Today was such a fun/bittersweet day. Last day in Huancayo. :( We took the HIV shelter kids to a park this morning to play futbol and volleyball and just have a fun day away from the shelter since they don't get to do that much at all. We took all 20 kids today, some of which we hadn't met before because they are usually in school when we are there in the afternoon. At first I felt awful because the "park" we went to was horrible. Just a crappy concrete volleyball court that we had to pay for just to play for an hour and rent a ball. So we ended up leaving and taking the kids to another recreational park, called Divertilandia (Funland) way far out from Huancayo. It is like the third world version of Disneyworld in Peru. haha Once we got there it turned out really well and the kids had a blast! It was still like a kinda crappy place, but it was fun because they had little paddle boats to rent in this tiny little creek, old, dirty, disgusting horses and ponies to ride, and little four wheelers to ride. You would have thought we were in the nicest amusement park in the world though! We had bought food ingredients for the "moms" of the shelter to make arroz con pollo and chicha (the purple corn juice drink that tastes like grape) for all of us and the kids, which we brought with us and had a big picnic first. It was just so fun to watch the kids have a great time, free, with no worries, and to be able provide everything for them that they wanted to do. We paid for them to each choose one activity. The little girls were soooo excited to ride the horses and do the paddle boats, things which they had never ever done. The girls were so excited/terrified to ride the little horses at first, even though they barely moved and the man walked them around in a field for a few minutes! The little boys were pumped to ride the four wheelers around too. So so fun to watch and take pictures as they screamed with excitement and laughter. After, a super sweet girl from France who is fluent in Spanish, Laura, a volunteer from the organization that Betsy works with, Expand Peru, who came with us today, bought all the children ice cream! They loved that! We just spoiled them all day. Then they just ran wild all around the park with us chasing them around making sure they didn't fall in the water. The girls found a stick with a net on it for fishing and got so excited to try and catch all the little minnows swimming around in the nasty water. I was chasing around 7 energy filled girls who kept almost falling in and ended up with mud covered tennis shoes by the end of the day! They were absolutely precious. We stayed there from about 9 am til about 3 pm. It was crazy on the way there. I was packed in a small taxi with I think 10 other kids, crazy! But they had the best time just on the way there. On the way back all 20 kids packed into Henry's 9 passenger van, while we waited on him to return and get us, nuts! So sad to tell them bye, as they were all giving us tons of kisses saying "ciao tia!" (they all call us tia instead of senorita) And gracias gracias gracias....LOVE these kids! I was able to give Sajhurdi, one of my favs, a bag of my clothes this morning when we picked them up at their house, which she was soo excited to have. I wish I had more room in my suitcase to bring like all my clothes to give these kids and those at Rosario. I don't know know how much difference we really made in any of these children's lives or if we made any at all, but I do know that we were at least able to provide entertainment and put smiles on their faces for the past month and they definitely put a smile on my face and love in my heart which will last a while...
We had to tell Henry (our driver) bye...so sweet, he was genuinely sad, said he was going to miss us much. I LOVE him, he and I finally started to talk a lot the past few days, about how he and his precious wife met. He gave me a hard time about my love life/asking me about if I have a novio...telling me about the boys in Peru who are quick to fall in love, asking if the boys in the US son honestos...HAH
Tonight was our last dinner with Elena. :( She made us her famous pisco sours and gave us all gifts, these gorgeous Peruvian color filled tapestries. I was really sad to tell her bye. As Lena and I packed our backpacks for Machu Picchu I really felt like I was packing to go on a trip from my actual home, that's how much at home I feel here. It's like I'm leaving my family of 9, so sad to leave them, we spend every waking moment together, but we will see them again in Lima on Saturday night.
Soo pumped for Machu Picchu but so sad to leave my home...Brasilia, bumpy dusty road filled with mangy dogs and cats, oh how I'm going to miss you...
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