Buzz, the monkeys aren't working...

Just moments after my last post Ryan and I gathered all of our bags and headed out the door to wait for our taxi to pick us up and take us to the bus station.

Unfortunately, despite the fact we had confirmed that our taxi would pick us up at 9:20 on three separate occasions, it still was a no show.  But, not to worry, one of the very friendly American neighbors saw us waiting in the street and offered to call us another taxi which arrived around 9:42pm. We then sped off to the bus station just in time to make it on to our 10:00 o'clock bus. We had just gotten settled and comfortable in our seats when, to our dismay, the bus operator came to tell us that the seats we were sitting in were already taken and that we would have to get off the bus. (The reason for this being that we had booked a bus for the day earlier but, since we had to push our trip back a day due to my altitude sickness, we had had to change our tickets to the next evening. And, we had been told that just such a switch had been approved.) Long story short, we were able to get back on the bus but not without shelling out another 50 soles for seats that were already completely paid for. But, I digress. It was a mere speed bump (one of many), but we were finally on the road to Puno. (Yay!)

Our bus pulled into the station here in Puno at exactly 4:45 this morning. Ryan and I retrieved our bags, at which point I discovered that somehow between the Cusco and Puno bus terminals one of the wheels on my roller suitcase had completely broken off of my bag. After determining the best way to roll on three wheels, we entered the bus station where the wonderful Victor Pauca was waiting for us with a board that read 'SARAH' in all caps.

I was so happy and relieved to see this man (that I had never met but have been trying to reach for the past 5 days) that I immediately embraced him. We then caught a taxi to Victor's apartment and crawled into our new beds.

A few hours later we woke up, had some warm milk and bread (again :)) and then headed out to meet with the director of the orphanage. While at the orphanage we had the opportunity to meet the older group of boys we would be working with. One by one they came up and introduced themselves to me, some even kissing me on the cheek. (Want. To Take. Them Home.) We then left the orphanage to go to lunch at vegetarian restaurant where I, unintentionally, poured myself a glass of beet juice. (Which is not my new favorite thing in the world.)

Then we headed back to the orphanage to have our first class with eleven 8-10 year old boys. We learned names.We played basketball. We passed the clap. We followed the leader. We read 'Salto!' and then...we ran out of Spanish vocabulary.

Now, I know most of you are thinking "why did you go to Peru if you can't speak Spanish?" This is a question I frequently ask myself. However, the plan was never for us to go into the orphanage without a translator. Unfortunately, due to our series of setbacks we weren't able to get a translator today. But, not to worry, tomorrow we will have two :)

After this class went to talk with some of the agents at All Ways Travel who showed us a video of a performance that was put on last year. Given our experience today, and after seeing this footage we are now formulating another plan.

But, more on that tomorrow.

:)

-sarah