The Kids Speak

Thomas: When I went to Lima I went on a airplane I got to sit next to the window. On the seat in front of you on the airplane there is a tray clipped on for you to eat on
P.S. My loose tooth came out.

Elise: There are a lot more poor and/or homeless people here than in Norfolk, and they try to sell you everything from towels to watermelons. You often pass people merely sitting on the sidewalk holding up a cup as you go by. At stoplights people come to the car windows selling candy, begging or even juggling knives.

Thomas: Ther is a lizard in my bedroom and we took a pickchr of it.

Elise: School is GREAT,and all the kids are nice so far. I have a new friend named Luz (which means light in Spanish) who is really nice. There is also a Canadian girl named Emma. Her family is down here because they're missionarys. She comes to school every Tuesday so then I get a nice break from Spanish. All of my teachers are really nice. I miss everyone back at home and at church so much but I am still enjoying Peru.

Madeleine: We have the rest of the week off, because it's Holy Week. Easter is bigger here than the holidays. We saw a parade on Tuesday, showing the 12 stages of the cross. We didn't stay for all of it, though. We passed a shrine to Mary, and Daddy said, "Look, Diana of the Ephesians!" (You can say things like this without offending them, because they don't understand you)

Paul: [Once I offered to type for him, he had a lot to say.] We went on a field trip to the orphanage yesterday. At the orphanage I got sunburned the most. We got to walk down sand dunes and slide down the drifts.

Thomas got a ball for his birthday. He also got a small foosball table top.

The girls' bedroom door got locked and we couldn't get it open for quite a while.

The first time we went to the plaza we saw a man standing on a block. In front of him was a lantern to put money in. And he had painted his face and clothes silver so that he looked kind of like a robot. When he moved he would squeak! When you put money in the lantern, he would shake your hand. Sometimes he wouldn't let go. Sometimes when you weren't looking he would pull out a fake gun and point it at you. It startled me. At the end he pulled a ticket out of his pocket to hand to you but then he would keep moving it just out of your reach. When you finally got hold of it, you had to pull really hard to get it out from between his fingers. While he was waiting for someone to put money in his lantern he would walk in place on top of his block.

Thomas: [I typed for Thomas, too.] For my birthday I got a red ball with a strawberry on it and it smelled like strawberry. We were at the park and we kicked it up against a cactus and it popped. We got another ball and the same day we got it, it popped. It had Winnie-the-Pooh on it but it didn't smell. And it was blue. Well, actually, it was purple.

We were at a restaurant with our friends and outside we saw a lady selling white bunnies for Easter.

There is lots of dogs in Trujillo. In our apartment building there is a terrier who lives upstairs and he is black and little and fuzzy. You can hear him running upstairs. I think it sounds like a piano but instead of strings it has straw. [my note: all you can hear are the dog's nails skittering across the tile.] There is lots of guard dogs and they are a little bit dangerous. If you get too close to them, they'll try to get you.

You have to wear a uniform for school. I have to do a lot of coloring in my room.

We went to somebody's house and went on top of the roof and we saw a pet monkey in somebody's back yard.

Paul: P.S. The cement is really slick here. You can skate on the sidewalks in your regular shoes.

Madeleine: Finding a piano was just like buying one: we prayed that God would help us find a piano for me to practice on, and soon afterwards, a family said they had one I could use! I have only practiced twice so far, but I think I will be able to practice about once a week from now on.

Elise: Peru is really cool. A couple weeks ago we went to Huanchaco and walked along thd beach.Then we walked around on a dock. There were lots of people fishing on it,and most of them were pulling in fish.There were lots of kinds of fish. There were long, short, fat, thin, big and small fish. After that we went to a restaurant where we ate a whole fish!

In Peru there are tons of dogs wandering around the streets, both strays and pets. Most of them are mixed-breeds and they all look interesting. There are also many cats.We all went to Chan Chan where we saw a hairless Peruvian dog. It was pretty gross. The funny thing was that it just had a little bit of hair on the top of its head.

