We were supposed to wake up at 7 this morning, but since we had got to bed so late (or early) we completely missed that mark and woke up at 9 or so. We missed a parade for Gunter Grass' sports day but made it in time for the actual event.
It was a good length walk to the covered artificial field and when we got there it was already crowded with students and their parents. There was a field for football and a field for volleyball. Here the guys play football and the girls play volleyball. It was a lovely atmosphere and all the kids were there. I said hello to another Adrian from the seventh grade - a ridiculously tall 15 year old.
Alison and I joined the team of parents of kids in Katia's home class. When Alison was on the team they won, but with me they lost. It was definitely my fault! Uziel played football and won one and lost one.
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| Alison plays volleyball |
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| Alison wins! I do not. Uziel said if we lost we were out on the street! He also won his football match |
We had lunch at the event from a relatively sketchy outdoor grill. We then started talking to the dad of one of the girls we knew and he offered to buy us lunch. With a miscommunication by Uziel we ended up eating twice - whoops!
Uziel says that everyone here is so nice to Gringos that he can't even leave us alone in the lunch line without someone buying us lunch! It is kind of a weird thing actually, I only had to pay $1000 to go to a country where I'm basically treated like a superstar just because of my skin color. I'm so popular not because of who I am or what I am. At one point Katia, Uziel, Alison and I were all lying on top of each other, exhausted from the previous night and I realized how quickly I'd become comfortable with these people!
I was starting to feel a bit bad so did not end up eating much lunch and left the event a little early to go home.
Joyce and I went out again at 4 to meet Eleonora, but of course we didn't quite make it in time. However, like last time Eleonora was even more late!Alison ran back from her volleyball match and arrived at 4:30. The match had been scheduled for 12 so this was late even by Peruvian standards!
All four of us walked back to our house and moved our mattress and camping mats to make room for the yoga mats. The two hour session was actually easier this time which was encouraging but I couldn't focus on my breathing since I was feeling worse.
After yoga we got ready to go to a concert. We were supposed to meet some friends of Eleonora's but they were not there so we went to the restaurant as Mama Dorris had made everyone dinner. Eleonora called to say she had to babysit her 1yo nephew so could not come. We took a taxi to the concert with Uziel and his friend Luis.
At the concert there was a huge line. While standing in line we joked we should be able to use our Gringo superstar status to get to the front of the line!
The venue was a steep, sloping, grassy hill that lead down to a huge stage. There were thousands of people there and we were in the middle of three sections. The opening band was more blues than rock, then the second band was the one Katia was most excited to see. They looked like a 90s band and three had crazy huge manes of curly black hair which we joked was like Katia's hair, though actually hers is actually a little tamer.
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| The concert |
Then the main band, Los Rancheros, came on and the crowd went nuts. Even Uziel who is usually an ice-man, started jumping up and down and banging his head like someone had pushed a magic button. This was especially impressive as earlier in the day he had fallen down the hard concrete stairs that lead to the next storey and bruised his arms. Other guys were also throwing themselves against each other and pumping their fists violently into the air. At the end of the concert the lead singer was draped in a Peruvian flag as a cape.
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| Uziel is definitely the most excited! |
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| The crowd |
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| Alison |
We spilled out onto the empty streets and the few taxis were quickly lapped up by the thousands who needed them. We wandered around, Uziel sore from his earlier fall and then the jumping around. Finally we managed to hail a taxi and headed home, with me in the footwell of the back seat.
