May 25th, 2018 - James Donaghy


Today we had an interesting, exhausting, and laborious day at an organic farm on the outskirts of Cusco. Though it was a very educational experience and I got to hold a lot of guinea pigs, I really appreciated the dinner I came home to after our amazing salsa class. Halfway through dinner I realized that it was my last dinner in our homestay. I cannot express how grateful I am from having a great set of guys to live with the past few weeks, and the best part is when we come together for dinner.

Dinner time in our home is not only when we come together and eating Papa Jesus’ (our host dad) delicious food; rather, it is when we all reflect on our day and talk about all the things we’ve done. Today was even more special because I was able to coordinate and invite our instructors Josh and Ronnell to dinner, where I’m sure they ate the best food they’ve had since being in Peru. Per usual, Papa Jesus was running late putting the food on the table which allowed Ronnell to finally watch his basketball; however, when the food was on the table we said grace which has been a nice tradition we’ve had every night. Saying grace before every meal together I think has brought everyone in the house together and tonight was no different. While we were eating we engaged in our usual crazy conversation which had one of James Vogel’s (aka James dos) famous quotes, Jake pouring us coke, and a lot of happy laughing. Small inside jokes like these make dinner special and I’m especially glad we were able to share it with Josh and Ronnell because we’ve been trying to explain our family dynamic; however, it was better for them to just experience it firsthand. Since it was our last dinner at home, I think I speak to everyone in the house that it was nice to have them as guests.

Dinner time is special to us because we’re all together and able to de-stress and talk about our day, as well as talk conspiracies and become expect critics in a variety of fields. As for the food, after the main course, Papa Jesus had a surprise dessert which included ice cream on top of ice cream cake. Though the ice cream was good, we had a nice ending to the evening with a couple rounds of our favorite game, Spot It. Over the course of the trip we have played spot it multiple times and it always makes us competitive and tense; however, it was a good ending to our evening as well as our last meal in our Peruvian home.
We have been welcomed into a beautiful home where we have had a create connection with our host parents. Here we are taking a picture after our last dinner together. 

After a a great dinner our host parents took a nice picture with out instructors. They were beyond happy to host them in their home.

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