When it comes to making plans, I´m slowly learning to abandon my American tendency to err on the negative side (ie: ¨I might come, but I´m not sure¨).  Here in Peru--where words are worth about .05 Soles--it´s much more practical to agree to everything, even it it means triple booking one afternoon, in order to increase the chances of something actually pulling through.  So when someone saes, ¨Want to go to Cusco this weekend?¨ and someoneelse says, ¨Let´s watch a movie totmorrow¨ and someone else says, ¨We´re having a dinner on Friday night¨ I´m yes´s all around.  And then I go home... and f I´m lucky I´ll leave again before the weekend´s over. 

For example, today I signed on for a brunch, a volunteer project, and a trip to Pisaq.  I ended up going for a run, cooking lunch with my mom, going to the market, and learning Michael Jackson dances with my host nefew.  Tomorrow, I´m scheduled for a hike, a breakfast, a trip to Calca, and a superbowl party... Who knows what will actually happen. Vamos a ver... 

The same thing happens with our project work.  We go to a community and tell them that we´ll be coming the next day at certain time with fruit and school supplies for the kids, but when we show up the next morning, lo and behold... We wait for an hour or more outside a locked school building.  And after they finally show up and we spend the morning entertaining 25 kids betwen the ages of 3 and 12 and giving them free things, instead of saying thank you they ask why they can´t have another fruit.  One little girl asked me to peel her orange and when I asked her to say please, she took her orange and walked away.  Sometimes I feel lke we´re doing more harm than good by going to places like that.