Viva Peru!

I want to thank everyone that made my Peru experience complete. For the wonderful lessons I was taught by the children, and the friends that stood by me through it all. For the family that took care of me, and the amazing people of Peru.  Viva Peru!

Saying Goodbye to Diego and Mary!

 My Momma Mary!

 My last set of roommates! ( Thanks Katy, Katy for being there the whole time with me, I will miss you)

 Me Casa!

 My neighborhood dog that always greeted us from the roof!

 Our cat CC(cotton candy) who roamed the streets....but always looked clean?

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

Last Banana Pop Ever! Life is Sad!

Adventure is Out There!

Going to the zoo to say the least was quite the experience! Katy and I have literally tried to go to the zoo for 6 weeks(since we have been here) but for one reason of another it hasn't worked out until now and boy were we happy!

It has always been my dream to wear an adventure hat while at a zoo. Happily I was able to live this dream today thanks to my good friend Karen. The "Park of Legends" really was legendary, if our group of 13 mainly white girls group wasn't enough of an exhibt(literally, we had so many pictures taken of us) then put two adventure hats and add some loud english, we were sure a funny site to see!  It was such a fun experience and even though we were unable to see lions and tigers, the baby goats were a good replacement! haha Also we were able to see fake animals, and I took a picture of a goat jumping but cut off his head(I waited so long for that photo it was quite a laugh)!

Oh just the fake animals at the zoo

Adventure hats at there finest! haha

Baby goats...So sad his head got cut off ha

Finally we made it to the zoo! Katy and I

Peru Won!!!

Today Peru played Equador in Peru! So happy that Peru won the futball game, sure was tons of fun. Now I am sleepy though and want to go to bed. It is a pretty wild experience if I say so myself.

Just hiking in the Jungle

Sketchy Bridge that had holes in it.

Beautiful Morning.

I llama you!

Beautiful time to think on top of the world

The little village at the bottom of Machu Picchu that we hung out at!

Mountain Majesty

After a 21hr. bus ride, a 6 hr. car ride, a 2 hr. hike in the jungle and waking up at 5a.m. in the morning we were able to experience a world wonder today.  No words or even pictures will be able to even come close to doing Machu Picchu justice.  You are able to see 300 degrees around the mountain, and boy is it beautiful.  After sleeping through our alarm for the hike at 4¨00 in the morning, Laura (my friend from Australia) caught a bus up to Machu Picchu. Not only was the time there spent hanging out with llamas, but we were able to sit on what we like to call the top of the world and just sit, think and relax. I am pretty sure I only said two phrases the whole day, ¨Wow, this is beautiful¨ and ¨What the,.... can you believe this?¨ and as I sit in this tiny beautiful jungle town I able to think of how small I am in the grand scheme of things, but how much one person makes the difference.

P.S. I will upload a couple pictures when I am back down from this mountain.

Today I was able to watch a grandpa teach his grandson how to ride a bike, a family play soccer together and a flock of bird fly together. People say that perfect days only come around every now and then, well I would like to disagree with that. That is the problem because everyday is a perfect one, we sometimes just forget to see the beauty in the day.  We forget to cherish the laughter, or to remember the beauty we first saw in our surroundings, when we really stop and realize all that we have, we will find we are enormously blessed! As Bob Trythall taught me Thoughts -Attitude-Behavior-Results!

After today I am able to say "Tengo veinte anos" to all my spanish speaking friends! Which is a great feeling like....WHAT UP SNITCHES, I am now 20 years old!! This day consisted of sleeping......literally I had to wait for my roommates to wake up before we could go do anything, plus it is Peruvian time so we usually just wait and wait.  Haha they woke up at 1:30 because it is a saturday, during that time I walked around the block and maybe two episodes of One Tree Hill ha. I was able to eat Ice Cream for all three meals...wahoo my favorite Peruvian Food(which isn't really Peruvian). For breakfast I had a hearty breakfast of Ice Cream, which I got for my birthday. Also Lidia brought me flowers that are so beautiful! For lunch.......salad!! First one since I have been here..woot! Then I got THE COOLEST ....banana ice cream that you peel and eat!! Then my cute roommate bought me a little cake we all ate together, then out to the mall where I bought myself a shirt which was pricey but I justified it because it is my birthday! My family also sang to me and had cake and ice cream with me! It was a good day to turn 20...and I am thankful for the opportunity to do it in Peru! Also yesterday I got a Mani, Pedi, Eyebrow Wax, and Haircut(which was suppose to be a trim, the language barrier is a little hard haha) for the total cost of  $13 American dollars! I will take that price anyday! Anyways what I am saying is that my birthday was great, and I want to thank everyone who made it that way! 

