Fiesta!

This past weekend was party tie in Peru. They all were pretty interesting in their own ways, so I thought I{d tell you a little about them. The first party was for Renalto. He is the 2-year-old son of Tatiana. She was one of the youth who lived on the streets. She died in a drowning accident at the river last winter. She was very loved by everyone here. At this party, the dining/living room was lined with chairs where all the adults sat, just looking at each other, not talking much. At one end was a big table with a huge Sponge Bob Square Pants cake and other mystery snack. The party consisted of talking with the person next to you while listening to very loud salsa and dance music. We listend to the song "Hey Ya!" at least 8 times, no joke. The little kids were encouraged to dance in the middle of everything, which was quite entertaining.

At various points in the party, the aunt would pass around a try of snacks. No plates, napkins, or anything...just take a handfull and eat. I'm learning that no food tastes like I think it will, so the potato chips were thicker and not as salty as I was thinking, the mints were a little musty tasting, and things that looked like they should be really sweet were not. They also had these cold potato ball/cake things. I tried one and would not feel bad if I don't have another. I was expecting a cheesy flavor and instead got a lime flavor.

The biggest suprise was the cake. Now, we knew it wasn't a good sign when we saw the force that the aunt used to cut through it. It was a very dry cake, again, not very sweet, with a sticky/tough marshmallow-frosting.

The next party of that evening was at Generacion. If you remember, that's the home where about 50 street kids live. They have an anniversary celebration each year. They had a DJ and this guy singing and whistling over the beat music. This guy would whistle like I've never heard anyone whistle before. They fed everyone a plate of beans, rice, and a little meat. one of the great things about being around the street kids is that food never goes to waste. When I'm full, I just find a kid to give my leftovers to, which is never hard to do.

The coolest part of the Generacion party was the firewoks. The kids had built this 2-3 story thing out of sugar cane stalks. They lit it on the bottom and suddenly a flurry of fireworks burst from the bottom level. Then, it was a little silence while the flame traveled up to the next level. That level had several things that spun out stream of sparks. The top level had a bar that rained down sparks and this small circle things that shot off the top insto the air before exploding into a small burst of fireworks. Seriously, I am not doing this contraption justice in this email, but it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen.

Another great thing about the Generacion party was that dancing can take the place of words, so it didn't matter than I don't speak many words as long as I say yes to "¿Baile?" (which means, "dance?). It was so cool to see all these kids having such a great time.

On Sunday, about 15 of us took a bus about 2 hours south to Canete for Sandy's 5th firthday party. She is the daughter of Adiete, one of the girls who comes to Casa Job often. Her family was so generous. They fed us all sopa secca, which is a traditional dish of that town. It has spaghetti noodles with a red sauce (but not made from tomates, I'm not sure what it was, really), potatoes, and chicken...a chicken that I'm sure was running around the yard earlier that morning.

They had all of us seated around the dining room table, while they squeezed around the edges of the room. The generosity of people and the way they treat guests is so amazing. I learned at that meal that ginger root is in the dish only for flavor and is not really very good to actually take a bite of.

The most intersting part of that party was using the bathroom. The bathroom (sink, shower, etc) was actually in a seperate building in the back yard. There was a shower curtain for a door and chickens running around alll over the back yard, so both times I used the bathrooms, I had visions of a chicken charing in or the shower curtain blowing back...both of which would not have been good. But nothing happened, thank goodness.

So, that was my weekend of parties. Thought you might find them entertaining. In my next blog I hope to tell more about the youth here and what God is teaching me so far. Thanks for all your emails, thoughts and prayers! I couldn't do this without all of that. Love you all!