Rain is wonderful, but makes my clothes stink

First off, thank you everyone who is reading and commenting on my blog.  It makes me happy to hear that people have read it and discussed it with others:) 

Second, my title has nothing to do with what I´m about to talk about, it is just a random fact.

Third, Heather Dappen is absolutely wonderful and creatively fantastic!  She wrote me a little story that I would like to share with everyone.  I sadly cannot show you the amazing pictures that accompany the words. 

If You Give Americans Peanut Butter by H. W. Dappen. 

Dedicated to Victoria Walnut.

Sometimes it can be a very dangerous thing to offer American girls food.  If you give Americans Peanut Butter...
Then they´re not going to be satisfied with just Peanut Butter.  They will need some bread to go with the peanut butter.  And if they have bread they´re going to want any number of things.  Jelly, honey, banana, marmalade...
And if you give Americans sandwiches, then they´re going to want to have a balanced meal and they will want apples, celery, carrots or pretzels to put their peanut butter on. 
And if you give Americans a balanced peanut butter meal, then they´re going to want a peanute butter dessert... (this page had pictures of reeses, a peanut butter cake with a peanut butter cherry on top, and cookies with peanut butter on them:)
And if you give Americans a peanut butter desert, then they´re going to start craving other foods to wash all the peanut butter down... (picture of us with milk mustaches)
If you give Americans more food, they´ll start eating everything in sight.  (beautiful picture of me and heather eating a car and rubbish and we even took a bite out of the page!)
And if you let the Americans eat everything, then they will have nothing left to eat but... YOU!!! And that is why it is very dangerous to give Americans peanut butter, but in all reality PLEASE GIVE US PEANUT BUTTER!

I think this book will be a number one best seller!  I laughed so hard when I read it.  I can´t help but smile when I think about it. 

One of my favorite things to do on the boat to town is listen to music with Heather.  She brought a splitter so we can both listen with our headphones.  We dance (the best we can while sitting on a boat) and lip sink the whole time.  People used to look at us like we were crazy... now I think they are used to it hehe.  One volunteer said everytime she hears me and Heath laugh on the boat she laughs too, even if she´s far away.  I´m glad laughing is contagious:)

Heather and I have tried various little cafes and restaurants around town and have found a delicious chinese place that we are about to go have lunch at.  You can get a large bowl of soup, a full plate of food, and a small drink for 8 soles!!!! That is less than 3 american dollars. You gotta love this place:)

We also found this delightful little place across from the post office.  It is a hole in the wall kind of place and only has 3 stools to sit on on the sidewalk.  I got an empanada, a large glass of juice, and a sandwich for 3 soles (1 american dollar)!  I am almost drooling just thinking about it.

In case you haven´t noticed... food is on my mind a lot hehe.  I would like to inform everyone it is not just Americans that think about food!  I´ve hade 30 minute conversations (yes more than one convo) with people from around the world about the food they miss.  I tell them about Taco Bell ( I am a little disgusted with myself for missing it) and Red Robin.  Not even the east coast Americans have been to Red Robin!  That will be one of the first restaurants I go to when I get home:) If you have not tried it, order a whiskey bbq chicken burger with a side of onion ring sauce... it is to die for!  I know I´m a tad bit pathetic for planning my first meal 7 months away... oh well. The simple things in life hehe.

A recent activity I had was painting the Hob platform.  It is a bird watching platform located right by a swamp.  The old platform was too old to use and so a carpenter built a brand new one.  It was a very fun activity.  A couple of the other girls and I got goofy and painted smiley faces on the back of our shirts.  I think the painting fumes might have gotten to my head a little... I wasn´t thinking right and Yessi, a staff member, told me to ¨throw away¨the bad paint that was turning yellow.  So I turn and literally threw the paint out of the bucket onto the ground... not what she meant and not very conservationist of me!  I ended up cleaning it up with a sponge though so hopefully did not to a lot of damage to the environment.

I have also helped cook a few more meals here.  The cooks, Reyna and Sheyla, are very nice and fun.  It´s hard to understand each other sometimes, but we always manage.  It amazes me how far body language and motioning can get a point across haha.  We made a stew and I made 2 vegetarian plates.  Reyna had to help me make the plates look good though haha.  I was going for ¨its on the inside that counts¨.... not the picture perfect plate :)

Sadly, I must go!  We are trying to buy flights to Lima today.  I love you all and hope your lives are wonderful!