayed over so Keili shared my bed and I was kicked all night long, but the day had been great!
     But birthday didn't end Wednesday. I came home yesterday night, and as we were walking in the girls charged me, and hugged me and I was told I couldn't come to the house yet, so I went to see Baby first, then I was collected and taken to the girls house. The lights were off, and the girls started singing birthday songs to me, and there was desert that the older girls made for me and I even got my own juice box! It was beautiful. I got more birthday hugs, and then I was told I had to do the birthday dances-which are really long and repetitive, but it was really fun, and my girls are all wonderful.
    So, even though I missed my mom's home cooked birthday meal and going out with everyone, everyone here made my birthday awesome. So, thanks for all of the birthday wishes and emails, they were fabulous.

Check out some new pictures  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?fbid=983092248387&id=29627113&aid=2527831&l=7775fa052a

The Color Yellow

     It has been a while since all of my Pre-school and early childhood courses from school. Which feels so weird to say that since I just finished school less than a year ago, but the last two years was mainly focused on the Special Education aspect of my degree- so it was weird starting to teach pre-school this past week. It was definitely a new, challenging, and really fun experience for me, it is going to be an interesting year for me of testing patience, getting kids to stop crying and hitting each other, getting them to use the bathroom properly, and at the same time teaching colors, numbers, letters, values, art, music, PE, and everything else that comes wrapped in curriculum.
    So, a little more about the colorfulness of my week. First off, we finally received the curriculum from the regional head last Friday as we were literally driving to the highway to head home for the weekend. So, my preparedness for the week wasn't what I was hoping it would be, but we survived. The week wouldn't have been possible without my new friend, Vasti. Vasti came with Auden and Wendy on their return trip from the US for a few weeks, and last week she was my assistant- a God send because nothing in Peru goes how you thought it would. I anticipated that there would be many late arrivals, given the nature of generally all Peruvians, on the first day, so we began by coloring and just chatting with the kids until about 45 minutes after the start of school- and some kids still didn't get there till an hour after the start. There were also many interruptions the whole first week. There was the painter who came and needed things, but I couldn't deal with him, so the Senora helped out in that. There were all the rest of the mothers trying to enroll their kids in the middle of the school day, I finally put up a sign for them to come before school the next day and the ages yet the persisted to knock and interrupt. There were children who were leaving their moms for the first time in their lives, one kid even broke the glass on the door with his fist, but he promised not to break it the next day he just kicked the metal bottom of the door. One lady even tried to leave her 3 year old at the door, even though I told her we couldn't accept any kids that were just three, had to call out the door to her to come back.
       Don't worry in all of the chaos there was also learning! We learned about circles, the color yellow, the creation of the world, we read stories and checked for some hint of comprehension, we played games, and learned how to wash our hands. But the week was an overall success for not having all the materials I would have liked to have. In this week I hope to find more of a rhythm to settle into. The kids are awesome, and most of them really excited to learn. Vasti and I already were picking out the personalities of who is going to be the class clown, the leader, the hitter, the crier, etc. This week we are moving onto the color red, sharing, and other fun things.
    

Connectivity

So, as you all have witnessed I haven't been consistently about to connect to the internet the entire time here.  And I am here to let you know this week I will not have internet. I am moving to the new house in Trujillo and it is not yet set up, so I won't have internet until Friday night, unless I go find internet, but being the first week I have a lot to do so I may not.

But a shout out to Laura and Dad whose birthday's I will miss on the 5th and 7th!!!! I love you and wish you the best and on the weekend I will bless you both with a call from me. :)

Be praying for me it is going to be an interesting first week of Pre-School!!!!

And Here We Go!!!

The day started with an hour and a half car ride with a baby sleeping on my lap to Trujillo, arriving in the northern part, my new home in Milagro, at about 10. Our list of things to accomplish during the day was rather lengthy, the first thing was to see my new house. My current living situation is another temporary one, God just hasn’t and won’t be grounding me anywhere for a long while. 

We pulled into Milagro at the restaurant off the highway. A right after all the houses made out of straw mats, a left after the painted rocks, straight past the vandalized playground, after the elementary school on the left side of the square there is a 2 story house, that is our new rental. The second story isn’t completed but in the process. The bottom story is ours. The front door opens to a double sized room, enough space for a good sized living area, and dining room, this will be my school and classroom. The first door on the left as you walk in is my new bedroom. It is actually pretty big, the family who owns the house had all been living in it, three beds fit in the room- I may feel pretty small in there by myself. As you walk to the end of the classroom area you reach the kitchen through the second door on the left. Walk through the kitchen and you end up outside, look to the left and there are the stairs to the unfinished second story (this is where the owner and her grandchildren will be living), on the right there are a few rooms, one of which Auden and Wendy will utilize on the days they stay over in Trujillo. After that on the left are the two cement sinks for hand washing my clothes, next to them are the bathrooms. The one for the children is a hole, the one for us and the family has a shower- more cold water of course- but there is a toilet! Then there is a small yard of dirt with a tree and a post holding up the clotheslines and hammock, there is a stack of bricks, an adobe fence, and some turkeys, and that about covers the house. (I will be living in this house Sunday nights through Friday after school, then I will stay Friday nights with the girls and Casa de Paz and the following day, Saturday nights I will stay with the Lujans in Jequetepeque and head back on a bus  Sunday afternoon, teaching M-F 9-12)

The next part of our day was to revisit the students Auden had recruited the day before to introduce myself to them, and tell them about the parents meeting Friday evening. This part of my day will show you how far away I am from the norms of life in America, even from where I had been living here. 

As we travelled through the neighborhood, one thing was consistent, these people are in need. In need of food, proper shelter, education for their children and even themselves, clothing, running water, electricity, and more. the majority of our students live in crudely made house that consist of straw mats leaning on poles. Most of the houses I cannot  stand with a healthy posture inside of. The floors are dirt. The bathrooms are at the end of the road in any spot you choose just not close to the house.  Some of the kids were to shy to come out of the house, others were playing in a pile of adobe bricks when we walked up, some were just playing in the streets, but one thing that is the same among all of them is that they are beautiful, they need love, and I am here to give it and teach them with what I am blessed to have learned. 

After we met the students Keili, their 3 year old was in need of food so we headed to the mall, a completely different level of civilization than we were just in. It felt weird going to a mall with stores you find in America, everyone is well dressed, all the Peruvians are actually watching a soccer game on the giant TV in the food court, we paid our cell phone bills and ate Papa Johns for lunch. Some of our students eat lunch at a different house everyday because their mom goes to work and they are left to themselves all day and one of the neighbors who is home makes sure they get fed each day, but we had delicious pizza and Coke sitting in a comfy booth, while they more than likely ate on the ground or a plastic stool. It is just interesting to look back on the day, we were in several different worlds today and they are all within a few kilometers of each other. 

Auden left us at the mall the look for sales at the grocery store before we went to visit a friend, while he went to get a bed for me, and tables and chairs for the kids. He was successful, though I wish I had gone will it would have been fabulous to see him put the double bed mattress on top of the car and drive through town as so. He is talented. 

It was a successful and exciting day. Thursday we will be going to paint the front of the house, put the bed together, and search for more classroom items. Friday will be the whole day as well, with the parents meeting in the evening. Both these days we will also be moving my stuff. On Sunday I will stay my first night and Monday teach my first day of preschool- in Spanish!