Taste the rain.

Friday:
BEEP BEEP BEEP...off goes the alarm. I roll over to turn it off. It reads 6am. "oh already?" I ask. I can really go back to sleep until 7. Back to sleep I go, until...."!BEEEEEEEEEEEP!" what was that? Sounds like my computer. Great don't tell me it's dead. No the power just went out. Ok so now what time is it? Ah, close to 7. I can afford to sleep a bit longer.

Pit pat pit pat...wow, what is that noise? Sounds like rain. I bet it is just the sprinkler. I get out of bed to look. No, wait it is rain! It's raining! Just think of how easy gardening will be today. So then I think to myself. No power and raining...perfect morning for staying in bed and reading! That doesn't last too long. Outside I hear little voices delighting in the rain. I look out the window and see one girl with a happy scrunched up face as she walks throught the rain to breakfast, another dances in the rain with a smile the size of Texas, and then yet another shrugs her shoulders and puts her hands halfway up, maybe trying to get the rain to stop falling. I crawl back into bed and just sit there for a while listening to the birds singing and the rain stop. To be continuted....

Later... So the day proceeded on as un normal as it possibly could. I went to work in the garden first thing because the ground was wet and soft. Then a group of medics came from the US to do check-ups on the kids and workers. How cool was that! And my friend Emery Irvine from CRS was there with them! It was great to see her and get to catch up. That afternoon we (volunteers) had a short meeting on medicine and what to give kids when. The house mothers then went to a seminar in Trujillo, leaving a few of us in charge until about 7pm or so. Now remember, we still have NO POWER. I head into Salaverry around 5 with Lori and John (2 of our other volunteers) for candles. When we get back ALL of the kids are running around like wild monkeys, playing in the "rain" (spit of rain is more like it). We then find out there is also now no water, due to the fact our water pump is electrical. Ok so let's review. Weird day, rain, no power, and now no water. So we eat by candle light. How sweet you say? HA! I think you are looking for the word caotic, and boy was it! After dinner, the kids went to their houses and played games, sang, and read bible stories. I remember standing some of us standing by one of the upstairs windows facing the gate, just waiting for someone to tell us good news. Nothing happened so I went to sleep.

Saturday:

We have water! It is limited but we have it! Later in the day, Sam tells us about this ceremony that our friends from the campina are playing at, so we decide to go. Around 7ish we head out dressed in our best. Well best rainy clothing. In Moche we wait for Sam at the plaza de armas. We see lots of people dressed up for what looks like a prom, but most likely means a party of some type. Well we are near the Catholic church and see a wedding. We ask a passerby what is happening here tonight and he tells us, "well it is a wedding." WHAT a wedding! We then think so our friends are playing at a wedding? Wow are we underdressed. We decide to stick around until Javier shows up at 8. But Javier never shows and we found out that at 8 (which turned into 9) was a wedding for Javier's brother Carlos. We decide what the heck, let's go to the wedding. We sit in the back, hoping not to be noticed, but the camer guy gets us in the face for a long time. Now Carlos and Isabel will look back on their wedding day video and see a bunch of underdressed gringos and either say, "who are these bums? or Wow rememeber our friends, so glad they came!" Let's shoot for the second one! We decide to go to the reception with 12am being our time to head back home for the night. We get there and well now it is almost 12 and the party hasn't even started. We all are seated and waiting for drinks and food. This is a nice sit down dinner, steaks and all. It is also raining harder now. yay! We proceed to eat and watch the groom dance with the bride and then they both danced with everyone else in the family and then whoever wanted to dance with them could...all to the same song. egh. Then finally the fun part stars..dancing! We all head out onto the dance floor and salsa, cumbia, and just dance! We also got onto Javier for not telling us the ceremony was a wedding..and his brother's wedding at that! But all in all we had a blast!

Sunday:

I am in a house the Luces...this is a first for me, well just being in thier house. We still have no power, but we did have a great day playing outside and painting fingernails. That night we played mancala and hung out by candle light. It was very enjoyable and almost relaxing!

Monday:

I am sick. I woke up and thought I was going to die. Nothing would stay in my body and so I slept until 10:30ish. I then decide I am a wimp for being sick and I should go outside and help with games. I stand outside and we are jumping rope. Easy enough. Then at teh end of reading time I get a big wiff of lunch being cooked and think I am going to be sick all over again. But I decide I can at least make it through art and then take the rest of the day off and sleep. So I barely make it through art, but I do and head straight back to bad. By 3 I wake up and fell achey all over, thinking I am going to die soon. Power come ON! I hear shouts of joy from outside and plug in my computer. Ah, now I can at least watch movies while I am lying here dying.

Tuesday:

I am feeling a lot better. My stomach is still a little queezy but I manage to eaat some dry cheerios.

Wednesday:

Still no internet, but at least it hasn't rained again. That night we head to Starbucks to use internet and let teh world know we are alive out here. They have air-conditioning in Starbucks! How wierd that was. We head back home and it is starting to rain again....

Thursday:

I wake up to hear rain, rain, and more rain. Ugh not another rainy day...go away! So I head out to fix something to drink and I walk straight into a flood. On the SECOND floor! I then see Lena pushing rain out of her room and both of the rooms were flooded. I run back into my room, thinking man I should've stayed in bed. But then I wake up Becca and Beks to come help push water off the floor into the drain. We then realize that the water of the flat roof is leaking through the skylights and cealing. Some of us head upstairs to push the water down the drains, while others are down trying to get water out of bedrooms and such. This takes us a couple of hours, because it is still raining. So we have decided to cancel morning programs due to the rain and damage done. We finally finish and decide to head to Salaverry to help some of the workers with their homes. As we get there everyone tells us they woke up at 5 to clean their houses and we were too late. But we did end up helping in the church and a little in the streets (everything was flooded). The bomberos (firemen) finally came to suck the water out of the streets.

-Coastal peruvian buildings and streets are not built for the rain. They do not have many drains and if they do they are up higher than anything else....wierd I know.

So we get home and try to go on with as many activities as we can. I get a chance to plant the radishes finally! That night we make sand bags to block the rain, just in case it came back. Friday was normal and I finally washed clothes. No internet still, but I am now at Patty and Alleen's for the day (Saturday) so I can use the internet here! Thanks guys! It did rain last night, but not nearly enough to flood again! Hopefully things are looking up!

Hoping we will have internet again soon, by Tuesday they say...but you never can tell. I miss you all and pray you are stayign dryer than me!

Love and Happy Valentines Day!

* it is now monday & we have internet!