Day 13: Huancayo and much red paint

Juliana had said that this would be the last day she'd take me to the playschool, and after that I'd have to take the bus by myself. So at 8am, I waited. And waited some more. At 8.15 I went to wait outside since it was sunny, then at 8.25 I walked to the corner where we take the bus and waited some more. Eventually she called at half 8 - she was ill with flu, could I go and come back on my own? So I waited some more on the street corner until a bus came by - it ignored me. So did the second bus, even when I stuck my arm out. When the third bus came I stepped a little into the street so it had to stop - and finally I managed to get to the playschool just after 9.

Today we worked by rolling on mats, and jumping and crawling on cushions. Then we painted pictures of apples red - somehow the little ones ended up with paint in their hair (even getting it off their hands was a challenge), and I got paint up my arm (Hilda later worried that a cat had scratched me). At one point some the little ones noticed the scar on my wrist and asked how I got it - I told them that I'd been in an accident while playing in the road, even though my mum had told me to not play in the road, so for this reason they should always listen to their mothers (the truth is that I broke my arm while on my skateboard, but that seemed a bit less exciting). Then came lunch - by the end there were three children who hadn't finished, so Jenny asked me to stay with them. When they'd finished, we made our way to the classroom, then two of them ran the other way up the stairs. Joyous. A few minutes later they got bored and came down, then we went back to class, where I read a book about trains and planes until it was time for me to go.

In the afternoon after lunch, I did some laundry, then knitted in the sun. Then knitted downstairs. Then just knitted in the kitchen. I was tempted to go out, but the weather was on-off rain and sun, so I just stayed in. I went to the internet for a bit, then in the evening went to the park with Yesy and Juan Jose. The presidential elections are in a week's time, so there's lots going on, and one of the congress elects was talking in the park. We watched for a bit to see if anything else would happen (there've been concerts and parades and typical dances in honour of the elections), but when it was clear that nothing else would happen, we went back to the house.