Aldea Yanapay

Today I went to Aldea Yanapay's weekly volunteer meeting after receiving an invitation from the volunteer coordinator. It was in a restaurant in San Blas that is a less intense version of Baltimore's Paper Moon (next time when I'm not there for work purposes I'll snap a few photos). All of it's profits go to Aldea Yanapay. The cool thing about this company is that they have a hostel and a restaurant that fund the free services for the kids. The volunteer coordinator was telling us how a lot of the kids comes from abusive families, some have drug addicted parents and so forth. He basically laid down the rules of engagement, the history of Aldea Yanapay and the schedule. This non-profit has been around for 8 years, which is a long time for a non-profit to last in Peru. I'll be expected to have 2 hours worth of activities planned for the kids which I'm excited for! 

Actor friends- feel free to comment on your favorite theater games when you were a kid, or ones you think kids would enjoy! So far I'm certain we'll play zip zap zop, the wind blows, this is a spoon, and maybe freeze. But I'm so open to suggestions!

The volunteer coordinators invited us to come see the kids show which was Halloween themed this week. So I got some food and headed back home. .  partly because they told me I should dress up, but really I was eager to return to my knitting. It's so much fun. I'm glad I finally got the hang of it.

Here are some photos from my walk to the bus stop

After resting a bit, I went out again to visit Aldea Yanapay's Halloween fiesta. I got there really early so I ended up helping hang decorations and setting up for the party. I met a nice girl from Canada and her aunt who are also thinking about volunteering. All the volunteers seem really cool. Young travelers mostly, like myself. Every friday they have a party / buffet in the restaurant and hang out.

I'm really quite shy when I first meet people. I'd love to get over that.

Joel, Luz's nephew who I went out with last weekend, invited me out again tonight but I'm such an old lady. I told him I was too tired to go out and I had to go to the Farmer's Market at 6am con his abuela. I'm going to start cooking for myself this week!

Currently watching Steve McQueen's Shame and knitting.

This is what a good time looks like.