Quick Update

I had another AMAZING weekend, including 4 Rotary events, but only about 10 hours of sleep.

Friday.
The 18th of September was the 1 year anniversary of the Roteract Club of San Borja Sur. To celebrate, they arranged a outing to a pretty exclusive discoteca in Miraflores, right on the ocean. It was really pretty. All the exchange students and Roteract members got in free :) There was about 25 of us altogether. There's not much more to say, except that we danced until 2:30 in the morning.


Dance Floor at midnight.


Dance Floor at 2:30 am.


Saturday
We had more classes for Rotary. This week, we were supposed to start learning the Marinera, a traditional Peruvian Dance. However, the teacher didn't show up. Instead, a trio of students who go to the same school taught us how to do a traditional American Line Dance. Yeah. Country music... Fun. It was a bit ironic, since there are many students who aren't from the United States. It was amusing anyways. We had our Spanish lessons again. This time we got homework! We're supposed to read a book in Spanish and give a presentation. A 150 page long book from the 1900s. Eek.
After the lessons, I went over to another exchange student's (Geneva) house in Miraflores. From her house we walked to a little Market, where I bought 6 DVDs for 6 dollars, including Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (which is not going to be out in the states until December). This is very exciting to me. I love watching movies. Albeit, all of these are pirated, but who cares.
At 5, we had another Rotary obligation, which ended up being basically just a little reunion of all the intercambistas and about 5 other rotarians in a Papa Johns Pizza Place. The Pizza was awesome, better than the only time I had Papa Johns at home. So is the CocaCola. I swear it is sweeter here. Not that anyone drinks CocaCola. Inca Kola is much better (and only avaliable in Peru). It's kinda like Cream Soda.
After stuffing ourselves with Pizza (and memories of home), Geneva met up with our host sisters at a concert. It was like Battle of the Bands Peruvian Colegio edition. We got there in time to see the last 3 high school bands play, and then a popular band called "La Mente" play. It was amazing! Our sisters had gotten there really early, so we ended up right behind the barricades. Which was nice until some security guard came and stood right in front of me.
My host dad picked me and Daniela up t about 10:00 from Miraflores, and I assumed we would be going home. I was wrong. We went to another Peru Posible Political reunion thing... I'm still not entirely sure what. I guess there's going to be some vote soon, and one of their propositions in on the ballot.


La Mente Playing

Sunday
Yet another Rotary filled day.
Most of the exchangees met at Colegio Santa Rosa at 7:30 am to go to Ventanilla, Callo. Rotary had arranged for us to help at an orphanage and a medical clinic for the day.
First was the medical clinic. It is a clinic that is being sponsored by Opporation Emmanuel, which is based in Japan. It is one of the only hospitals in Ventanilla and for today, it was open free to the public. I got put in a room for "general medicine." I didn't get to help much, but I did get to do a couple little errands, like trying to find cotton to clean the thermometer. The lady I worked with was really nice. We're going to meet up for coffee some time. :) It was kinda awkward being in the room with the patients, since I couldn't really do much to help.
Here's a picture. I cut out the patients though.

After that we went to the orphanage, which was pretty much just around the corner. We were greeted by a nun and about 50 kids aged 2-18. The nun explained the mission of the orphanage and then told us to get to know the kids. The kids basically charged at us as soon as the nun gave the word. They all wanted to hug us and play with us. It was adorable. One of the kids really wanted to learn how to use my camera, so I let him and he took over 100 pictures. A lot of them were of his fingers... But it was still adorable! At the end, they all sand a song for us. :)


Con mucho amor,
Jacqui