Los dias primeras en Peru

Estoy aqui en Peru! By the grace of God we made it to Cusco early Sunday morning after traveling all day and night. We spent the night in the aeropuerto in Lima, but we hardly got any sleep. The lack of sleep coupled with altitude sickness had us feeling pretty lousy when we arrived, but that didn't stop us from taking in all the beauty that Peru has to offer. It was an hour and a half drive up the mountain from the airport to Limatambo, and it is CRAZY to see how differently people live from us. Many live in small homes built from clay, and you see stray dogs about every five seconds. We arrived to CDA and the orphanage is actually a lot nicer than the homes in the other villages. One girl was telling me that the kids that are not orphans that go to the school are jealous of the orphans. Life is tough for them here, but they are well taken care of at CDA. We have running water, but in order to take showers, we have to make a fire to heat up the pipes- and we didn't quite get it right the first time. Sorry, but I can't deal with ice cold showers! I can learn to do without right? =) Our diet consists of rice, potatoes, green vegetables, and occasionally a hint of meat on our plates. For breakfast, we have bread, which is really hallow and some sort of interesting concoction in liquid form. My favorite part of this trip is sitting down at meals and talking in Spanish with the teachers and farmers employed by CDA. They are so kind, and are willing to help me as I try to perfect my Spanish. Of course, I love talking with the kids too, but they are a little bit harder to understand because they don't exactly speak Spanish well either. I am unable to upload pictures on the blog because it takes too long to upload them, but trust me when I tell you that it is so beautiful! The houses are all bright blue and white with clay red roofs. It is so green here in the mountains and there are beautiful red poinsettia flowers in front of most of the houses. Yesterday was 4th of July, so us Americans celebrated with a huge campfire down by the river, just off campus. The stars are beautiful! I could NOT get over it! Even with it being cloudy, you could still see so many! It's supposed to be the dry season, but there's been light rain since we've been here. It's starting to clear up, and when the sun's out, you can FEEL it! Everyday, we have our volunteer work (today I was helping in the kitchen) and in the afternoon we have Spanish class, which is where I should be heading now! Hasta luego!

Amy