Paul: A couple of weeks ago you asked me about school. Well, there aren't any real bullies, but there is one boy who's not exactly nice. He pushes his way to the front of the line to the door while we're waiting for the teacher. He usually has a big suitcase too. The teacher is very nice and sometimes I understand what she says but usually not. My favorite class is English class. The English teacher is really nice too and speaks quite a bit of English. Another class that I really like is P.E. In P.E. we all go to the gym and do somersaults and cartwheels and headstands and stuff like that. And I have three friends in school. One girl is named Damaris and two boys--Luis and Juan Carlos. They're all seven years old. On Wednesday we had a field trip to the orphanage and played lots of fun games like one where we stood in a line holding cups and the person at the back of the line walked to a bucket of water and waited for the teacher to say "uno, dos, tres." Then he would fill up his cup from the bucket and then pour it into the next person's cup who would pour it into the next cup. When it reached the person in front of the line, the person at the back of the line would run back to the bucket until the bucket was empty. We won second place.

We have a housemaid for our house. She usually makes big lunches after school. Once she bought a chicken with an egg and some yolks in it and she made chicken soup with it. She also bought a whole bunch of big eggs and they all had double yolks.

Elise: I really like Peru so far. Our apartment is really nice exept for the fact that almost every Saturday night our crazy neighbors (I think they rent out their lawn for people to have parties on or something) start playing music at about 5:30 P.M.[my note: they actually start around 10-11 PM] and then gradualy increase the volume or something so by 8:30 it sounds like someone has the radio on, full blast just outside your bedroom door! They keep this up until about 5:00 A.M. Aparently that sort of thing is acceptable.

Thankfuly school is really great ... All of the teachers are very kind and understanding. One of my teachers is named Miss Monica (but the kids in my class pronounce it "Mees Moeneeca") she is really nice. Whenever she says something that the class doesn't like, they all yell, "NOOOO MEEEEEEEES!!!!!!"

A lady named Lucia comes 6 days a week. She washes our clothes (by hand), cleans the bathroom and scrubs the floor. (She also cooks our lunch) Lucia is very short, like many of the people here. (She is only about as tall as me)

Even though I like Peru, I am really looking forward to the end of May when I get to come home.

Madeleine: Since we keep our windows open way more often ,there are tons of mosquitos.Each night before bed, we have a mosquito hunt.As no one wants to scrape the dead mosquitos off the walls,each room has several old,new,dry ,and fresh pressed mosquitos on the walls.
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If you're still reading, I've got a couple little stories about language acquisition. Charlie has a little drill that he does with the kids almost every day, "[in Spanish] Yesterday was Sunday, today is Monday, tomorrow will be Tuesday." So most of us have the days of the week down pretty well. Additionally, Thomas' class, mostly four year olds turning five, is covering basics like the days of the week pretty thoroughly.
So, last night I was reading a devotional with the children, "'When Jesus came to earth the angels in heaven sang for joy. One of them came down to earth to tell some shepherds that they could find Jesus, God's Son, in a stable! He was a baby then. Do you know what that day was?' Thomas?"
Thomas replied, "Uhh, I can't think of how to say it in English. All I can think of is the Spanish word..."
"Okay, just tell us in Spanish."
"Uhh, martes...[Tuesday]"

Don't know where that came from, but speaking of martes, here's the potty humor. Feel free to skip the rest of the post if you're sensitive about flatulence. Now, keep in mind that though everyone in the family has been known to pass gas with questionably timed execution, we never joke about it or even comment much, unless to give a mildly shaming admonishment. So, this past Tuesday night while Charlie was turning out the light of the girls' bedroom, he was drilling them and concurrently using his own natureopathic method of fumigating mosquitos, "[Yesterday was Monday, today is...] Ayer fue lunes, hoy es..."
Elise interrupted, "[Today is...] Hoy es...FARTES!"