New Library in Use!

A few months ago I started a project of turning a piece of junk into a library at a small elementary school in a neighborhood with a lot of poverty. After months of planning and hard work, the library is finally open and being put into use :) It is currently summer here in Peru and school is out and so I have been teaching summer classes in our new library. The kids LOVE the space and so do I! It is a safe space for kids to work on their reading and critical thinking skills and they just love being there. We have hundreds of books and many educational games that the kids enjoy and are challenged by. I have about 15 kids who come to classes regularly. I would love to have more kids but the small space doesn't allow for that.

The library is close to being done but not completely finished. There are still about 50 more books to wrap in protective plastic before I can put them on the shelves, a few more educational posters to put on the walls, and a welcome sign to be painted on the front outside wall. After everything is totally finished, I will put up some before and after photos of the library. But this is what it currently looks like on the inside:

90% put together :)

Getting creative with play dough

Reading :)

Some of my older students helping me wrap the books in protective plastic.

One of my very inteligent 3 year old students putting together an advanced puzzle :)

I will share more before and after photos as soon as the library is totally put together :) In a few days I am headed to Ecuador to visit for a week! Photos of that to come soon as well!

Los Negritos of Huallanca

My town has a "famous" and traditional dance called "El Baile de los Negritos" that occurs every Christmas and New Years in Huallanca. It's a dance that started around the 1950s and derives to "fondly remember" the black slaves who were brought to the area to work in the mines. For the dance people basically wear black masks that have wide noses and huge red lips (I know, I know, the racism but Peruvians don't really care), and very colorful outfits. This dance is so popular and loved in the area that kids start learning it when they are toddlers.

My brother, sister-in-law and her parents were in Huallanca visiting me for New Years and so they got to watch the dance and it was very special for me to share that with them. I have a lot of pride for my town and the local traditions :)

There were some other fun cultural dances going on that we got to watch. I just love Peruvian traditional dances from the mountains! They are so beautiful and have been preserved for so long and it's just amazing to me. People have such pride for their culture and traditions here which is so beautiful to me.

When my family from the US got to meet my Peruvian family :) It was very special!

My boyfriend dancing it up! Being from Lima this was all new for him!

A two year old dancing with his grandma. It was so adorable!

Watching the dances with my Peruvian family :)

I tried to upload a video of some of the dancing but the internet is too slow (even in Huaraz, the capital city of the state where I live!).

Stay tuned for the next blog post of teaching summer classes in my new library :)

A Very Peruvian New Years (with visitors from the states!)

I spent last New Year’s Eve on the beach in Northern Peru with my boyfriend and had an amazing time but I knew that this year I wanted to spend NYE in Huallanca since I will finish with my service in the Peace Corps in 2014. I wanted to start the first day of the year in my beautiful little town celebrating with the locals in their crazy ways. So I did just that. I spent New Year’s Eve in Huallanca with my boyfriend, my brother and sister-in-law and her parents who were visiting from the US. And I got to show them how Peruvians celebrate and party :)

1. Peruvians have several traditions that they do to bring in the New Year:

2. Drinking and dancing until the sun comes up
3. Wearing yellow underwear for good luck (I have no idea why!)
4. Eating 12 grapes for good luck (one for each month of the year) and making a wish for the new year with each grape
5. Making a life size doll out of old clothes that you burn at midnight to signify letting go of the old year and welcoming the new year
6. Running around the block with an empty suitcase to bring you travels in the New Year
7. Eating a big meal of potatoes and meat at midnight 

We of course wanted to participate in as many Peruvian traditions as possible and were successful in #3 and #4. We wanted to participate in traditional #2 but we didn’t see any Peruvian underwear that provoked us enough to buy it. Peruvian underwear tends to be very odd and uncomfortable. As for tradition #1 we didn’t drink and dance until the sun came up but we did dance with the Peruvians until after midnight :)

And they also sell a lot of yellow underwear in the street so that people can buy their yellow underwear for good luck

You can probably see why we weren't provoked to buy any...

Our doll that we made to burn!

My compadre trying to get us to drink some very strong and basically unbearable pure caña liquor

Pretending to drink the strong liquor (Peruvians have hard to take no for an answer)

Dancing it up Huayno style

Our doll wating to be burned at midnight!

Good bye to 2013!

Pachamanca

Eating pachamanca (my brother's first time)

Happy New Year!

It was so much fun to celebrate New Years with my brother and sister-in-law visiting me! I loved sharing my towns traditions with them and celebrating with them Peruvian style. Stay tuned for photos of my town's traditional dances that we watched on New Years Day :)