Ay Mi Taita Linda

This past weekend was such a festive weekend in Tacna. We turned Saturday in Thanksgiving Day and on Sunday was the Dia Familiar, or anniversary celebration at my school.
I celebrated a wonderful Thanksgiving Day along with all of the other Gringos that reside in Tacna. We did a pretty good job at creating the Thanksgiving feel. Despite the fact that we celebrated it on a Saturday and ate chicken instead of turkey, I found it to be a great day, and as all of the years past, found myself thankful for a million and one things.
Sunday was such a fun day. I can sorta remember the Dia Familiar from last year, but since I had only been in Tacna for a couple of days, not many details stuck with me. Basically all the celebration circles around peruvian folk dancing and eating. Each grade level is responsible for a dance as well as the teachers. I had such a blast dancing! Don't get me wrong, I was super nervous and most likely stuck out like a sore thumb with my off beat steps, but still it was the first time in my life.....that I can remember that I have been part of some sort of perfomance. I guess I was in a play in High School and had three lines.....but still this dance has beaten that play in Emmy perfomances. Our dance was called Sarayankay from the department of Apurimac. It was sorta like an interpretive dance of harvesting corn. I danced so hard that my toe started to bleed from a blister! My little kids in Kindergarden and Preschool probably danced so cute that I wanted to throw up! It was past cute, that I wasn't even smiling!!!!!
This past week the new volunteers have also arrived. There are three of them all girls and all great! There is only officially one full week of school left, and then grades. last minute stuff and then.....I am gone, pretty crazy. My little brother Patrick comes on the 10th of December and I bought my ticket for Buenos Aires and will be leaving Peru on the 20th. I am still unsure of the exact date of my arrival home, I would love to travel a little but before returning home. I have been in contact recently with the Calleros in Argentina and it looks like I might be having an Argentine Christmas with people that have my same last name...cool uh!

It's no joke, Guinea Pig for dinner.....

Here are some photos from my trip to the Umbligo del Mundo, Cuzco. Even though it looks like it, no Scott and I aren't stading in front of a photo drop at a studio, it is the REAL deal....sweet uh!

Tercer Puesto....?

About two weeks ago, some NGO set up a 12K race against drugs. Me, Scott, Ann and JP all decided that it would be fun to run with some of our students in this race. It was suppose to start at 8am on a Satuday morning, which was an exteremely good thing, seeing how it is summer here now and I did not want to run in the mid-day heat. As you all know very well, Emmy/running/heat dont match up together. Some of you might remember me fainting at the finish line after cross coutnry meets, in the Oregon heat. Oregon heat has nothing compared to the Atacama Desert heat. So we got our numbers and as the punctual Gringos that we are, we were ready to go at 8am. We didn't realize that literally almost every teenager in the city was signing up and running, so our little race turned into a thousands of youngsters waiting in the heat for the race to start.
After 3 hours of waiting, we finally started that race. Since there was like a million people running, ther wasn't enough people to control the mob and indicate the course. After I was running for what seemed to be 2 hours of pure pain I turned on a street that I thought was the right turn and proceeded to run through the finish line. I did not know though that as I took that turn I was cutting off like 3K from the race, I finished naturally with a killer time. Later, Scott and JP told me where I suppose to turn... SO whatever, i cheated, i didnt know.
However, a little bit later I heard my name being called over the loud speaker, and I went to the stand where the officials were. They told me I had won second place. I told them NO I cut I really didn't win. They were like ok thanks for being honest........and then as I was getting ready to leave and the awards ceremony was starting, I heard my name again!! I went over and they were awarding me third place!!!! I was like what the heck I cheated and I told them!.....oh well I thought ill stand on my little step then everyone will clap. BUT it gets worse, they first gave me a little diploma, and I was like ok, no biggy, then a medal, then a trophie then $70!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know imagine my guilt, I cheated, won lots of money, from a NGO that could have used it for something good!! My guilt eventually got to me and I gave the money to my school, even though it was tempting to take off with it. So I ran a race in the heat and I didn't even faint and I won money!!! SO different from my cross country days!!!

Bienvenidos.........

So as many of you know (and if you don't know i guess i'll tell you right now) I am leaving Jesuit Volunteers in December, but however it isn't to late to put up some pictures of my community mates, seeing how they've been a big part of my life this past year. (From the left, Daniel, me, JP, Ann, and Peter. ) We all work together at Miguel Pro, menos Daniel who works at another school run by the Jesuits called Cristo Rey. This is taken in Cochabamba, Bolivia at the end of September when we went to visit the volunteers that work there.

Que Viva El BLOG

Yes, that is right, Emmy now has a blog. First it was Lara who introduced it to me a couple of weeks ago, and then it was Becca posting cute baby pictures of Liam, and then I just HAD to jump on this blog badwagon. I had to. It is amazing to me! I think it will be a good new thing for me to do with the little free time that exists in my life. But it is all worth it!! SO all I can say is stay tuned....................coming up............horror stories straight from my classroom, pictures of me dancing as a cholita, and my future plans..........PS must apologize if my english is bad......i had originally published this, and the scott read it, and laughed at how bad it was written...so i had to change some stuff....i know im an english teacher, but dont be fooled, my mind dont no know ingleesh know mo.