Yesterday, my two besties left to go back home! I sure the heck am going to miss them.....the good news is that is just makes me want to visit Canada more than I have ever wanted to in my whole entire life!  Within two weeks I never would have guessed I could have made such an everlasting friendship and bond! Now after I said a sad goodbye I went to the oprhanage to find some sort of celeberty there, with a camera man, and security gaurd. I wish I had some kind of idea who this chicka was but I literally had no clue. The nurses were pretty stoked though! I was able to play ball for an hour with Marcos and then dance with a couple kids too! I would like to say it was a freaking good day.  P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BABY SISTER DEANNA!

BEST DAY EVER!!

No words or phrases could even begin to describe this weekend it has been AMAZING! It started with a craving....a craving for a donut! Needless to say after a two hour nap Arleen, Angela and I were having no stomach issues(well at least I wasn't) and wanted a good old donut! We took a trip to the mall for the first time, navigating the bus all by ourselves we were able to not only shop but I was able to treat the Canadians to their first Dunkin' Donut! I have to tell you it brought so much joy, we felt like kids at Christmas! That night followed an awesome 4 hours of consecutive sleep(which is good)! Then off to the hospital where we donated all of the things we brought over.  It was perfect Angela and Arleen brought all the toys and I had the clothes! The feelings felt and seen will never be forgotten. To see the.... light, the uttermost happiness, gratitude and joy that the children had in their eyes while handing them a small gift, made everything worth it. Tears came to my eyes because so often I forget.  I forget that while I have an IPhone, car, twelve pairs of shoes, and money for college that there are many in the world that are lucky to eat that day.  So for this experience I was able to have I would like to give a shout out for myself and the many many children and families helped today, thank you to all that contributed! However my day does not end there..the happiness and emotions continued! We then went with Aunt Candy to decorate her mothers grave for mothers day.  It was an absolutely beautiful cemetery.  I was am so thankful that Angela, Arleen, and Family are so accepting of me and were able to allow me to be a member of the family.  The words we shared around the graves filled my heart and will also not be forgotten. Literally, I think I am half Peruvian and a cousin to these two, ...well until I look in the mirror! For mothers day we decided to pick up some flowers in like the ghetto of town.  It was like the biggest flower place I have ever seen, it was so much fun. Really though what girl doesn't love flowers? However, seeing a white person is very rare in the ghetto so people would stop what they are doing and stare at me or take second glances.  You think I would be use to this by now...because seeing a white person is pretty unusual everywhere in Peru.  Today I was loving it a little too much, I started acting like I was famous, waving, blowing kisses, and shimming (duh). It rocked even though I was pretty sure I was going to get robbed haha. The next thing on the agenda was the desert store, however we had an hour to kill until that was scheduled so Arleen and I ended up serenading Angela, and Young Carlos for a good 20 min. to the delightful sounds of Backstreet Boys, Justin Beiber, One Direction, Brittney Spears, the Beatles and many other artist. The desert store was not my favorite ..I know weird right? The company was great as always however I have found I do not like traditional Peruvian desert which consists of rice pudding, weird purple stuff, rice with brown sauce, and a couple other strange things. Well, I am loosing my train of thought and really want to go to bed so....Chao Amigos!

Pain is Gain?

Today...was a sick day! I wish it was the kind of sick day that Deanna has when she jumps off things and runs around.  Getting sick was definetly worth it though, last night we went to Parque de la Reserva, which is basically the prettiest, elegant, most romanitc place ever.  The show was so wonderful, if you are ever in Lima, Peru this is a MUST SEE!!  The night was filled with lots of laughter and funny experiences that I was able to share with Angela, Arleen and thier Peruvian Family! We then had Chifa(which is a mix of Peruvian Food, and Chinese Food), I loved it but I don't think my stomach agreed! My stomach hurt to a number 3! Sidenote: Down here all the volunteers stomachs hurt constantly all day long we rate the amount of hurt from 1 to 3! Also I swear my spanish is not getting any better and my english is just decreasing very rapidly! I wasn't good at writing before and now it is awful I can't remember words or how to say things normal.  The kids I work with are such sweet spirits though.  I feel like we share a connection because no one understands them and no one understands me. It is a wonderful connection to share and to be able to more clearly see what point they are trying to get across!  Yosepht is my favorite always smiling and loving life, all he wants is to be treated like a kid to play games.  This opportunity I am having is an amazing suprise in which all things I was planning  on it being like is the opposite. (Doesn't make much sense but I don't know how to make it make sense) Make Sense? hahaha well that is enough random rambling for now. Chao!

This is my roommate Katie from Switzerland!

This is on holiday all the people!

Center of Lima