The Saints Go Marching...

Today was supposed to be our most hectic and intense days yet. Our schedule was to be as follows:

-Meeting at Municipalidad at 8:45 (to give provide video footage for tomorrow)

-Class from 9-11-- with the older boys

-Meeting at 11 with our costume lady/ then book our trip to Machu Picchu

-Rehearsal from 2-4--with the younger boys

-Meeting at 5 at Municipalidad (to pick up video footage)

-Meeting at 5:30--- to go find spray and face paints

-Rehearsal with all of the students from 7-9

-Then meeting up with our new American friends (that we met at dinner last night) to go dancing.

So, having three rehearsal scheduled for the day, you can imagine how surprised we were to arrive at the orphanage this morning to find only a few students on the premises. We were then informed (by a very apologetic counselor) that our morning and afternoon rehearsals were both canceled due to the fact that the children will be marching in another one of the Independence Day parades, today. In Peru, around the time of their Independence day their are multiple parades at all times of the day all over the city that last anywhere from 10 minutes to over an hour.

As Victor, our host, explained to us, children marching in these parades is a great source of pride for Peruvian citizens--it's so important, in fact, that it is even something the children have to study in school. If children do not march their teachers often mark them down. Because literacy rates are so low Victor holds a great concern for the children of his city and his country. His vision is to use theatre to improve literacy and change the face of Peru's youth. Thus, when we returned early today and informed him that our rehearsal had been cut short due to the children marching in the parade, he was very disappointed---it is evident that his sentiments on this subject differ vastly from that of most of his fellow countrymen.

I myself was fairly disappointed (even though these rehearsals would have made our day more full) because it was to be our last day of rehearsals and we were going to spend a great deal of time with the kids. The thought that tomorrow may be the last time I'll ever see them makes me incredibly sad. But, I am comforted by the fact that we will have at least one rehearsal with them tonight, one with them in the morning, and then we can spend as much of our free time (before our 4 o'clock performance) tomorrow as we'd like.

And, on a completely unrelated note, this morning before we headed off to the orphanage, I was bent down on the sidewalk outside putting my camera in my bag (while waiting for Ryan outside the office where he was helping Victor send out invitations) when a lovely old Peruvian woman walked by. I briefly glanced up to see her smiling fondly and catch her eye as she wished me good morning. And then, rather unexpectedly,she stopped, patted me lovingly on the head, and then went on about her merry way. It was incredibly nice. Though, I will admit I wasn't entirely sure how to react.

This may be all for today.

We're off to our costume meeting now and by the time 

we're back here again this evening our internet will most likely already be gone. 

So, wish us luck on the rest of today's endeavors!

-sarah