My mother guilted me into posting another blog, do enjoy.
It's been an interesting two weeks. It's been good, and not so good at the same time. Although I being here, I'd much rather be here and healthy. Last time I wrote I was just getting over being sick, well that didn't last long. Last week I came down with strep. After a few days of not being able to swallow, I was finally feeling much better. My body, however, was like "Whoa! You can't be healthy! That's no fun!" So after a day or two of feeling good, I was sick, once again. I'm still not sure if it was food poisoning, but I don't think so because it lasted longer than 24 hours. I was puking for a couple days, anytime I wasn't on the toilet, or sometimes both - puking into the trash can while on the toilet...it was really fun. I was still having stomach pains yesterday but am feeling much better today (crossed fingers). I still have to be very careful about what I eat though. Oh yeah, I even had to go to the emergency room at 11 o'clock at night, it wasn't too fun. I felt like the night shift really didn't know what they were doing, took my heart beat like 6 times and then asked me if I was "good" every few minutes. "Yeah, I'm great. Please hand me that bowl to puke me...see? Perfect?" I was slightly annoyed as I don't like doctors anyway. They gave me a shot and sent me on my way. I think the shot helped, but who knows. The doctors asked if I was Berta's daughter, that made me smile. It was indeed an adventure.
Besides being sick, lying in bed, life has been good. There are lots of festivals going on right now, so between being sick and partying, I haven't been to the school that much. Anytime I'm healthy enough to come around, there's no school because of this festival or that festibiblia. This last week I went to a cow vestival, that was fairly exciting, but you can only watch people milking cows for so long. After the dancing was over, we got bored and took a walk in the cow fields. It was a great view of all the snow on the huge mountains, it's awesome out here. There was a festibiblia on Saturday, which was boring at parts and entertaining at others. I really liked watching all the dances. They have such beautiful clothing here for their celebrations. I want to go and buy every one of the skirts I saw! But I wont.
Hmm, what else? We were walking in Urabamba when we saw a man with an ostrich. We were driving to Urcoss when we passed a cage of lions. Quite strange. You don't usually see lions and Ostridges in this part of Peru. I'm starting to get along with the kids more, although there are still a few that just don't tickle my fancy. My favorite kid is Rene, he is adorable and so sweet. Alex and I have a secret handshake, we're buds. I love the kids, but they've been giving me a little too much love. They hug and play with me so much, that the little bugs that live in their clothes have jumped onto mine. I thought I was getting a weird body acne or something, but turns out it's something more like fleas. They now live in my clothes and mattress, so I wake up with a new bite pretty much every day. They are pretty small and only itch a little, so it's really not too bad. Hmmm...what else? Berta has been taking amazing care of me, she baby's me a little too much. But since I've been so sick, I don't mind. She is so funny, we get along great. There is a particular neighbor lady that I don't really like, but I'm going to try to have a change of heart and realize she's only trying to help and sometimes she gets lonely. Last night I went to a fireside and then choir practice for the stake here in Cuzco, that was kind of fun. There were sister missionaries there who spoke English - they asked me to say a prayer and said it was ok if I said it in English becuase I haven't really been taught how to say a prayer in Spanish yet. One of them came up to me afterwards and said how nice it was to hear a prayer in English haha. Sadly, I wont be here most Sunday nights for practices but they sing in Plaza De Armas on Saturday nights sometimes and hand out pass-along-cards, so that will be fun to participate in. I like my ward, they're very nice and patient with me.
Well, I think that covers the last two weeks fairly well. It was mostly spent in bed being sick, but I've kept myself sane. Sending love from Peru!
-Alisa Escalante-
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