Halloween and other Holidays

Peruvians celebrate two things on Oct. 31: Halloween for children, and the national music festival for adults. Our children have apparently not dressed in costumes at the orphanage, but did associate Halloween with candy. Last night, our attorney and her husband came by, and were here to help translate when a pediatrician came to give the children their physical exams. All are basically healthy, although the doctor prescribed some antihistamines and ibuprofen for coughs and colds. After they left, Chrissy took the children out into the hall so they could ring our doorbell and Doug could hand out candy. First they were themselves, then they were animals, then they were ghosts.

The most scary thing though, is something else white and frightening, a substance so horrifying and slimy it threatens to undermine the very basis of our marriage: these children LOVE MAYONAISSE. On fries, on chicken, on sandwiches, on vegetables...this hideous addiction will follow us to the US and invade our own refrigerator! Aaauugggghhh!

Chrissy was a little disgusted at yesterday's lunch, when we went to one of the city's best "cevicherrias." Ceviche is raw fish "cooked" in a mix of citrus juice, onions, and various herbs and spices. The boys and I ate traditional cebiche, a criollo mix, and a shrimp loaf with avocado and cold potatoes. Alex tried some, and shared some of Mom's lomo saltado (a beef and rice dish). Our girl loved her grilled fish and fries.

Today is the festival of Our Lord of Miracles in Lima, the city's patron saint. There is a huge parade with hundreds of thousands of people in attendance. Most businesses are closed. The only one that really bothers us is the laundry. They've had our dirty clothes since Friday afternoon, and with the four-day weekend, we are desperately in need of clean clothes.

This morning, Geoff Ingrum and two of his children met us at the park by the ocean and then came over for lunch. Our oldest boy enjoyed playing soccer again. There were some bigger boys that said they wanted to play, but warned Geoff that they were pretty good. After losing about 20-2, with nearly all goals scored by our oldest boy, I'm not sure they still held that opinion. Also, Chrissy skyped with her classroom this morning. They never got the sound working at their end, so she just was on camera and responded to their questions by typing out her answers.

The children have been with us in Lima for 4 days now. We've seen some examples of the children testing their limits and our patience. We're still working on learning some new hygiene behaviors. But we're also learning which child prefers to spend time with a parent one-on-one, which is willing to try new foods, and which is most eager to try English words. This week will bring a couple of observations by the psychologist, haircuts for the boys, and probably some more shopping.

Finally, three words that we didn't learn until we got here, and are now part of every conversation: "mira" (look), "claro" (clear, I get it, OK, sure, etc.), and "listo" (ready, finished, I'm done).