I ate a salad...

...and all I´m going to say is - Mark, I think I would definitely prefer your version of a cleanse!

So, I´ve been out of the loop for a bit...but, now that we´re back from our adventure, I have much to talk about. Forgive me (1) for the long upcoming post because (2) I don´t really know how to go back and post per day. (yes, I know - Eddie, I´m SURE you could tell me - but you´re upstairs!) and (3) the typos - I will do my best to corrrect them, but the keyboards are hard to use and take A LOT of time to fix!
so, here goes...

THURSAY 11/26
Well - I certainly hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving - as Wyatt let you know, we had guinea pig (cuey). VERY traditional - but only for lunch, and it´s a delicacy. It was tasty for sure!
Eddie went to school with me that day - glad to give them the opportunity to see that not all the school´s are like the onés that they were with Jenny - good perspective though - getting to see both sides becasuse to be honest, I have to wonder if I´m getting it easy??? I really like my teacher - she is kind and wants to be there, and wants to see the children succeed. I think the kid´s enjoyd Eddie´s presence - there wasn´t a lot for him to do (kindof a hard age... "is he a teacher, is he one of us?") but he did great and we made the best of it for sure - we placed the new name tags on the desk which they were so happy about and wrked on a bit of English.
Hard to see Jenny so upset - it´s pretty rare. But at the same time - it was really good. Really good for her to have her meltdown in front of others - get their perspective...and one of the tings I love best about Jenny is that she ALWAYS takes somethng from her experiences. More to fuel her fire with!
We spent out free afternoon exploring the town and finally finding the grocery store. quite the adventure - it´s one of my favorite things to do when traveling in other cou ntries. Makes me wonder if we´re paranoid in the US, or if that´s what the differnece between developed and deeloping counrty is...(eggs in a basket out on the counter, milk in a bag on the shelf - and we can´t forget the slaughtered chickens in pieces out in the street market...) (not to be mistaken for judgement - just letting you all see what we are seeing...mere differences.)
I made my first (of 4 that same day) money exchang at the bank. VERY EXCITING - and smooth! (my kindergarden spanish is coming in so so handy!)
Jenny and I also took a motor taxi. This is basically a covered motorized 3-wheeled motorcycle - there is room for 2-3 passengers in the back. strange, exciting, adventuous - and only uno sole (33 cents)!
Besides for ending the evening cutting letters out of magazines (and of course realizing that THESE are the kinds of things that jenny and i will miss about living 1/4 mile away from each other) I would say, all in all it was a lovely thursday...even with out the fresh cranberry sauce and pumkin chiffon cheesecke!

FRIDAY 11/27
woke up to cutting more letters...there really arent that many P´s, are there? Thank goodness for Rolling Stone! (don´t worry jason, i did not take any of yours)
Anyhow, Wyatt (my other sobrino) came to class with me today! To be honest, I think some of the kids were a little confused...¨"Hey, I thought you were taller, and where are your glasses?" But once they realized he was in fact Eddie´s brother - it was a great day! I wish I would have had my camera - Wyatt was the front of the train, and he had the kids following him (i don´t think this was his plan but it seemed to go pretty well!) We also worked on a lot of English - we brought in two posters...one with fruit and one with colores. (and thanks Jodi for sharing ´´share´´ with me - it´s coming in handy!!!!)
One little girl - Marysabel - tripped and hit her head really ard. i picked her up and followed profesora maria to the sink outside - she splashed water on it. no ice. use what you got. also, once back in the classroom - she handed her a coin to press to her (very large) bump. it was cold i´m sure but it also seemed like it was to weish any harm away. wyatt and i sat with her for awhile - wyatt rubbed her back and i just held her hand and touched her hair. man, i tell you what - in the states - she would have been rushed frantically to the nurse´s office, immediately with an ice pack, her mother calle, and maybe even a visit to the doctor - let a lone the screaming that would have ensued...
I think maria was very happy with us that day - she was sad to learn we would not be there monday - she of course was happy for our visit to the coast, but would miss us.
me too.
i realzed that i would only be in class 3 more days. wow.
yes, me too...

wow - never will a car ride seem long again. 7 hours....
but honestly - the way there was ok. I was chillin in the way back of the passenger van with Eddie and Wyatt. Jenny was in the front seat - i asked if she wanted to sit next to Pancho and apologize for how ASSININE our housemates had acted. how DISRESPECTFUL!!!! how humiliating for Pancho, nice way to strenghthen the stereotype of the elitist American, and sorry - but can anyone say, "REAL WORLD, PERU" ?
anyhow - what a way to see the truly amazing and beautiful diversity of landscape i n Peru. Along with seeing the countryside and the people who work the land, we were privvy to many alpaca, sheep, cows, dogs, and an INCREDIBLE sunset!
Once we finally arrived, (after of course Pancho telling us we had along our journey reached 15,500 feet!!!! WOW!!!) we raelized that "the Oasis" was not only the name of the hotll we were staying in, but we were in fact - at the oasis...in the midle of the desert. wow.
so, we dropped our stuff off, and walked through town to a restaurant and had our first pisco sours. the official drink of the counry. tasted like a sour margarita (cheers mark) which was yummy, but the recipe also calls for egg whites. ya, raw ones. I realized later that this was the beginning of my cleanse...

SATURDAY 11/28
Once waking, besides for feeling somewhat cleansed (KEY WORD {no colons in spanish/ on spanish keyboards¨{ SOMEWHAT) , we realized, we were in fact in the middle of the desert. We were srrounded by the most incredible sand dunes. HUGE. After desayuno (breakfast) it was time for the dune buggy adventure. on the HUGE sand dunes. we buckled ourselves in, I had ridden on plenty as a kid - i would be fine. (keep in mind friends - this as most adventures, i let jenny plan. I did not look into what we were in fact in for, she said it sounded like fun. what more did i need?)
It was pretty fun. Riding across the dunes (cover your ears, by the way all you environmentlists). seeing some stuff i hadn´t ever seen. cool. right on. í could do this. people do this everyday, right?
For about 10 minutes. Then - i realized after a small hill - we might in fact go not only up - but down - some biger ones. I started to freak out. Really. We got to the edge of a VERY VERY STEEP dune - teetering on the edge. I thought I was going to lose it. I asked if I could just get out - I didnt care if they picked me up later or I just sat - I just NEEDED to get OUT.
Jenny saw I was NOT kidding. She made sure the driver knew - as if my convulsions and sobbing werent enough. So, after barely being able to stumble out, sit down, and catch my breath - I realized that the driver had actually stopped to let (us) sandboard down this GINORMOUS dune. Need less to say, I volunteered to video. It was pretty cool to watch everyone have so much fun. I think the driver - Ricardo - thought i just needed to calm down, then i would be ready. I quickly made him realize this was NOT the case. Pancho, my personal savior, then basically walked me all the way aroiund this massive hill so ricardo could pick us up when they were all done. this, my friwnds - was no easy tsk. Picture this - southern hemisphere, blazin hot sun, middle of the desert, no water. Thank goodness we grabbed our hats! And thank goodness, not only does Pancho have agreat sense of humor ("oh, look there is a hammock righ over there, by those trees - maybe we could grab a couple of cold ones") but ricardo came to check on us and i was able to grab my water bottle. the group left - we walked a biut more, drank outr beers (ya right) , talked about life in Peru, and then finally decided to sit our butts down and wait for our taxi.
wow....that was quite the experience!

and wow, quite a lot for you all to read.
i think i will take a break and come back after dinner!
xoxo
ciao!
christin molly