Park Time

One of the things we will miss most from our life in Trujillo will be what has now become known as "Park Time" and it is everyday from around 4:00 in the afternoon until somewhere between 6:00 and 7:00pm when the parents are ready to go in. Everybody knows when park time is, which park is "THE park" and what will happen at "the park". The kids will break into various little groupings, sometimes the same, sometimes they like to change things up. Sometimes the boys will get a game of soccer, or baseball, or football going, depending on the mood of the season. Sometimes the girls will play store, gathering various sundries from the trash pile in the middle. Sometimes bikes are ridden, skates skated, scooters scooted. Sometimes trees are climbed and sometimes sidewalks are walked while the older girls figure out which Jonas brother is the cutest, and the older boys swap strategies for Runescape or Pirates Online.

What are the adults doing during all of this activity?
Sitting. Sitting in sling-back fabric chairs, and plastic lawn chairs discussing everything from recipes, to toe fungus, to which tv series we are currently addicted to, and simply sharing life together.

But what we are really doing - besides solving the problems of the world, or at least of Peru, is making memories. And these afternoons at the park, will be some of the sweetest we carry with us wherever we go.