The Most Adorable Day Ever

  Sorry!  I am over a week late with my posts.  I want to write in some detail about my wonderful Friday (9 days ago) and then I’ll try and make a list of some highlights from the week to keep it simple!

  Today (last Friday, the 27th) was awesome.  I didn’t go to the hospital but instead accompanied Jenny to a 65th anniversary party of the school that she used to be the director of.  It’s a school for children (0-18ish years) with cognitive disabilities.  The event started out with an abbreviated mass.  The priest read some verses from the Bible and presented a sermon.  After, he went around the entire audience giving them a heavy sprinkling of holy water.  I think all school functions start with a mass, which is really interesting (and of course completely different than at home).  After, the director of the school made some remarks and then the program began with an adorable Spanish rendition of The Ants Go Marching In by 1 and 2 year olds kids with Down syndrome dressed in ant costumes.  I have concluded that Hispanic kids are ridiculously cute, toddlers are ridiculously cute and little kids with Down’s are ridiculously cute all resulting in the most adorable babies ever.  
  Next, there were 3-4 year old kids dressed as fruit and dancing around to a similarly themed song.  Throughout the rest of the program, one little strawberry kept wandering onstage oblivious to the audience or others dancing (also wandering through performances was a large dog and a 5 year old boy in a kangaroo costume yelling the whole time).  Next, they had the 5 year olds in an animal wedding during which the lioness bride cried and her lion fiancée ran offstage as often as he could.  The final dances were done by the older kids and portrayed different typical dances of Peru (from the jungle, highlands, and coastal regions).  Jenny used to be the director of the school, so she was honored a bit and afterwards she introduced me to some of the teachers.  On Tuesday, I’ll be going to the school to work with the psychologist/therapist.  Hopefully I’ll get to work with the babies a little too!
  The wine from lunch had given me a headache (I’d only had a small glass, it was awful though which I heard is true of most Peruvian wine) so I napped for a bit.  I was feeling a bit down when I woke up and Danielle and Annie weren’t up for hanging out, so I decided to even out my religious exposure for the day and go to Shabbat services.  Services were really nice.  It was comforting hearing some of the same tunes from at home and having a bit of a quiet respite from Lima.  After, I said hello to the Rabbi and he introduced me to two other American girls who were visiting and invited us all to his house for dinner.  
  At dinner, I met the Rabbi’s daughter, Dalia and their guests Fernando and Rodrigo, two guys from Argentina who are working in Peru for a few years.  After dinner, we dropped off the American’s at their hostel and the four of us went back to Barranco to go to a concert there.  The music was so great!  It was a mixture of Rock and native Andean music and was very Peruvian but still really modern.  They’re having another concert later in July so hopefully I can go hear them again with the volunteers.  We met some of Dalia’s friends and then some non-Peruvians (which is always fun) from Toronto and Austria.
  It was a wonderful day and I’m looking forward to seeing more of the new friends as well as starting at the school!