It's funny that in my last post I mentioned my lack of appetite...It has suddenly returned with the force of a charging three-wheeled Juliaca cart (taxi/motorcycle thingys). I have taken to eating copious amounts of bread at breakfast and dinner (I think this morning I had six...). Anyway, I suppose that's good news.

The past week and a half have been quite eventful. We have successfully started classes at the colegio (high school), the local kids of Chijnaya can't seem to get enough of English class, I'm still playing a lot of cards (though not as much), and the rain is slowly showing its face among rather startling claps of thunder and lightening bolts.

The classes at the high school are going well, though all of the classes that we have are at a very very basic level of English, despite what their 'textbooks' indicate. We were told by the director of the high school that our job was to enhance the curriculum laid out in their texts, but these are about five or six levels above their actual abilities. This means that we are starting from scratch and get to be really creative when it comes to how we're going to structure the class. I think it's going to be quite fun, though challenging (I'm already thinking about possibilities for class at least five times a day).

The classes themselves have around 25 kids in them, from the ages of 15-20. There are many kids that come in from Chijnaya to the colegio, so we're getting to know a broader spectrum of the community as well as teaching English, which is great. So far the biggest challenge is getting the kids to talk, though they say that becoming better at pronunciation is one of their priorities. We've been playing games like 2 truths and a lie, and chalkboard races to get them involved. Now the question is maintaining that involvement throughout the next few weeks.

In our English classes in Chijnaya, involvement is the opposite of a problem. Yesterday, in the middle of a rain/thunder/lightening storm Maren discovered seven kids waiting outside her bedroom door for class! We had told them the day before that there would be no class because the school was not open, but this did not seem to bother them in the least. Of course we couldn't ignore such enthusiasm so we had a game day class, playing 'blind cow' (which everyone got a kick out of because they got to wear cow masks), Simon Says, and Memory (which they got Super into). So, despite some middle school 'delinquents' (mal criados) who were a bit disruptive last week, I'd say our classes have been quite the success!

There isn't too much news on the homefront besides the insane amount of work everyone is putting into building stables. Each family has been given money from the local government to build stables, so it seems like every where we look people are making adobe, stacking adobe, and resting against newly stacked adobe. I once offered to help and Paula's father said 'Sure, you can either take my big shovel or Richard's little one.' I replied that I should probably take his (to give him a rest) seeing as I'm rather tall. Then, as I bent down to take off my shoes so they wouldn't get caked with mud, Paula's mother (Margarita/mamaranti) called out 'No, you can't do that. It's man's work!' Paula's father had been joking with me! Anyway, I was a bit distressed, but Mamaranti (grandmother in Quechua..I think) came to the rescue again and told me I could help her cut the hay for the adobe. She is one wonderful woman.

I had some more fun last night with Paula's extended family who were celebrating the purchase of her brother-in-law's motorcycle. This basically entailed everyone sitting in a circle around the motorcycle taking beer shots and watching a DVD of this year's town anniversary celebration while a 2 year old bounced up and down like a maniac on a plastic yellow horse-thing in the middle of the circle. It was a pretty great time.

That's all for now,
¡Tupananchiskama! (until later)