To work!

I am teaching 4 year olds in a government program (a la Headstart) with the best teacher ever! She completely understands how age 4 does not sit and do paperwork or even need just endless free play but the entire day is built around experiencing many facets of one point or story. It was very fun to watch! And I have already doubled my Spanish with helpful words like Banyo and rappido. (Spoken only - no spelling.) Tomorrow I teach a song and finerplay in English - perfect!

After lunch we went the very tourist prosperous area of Lima, on the hill above the ocean. In stark contrast to where we are teaching. Around the school there is no grass, stray dogs and cats, and mounts of bagged (or unbagged) garbage. On the hill it is tidy and green and spacious with fountains and an Inca market with loads of souvenirs. I suppose Chicago has the same contrasts, but to drive it one day was striking. (Where we live is a step down from high end and has a few parks and green space, little shops and a few stores, high walls around single family houses. Very safe feeling.)

But back to shopping! My first purchase was a sweater - not that I was anxious to have an alpaca sweater but it is cold here. 62 sounded fine until we realized the sun would not be making an appearance until late spring. It does not rain - just thick overcast. Coffee is very important!

15 of us arrived at once but we are all good intended and friendly. Things are going well, even with 7 of us sharing a bathroom. Sorority living without the secret handshake.

Day trip travel

Easy flights here - left on 9:15 am to Panama, landed 7:05 PM in Lima. Then an hour and a half in traffic to the house! But it less tiring than flying overnight to Europe.  So today is not the usual post trip fog - except in the sky where it was gray and then cloudy followed by overcast. Mid 60s.

Orientation all morning - and introductions of team members. The usual fun and interesting team. Two couple just got married and this is their honeymoon - they will go on from here to Machu Pichu, but how nice to spend part of it volunteering. One is the usual late 20-something, but the other one waited for the ink on the AARP cards to dry before marrying. I told if they had waited a few weeks I could have giving them the volunteer/group discount.

But speaking of church...today is the celebration of The Lord of Miracles

Hoping for miracles, Peru turns purple - Latin Correspondent

latincorrespondent.com/.../hoping-miracles-peru-turns-purple

Essentially prayer saved the town/church from an earthquake and annually they have a huge procession and worship. We were there! Then into the catacombs under the Lima Cathedral - only the poor were buried there since the rich could afford caskets. When they opened the graves the assembled pits of various bones - but the caverns and pits are original. Upstairs we could hear the celebration mass going on. Very very wonderful.

Food fantastic at the home base - as usual. Apparently one of the common foods here is guinea pig which. I suppose tastes like chicken...

What time is it?

So because South America is further east, even the western coast there is in the Eastern Time Zone. Except they do not have Daylight Savings. So minus 5 hours from Greenwich, and an hour off from New York....using a cosine or hypotenuse or something... the time in Lima now is...

The same time as Chicago!

I don't even have to reset my watch!

More Advice and Excitement

Altitude change: Move slow, drink lots of water (just not the local stuff). Some kind of tea related to cocaine...apparently widely available. Glad this trip is not week 1!

Getting excited to step on a new continent. Cross the equator. See the Pacific Ocean. Explore Lima.

And of course explore churches! In Russia I managed to get to 7 parts of services in one Sunday morning. Looks like Lima's churches are close enough together to beat that record!

 http://limaeasy.com/culture-guide/historical-churches

Wither weather?

As we wind down in the last hot days of summer up here, Lima is just starting spring. Highs in the upper 60s and lows in the mid 50s. For the first time in weeks I am thinking about a sweater!

weather+lima+peru

Altitude Attitude

Contemplating a weekend in Cusco to see the Center of the Inca world and connected with a St. Mar's student there for a gap year study.

Altitude at Lima: 5080
Altitude at Cusco: 10800

Lost of folks at church Sunday said it was the hardest altitude adjustment. I put a call in to the doctor for altitude pills and shifted my plans to go up the night before the tour.

Evidently one goes DOWN from there to Machu Pichu!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cusco

THAT summer flew!

I thought volunteering in September would make the summer less crazy but it just filled in with wonderfulness! Like closets and shoes! Grandblessing and trips and wine coolers.

But now it is less than 2 weeks to Depart Day for Peru!

Easiest flight ever! It is 5 hours to Panama and 3 more to Lima - leave at 9 am - arrive at 7:15 pm. Hardly even jet lagged!

Big team of us going on September 10 - from all over the country, as usual. But it will mean a full house. That is one of the things I like about CCS - the volunteer house where we live and speak English together. The other people are fascinating! What motivates singles or couples or college age kids to volunteer? My personal response originally was curiosity about the world and a desire to get off the Tourist Track (sometimes!) and live in the community.  After almost a decade of annual trips I am motivated by the amount I learn about the people and how that alters my views of the news here and from other places.

We are in a neighborhood of Lima  to live, but no idea how far it is to where we teach. Assignments coming Friday!

No malaria in Lima and my cholera is up to date now.....