Birthday Week

This past week was "Birthday Week".  It has nothing to do with Peru but it is one of my family traditions and it goes wherever the birthday person is. For those of you who have never heard of this wonderful idea, it is simple. The family member who is having a birthday is spoiled for the entire week leading up to their big day. This usually means no washing dishes and maybe a candy bar or two. For those of us with siblings it means having them do your house work - which for any child could possibly be better than Christmas gifts! Since my birthday happens to be on Monday November 19th I will celebrate it in Peru.  At the beginning of this week my parents and family have been wishing me well each day, which I am grateful for. But, since I am not near my immediate family which are the only ones to usually abide by these rules I have decided to take it upon myself to enjoy one thing every day that is not a normal occurrence. I should have done this a lot sooner.

Some of the girls here are taking a massage class. Of course I volunteered to be their practice dummy. Who wouldn't right? Well, they not only give wonderful massages they sometimes have to try more than once, you know the old saying "practice makes perfect".  This week I got a massage and I also got a few lessons.  What a good start to what turned out to be a wonderful week.

In English class we introduced a new phenomenon in Peru. The ice cream, fries dip. For those of you who never tried this I recommend that you stop reading right now go to your local In-In-Out, or even McDonald's (anyplace that sells soft served ice cream and good fries) and then forget the spoon, straw or however you down soft serve. Take the fries and dip them into the sweet treat and you will find your mouth water. Enjoy the glorious flavor until both fries and ice cream run out. Now that you have had a fiesta in your mouth come back and finish reading my blog. Don't worry if you were skeptical at first, most people are. The students in English class had their doubts until they tasted the wonderful concoction for themselves. I am not sure who first thought of this although it just might have been a small child wanting to eat ice cream before finishing his happy meal and so they simply combined it.


At church we were able to hang the tents that took me way too long to figure out how to sew! Let me just give a quick tip. When someone hands you a hula-hoop... step inside and make it spin. (I didn't do that, I used it to make the hula-hoop tents in the picture.) The tents turned out fine and the girls seem to like them. Now I will move on to more painting. My next project will be a nice cardboard stove which I'm sure will prove to be much simpler than the tents.

At dinner this week the family and I did a lot of  laughing. We all had a long night and apparently the giggles were coming in full force. We were all laughing away when Tio (my host father) asked me to do something. Miscommunication makes funny stories. My Spanish isn't horrible but apparently I missed the key words that he said to me and the whole idea changed. I heard him say, "Tell Tia (my host mother) a word in Spanish." Tia leaned in and cupped her ear so I could whisper the word to her. That was when it hit me that this was a game but I had no idea that the game was "Eye Spy". I thought it was smart to think of the newest word I learned - "linda".  In Spanish it is not only a name but it also means 'cute'. Tia then proceeded to look around the room and randomly guess items. That was when it hit me that we are playing "Eye Spy". I immediately burst out laughing because the word cute was not an object for Tia to find in the kitchen. Tia smiled and attempted to guess but Tio knew what I did wrong and so he suggested we start another round. For my second word, I said bananas since they were on the counter. And this is why understanding the whole conversation in your native language helps! When you only catch bits of something you end up saying something like "linda" which makes no sense playing "Eye Spy" in a kitchen!

To end this bea-u-tiful week I will celebrate my twenty-third birthday.  I woke up to a lovely day, feeling good. My host family took me to Chile so we could enjoy the beach. Chile and the beach were both wonderful.  All in all, my "Birthday Week" ended with a great birthday "day".