Week four is here

wow it's week four already!

Fact of the day: people eat fruity halls cough drops like candy here. It's literally in the check out line with the rest of the candies. And when I went to pizza hut. The 'mints' they gave us after the meal were cough drops. strange haha

So last night, Saturday night, was really amazing. Yesterday was the birthday of my host dad, so we had a party. A bunch of friends and family came over, about 20-25, and there was cake and happiness. The first thing that stuck out to me was that this party had only been planned a couple of days in advance, and yet all of his friends and family still came. I remember riding in the car with my host mom a couple of days before and she suddenly realized that Alejo's birthday was coming up. It's neat to me because I feel like in the states, things have to be planned so far in advance for people to 'fit you into their schedule' Pish posh. Schedules seem so much more relaxed here, and that allows for more time and opportunities to simply be with people. Anywho, an hour or two into the party one of Alejo's friends took down a guitar off the wall (we have a wall full of guitars) and started playing Peruvian folk songs. It was amazing. Everyone sang, and at my host mom busted out the cajon, yes the cajon!, and some wooden spoons. They sang and sang and it was so amazing to see people come together in community like this and sing beautiful peruvian music and just be together. Do they even know how precious and rare that is?

Later that night my host brother's friend invited me to a party in Barranco, Barranco being the bohemian artsy district of Lima(where I live). This was not just any party. So first of all the party was held at this beautiful old abandoned house. it was huge and kinda beaten up but that's ok! that only added to the fun atmosphere. Secondly, the theme of the party was music improv, i guess you could say. Basically there was a band set up, and people just kinda went up and played whatever they wanted and sang whatever they wanted. the drummer and guitarist and bass and pianists just kinda did whatever and people could go up and sing whatever they felt like. It was so amazing. There was freedom to do anything you wanted. You could bring your own instrument and just join in if you wanted. what amazed me the most was that people weren't necessarily good singers or players but they still played and sang because they wanted to. There was no shame. So much freedom! I love how unashamed people are here. Just be you and have fun and try stuff out. it's all just so amazing to me. They know i play clarinet so they want me to go improv on my clarinet one week. oh gosh! we'll see.

The morning before all of that my study abroad group took a tour of villa el salvador, which is one of the provinces of lima, or basically the poorer area. here are some pics






It's drastically different from what I see day to day in barranco and miraflores and such. My empleada said that she lived in Villa Maria which is close to Villa el Salvador. I wonder if it's the same kinda of conditions.

There's a lot of surprising things about Lima. One thing that's hard to see is the kids that go around begging on the street. They'll go up to you with a bucket, or selling gum or something and beg money from you. They are super persistent about it too. It's so hard to see because I wonder how they got there, and where there parents are, and what goes on at home. it's hard to know what to do. Do i give money? food? nothing? Is there a quota they have to fill? or else? This morning the doorbell rang and I went to answer it and there were 3 street kids asking for money. It was so surprising and I didn't know what to do. I closed the door... Life is confusing.

There have also been an attempted robbery and successful robbery within the people I know in my study abroad group. prayers for safety!

Besos :)
Amelia