Trabajo de Rotary para la Navidad

The last two weekends Ive been doing work with my Rotary club here helping to give presents to underprivileged children in Peru. About an hour outside of the city of Lima up in the mountains is a very poor part of Peru so we travelled up there in bus and began doing Santa's work! We worked from the kids' school and all of the kids came there while we spent the day entertaining them, feeding them, and keeping them out of trouble. Entertaining involved singing to them and me personally dressing up as a princess haha and feeding them involved a traditional fruitcake called panettone which I guess is popular in some parts of South America and Europe. Panettone is insanely popular here and you can find in in nearly every peruvians house during christmas time here. Theres four in my house right now, but thats another story! So, after the children were entertained by us, an actual company comes in and puts on a real show for them and the kids play games and win prizes and its a great time for them, and us because we can get a little break! It gets so hot up in the mountains and especially now that summer is beginning, the heat was killer! Once the show ends we corral all the little kids into different classrooms and watched over them until they got called out to go and finally receive their gifts, which is what these kids are really looking forward to. As we were waiting in the classroom the kids were telling me what they asked santa for and one kid told me that he had no toys in his house so he just asked for anything to play with, which broke my heart but I was happy because we were there to help him and now he would have a toy for christmas. After all the kids had been given their gifts and sent back home we helped clean up everything and when we finally got back on the bus we were all sleeping because we were so tired!  This was the first weekend and we worked with about 800 kids, the second weekend we had 1500 kids! It actually turned out easier the second weekend because they were all kept in bleachers watching some form of entertainment instead of running around us going crazy like the first time. It was nice to do some volunteer work during christmas time and i was really glad i got to help out and make some christmases better for these kids.

Fiesta de la Promocion

Wednesday night was my prom here!!!!  So lets start with what i wore, I was going to wear a really pretty blue prom dress sent to me from home but the package never got here!!! So, i had to improvise with a dress i already had here and borrow shoes, buy jewelry and all of that fun stuff. It ended up urning out alright though :)  I got ready with another girl from the states and we had a great time. I met with my prom date and his best friend and we headed off to the prom location. Here in Peru the boy gives the girl a corsage but the girl normally does not give one to the boy, so I have one with a fake flower which apparently is more popular here than real flowers. Anyway, we get there and there is a professional photographer out front and he takes a picture of everyone with their date and alone and then when we get inside its super pretty so we took a few more pictures ourselves before going in. The actual prom was held under like a giant tent with a dance floor and tables around it  on the grass, which was difficult because our chairs kept sinking into the dirt all night!  So when we for there at like 9 people just kind of socialized and took pictures and that fun stuff and then dinner was served around 11:30 or so -I was dying- and it was some really weird food that i didn't even really eat. After that the dancing began and there was an open bar which shocked me but hey, alright Peru. So from that point on into the wee hours of the morning we just kept dancing and talking and it was a great last night to be with all of my peruvian friends together. Prom here ends at 6 in the morning! That was actually hard for me because around 2 i was about done for the night. But I pushed on, and made it all the way to the end!! When it ended the majority of people took buses back to the villas, which is a place thats like a gated military community where most of the students of my school live, but a few just called taxis to come and get them. I went back in the bus to the villa with all of the exchange students and from there we separated and went back home.  I got home at like 8 and after some breakfast and changing out of my dress I slept and slept and slept. My goodness was I exhausted! But i really did have an amazing time even if everything didn't go according to plan :)  Too bad in peru you only get to go as a senior!!!