Lara and I picked up my dad from the airport yesterday, then the three of us met all the other LLI volunteers at a French restaurant in Lima run by nuns. I had probably the best green beans I’ve ever eaten, and Papa and I split an amazing dessert of fresh strawberries and cream. The highlight, though, was when the nuns serenaded us with “Ave Maria,” which they sang in French. It was beautiful.

Yesterday I visited Zone Z for the first time, which is where I am teaching an English class every Tuesday and Thursday. It is the most remote and impoverished area of Huaycan, which I knew, but I was not prepared for what I saw. The poverty blew my mind. More on that later.

This morning a group of us walked to the hospital in Huaycan, and I saw a little boy staring at us as we approached a bench where he and his dad were sitting. “Muy blancos!” he said. I couldn’t help but laugh. Yes, we must look very white. I could also imagine a similar, but reversed, comment coming from a white kid in the States. It struck me as super cute that kids all over the world could react the same way when first seeing someone who looks different. It was a completely innocent comment–simply an observation about something new and surprising.