1. Our class at The Casita is pretty much just insane!!! Today was the first day the kids were actually relatively calm. Lorena teaches most of the class while I literally pull apart all of the boys every few minutes to keep them from killing eachother (they're 12 yrs. old! they're nuts!), and then at some point I attempt to 'teach' English (I use the word 'teach' very loosely here... just take my word for it! lol). Anyway, like I said, NORMALLY the class is just sheer insanity. But one day last week I walked in and every child was sitting in their chairs, with their hands in their laps, absolutely silent! I looked over at Lorena in shock like, 'what the HECK is going on?!' Then I realized there was a woman in front of the class just standing there, not saying anything. And all of the kids were just SILENT with their huge eyes fixed on this woman. You could've heard a pin drop! Then the woman said a few things to the effect of, 'you're here to study. be good,' and then she walked out of the school. Even though I wasn't saying anything, I was about to freak out because I just kept thinking, 'what is going on?! who is this woman? are we in danger?!' because the kids would never act like that in a million years with just anyone... this woman looked INTENSE! I didn't know anything about her and just be looking at the kids' reactions and being in her presence for 2 seconds I was literally scared of this woman! So, yeah, I found out later that she's one of the most intense people in the entire neighborhood (and this neighborhood is in one of the roughest parts of Lima!). She killed both of her ex-husbands (which she served jail time for), but she did it because the 1st one was abusing her, and the 2nd tried to rape her daughter (this is actually true). After she got out of prison and came back to the neighborhood, anybody with a problem came to her and she would 'handle it.' Even though she's absolutely the most intense person I've ever seen (sorry, I can't think of another word other than INTENSE to describe her), she keeps everybody in line! That's why she visited my class - to 'remind' the kids that they are supposed to behave ;) Wow.
2. On a totally different note, if you are in good health, just be happy! :) You're so lucky! I celebrated yesterday because it had been about 3 weeks straight that I had ridiculous diaherrea. Until YESTERDAY! Yay!!! Lol... And I've had some kind of really stupid cold, but to the point that my nose just pours (I have to hold a tissue to it all day) and I lost my voice for a while and my throat was super sore. Paris talked to our cousin Jasmine who we found out is in a different part of Peru (random!) for 3 months also and she's had some horrible health problems here (stomach viruses, etc.)... So, rejoice in your health! Don't take it for granted!!!
