Peru 4

Peru 4  This past weekend was so great! Me and 3 other people in my group were able to go to Mancora, which is a beach town in Peru.  The experience of getting there was quite a joy.  First, we had to get bus tickets, because it is about a 4 hour drive.  So we looked up online a bus place, and took a taxi there. When we got there, they told us that they dont have buses going to Peru.  So, we walked to the central part of town because we had to develop some pictures.  We asked the man at the picture store where we could go to get bus tickets to Mancora.  He told us where to go, so we went and asked another taxi driver to take us there.  It was just Debbie and I that went to go get the tickets, and when the taxi man pulled up to drop us of, it was so scary! It was down this dirty street, and as we pulled up guys came to us from both sides of the street.  They were all talking and trying to get us to come to their bus place.  So, we followed a guy into what looked like a big garage.  There was a minivan and a totally beat up, not in use bus.  He took us to this little stand where he told a man that we wanted to go to Mancora.  The whole thing was very sketchy, and we didnt want to go in a minivan, we wanted to be on a bus with other people.  So, we said Gracias, and left.  So, we walked down the main street and found some bus stations.  But, whenever we walked in and asked for tickets they told us to keep going because they dont sell tickets to Mancora there.  Finally we reached a bus station that sold Mancora tickets.  We were able to purchase the tickets that we needed, and then we headed back to the photo store to meet the other people from our group.  What an experience!! haha. That night when we went to the bus station, it was really weird. Ps the bus station was called El Dorado. I guess we were pretty lucky we were safe, because we told our directors about that when we got back and they said that some bus drivers will set up a robbery where the thieves will come in and get everyone off the bus, put them face down on the road, take all their money, and then split it with the drivers.  They said that if they finger printed us and recorded us, that type of situation has probably happened before with that company.  But, besides the crazy bus situation, Mancora was beautiful! I love the beach and sun so much! It was so nice to be able to relax, play in the ocean, and lay in the sun. Its moments like that that make me never want to leave.  We did a little bit of shopping, and then we ran into two girls that had been working with us the first part of summer.  So we sat on the beach for a couple of hours as the sun set talking to them, until it was time to leave for our bus. It is the little things in life that make life enjoyable.  Being able to sit and get to know someone for a couple of hours, spending some time with little kids that you love, being around your friends, learning how to cook a Peruvian dish, sitting in the sun.  Those are the things that keep me going. I love that I have had this opportunity to come and work with all these amazing people. Tomorrow I leave for my mini trip to Machu Picchu and the Lima temple. I am so excited to see the wonderful sights of Peru.
Much Love,
Emily

Peru 3

Peru 3 So much has happened since I last posted! It's crazy!! Last week the Aldea Orphanage project went so well!! We have fundraised about $3200 to help the orphanage get a new oven so that they can make and sell bread to have money to pay for their medicine. We also had a meeting with Javier who works at the Aldea. He was so positive! He told us the orphanage was willing to do whatever to help and he said that he would find us a baker to teach the kids and us how to bake bread. Then we got to spend some more time withvtge cure kids and as always take pictures :) the university project had a few setbacks. Our first mentoring session was supposed to be last week but the iniversity students all went on strike that day so we had to cancel. So today we finally had our first visit and it went very well! Total success. The kids were do cute. When I told them I lived in Los estados unidos the first question they asked me was if I knew where las Vegas was. I thought that was pretty funny. Today is the 4th of July! We still celebrated it here. We worked today, but tonight we are having a party with fireworks! The best part of today was the food. Our cook let us decide what she should make for our mini party. So for breakfast we had pancakes and this delicious chocolate banana drink that she makes. Then for dinner we had hamburgers, fries, salad... And corn!!! The corn was ridiculously huge! I'm not kidding! I don't know how it was so big. I had to pull each kernel off with my fork and they kinda tasted like potatoes. Super thick! Oh and then we had pepsi floats! They dont have root beer here. It was so good! I loved the ice cream in it. It was really sweet. It's amazing to me that I am halfway done! I only have 3 weeks left! Crazy! Until next time... Happy 4th :) Emily