¡Halloween!

Yesterday, we got to experience Peruvian Halloween. Here, it is also Peruvian music day. We stopped and had some lunch in the Plaza de Armas and we were treated to a parade featuring native music, dancing, and costumes.

In the afternoon we went back out to Chachani for the 3rd day (we were lucky enough to be able to go on Tuesday as well). We brought with us some Halloween decorations and activities to do with the kids. For the first time, we were actually able to use a building in the community to do our English lesson. The building consists of one small room where the mothers of the community do most of the cooking for their families. When we arrived, they were just cleaning up from lunch, so we threw the frisbee around for a little while before getting started.

We had a record number of children come out for the activities. We first taught the children the parts of the face in English, using a Jack O Lantern as our model. The kids had a particularly hard time with the "th" sound at the end of teeth and mouth, but other than that, they were great. They spent the next hour working on perfecting their own Jack O Lanterns using the supplies that we had brought with us. Even the mothers and older kids got involved. This was the first time that the mothers were there with us and it was really nice. They were even trying to learn the parts of the face in English too.

When the Jack O Lanterns were finished, they had to say "Happy Halloween" to get some candy. They were so excited about the candy! These children really do not have very much, so even a small thing like contruction paper and candy, is a big deal to them. We gave candy to the mothers too who were so appreciative.

Next up was face painting! Almost all of the kids wanted to have their faces painted with all sorts of things. The most popular seemed to be butterflies (mariposas) and flowers (flores). We stayed an extra half hour and by the time we were done, most of the kids had decorations on both cheeks, hands, and forehead. They kept coming back for more!

They were also really excited about pictures. They always wanted to pose for another picture and demanded to see the results immediately. They love seeing themselves in pictures, especially with their faces covered with paint.

At night, we finished the Halloween celebration with a party with the other volunteers over at the volunteer flat. We managed to scrounge up some costumes at the last minute thanks to Luis, one of the volunteer coordinators, taking us to Halloween central in the city. We had to navigate some crazy streets filled with costumed people to get back at night (and that was at 11:00!). They seem to really enjoy Halloween here. The kids go around the city from store to store saying, "Halloween!" instead of "trick or treat" to get candy. The stores also only decorate the day before, something we´re certainly not accustomed to (are there Christmas decorations up all over the place at home yet?) All in all, it was a great day with both the kids and the other volunteers. Hope you all had a great Halloween as well. Enjoy the photos!

The kids show off their work.

Chris poses for some more photos.

The kids enjoy their lollypops.

Marcos and Anthony pose with their Jack O Lanterns

Another satisfied customer enjoys her face paint.

There was even time for some basketball.

Jen poses with Stephanie, one of the girls that really appreciated us coming each day.