¡La Fiesta!

TUESDAY:

Heidi and I had a good time wandering around the city. The ice cream we found was really good and inexpensive. It was more like gellato then actual ice cream and is available in a lot of different flavors. We wandered around a new area of town and found a gorgeous church. There are a lot of old churches in Cuzco but it´s always cool when you discover one by accident.

The church we ¨dicovered¨

The side of the church.

We also found a market that sold a lot of fresh fruit and meat. We weren´t too impressed by the meat (there were rat carcasses hanging from the ceiling!) but the fruit was very fresh and inexpensive. I bought four oranges for one sol (about 50 cents). After that market we ventured to another one that everyone raves about. It was nice but not my favorite one, though I may be returning there to buy another fleece jacket.

One of the fruit stands. Kind of reminds you of Piggly Wiggly...

Volunteering went well on Tuesday and I was able to help the girls with their homework. They all had a lot to do and we didn´t have much of a chance to interact with them. Our volunteer project is kind of hit or miss like that.

Tuesday night, Yoni had her party with her friends from high school. She made AMAZING chicken that reminded me a lot of KFC. Then her friends started dancing, which consisted mostly of going around in a circle while shuffling their feet and moving their arms. Heidi and I were pulled into the group and I think the ladies were impressed when I knew all the words to a Juanes song. After the ladies left, Wendy and I had our own dance party in the living room. Good times...

Dancing at Yoni´s party.Yoni!
Wendy!

WEDNESDAY:
Yesterday afternoon Heidi and I continued our search to find Heidi a coat. We also checked out a touristy market with a lot of hand made things and were able to find some pretty good deals. If anyone is looking for alpaca lined slippers I know where to get a good deal!

La Confraternidad, the market by my house. It´s as close to a mall as I´ve come across in Cuzco.

Yesterday was also the last day for two of the volunteers at our orphanage. They both brought a lot of gifts for the girls so we had a good time playing with bubbles and chalk. Afterwards, the girls taught me and Heidi a game that seems a lot like Pilot to Tower (an Oostburg Elementary School favorite) but is a lot more complicated. I eventually caught on and we had a great time.

I did a chalk tracing of one of the girls so, of course, they had to do one of me.

The problem at the orphange is that the girls are very bad at sharing their toys. Most of the time, it seems like they aren´t very interested in what the toy is, they just want to have something. Before I bring my gifts I may try to find a toy box so the girls would have to share the things I brought. I´m not sure if this would be very effective though because the girls might still hoard the gifts or just refuste to put anything away. So if anyone has any other ideas I would like to hear them!

More later...