Brace yourself, it's gonna be a massive update

This past week has been crazy busy, and now that I am bedridden recovering from the Peruvian stomach sickness that everyone is my house seems to have been getting, I finally have time to update. I will even be able to include pictures as I am using my friend's computer. Yay, get excited!
First off, I need to include a shout out to my dad who is celebrating 50 years of life today. Happy Birthday, Dad! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you.
Alright, time to get started. I have done a whole lot of cool things since I've last written, so I will try to be brief with some of it. But first, here are just a few pictures from the birthday party and orphanage. I have many more that maybe I will share later, it just takes too long to upload them all.

Me and Christian in the babies' play room, just after he woke up from a nap.

Geraldine trying to touch the camera.

Christian still feeling a little sleepy.

rMe and Albert. He loves to take pictures so I sometimes let him use my camera and get all kinds of up close shots of people and things.

Milagros was not interested in looking at the camera.

Jhoel and Gabriel hanging out in our backyard. Jhoel is always making a funny face with his mouth in pictures, it's his signature.

Milagros loved the baloons, no surprise since she loves to play with balls.

What have I done since I last updated? I went to a soccer game at the huge stadium here in Arequipa, the under 20's Championship qualifications and it was Chile vs. Brazil. Of course I was cheering for Chile, but I had to be kind of sly about it since Peruvians harbor strong anti-Chilean feelings. There were some means things chanted. Sadly, Chile lost, despite playing so well during the first half.

We celebrated the Chinese New Year in my house with a huge feast cooked two volunteers from Taiwan, and one of my housemate's visiting friend who is American born Taiwanese. It was delicious, I learned how to make dumplings, and they taught us the chorus of a Chinese New Year song. I definitely don't remember how it goes anymore, though.

On Thursday I (along with five other volunteers) went to the beach with the orphanage for three days, more on that shortly. Then after a slightly stressful bus ride home that happened much later than we were originally told, I arrived home Saturday night to the sad news that our beloved family dog, Layla was put to sleep. I know this was a very difficult decision for my parents to make, but I also think it was the right time. Layla was a very special part of our family and we will always remember her. I coped with the sad news by going out dancing, coming home at 3 am, then got up three hours later to go to Puno with two of my friends to see some of the celebrations going on for the Festival de Candelaria.

But let's start with the beach. We left early Thursday morning, not really knowing what to expect except that the whole thing was organized by a church. After a two and half hour busride that included holding a very squirmy baby for part of it, sitting next to a baby who was given her bottle then promptly threw it all up, leaving behind the lovely stench of rotten milk, and then holding a sleeping two year old for the rest of it; we arrived at Christian camp, out in the middle of nowhere on the ocean front, with the closest town, Mollendo, a 15 minute bus ride away. The staff was very friendly (although didn't quite understand what it means to be a vegetarian) and throughout our time there they ran organized activities with the kids. All we had to do was care for the babies. You would think that 8 adults could easily handle four babies (two one year olds, a 10 month old, and a one month old) and two toddlers (2 and 3 years old), but it was still quite a bit of work. It did work out nicely that we were all able to take some breaks, but when it wasn't break time, the work was very full on. On Friday morning I woke up at 4 am to give a bottle to the newborn, and ended up staying awake the rest of the day, surpisingly with plenty of energy to play with the babies at the beach. Overall it was an enjoyable trip, I feel like I bonded even more with especially the babies, but the older kids as well, even though I didn't see them as much. It was so nice to spend time with them outside of the orphanage. I was able to spend a bit of child free time at the beach with some friends, got a nice tan, and even did a bit of swimming in the ocean, which I haven't done in years. I think the older kids really enjoyed having structured activities. They were split into two teams so they got a chance to get to know other kids who were there (who were not from an orphanage), and after the babies went to sleep I got to join in on some of the activities which included crab hunting in the dark with flashlights, star gazing, and dancing around a campfire. The bus ride home was interesting, though. For some reason, they decided a small bus (probably only big enough to fit 20 maybe 25 people comfortably) was big enough to fit the 16 kids from the orphanage, us 8 adults that came with them, the 12 or so other kids that came along, plus the entire camp staff, including the many young leaders, the women who ran the camp, and the kitchen staff. I didn't think it would be possible, but Peru never ceases to amaze and confuse me when it comes to buses. There were people sitting in children sized shool chairs all up the aisle, some people were unlucky enough to have to stand up in the front the entire ride, just about every adult had a child on their lap (I was lucky enough to have a baby who slept the entire time, although that did cause my arm to fall asleep) and the rest of the children where crammed in threes. We did make it back safely though, which is what matters.

Geraldine enjoying the sunshine.

Christian loved playing in the sand.

Mel and Christian checking out the ocean.

Milagros lovred splashing in the baby pool we brought to the beach.

The sunset the first night we were there.

So that was the beach, now Puno. As I said before, after getting very little sleep, my friends Mary, Melissa, and I took a bus six hours to Puno, a city in the south of Peru that lies on the edge of Lake Titicaca. I had previously passed through this city, but only to change buses when traveling to Cusco from the Bolivian side of the lake. Since the beginning of this month, the people in Puno have been celebrating the Virgen de la Candelaria Festival, which is a period of a few weeks every year when the entire city celebrates with parades featuring people in elaborate costumes with different meanings, lots of music, drinking, and dancing in the streets. A huge portion of the city streets closes to cars, and the parades and dancing goes on from the early morning, well in the wee hours of the night. And this goes on for days. We were only able to stay one night, because we had to get back to the orphanage for Tuesday, but it was definitely worth the trip. The costumes were amazing, apparently most people spend an entire months salary to make them. There were different folkloric dance groups and marching bands from all over Peru, even Chile and Bolivia were represented. The festival is catholic based, but what's so cool about it is the infusion of indigenous culture.

A group playing the Andean pan flute.

An example of the costumes. Many of the women were wearing costumes like this with very short skirts.

There were all different kinds of masks, some of them were actually kind of scary looking.

One of my favorite parts were the mens dances. They were just so powerful and athletic and I always love watching men dance.

On Monday morning we took a break from the festivities to visit the floating islands (Isla de los Uros) on Lake Titicaca. I have never seen such a place, it was very interesting. The islands were built by people who wanted nothing to do with the war and fighting that resulted from the Spanish colonization centuries ago, and so they built floating islands out of dirt, roots, reeds, stakes, and rope. And amazingly, these islands still exist and are still inhabited by people. The first island we visited is home to 26 people who make a living primarily from tourism, but also survive by hunting birds, fishing, and gathering eggs. What's really cool is that the island is only two and a half meters deep and then covered with dried reeds. It is held to the bottom of the lake using stakes, rope, and rocks that sit on top of the rope. The structure of the island needs to be rebuilt every 70 or 80 years.

A view of the lake I took from the boat.

The houses on the floating island. They use the reeds for so many different things.

A view of the lake from the island.

Thanks for bearing with me to read all of that! I probably shouldn't wait so long to update next time. That took a long time so I guess it's a good thing I woke up sick today. Lots of love to you from Arequipa!