I saw my first Peruvian Llama today!

We took a field trip to a mountain town called Callahuanca today. The drive was about an hour up a beautiful mountain side. It was still pretty dry looking, but there was more green than we see at our site. Callahuanca is famous for their cherimoyas, a mellon type fruit that is extremely sweet and has countless medicinal properties, according to the town folk. They even have a Cherimoya festival every year!

15 of us went there with our Language teachers for a new and different cultural and language emersion. I really liked it! It was great to see a new place and do something different with our day. We started out by talking with the Municipalidad (town hall/ government building) that works to organize and fund many programs around town. Understanding the Spanish was difficult for most of us, as the people speak much faster and less clear than our language teachers! From there we had lunch and ice cream.

Afterwards we went to visit a school and split up into groups to speak to the students. We weren't given any structure or instructions besides to introduce ourselves to the students. My group happened to be made up of 5 novice mid level speakers and me, an intermediate low.

*Side note about Spanish levels: the staff divided us according to our language level as determined by a phone call interview a week before departure. There are 3 groupings: novice, intermediate, and advanced. Within those groups are 3 levels: low, mid, and high. In order to pass training and become an official volunteer, we have to test out of training at intermediate-mid. I got put into intermediate low, so I only have one level to go!*

So even though my spanish is still really lacking, they all looked at me to introduce the group, so I did! It went alright; it's good practice to put myself out there even if I look and sound silly. We've been practicing the description for Cuerpo de Paz (Peace Corps) so it wasn't bad. We answered tons of questions the kids had about what part of the states we're from to have we know Top Model or have we met Barack Obama.

After that we just got to hang out with the students! The taught us a traditional dance and we had a blast dancing with the kids. We also got to meet a funny looking llama locked inside a gated soccer field in the middle of town! Overall it was a great experience and I can't wait for the next field trip :)