Awkward+Awesome: War Zone

So today was the big Carnaval parade in Cajamarca. Since it would take forever to give you all the details, allow me to direct you for Abigail’s full-length amazing coverage here.

But for just a few bits of excitement, continue onward. Also, forgive me for having  no pictures of the amazing things that I’m going to try and describe to you, because bringing a camera to this event would have been suicidal.

Awesome: The world’s most extreme water fight in the entire world. Water balloons, guns, buckets EVERYWHERE.

Awkward: Being in a group of 5 gringos in the midst of THOUSANDS of Peruvians who love nothing more than to see a white girl cry.

Awesome: Bringing a bit of our own ammo to throw right back at them and learning how to properly tie and fill a water balloon. Seriously, it’s an art here. I thought I was pretty good at filling balloons until I met these kids. You fill them and then push all the water down so that it’s a really tight balloon and will explode on contact, and then you tie it a special way.

Awkward: This awesome way of tying balloons makes them hurt SO much when they hit you! 

Awesome: Being SO popular. Everywhere we go, “Gringas! Gringas! Hello! Good Morning!”

Awkward: When they say, GET THE GRINGAS and announce to everyone who can hear that unarmed Gringas are rapidly approaching. At one point  I yelled, “No! Soy Peruana!” (I’m sure they got a kick out of that one).

And confession: After my face had taken a beating, I got scared and would sprint through the scary parts, making myself a gringa alone and unarmed. The people loved this and would get ready to throw, but I’d yell, “Wait, there are lots more gringas coming! Save your balloons!!! Haha it didn’t really work…but it was worth a shot!

Awesome: Getting shot at with water guns. Seriously, this was a welcome attack because it meant that we weren’t being pelted at with fierce, hard, hurtful balloons.

Awkward: Being hit from balloons come from the top of five story buildings. You can’t see it coming and the force is EXTREME.

Awkward: Being two heads taller than the average person walking down the street. My face will never be the same. It took hit after hit after hit. And when they get the back of your neck….OUUUUUCH!

Awesome: Sitting down and watching other people get hit. It still made me cringe to watch people get hit because I know what kind of pain they’re going through…but oh baby it was funny to watch them get hit out of nowhere and look around in confusion.

Awesome: Watching a man come kiss a woman hello, and the moment they kiss, both of their faces are pelted with one big fatty water balloon. Oh, I died.

Awkward: Having nowhere to watch the actual parade because no body wants to sit by a group of gringo water magnets

Awesome: Having a group of drunk Peruvians invite us to go stand on top of their rickety, about to fall over pick-up truck.

Awesome: Actually taking up their offer and watching the parade in quite possibly the most dangerous way possible. 5 super tall white people standing on a truck with drunk Peruvians… pretty much we were wearing a “Hey, in case we’re not wet enough, please hit us again…and again and again!” and hit we were.

Awesome: I seriously had so much fun. It was fun sprinting down the street trying (and failing) to make it by the big crowds without being hit. It was fun trying to catch the balloons that were thrown at us. It was fun being with our friends, it was fun seeing awesome floats and it was just fun being in Peru.

Awkward: Trying to get home and passing at least 10 men who were relieving themselves in all sorts of public places and then realizing that we’re walking in that the whole way home. I guess that’s what you get when you mix a bunch of beer and no public restrooms.

Awkward: The pain. I know I’ve gone over how bad we got hurt. But take how bad you think it hurt…then multiply it by 84.

Awesome: The fact that we have the best friends family in Peru ever. Liz and Miguel and Aleksi have been incredible to us and cease to amaze us with their kindness. Before and After the parade Miguel’s mom, Momita fed us SO much and it was SO good! Also, since we were soaked and freezing cold, Liz, Miguel and Aleksi all brought out practically every dry article of clothing they owned and let us change into them. Seriously, some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met. We are so blessed!

Well, I can say that I’ve survived Carnaval in Cajamarca (except for the fact that the parties continue to go on all month…so there will be more to survive), I can’t say that I’d want to do it again anytime soon, but don’t regret going one single bit!

