Friday June 24

Today I woke up pretty late and by the time I had eaten breakfast and gotten ready it was basically time to go but I decided to take a quick shower too. To make it even faster I didn't bother boiling any water and braved the antarctic waters. The worst part was getting in but after that it wasn't terrible. The bathroom is also not at all private but Uziel did make a shower curtain yesterday which makes me feel a little better.

Took out the braids from yesterday ah!

Sausage or solidified cough syrup? They're the same color...

We went to INABIF, arriving late as always. Today some girls showed us a game they had come up with using a large piece of rope. It's basically like Chinese jump rope except that instead of only having the rope around your feet you slowly move it up to your knees, waist, shoulders, neck, head, and then hold it above your head. At first you have to jump in and out of the ropes, then swing your legs up to catch them rhythmically, then use your mouth to weave over and under them, and then use your arms to go in and out clapping. It's amazing how inventive kids are, they really don't need fancy toys they can have fun with just about anything! There was also a seminar on drugs which is apparently a problem here.

We play some ridiculously hard jumping string game - it's amazing what kids can come up with with just some string

Last night Alison and I helped Uziel make colorful flags on a string for an event today. It had been hard work as there were ten giant sheets of plastic that we had to fold, cut, and staple onto strings. We did so many that my arm is actually sore from stapling. It was fun though as we got to sit and talk while doing it.

Putting up our handmade banderas

Today after INABIF we walked two doors down to the Ministry of Culture where we helped string the banners in preparation for an arts fair Uziel would be taking part in. Stringing them up I was reminded of how tall I am here as I could reach a lot of the places the others couldn't. It's weird being this tall, I feel like people are a little intimidated by me - especially the guys - and I feel a little awkward and strange as well. It's going to be weird to go back to America and be normal-sized again too though!

Uziel showed up and we all went to lunch together. He showed us where he grew up in Lima and I ate much I thought I would die of a stomach explosion but felt I couldn't be rude and not eat the food again!

We were late to INABIF of course. I helped one kid with his math homework but he was a really difficult kid to teach, not willing to think through the problem and just waiting for you to do it for him.

We left INABIF late and went to the Ministry of Culture where the fair was about to begin. It was in a long, narrow plaza and there was a tent for food and plastic chairs in a circle around an area designated as the stage, with a big white screen behind it. There was also a botanic cactus garden behind the tent that Alison and I had checked out at lunch. There are lots of different kinds of cactus - who knew?!

Alison gets dwarfed by a cactus

And another one

So many types

While we were exploring the garden two kids from INABIF squeezed through the thin fence and Melany fell into a cactus! We spent a long time trying to get the spikes out of her jacket with marginal success. They also showed us how to pick the fruit of one cactus, which was incredibly sour, and also how you could throw the seeds of another cactus, that looked more like a tree, up into it's tangle of branches and watch as it bounced around, like the game at our local mini-golf where you put a ball in at the top and it bounces down off an array of pegs until maybe it goes into a hole at the bottom, but usually not.

Some kids from INABIF climbed through the fence and showed us around

They showed us how to eat the purple things

Cactus without spines

Melany fell into a cactus! Yikes!

You can throw the seeds of this cactus into its branches and they'll rattle around and pop out somewhere random!

At the fair, Jose, from two weeks ago on the motorcycle, came up to us. Seriously, he's been trying to find us for two weeks! He even went to our other house but apparently Rudy yelled at him - yikes! Jose said he wanted to practice his English, and that he grew up in Lima. He told us he is 18, though he hadn't wanted to tell us how young he was at first as he thought we were much older. Everyone here thinks we are older because of our height. Then he told us he was born in 1996 and we told him he couldn't be 18 then! He looked confused then realised he was 19 but hadn't celebrated his last birthday. Seriously, how can you not know how old you are? Especially if you're only 19!

The fair

The show began with a puppet show act which Alison and I thought was Katia and Uziel's act until we saw them walk in - whoops! In fact, their act turned out to be more like a play with only three people. It was a version of Little Red Riding Hood and was really good even though the only props were a chair, a basket, and a sock! At the end of the show were some short films like an animated short about the Bolivian water crisis.

The performance - Katia and another girl

After the festival we went to meet up with Joyce and her Spanish teacher for a farewell dinner - her flight out is tomorrow! We went to a restaurant called El Nino which does barbequed meat. It was good but a lot of meat for me. The Spanish teacher and her boyfriend were the total opposite of Katia and Uziel - tall and skinny they both got fruit salads and talked quietly, while Katia and Uziel (both short and stocky) got chicken and fries and spent most of the time laughing and joking.

After dinner the two couple and us three musketeers went to find a discoteca. The first place we tried was completely deserted, it was only 10pm and here the party doesn't start until 1. The second place, which you supposedly had to pay to get in but they let us in free based on our superstar gringo status, was also kind of slow so we forked out three soles to get into HOT, the discoteca we had scouted out with Nicole weeks earlier. The girls didn't pay to get in - sweet! I really enjoy the Latin music and the dancing and we ended up dancing with two of Uziel's friends - my guy was shorter than me!