Endless Birthday

Even though today is my birthday, it feels like we’ve been celebrating all weekend. Friday during the day, I had my first day at school (I’ve been placed at Flora Tristan Community School on the outskirts of Arequipa). It was a great experience. The kids are really eager to learn English and in my class of 8-10 year olds, we’re working on adjectives and writing short sentences, The mission of the school is to supplement public education (which some of the kids can’t been go to because they have to work) with English lessons and social interaction so they can grow up to be marketable employees. It is very rewarding work. I can’t wait to go back tomorrow! Wednesday all the volunteers are taking the kids at the orphanage to the beach. It sounds fun, but also a logistical nightmare.

Friday night, was a pizza party for the volunteers who left on Saturday, but we kind of hijacked it as a combined birthday party. Later, we went out dancing at a fantastic rooftop club that played raggaeton. The whole night was a blast. I can’t believe how much fun the other volunteers are. It’s such a diverse blonde, English-speaking group ;)

Saturday, my roommate Katie and I went on an exploring shopping extravaganza. We went out for Peruvian coffee and came back with lots of souvenirs. We also took in Arequipa’s only vegetarian restaurant (Katie and I are the high-maintenance, American vegetarian asthmatics). It was a great day getting to know this beautiful city. Later in the day a few of us went for salsa lessons and post-class dancing. Salsa, to me, is harder than it looks, but everyone was really patient.

Today, we went to the store to get ingredients for birthday pancakes. After an hour and half of flipping flapjacks for 15 people, we enjoyed them with strawberries and Peruvian nutella. We also had birthday brownies but they turned out pretty badly, we ate them anyway.

Now we are relaxing and preparing for another week of volunteering. It’s all big fun