I have been so busy since my last entry!  I have taught more classes than I can count!  I have a group of 6-8 kids that I meet with Monday and Tuesday afternoons that I have been having so much fun with.  We learn new verbs and vocabulary and then play games like pictionary and hangman.  This week I also introduced my pretend market to help them learn the names of foods and produce and how to ask for it in a store... so much fun!  They get a little wild sometimes but it doesn't really bother me as long as they are learining in the process. 

I have taught two more art classes.  The day before Fathers's day we had class so we made cards for our parents which worked really well.  I had made special stencils for them to use to draw teddy bears, butterflies and a few other things on the cards and the kids really enjoyed them.  The following week I chose a more difficult project for them to do.  I have a huge roll of tracing paper here so I gave them each a magazine photo and told them to trace the figure and then create a new story/context for the figure.  I showed them an example of a photo of a soccer player that I had traced and then altered to make him dancing street performer.  I guess they all really liked my example because I saw many similar versions by the end of class!  It's fine with me though, I just want them to enjoy and hopefully learn a little english (this lesson was parts of the body) and develop their problem solving skills a little too.

My two days off last week were really busy and really fun too.  On Wednesday, Leslie, Arnaud (Chocoloco), Luz and I went into Lima and visited the Nacional Museum and the Catacombs at the San Francisco Monastery.  I had been to the museum before but it had changed a little (and it was free) so it was fun to return.  The catacombs were a little boring but the tour of the rest of the church and monastery was really pretty and interesting (lots of old frescoes in the Cusco School style from the 16th century).  We also had a great lunch at a French restaurant in Central Lima.  It is run by a group of nuns and they all speak spanish, french and english, it was great!  Chocoloco ordered for our lunches so he could speak his native language and much as possible and we all really enjoyed hearing him too- a little glimpse of his more normal, french self.

Thursdsay was another day trip.  This time with Yrma.  We have all been waking up for weeks at 6:30 AM to the sounds of the tamale lady yelling "Ta-maaaaa-les!" over and over, so naturally we have been curious about Peruvian tamales.  Yrma however, has told us that they are not that great here in Huaycan, we have to go the Chincha for tamales.  So finally, Thursday we left for Chincha to taste the famous tamales.  We all loaded on to the bus early in the morning and travelled for about 3 1/2 hours south to get lunch.  Unfortunately, we did not leave early enough so when arrived in Chincha all the tamales were gone!  We were so disappointed!  So instead, we crammed in a very small taxi and left the center of town for a restaurant/vineyard.  We had an extremely meaty lunch there which we enjoyed kind of (I've never seen so much meat on a plate) and then roamed around the Chincha markets.  I was able to find some delicious Chocotejas there (they are similar to turtles) to eat on the ride home which somewhat soothed our disappointment.

So it's all been pretty great.  I'm battling a little cold here but am starting to feel better already.  We have plans to go back into Lima tomorrow to visit Lara's favorite Mexican restaurant which I remember from last time, so that will be great- I'm sure a little tequila will kill my cold!

Hope all is well back home.  I will include a picture of our cat, Gringo, whom I have been forced to befriend because I miss my dog so much.  Talk to you all soon!