Next entry I promise I will put pictures up.

What has been going on in good ole Batan Grande. Well, I have picked up gardening. I planted more then 100 seeds and three weeks later I think I have five plants. I am sure that I look like the ridiculous Gringa considering everybody in my community has farmland and I cannot even grow a vegetable garden. However, I am not ready to give up yet. I continue loving to teach the fifth and sixth graders in San Luis. They are awesome. We are going to do compost and vegetable gardens in the school. (Don´t worry, with the help of the professor.) We are doing compost in the vocational class in the highschool, the only problem is that the students have to bring livestock shit from their fields to put in the fertilizer, and none of them want to enter the school with a sack of shit. (can you blame them) This Sunday was the census. It was somewhat ridiculous. The whole country shut down, except the hospitals and public phones. No stores were open and the roads were closed. We were all expected to stay in our houses all day. However, living in a pueblo far away from the city these things are hard to control, so life pretty much went on as normal in Batan Grande.

One day I went to Chiclayo and a friend not knowing that I was in the city went to visit me in my site. My family asked her what religion she is. (surprisingly that is small talk and not offensive in Peru.) She said that she was raised protestant. I don´t know if that is true or not, but nobody would dare tell a Peruvian family in the village that they are agnostic or atheist. My host cousin lowered her voice and said, ¨Really Abby is Jewish¨ as if this statement was shocking enough to requiere the lowered voice. Hana my other friend, also Jewish, has many funny stories as well. One time she was hiking with some kids. They are short so they had to jump over a puddle, while she just had to step over it. One kid asked his friend why Hana did not jump. He said, Jews aren´t able to jump. I am not talking smack about these Peruvians because it is not prejudice but just lack of knowing. It is a very catholic nation and therefore there is not knowledge of other religions or the choice not to follow a religion simply is not even thought of as an option. Well, this is it. I should go to work.

I just got back from Lima, meaning that I had Starbucks, Cheese burgers, Spinach dip, Quesadillas, Margaritas, Sweet rolls and.........no rice. What this also means is that I went to my favorite shopping center, Polvos Azules. It is a huge warehouse full of blackmarket items such as every single pirated DVD including many DVDS for movies that are not out in theater yet. I love it not only for the selection but for the service. I brought back a non functioning DVD two months after I bought it, because I live 12hours from Lima. They exchanged it without a hint of complaining. This would never happen in a legit store in Peru, In fact in legit stores, many times I have taken things back with a receipt and a guarantee and they have found ways to not exchange the product. Someone once said to me that more then 50 percent of the economy in Peru is illigitimate businesses and that does not surprise me. Today, I am starting a vegetable garden, something I have never done before...Other news, I have tried studying for the GRE, but have not succeeded because it makes me anxious because it is a reminder that I have no idea what I want to do with my life and therefore what I should study in Grad school. My face is swollen and itchy because I used a laundry bar soap to wash it when I ran out of soap..bad idea. Well, this is about it.