A lot of pictures

This pictures is from a few weeks ago when stacie and I and our french friend Lila went to the town of Quinoa (yes, like the grain) and saw this giant oblisk that you can see from Ayacucho. We also got to ride horses! It is beautiful country.

We made crepes with the kids to sell in the street. It was a LOT of fun and I felt like i was perpetually in a waiting for a disaster to strike frame of mind, but it was fun and nothing too terrible happened. I think Luis, the one with the big smile on his face managed to ¨accedentally¨ let an egg ¨slip¨ on to the floor... but if that is the worst that happens, I am happy!!

This is Freddy. He is quite possibly one of my favorites. Occasionally, he has a crying fit where he will just start bawling for no reason, but most of the time he is great. He has the best laugh and also loves it when I read to him at night in my oh-so-wonderful spanish! Somehow he tollerates it. I just love sitting there with him curled up next to me before he goes to sleep. So cute!!

Remember when I said that I missed the rain? Well, lately I really don´t as much!! It has turned into spring here. Which, unlike our typical cloudy overcast every day springs, means incredibly HOT days with bursts of showers that are often so strong that the streets get incredibly flooded. I took this picture when we were piled 7 in a taxi on the way back from selling those crepes that I told you about. I think we all had doubts that the taxi was going to make it up the road!!! The streets have no real drainage, so it is really dangerous to be caught in it. And we live on a hill, so all the water just flows down the hill. It is always an adventure trying to get anywhere when it starts to rain.

This is Nilda and Maria Antoinettia, two of the lupes that I get to work with quite often. They are so cute. Maria A is so affectionate and just plain adorible. Unfortunatly, one of the past french volunteers taught her about her name sake, and now she keeps on doing this slitting motion at her neck with a huge smile on her face. I´m just glad she doens´t know what it means....

Nilda is a doll. Quite literally. She is SO small for a 5 year old. The only time she is not laughing or smiling is... well never. I was going to say when you feed her, because she always tries to spit out the food the minute you put it in her mouth, but really, she is smiling through that. She thinks it is a game. I do not, when there is food all over my clothes by the end of it!

This is the other Maria. Maria Jesus. She is pretty cute too, but can have a nasty temper. One time she bit me. I wasn´t fast enough at understanding what it was that she wanted.... oh well. She is still pretty darn adorible! She was helping me make crepes here. And by helping, I mean that we had a bowl that had a little bit of batter in it (like 2 tablespoons) and she kept on mixing it up. The lupes, especially the Marias, love to be involved in the activities that the other kids do.

This is Christopher. Cri-cri. Crrrristo. Whatever. Don´t be fooled by his cute adorible face. He is quite the hand full. Sometimes he is great, but man... when he is in a bad mood... I don´t think I´ve ever heard a kid yell, scream, cry and hit that much. I think he is a little spoiled... being the youngest of all the kids

Last but not least, look who came to visit me for the weekend! This is taken at a really beautiful spot that overlooks the whole city. You kind of just bush wack your way up to it, but once you do, you have a view of the entire place, along with the ravine right below us to the left that kindly helps to block out some of the city noises. It is the most quiet, relaxing spot I have found around here. If you can tell, Ayacucho is the sprall down to the right. It pretty much goes all through the valley to the blue mountains in the back. I think it might be about the same size as bellingham, but with around 500,000 people crammed into it. Personal space is non existant here!

Okay well that is a little snap shot of my life the last month... there are plenty more pictures, and so many awesome things that we´ve done here... but this helps a little anyways. When we get to Lima, I´ll borrow a computer so I can edit and hopefully post some more.

So much love!