Sporting Liz, Miguel and Aleksi's clothing!!

When I get home I can teach you the Peruvian art form of water balloon tying, and you’re life will never be the same again J

Attack of the Ninas

This week and next, all of Peru, and who know’s where else, is celebrating Carnval. Cajamarca happens to be the capital of Carnaval and it’s dangerous, so we decided to avoid the crowds and just have a mini celebration with our ninos.

IT WAS A BLAST!!!

We had an awesome lunch of….you guessed it, lentils and rice! (oh and we made some pink lemonade to share with the kids, they LOVED that and couldn’t figure out why it tasted like lemon, but it was pink ;)

We started off with face painting. For those of you who don’t know, you can take water color colored pencils, dip them in water and voila, they become instant face painting brushes. It’s beautiful.

It was so fun to paint their faces. I’m not artistic to say the least, but take a gander of some of our creations J

Spiderman was a popular request, I did the bottom one

Me pretending to know what the red power ranger looks like...I love being the adult!

I painted these three, spiderman a lion and camoflauge

Blue Power Ranger!

My little flower face

Next came the water fight. It was a surprise attack! I had spent the morning filling up water balloons and had them stashed away upstairs ready to whip out at the right moment.  I had rallied up all the ninas, loaded them all up with water balloons and gave strict instructions to get out there and attack the boys with…no mercy! Oh it was soooo fun!!! I loved every minute of it! Most of the little boys were absolutely intent on taking me down, but my girls were amazing and kept me as safe as they could (granted I still got soaked through and through).

Some of the stinker boys (you avid blog followers know exactly who I’m talking about J ) ran home and armed themselves with their heavy duty water guns and came back ready for war. When our balloons ran out, we armed ourselves with buckets and cups and anything that could hold water. 

Doesn't Allesandro look fierce with half his makeup washed off?

At one point, I could see that we were being over powered by the sheer number and ravenousness of the boys (compared to the sweet gentleness of all most of my girls). So I used my awesome war tactics and made a public announcement:

Hey boys! Who want’s to be on the winning team? Who wants to be on…MY TEAM!?!?

And then I began chanting, “No more Ricardo, Team Elia is going to win!” (haha sorry Ricardo!)

And partly to my surprise, and entirely to my enjoyment, a giant pack of little boys ran down the hill chanting along with me, ready to fight on my team! Oh it was awesome. They ditched their shirts and their smeared face paint looked like dramatic war paint. I had myself a little band of fierce Lamanites! 

Feliciana and Melchora even got in on the fun. One minute I was sittin pretty observing the water fight and the next thing I know, I'm being soaked and sprayed by water. I look up to find Feliciana and Melchora up on our roof with a hose laughing hysterically. They thought they were SO funny...but really, they were!

It was SO much fun and I know the kids loved it just as much as I did. We had awesome weather too! Tons of sunshine! 

Well I wish I could say the day ended on that good note, but I'm afraid THE SCARIEST part of my ENTIRE TIME IN PERU came just seconds after our amazing afternoon. 

Keep your eyes peeled for the next blog post about my dear friend Israel.

Ciao Ciao!

-Elia

Valentine's Day in Peru

Valentine’s Day in Peru is probably up there in my top three all times Valentine’s days…possibly top 2 (Ok, so I can’t remember any SUPER great Valentine’s days, but I like to think that I’ve had good experiences with this lovely holiday).

Here’s how it happened:

The morning started beautifully. I got mucho amounts of laundry done and hung out, I did Ab Ripper X and I took a cold shower. So Far so Good!

Also, we got two sets of flowers :) Perfect!

Almost no kids showed up today.. maybe like 40 total, which is a lot less than usual. We made them each Valentine’s with really yummy suckers. Brit took the boys to go play futbol and a lot of the girls ended up going with them. Abby and I were left with just one little girl.

