BOOKS!!!

Who doesn't like books? My list:
Renen, my brother,
(add more)
You can contact me to tell me some crazy people you know that use excuses like "I have dyslexia" for not reading.
About me: Go to the about me page and it will say I LOVE TO READ!! I'm glad we brought two NOOK®s with us. One color, one not. I read like a 200 page book in two days! (Because, I love to read. Number 1 Hobby for me.)

So these are all the books that I can remember I've read here:
Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
Fairest by Gail Carson Levine
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series books 3, 4, and 5 by Rick Riordan
The Stone Palace by Shannon Hale
The Series of Unfortunate Events books 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 by Lemony Snicket
Anastasia Krunpik by Lois Lowry
Nancy Drew #24, The Clue in the Old Album by Carolyn Keen
Seekers books 1 and 2 by Erin Hunter
Two Princesses of Bamarre by Gail Carson Levine
Forgive Me, I Meant To Do It by Gail Carson Levine
The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
Who Could That Be at This Hour? by Lemony Snicket and Seth
Magyk  by Angie Sage
If listening to audios counts:
The Report Card by Andrew Clements


Working on in audios:
Charlotte's Web by E.B. White

If listening to read alouds by Mom counts:
Princess Academy by Shannon Hale
The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
Gooney Bird Greene by Lois Lowry


Working on in read alouds:
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

Currently reading:
The Mysterious Benidict Society and the Perilous Journey by Trenton Lee Stewart

Who was Albert Einstein? by Jess Brallier

Isaac Newton by Kathleen Krull

In a total, that would be 31 books, including every single category. I'll update once I finish another.
And here I go to read!

My birthday!

Last year I had Thanksgiving be my
birthday celebration.

I am SOO excited for my birthday! I am trying to pry what I'm getting for my birthday from my siblings. I overheard my little sister Lily telling one of our friends: a teapot set. I want:

1. Key chains for my class at home
2. There were these yo-yo-like balls that lit up when they hit the ground; I want one of those
3. A kitchen set
4. There are these bird instruments that you put water in, and blow in it, and there is a bird sound, I want that
5. A blender that half works
6. And a loose tooth! (which I have.)
7. Uhh... something.

I am so excited. My little sister has a day off from her Peruvian school-perfect timing!-so we are going to go swimming. The pools here are really warm because they are heated by a non-active volcano. Then we are doing El Bichito, presents, and going out for dinner at a delicious place that I will choose with cake that I will choose! I guess I won't go to swim team, because here if it's someone's birthday, they either smash an egg in your hair or push you into the pool with your clothes on. And my birthday's on a swim team day! So I'm not going. Anyway, if I did, I would miss the cake and restaurant. I'm going the day after. We are trying to watch a movie at the theaters after that, but there aren't any cool movies. If there aren't any by Saturday, we might watch a movie at home. Whichever option, we are going to have gorp! That's treat cereal, raisins, candy, and non-treat-cereal mixed together. EXCITED!!!!!

And my cousins in Hong Kong sent me 10 Hong Kong dollars.

EXCITED!!! 

El Bichito: My Work

Who? What? Where? When? Why?

Oh, just some often asked questions about... well, anything in general. El Bichito Post Plan:

Who? 

Kids. Every day we go downstairs for 2 hours with kind of random kids. They all live in Puyllucana (puy-you-cana), some go to the school here in Puyllucana and some to the Banos (ban-yos) school. Most are between 7 and 11 years old.

    

                          

   

What? 

Helping. We help them do their homework. We give them semi-nutritious meals, rice and beans. Sometimes noodles, sometimes potatoes, but always rice. Mom is starting a carrot-thing. Apparently, the kids don't know what carrots are. Every time we bring them out, they crowd around Mom, eating and throwing carrots. And they throw them all over the floor. Mom gets mad once and a while. We also entertain them. Jump-roping, jewelry-making, marble-running, and math-sheet-doing. The basement is a place to help.

Where?

The basement (that might be a little confusing--the building is between two streets and on a hill, so our rooms are on the ground floor for the door we normally use, but the dining/class room is downstairs and the ground floor for the door the kids use). The comedor. The dining room, which is the English-Spanish way to translate comedor. The place where kids go around screaming half giving my family a panic attack. To be specific, Puyllucana, Cajamarca, Peru.

When?

1 to 3 my time, 11 to 1 Mountain Standard Time. 2 hours. Every weekday excepting holidays. Every season but Summer, which starts in December and also doesn't exist because we are so close to the equator and high in the mountains.

Why? 

For education. For happiness. For healthiness. But, I guess, it's not supposed to be for torture. Have you ever heard of natural destruction, or cruelty, or sadness? What about charity or humanitarian services? Anti things, right? Which one would you choose? Second choice. That's why we're here.







Glad you know what's happening, really, here in Puyllucana, Cajamarca, Peru!

Book drive!

 Have you ever participated in a book drive?  Probably not one like this!

I am (supposed to be) helping kids here get smarter. At El Bichito (where we live and also the place where we take care of the kids) we feed them and help them get their homework done.

For food, we have white rice and garlicky noodles one day, white rice and lentils another day, white rice and extra-garlicky potatoes another day, white rice and whole potatoes another day, white rice and white beans another day, and repeat. It is SUCH a boring lunch.

For homework, they do their homework from school. If they don’t have school homework, we give them homework. We either give them a math sheet to do, they read a book and write a little report, or we read a book with them.

But, we need more books.  Can you believe that most (or maybe all) of these kids don't own a single book?When we first got here and brought out our Spanish copy of Curious George, they absolutely LOVED it. They were crowding around Mom as she read it like chickens around a seed hole. They still love it.  Can you imagine never having read a Curious George book before? We are running a book drive with my school. I think that YOU should donate books, TOO!

We need them in Spanish at least, but Spanish/English is nice, too, since everyone wants to learn English. The size doesn't really matter. They just need to be children’s books. You can get them at second-hand stores like Goodwill or places like Walmart (if they don't have them in the store, you can order them online and they will deliver them to the store for free.)  And you can get them by eating Cheerios!  We got a lot of the books we brought down here that way. You get a yummy meal AND a chance to donate! Hey, what a good opportunity to serve people!

(Sorry if soon my voice goes out of hand. When I'm typing business letters, my voice doesn't show through much. I sound more like a business man.)

You can also donate money, of course.  You can go to the Eagle-Condor Humanitarian website to do that, but if you specifically want the money to help us here at Bichito, you'll have to call or email Laura Chabries and tell her that.  (Her contact info is right there under "Contact Us").  You can also call her if you have any other questions about helping or sending books.  She's helpful that way.

If you participate, you would have to send them to the NGO we are working for by November 15^th. If you send it after that, they will still get to the kids, but after I leave.

Feel free to check out their website to find out more about Eagle-Condor Humanitarian.  Also, you can learn more about what we have been doing at El Bichito by reading the blog about it. Instead of clicking this link, if you want, you can go up to the top and click on El Bichito's Blog. (The blog also has posts about other projects Eagle-Condor has going on, so you have to look for the El Bichito posts.)

Here is their mailing address:

Eagle-Condor Humanitarian
614 East 3900 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84107

Thanks for your help!