Today was another really good day. I got to sleep in and made some scrambled eggs for breakfast. It's a bit like cooking when camping, so I'll be really useful now, Sarah! Roxana, Lariza, and Dante moved home today with their mom and grandmother, but they had the despedida about hour before it was supposed to be, so I slept through it. That's probably the first time in the history of Peru that any event took place earlier than scheduled.
Lunch was a spicy chicken stew served over....pasta. Psyched you out, didn't I? For those of you who've been here before, it was the meal that looks a bit like spaghetti. It was super good. I spent a bit of time on the playground with some of the younger boys. Alejo (age 3) had put his head in my lap like he wanted to take a nap, and then it became a game where they all wanted to put their head in my lap and pretend like they were a babies. I sang fake lullabies because I don't know any real ones in Spanish, and they kept wanting me to sing. It was cute and fun, but kind of sad, too, because I doubt many, if any, of them ever had that with their real mother, and there's not a lot of time for that here when one woman is responsible for 9 or 10 kids.
This afternoon Kelly did a practice run on her recipes for the cooking class. We had gas at the rancho this time. Turns out they only have one of the tubes that connects the gas tank to the oven, so we can't cook at the rancho at the same time Filomena's cooking in the albergue. That's what got us yesterday. Anyhow, Elizabeth and I were her kitchen flunkies and also her taste-testers. Not a bad job. The cookies and cupcakes turned out well. The consistency and texture were different than what Kelly expected, but they tasted great. Of course they were great; Kelly's a pro. Literally. All the volunteers enjoyed them after dinner tonight. (There weren't enough for all the kids, and you can't give to one and not the others. By the way, the name Elizabeth makes me miss my Elizabeths.)
After that, I spent some time playing with some of the older boys: the new Jorge, Abel, and Juan. Yes, I played with Abel, and no, he did not choke me, probably mostly because I refused to pick him up. He's way too heavy for me anyhow. I pushed them on the swings, and it was crazy to me that an 11-year-old boy like Jorge wanted that, but again, I think it's just that they're so desperate for attention. I still really like that kid, and I had a good time with Abel today, too. He seemed to be in a pretty agreeable mood. It's still hard to understand a lot of what he says. Jorge climbed to the top of that crazy steep slide and saw an owl over the wall in the edge of the orchard, so Abel and I went up to look, too. I taught them to make owl noises, so then we called to him. After that we played fusbol. I'm horrible at that game, but so are they, so it all worked out fine.
Dinner was lunch leftovers, but there weren't really enough, so I made scrambled eggs and used some of the sauce from lunch. We were given eggs and cereal upon arrival. Apparenty, that's included in the whopping $15 per day we pay to stay here. Kelly had fried rice with chicken made by Elizabeth. Now the guys are watching the football game online, and the girls are hoping to get up a movie night. I think that's all for today.
I love you, and I think you're pretty. (If you don't get it, don't worry about it.)
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