Orphanage!

I wanted to post SO MANY pictures, but because the Internet isn’t the fastest here I will have to choose the most important ones. Here are some pictures of me at the orphanage and me with Cristina’s family on the weekend. My schedule from now until I come home, which is August 18th! I work at the orphanage Monday through Friday and I sleep there in my own Casa. Then on the weekends I come into town (Trujillo) and stay with Cristina, a BYU student and her family. We go to church on Sunday and then Monday morning I return to the orphanage. Anna Raquel had her Feliz Cumpleanos, for her Quinceanero! Here in Peru they call it a Quinceaero instead of ending it with an a. The Tia's spent the whole week making these cakes for the party. Doesn't she look beautiful!

The kids in Casa 1 were attacking me with tickles after I came in from running! And the crazy thing was it really did tickle! Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?

I taught the boys in Casa 5 how to make lemon squares. Look how handsome they are!

Here is Cristina and her family. The only person missing is her step dad who was taking the photo.

I promised that picture of me eating cuy, and here it is! Can you see the leg on this hunk of meat? haha Really there is not much meat to eat because the layer of skin is so thick. Once you get to the meat it's pretty small.

Before the press conference started, and after I had sat down, in walked 3 other queens that were representing the town of Cascas. I guess this whole press conference was to welcome everyone out to their annual fair. The girls were all decked out in their dresses and crowns! I was lookin’ pretty mighty myself in my jeans! haha After the press conference we went out to lunch and then I was invited to another media event that evening. This time I showed up in a dress (just a casual Sunday dress.) We went on the local news and posed for the camera, were entertained by local dancers, and took pictures outside. This was one of my favorite pictures! The 4 Reinas!! (Queens)

I knew that Blanca said we were going to a press conference, but I had no idea what that entailed. When we arrived, Blanca started telling me things about the Aldea that I should remember and be sure to talk about. I was wondering why she was wanting me to know all of these things, and just assumed she wanted them to be said in my conversation with others. Then to my surprise, a man came and led me to the front table and had me sit in one of the big, black, leather chairs. It then occurred to me that I would be speaking! The next thing I started to do was... PANIC!! jk, no I started to prepare. I had a notebook and my dictionary with me. I started to write everything down that I knew how to say, and the verbs I could conjugate correctly. As for the words I didn’t know, I looked up in my dictionary. I did that up until the time I had to speak. My speech went ok, but I don't think I said half of the things I wanted to, nor as eloquently as I had hoped, but I think they got the idea. haha

Friday (the 3rd day at the Aldea) Blanca (the Aldea supervisor) came to our Casa and told us that we had to hurry and get ready because we would be going into town for a press conference. She asked me if I had a dress I could wear so that I could represent the Aldea as a former Miss Utah. I didn't have one there with me, but I did have a fairly nice shirt, jeans and high heels. We all know high heels make ANY outfit legit! We were in such a rush to meet back at the office in the 15 min that Blanca said we had, that I decided I would do my makeup in the car. Della and I made it to the office in time, but then we ended up waiting for 45 min. (I should remember that we are running on Peruvian time. haha) The wait was fine for me because I got to put on my makeup. All of the kids came in to see what was going on, and they wanted to "paint" too! I let them take turns brushing the bronzer onto my face. I thought it was so cute!

Look how cute this is. The second day Della and I were there they had a festival because one of the kids had been adopted, and her new parents had come to take her home to France. Here is one of the boys enjoying the party, mostly because he got to eat cake! This is one of my favorite little boys at the Aldea. His name is Eduis. He is not always this dirty. I promise his Tia makes him take a bath every night! However, towards the end of the day, he is always this dirty!

The Casa that I am now living in was really dirty when I got there. Jason and Carrie, the volunteers before me from BYU, helped Della and I clean the house the day before they left! We didn't have much to clean with, but the volunteers before Carrie and Jason, girls from Scottland, left a lot of their clothes. Nothing says clean better than a nice rubdown by some UNDDIES! haha I was very grateful they contributed to the cleaning of Casa! Thanks girls!