I was pretty tired, so I came upstairs, did some blogging and sacked out for a good 20 or so minutes. When I woke up, it was time to go to into Cajamarca. We had with us Alecksi and Ricardo and were going to meet up with Robert, Jorge and Daniel at the movie  theater in the Mall.

We watched a movie called Los Illusianauts. It was Peruvian made and only in Spanish (no subtitles). Even though I didn’t catch all of the dialogue, I know for a fact that it is a movie I will never have the desire to see again. Pretty much it was a cartoon about a boy with deadly flatulence and his friends. Super gross.

Our Movie theater snacks: We go into the Peruvian store and come out with all things American...lame

After the movies we walked over to Capilla Aueropuerto and met some of Ricardo’s family. We waited there until it was time to walk over to the Capilla Pueblo Libre for our first Peruvain YSA dance.

While waiting for the dance we delivered our Valentines to our friends (we gave them homemade chocolate chip cookies!) We also told them all about American Dancing customs….like how you dance in a big circle to the fast songs as opposed to with one partner and you know…just the other basic American customs: Dancing while combing our hair with forks, dancing on our knees at REALLY elegant dances,(girls wear knee length dresses to these dances, and boys cut off their tux pants at the knees) and the really cool kids dance without shoes. We are so bad.

And the dance began! With an opening prayer, spiritual thought and a hymn.

Latin music, Reggatone, Brasilian Music, Columbian Music and a bit of unedited “I Want to Be a Billionaire..” American music.

It was SO much fun! We pretty much got paired up with one partner for most of the night and they taught us the ways of latin dancing..Salsa, Merengue etc.  I asked my partmer where he learned and he said that pretty much everyone is born just knowing, “It’s in my latin blood”. And that’s when I got jealous because this girl has not an ounce of latin blood and even less rhythm so dancing does not come easily for me!

But our friends were more than willing to teach us and help us learn. The last hour of the dance is called “Hora Loca” and it started with confetti being thrown in our faces, balloons and streamers being thrown and an hour of upbeat music where you aren’t allowed to sit down!

While we dance, people come around offering you small treats on silver platters and if you sit down, you are lazy. Towards the end of the dance, the DJ started playing a slew of popular American music. We of course were rocking out to these songs and singing them at the top of our lungs. The DJ thought it was super hilarious to blast the music and then turn the volume off so that it was just us singing. He did that multiple times. While we were dancing to this English stuff I looked around and found that we were the ONLY ones on the dance floor. Everyone else was sitting and just watching us…laughing of course J But we’re used to that and continued with our interpretive/crazy dancing.

Oh it was sooo fun! We took lots of videos, but alas, they would take forever to upload here, so if you’re curious, find me when I get home and I will show you Stake Dances, Peruvian style.

Also, there is a really formal YSA dance next week…it’s a big deal, and translated into English it’s called Prom!!! And it just so happens that I got asked to it during this dance! At first I didn’t really realize what was going on, but it looks like I’ve got myself a date to the fancy dance!

We came home that night exhausted but happy. It’s how we’ve been ending most of our days recently. I think it means that they day was a grand success!

Hope yours was too!

-Elia

It's a Good Thing I'm In Love

Because it just so happens to be Valentines Day!

And I am irreversibly, incandescently, completely, perfectly and totally in love with my ninos.

This may be the only time in my life when I will have 40 different Valentines that I love with all my heart.

Somebody please tell me how I got so lucky?

Happy Valentine's Day!
-Con Amor, Elia

In the Near Future

February is going to be an exciting month for us! We’ve got quite a bit planned. Mira:

February 8: Gran Picadora- We’re not exactly sure what this is, but we do know that if we bring one sol to the church on Wednesday, we get some of the most amazing homemade Peruvian food ever. I think it’s a fundraiser for the JAS Convention (keep reading for more info on that) coming up, so we just might bring some extra soles and some Tupperware J To support the cause and to satisfy our home cooked food cravings for a  couple days.

