Arequipa 3

Well, these last three days have been intense.  Monday, we recycled paper.  That was actually pretty fun, time flew.  We were just finishing our first break when it was already time for lunch.  After we made the picture frames, Chela and I got massages.  They were only 25 soles (including tip) and the blind man who gave me my massage was very nice.  We talked about all sorts of things, and it was funny because he was listening to a soccer game on the radio.  Usually when you get a massage, the music is supposed to be calming, but no I was subjected to blahblahblahblahblah GOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was pretty funny, I didnt think anything of it at the time but after I realized it was silly.  After the massage, we were locked out of the house so we decided to eat at the chicken restaurant across the street.  I had no idea what anything on the menu was, so I just pointed at some guys plate and said ¨Ill have what hes having¨ what he was eating looked like carne asade fries, and I was stoked to eat it.  However, as soon as I took a bite, I knew something was wrong.  It had this texture…that was not appetizing.  I asked what it was, and he said mollejas, and pointed to his chest.  We (mostly me) ate the entire plate to not be disrespectful.  I asked Jose Carlos what we ate was (I thought it was lungs) but it turns out it was gizzards.  So that was an interesting experience.  After that, we ate a bunch of fruit to make up for the nasty flavor of the mollejas.  Well, the mollejas werent THAT bad.  When I got a french fry, a molleja, a piece of fried bologna, and a bunch of aji and mustard in 1 bite it was actually pretty good.  But the fry to molleja ratio was off, and there was a time where I had to eat just mollejas and it was gross.  If Chela wasnt there for moral support, I wouldnt have known what to do.  Also, I ate 12 mini reeses to help forget about the mollejas.  Tuesday was a great day.  We went to Yachay Wasi and they showed us a video about sustainability and global warming and how water is disappearing.  It was the same sort of stuff I learned about in Social Justice during high school, but this time it was a little more intense because the effects of which they spoke were all around me.  Poverty, sparse amounts of water, and a hole in the ozone layer right above my head.  After, we went to a high school, where we sat in on a chemistry class.  I had no idea what was going on the whole time, but the students were doing quite well with the materials provided by yachay wasi.  We brought the warheads to the school, and gave them to class.  Their reaction was hillarious.  Some people spit them out.  After we visited that school, we went back to Juana´s for lunch.  And I finally did something I never thought I would do…I ate guinea pig.  It was SO GOOD.  Well it was fried and salty, so of course it was good.  After lunch, we went to another school, where it was younger kids learning chemistry.  One of the kids thought I was 15.  They were learning about the periodic table and how the various types of elements are organized throughout the table.  Instead of the teacher just telling them ¨the metals are here, the semi-metals are here, the liquids¨ they organized cards according to their properties, so that they did most of the learning through physical action.  The method of Yachay Wasi is so ligit, I wish my education would have been base don the same ideas.  That day, I started to have bad diarrhea.  When i went to bed I didnt feel to good.  That night at 230, I puked all over the floor (in both rooms on the way to the toilet) and then puked for a long time.  The next day, wednesday, I missed out on some seriously cool stuff.  The rest of the group got to go to the poorest school with whom Yachay Wasi works, where they pruned trees with apparently some really nice children.  I feel like I missed a very important part of the experience.  After, they went to a cevisheria.  I am so mad I didnt get to go…they came back RAVING about the food they ate, and they showed me pictures to rub it in.  I hope I am better when we go to LIma, because apparently the ceviche there is even better! SO yesterday I spent most of the day with Juana´s grandaughters, Isabel and Anapaula.  They are so cute. we watched snow white and then played disney charades.  They liked my impression of ¨la bruja¨(the witch), and they told some funny stories about Juana getting mad when they play with the guinea pigs.  Today, we learned about how Yachay Wasi teaches nutrition at their youngest schools.  We in America could use some nutrition lessons in our kindergartens as well, with diabetes being so prevalent.  Anyways, profe is coming tonight and we are going out to a nice restuarant, where I will eat toast and a banana.  I will get results back from the doctor about my stool sample this afternoon, hopefully I will get better soon.