Today was Tio Mañuco's birthday. I woke up at 6.30, had a shower, then joined Mamamama for True Breakfast (see previous post). We watched some TV, chatted some more, I Skyped a few friends while she watched TV, and so passed a pleasant morning. Abuelo stayed home, and invited us for pollo a la brasa for lunch. I went out with Veronica to the nearby supermarket, Metro, to buy some - I do like watching the rows of chickens on mechanical spits, plus it was nice to walk for a bit. We passed Zari on the way and catted for a little, before she went back to the salon and we carried on to the shop. We passed some nuns wearing brown on the way out, and Veronica told me about how she'd like to be a nun - who knew?
When we got back, Tio Mañuco and Tio Alejandro were both there, along with Tia Marite - I gave Mañuco his birthday present, and we all ate some birthday cake. The cakes in the pastelerias over here tend to be very ornately decorated, full of flavour, and melt in the mouth. Unfortunately, since they're made without preservatives, it's quite difficult to bring an edible one back to the UK! We munched on cake, drank Inka Kola (the national fizzy drink - it's yellow and tastes kind-of sweet, but not sickly), and Abuelo let me have a small bt of wine. Then Mañuco and Marite had to go home, and the rest of us ate our pollo a la brasa. 'twas wonderful.
We stayed in during the afternoon - Mamamama's holistic therapist came to do some reflexology on her feet (I do a little on her hands, but since I'm not trained I don't know how much good that does), then afterwards we sat in the house. At one point I realised that I needed to change my money from dollars to the local currency, Nuevo Sol (1 sol, 2 soles, half a sol is 50 centimos just as half a pound is 50 pence). 1 dollar is 2.75 soles, I learned today, so since 1 pound is 1.62 dollars, 1 pound is about 4.45 soles. That makes sense. Anyway, so I went with Veronica to change my money into soles, so I should be okay now. I'll stop by the supermarket in Huancayo to get some change, though, to make things easier.
We got back, and I had leftover pollo a la brasa and cake, while Mamamama and Abuelo had soup. Then we watched a bit of TV, and my grandparents went to bed.
It's 7.45pm now, and I'm staying in tonight. After rounding off this blog entry I'll pack my bags for tomorrow, then read a bit before sleeping. I hope I don't leave anything important behind! I'm really looking forward to Huancayo - while I've loved spending this time with my grandparents, I'm looking forward to seeing Juliana the program director again, and meeting the host family, and seeing the mountains - and above all, seeing the children. I really have missed them.
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