February 10: We’re taking the kids on a field trip to Cajamarca (giant city about 30 minutes away). Cajamarca is a really cool city with an awesome history and lots of cool, historical things/buildings to see. So we’ve hired a tour guide, who happens to also be our Bishop AND Stake President (and this guy’s wife is about to have a baby any day now, seriously, if you think you’re busy, THINK AGAIN!)  We’re excited because a lot of the ninos haven’t been able to go to some of these sites and they’re going to learn a lot about where they live. We’re hoping we have time/money to treat them all to ice cream afterwards too!

These women are awesome!

February 14: Valentines Day! We’re not sure how much the people here in Puylucana get into Valentine’s day, but you can bet your bottom dollar that we’ll be celebrating it here! I want to get Feliciana and Melchora flowers/chocolates (tacky in the states..yes, but in Peru.. we’re hitting the jackpot with this one). I want to write love notes for all of my ninas and think of something nice to do for my ninos.  Also, we have lots of friends in the ward and we’ve made friends with several of the tienda owners in the stores that we shop at frequently, so we want to make cookies and write notes and deliver those to all of our friends in Banos. Twill be a great day!

February 20: Hoodie Hoo day. It's a national holiday...in America. But I must celebrate it here. It's tradition

February 11-23: We’re pretty much not allowed to leave our house during these several days. Why? Because Peruvians celebrate Carnival (Think Mardi Gras, but crazier) all month long and it simply isn’t safe for three white girls to go out. People travel from all over to celebrate Carnival here in Cajamarca. The price of hotel rooms/transportation etc skyrockets and hundreds of people end up sleeping in the Plaza de Armas (Kind of like a big park in the center of town). Miguel said that some people even die because they spend all day getting wet and then sleep outside and die of hypothermia! Crazy, no? If you’re ever bored, look up Carnaval in Cajamarca. It’s supposed to be pretty intense. So since we’ll be locked inside for several days, we’re more than open for ideas of crazy things to do on our own to celebrate carnival!

Aurora dancing with Keiko

February 23-26: JAS Convention- JAS stands for Jovenes Adultos Solteros (Young Single Adults). This is a giant youth conference type thing for ALL the Young Single adults in Cajamarca as well as in Chiclayo. We’ll spend three straight days in Cajamarca, doing all sorts of fun things! There are two dances scheduled. One called “Baile de Gala” which google directly translates to “PROM!” haha we died when we saw that. Especially since the dressiest shoes we have are our Chacos. Looks like a shopping trip is in order… and maybe some Peruvian dance lessons. 

Something tells me this isn’t going to be like a typical Stake Dance. Either way, we are SO EXCITED for the convention. We’ll get to meet hundreds of Peruvian youth our age!

February 29: LEAP DAY! How does one celebrate leap day? I haven’t a clue. But I’m going to Celebrate and it is going to be fabulous.

One Week Celebration!

Last night we celebrated our one week anniversary in Peru. We partied hard, get this:

We treated ourselves to one funsized candybar each… BEFORE dinner! Best Reeses cup I have ever tasted in my entire life.  Then we made tuna veggie patties for dinner along with fresh avocado and pineapple. We also broke into our milk (which is chalked full of sugar!) After that we popped us some popcorn over the gas burner and covered it in cinnamon sugar. 

We took it upstairs and the three of us plopped down onto Abigail and Mine’s bed and cuddled up in our blankets and ate popcorn as we watched 2 full episodes of Full House. It was bliss. 

By around nine o clock (we have a strict 10 pm bedtime) we turned off the laptop and laid in bed and swapped more boy stories. The cute ones, the embarrassing ones and I shared my “Worst Date Ever” story. I felt like I did pretty much most the talking last night, (Abigail has been going to town with boy stories the last couple days ago, and we still need to get more out of Brit) but it was so fun to remember some of my stories and share them. I have some pretty good ones.

And then I believe we were all asleep by 10:30. Which is pretty impressive seeing as Abigail and I have stayed up talking til about 11:30-12:00 the last several nights. It was a great way to celebrate our one-week-iversasry. Don’t worry, we have even bigger plans for our one month anniversary. We might even plan our weddings that night….oooooo!