Cuy!

I can´t believe that in three months I haven´t posted anything about Peruvian cuisine. There are a number of dishes unique to Peru, and Peruvians are proud of their excellent variety of food. One of the specialties here is Cuy, otherwise known as guinea pig. I wasn´t sure I wanted to try it, but with the encouragement of my brother I tried this local specialty last night. And yes, it tasted like chicken!

More from New Life

This post is a little late due to computer issues. I´ve had lots of requests for more photos from New Life. I hope these cuties put a smile on your face! Remember, if you´d like to sponsor a child at New Life Orphanage you can do so by going to their website: www.perumissions.com. I can assure you that your sponsorship money will be used wisely and appropriately.

Baby Talk

I had some great pictures lined up to post, but wouldn´t you know that I get kicked off line every time I try to upload them! I know the photos are the best part of the blog, but I´m afraid you´ll just have to put up with my writing this time. I´ve had another great week at the Orphanage. I´ve mostly been helping with the three and under crowd since the older children are in school all day. I have gained a much greater appreciation for the parents of toddlers. Here are some examples of the things I say everyday... What´s in your mouth? Don´t eat the paper-string-shoe-etc! Don´t hit. Chairs are for sitting. Eat your food..don´t play with it. Kudos to the ladies who care for these children every day and do such a wonderful job!! I´ve had a great time here and will really miss it.

I will head back into central Lima tomorrow afternoon and then return to Cusco this coming weekend. My brother is coming to visit me during his Thanksgiving break from school, and we have a full week of traveling and sightseeing planned. I´m really looking forward to his visit! Happy Thanksgiving to everyone (a little bit early).

The Faces of New Life

I have been living on the compound that is New Life Orphanage for about a week now. I have been debating what to post because I feel that posting about orphanages, and the children who live in them, is always a sensative subject, but I cannot say enough good things about the facility and staff here. New Life is currently home to approximately thirty children between the ages of 9 months and 13 years. Many of the children who were here during my 2007 visit are still here, but I am encouraged by the fact that several have also been adopted. The pictures above are a few I snapped this afternoon. (Katie, I chose these just for you!)I´m sure that I´ll post more cuties before my time here is up.

Lima

This past weekend I flew to Lima and spent some time visiting with friends in the city. It was great to see them and we had a really nice visit. I didn´t realize how much I´d missed chain restaurants or cable tv, so I also enjoyed eating dinner at TGIFridays and watching TLC in Spanish. Yeah! The pictures I posted are of some graffiti style artwork near my hotel...I thought it was really cool.

Yesterday morning I arrived in Cieneguilla, a suburb of Lima, where I´ll be staying for the next couple of weeks. I will be living and helping out at an orphanage called New Life. Many of you following this blog are probably aware of this organization, but if not, please check out their website www.perumissions.com.

More of Club Corason

I hope everyone is not getting tired of pictures of the Club! It is where I´ve spent most of my time over the past couple of weeks and tomorrow will be my last day there, so I thought I´d try to put together a slideshow. I have many more pictues I´d like to include in the slideshow, but it just takes too long for them to upload to the internet.

I will be heading to Lima on Saturday for a couple of weeks, so I´m not sure when I´ll be able to post again. Hopefully I´ll be able to find a good internet cafe close to my residence there.

Weekend Roundup

I promised to post about this weekend´s activities, so here you have it: On Friday night the children here celebrated Halloween much like we do in the US. They all got dressed up in various costumes and then walked around the main square and asked stores for candies and sweets.I have never seen the streets so crowded here! Friday was also a day to celebrate Peruvian music, so there were many bands playing traditional music at local restaurants and bars. There are many native languages in Peru so a lot of traditional music uses words in Quechua, instead of Spanish.

Saturday and Sunday were much calmer than I´d expected. It seems that the Day of the Living is mostly celebrated by spending time with friends and family and eating pork and tomalles. The Day of the Dead is celebrated here by visiting the graves of loved ones and praying for them or talking with them. I´d expected more of a Mexican-style celebration, but the day was actually very calm and quiet.

I´m off to ´work´now, so I´ll try to post some photos tomorrow.