Avocados!

Avocados for breakfast! You'll have to ask us about that as it is going to be one of those stories that goes down in family lore...suffice it to say that here in Peru, they spread them on bread like butter. The kids had a tough time choking it down, but made it in the end.

The morning's project was the irrigation canal again. Dad, Dylan, Alex, and Dave worked on the ditch while Mom, Persie, and Kaitlyn started to clear out the catch basin. It was about 8 x 12 feet and filled with about 6" of really sticky clay/mud and grass. The agriculture teacher brought three secondary school students - Christian, Dinson, & Jasmine - to help. They did a great job but had to leave at about 10. They are in school, after all! Dad joined this effort at about 11 and and by noon, we had cleared the whole thing!

Persie had a headache, so went back to the room to rest. The secondary school English teacher came and asked if Alex and Dylan would come to his room to speak with his students, so Mom & Dad needed to teach the 4th graders all by themselves! For lunch, we had green spaghetti, made with peas and spinach, and potato salad with cheese sauce that Mom learned to cook in her cooking class.

After lunch, we had some free time - read more of "Throne of Fire" and rested - then headed out to make adobe bricks. We had some help from a teacher and another older mana and soon had 18 beautiful bricks and a big pile of sifted dirt. Dylan was a monster with the pick, Mom & Alex got really muddy making bricks, and Dad & Persie sifted and gathered straw.

In the middle of making bricks we took a break to help the local kids pick up trash around town. Mom took a team, Dad & Persie took a team, and Alex & Dylan tools team. The latter won with 7 bags of recyclables (they found the town dump)!!

For dinner, we had Lomo Saltado which was like a beef stir fry with vegetables and French fries. After dinner, we played spoons with everyone and had Pisco Sours...lots of laughing!