The Amusement Park: May 19

It was a trend to wake up early, this morning at 6:45 ... A few of us were going to Church in the shanty town with Raoul. It was overwhelming how welcoming the parishioners were. Everyone shook our hands as the early mass left and we made our way for the 9 o'clock one. The priest was a friend of Raoul's who originally was from the States. He was so excited to hear we were on a solidarity mission and showed us around the Church which had classrooms and a common room built by the help of donations. Mass in Peru was very energetic. People sang about the Holy Spirit with such joy and incorporated many actions and dance moves in their worshiping. The priest was very kind and translated his homily for us and spoke to the congregation about our group and the solidarity work we would be doing. After mass, yet again, everyone in the congregation shook our hands and welcomed us to Peru and thanked us for coming. Afterward, Raoul took us out for brunch and we ate great peruvian dishes. Our juice drinks were pure juice (trying mango and papaya) then we had a deep fried mushroom and steak pot pie of sorts along with a special ham sandwich with a special sauce and finally a special sandwich with tomato avocado and egg. Afterward, we made our way back to the retreat center with a little bit of time to rest before we had a second lunch of sorts (which I was way too full to actually enjoy it).

                                               

Afterward, it was time to pick up some students from our second school to bring to an amusement park. My cute little boy was Alexis, he was very quiet but was kind and a good drawer. I ended up pairing with Frank, since our kids were best friends. His two boys were around Alexis' age (8, and 9).

At the amusement park it was a fun kind of chaos as we chased our boys around the jungle gym so as to not lose them! Afterward, we went on a boat ride (which was very neat since the kids had never seen such a large body of water before) which toured around a little island of monkeys and through a cave. Then it was snack time and afterward free time. There, we could take our kids around the park and treat them to fun activities. The boys chose the haunted house and a jungle gym labyrinth. I had brought fuzzy peaches with me so it was fun to watch them snack on treats from Canada. Then it was time to head home. Along the way back I showed him pictures of my friends and family back home I had saved on my camera and he thought it was pretty neat. When we dropped the boys off mine gave me a hug and kiss, what a cutie :)

 
Tired from looking after three boys, supper really tasted delicious when I finally got to sit down and relax (it ended up being familiar food, spaghetti and chicken noodle soup). After dinner, since we were running behind that day, we had a debriefing and discussed the following week's activity: teaching!. Kaitlyn and I then started to plan and organize our lesson. With Sandra's help, we soaked our beans in towels and gathered soil from around the retreat centre (quite the events ahaha) and finally got to bed around midnight, excited but a little nervous about our first teaching experience in Peru.