Peru: Day 23 (Dunkin Donuts in Detention)

Three and a half weeks in. The last two weeks have been somewhat less adventurous than the first two. I went to the two churches on sunday morning, the first one being Immanuel Biblia Iglacias. It was en Español, so we only stayed for the 9:00 worship. Afterwards, we headed to Union Church, which is a non-denominational church for English speaking people....like us. It was alright. I found it to be much mellower and more conservative than City Center Church, which I am beginning to miss greatly. Immanuel was a pretty exciting church, and I have been to it three times since the third. of august. It is somewhat similar to City Center Church. I´ve had a translator the last couple times, and the pastor´s seem very excellent.
After that Sunday, Becky and I had a week of training, which consisted of us doing ´schoolwork´. We needed a break after day two, and, after work, we went, with Mary, and our two Peruvian friends (and coworkers), Vanessa D. and Vanessa G, to Miraflores. Miraflores is a touristy part of Lima, and it also happens to be on the ocean. We walked around a couple of clifftop parks overlooking the ocean. Very beautiful. We then stopped in at a nice little restaurant called Cafè Cafè. We ate some food and chilled out and just had a very nice time.
We completed the training. I worked with the Vanessa G. in our classroom. We are teaching grades 4, 5, and 6 together. The first week of classes (August 11-15) had it´s ups and downs. Kids are kids, and so it took a little bit of time to get them to settle down. I have got to say that I do enjoy that everyone addresses me by Mister. Mister, can you help me? Mister, can I do this? Mister can I go over there? etc. There is a demerit system on which this school operates. If a child is misbehaving or talking during classes or something, they get a demerit. If they get three demerits in a day, they then recieve a detention. So the first couple of days, I handed out a few demerits, kind of feeling out the whole idea. The kids whined a little when I gave them their demerits, but generally behaved afterwards. Something happened last thursday (14th) though, that changed the students drastically. They became ignorant, and disruptive, and I don´t know if it was because the end of the week was nearing, but they just did not listen. Some students didn´t even acknowledge me talking to them. So thursday ended up being a day for detentions. I gave out 2. I laid down the law Thursday thinking that Friday would be better. But friday was actually even worse. One student got two detentions, and the total number of students with detentions was eight. It was quite the mess. The kids have behaved a lot better the first two days of this week, so I am hoping it will continue for awhile.
Oh, I forgot to mention. I bought a suit. I look stunning.
Friday night after work, Becky and Noemi (friend from school), and moi went to an English Bible study at Dean Milley´s house. It was a great relaxing time and Becky and I both felt really good afterwards. Kind of just refreshing.
This past Saturday, we went to Immanuel again, for their youth service. It was a really incredible experience. The music was similar to City Center, but a lot louder. There were lots of songs that they sang that I recognized, whether it was Hillsong, or others. It was really nice to know the songs, because then I could just sing in English. We were out late Saturday, and decided that Sunday morning would be for sleeping. Good thing that we are in Peru though, because there are 6 different services at church. One at 7, 9, 11, 1, 5, an 7. Plus a youth service on Saturday. So we went to the 5:00 service, which is somewhat of a youth service as well. After church we went out to Dunkin Donuts. Oh, it was wonderful. More good times with friends here.
Last night, Becky and I went to Miraflores again, to see Dean Milley (the guy who set us up down here). Becky needed to get a bank account, so Dean offered to help and also invited us to have dinner with him. We got the bank account set up and then he took us to Pardo´s Chicken. It is a chain restaurant similar to the Swiss Chalet or something. I had chicharròn de polle, which is like chicken nuggets, but only really really really good. And real chicken. Dean also insisted that we try ´tres leches´. It is a moist cake made with three different milks. And it was amazing. I am going to figure out how to make it so I can make it for everyone back home. Really really tasty. Anyways, that brings me to now. I am coming up on the one month mark (this Sunday night), and that is pretty crazy. It´s pretty sweet that there are still four months until Christmas, cause I am truely enjoying myself downhere. Well, I´ll try to let you know how I´m doing prior to two weeks from now. Ta ta.