Boricua en la Lima

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Yesterday was a rough day for me. Probably because I'm too sensitive and if there is such a thing, too empathetic.  One of my dear friend´s 20 month old daughter was undergoing planned open heart surgery.  She was born with a heart murmur and they waited all this time to see if it would shrink, which it did, but not enough for her to be able to live a healthy life without the risk of problems later down the road. So they made the tough choice of having the 5-6 hour open heart surgery.  At the same time as I was sending positive vibes her way I start finding out that in one of my previous jobs everyone except for 5 people are getting fired.  So my heart starts breaking little by little. The fact that my friends were getting fired was tough enough, but waiting 5-6 hours without hearing news about my friend's daughter was heart breaking to say the least.  I couldn't even imagine how my friend must have been feeling.  My dear Sebas had surgery when he was ab...

I've been delaying posting this week. First I got sick with a stomach bug which left me in bed zonked out like a zombie and then there was a death of someone we know in Lima who sadly took his own life at a very young age and left behind mourning parents and grandparents. I can't imagine something more painful for a parent to go through and I still cannot wrap my head around it. It's been a very tough pill to swallow and both things have made me less than grateful for the last few days. But after hearing mass today at the funeral I heard the message of gratitude over and over again. And it just so happened to fall on Thanksgiving which is not even celebrated here in Peru. I haven't been to mass in so long but I definitely heard the message loud and clear. So today I give thanks because though it is very hard to be grateful at times I know it's the only way. I give thanks for life, health, and these beautiful munchkins.

Today we took our first day trip to La Granja Azul .  We'd been wanting to go to this place for a while but during our Christmas vacations we just never spend enough time here to be able to make it out.  So today the kids were so excited to get out we were there half an hour before we opened, which was a great thing because that way we could play around and then have lunch before the crowds descended upon the place.  The kids loved it so maybe we can celebrate Gabi's seventh birthday here. The best part about the trip was that it was totally sunny and warm, 180 degrees from the weather in Lima.   In a previous post I mocked the Lima winter but we are no longer laughing in its face.  Between my allergies and a terrible cold which kicked Sebas' butt all last week we have now come to respect the Lima winter.  I think the biggest issue is the lack of heating inside houses most of the time I'm totally freezing in Jose's grandma's house!  Hopefully on...

It started Thursday of last week.  My older girls' class was going on a picnic on Thursday and since we had just told the teachers we were leaving for Peru the teacher invited me to join.  I was super excited and doing my photographer job but then right before lunch I started feeling pretty crappy.  I thought it was the heat -- that was probably the hottest day of the year so far and spending it outside in a park was of course not helping.  Jose offered to come and get me but I felt that I had to stay with the kids' class.  By the end of that day I was exhausted but thought it was just the class trip - who wouldn't be after spending a whole day with 20 kids in the park?! By Friday I could barely move.  I actually went with the kids after school to the beach but was just lying there in the beach towel.  When we got home I officially declared "that's it, I can't get up from this couch".  Jose thought I should go to the ER on Friday night but I didn'...