Pachacamac

Today we visited a school in Pachacamac, (located just outside of Lima,) to spend the day at a local school to plant 200 trees around the area and teach the students the importance of taking care of the environment. After a long bus ride to the school, we were welcomed with a ceremony of singing, dances and gymnastics performed by some of the students, and a flag ceremony in which all of the exchange students sang the national anthem of their home country, and ended with the raising of the Peruvian flag and the Peruvian national anthem. We also performed one of the dances we've been practicing for our upcoming talent night event.

During the ceremony, a very cute seven-year-old girl sheepishly came up to me and started to ask me questions about myself and where I'm from. Her eyes wide after hearing that I live in a country so far away, my new friend asked me what my name was. I told her, and her beautiful brown eyes somehow grew even bigger as she got even more excited, jumping up and down with her hands held tightly onto my chair. "Emily!!! I have a friend named Emily, too!! Wait right there, I want to go get her so that you can meet her too! Wow! Two Emily's!"

So she ran back into her classroom and pulled out her friend Emily, still in her dance costume, and dragged her over to me tightly by the arm, promising the poor girl that she was going to enjoy whatever she was being dragged over to see. "Come on, tell her your name. What's your name?"

"...My name is Emily." She said shyly, trying to hide behind her arm as she moved a strand of her hair from her white polka-dotted bow.

"Oh wow, that's so cool! My name is Emily, too!"

"...Really?"

"Really!" I laughed.

"What?!? That's crazy!"

"I know, I told you! See, you never believe me!" Said the first girl, finally releasing Emily from her death grip, ("Owww...") And they both ran off to tell all their friends that now there were two Emily's.

It wasn't long before the first girl returned to sit next to me, and tell me that her name was Estelle, she was seven years old, and she absolutely loved today because there was no normal school, even though she loves school, but her teacher said that today was a special day. I agreed with her teacher.

Soon I was introduced to Dana, another one of Estelle's friends, and as my exchange student friends returned back to their seats, I offered one of the girls a spot on my lap, (much to her excitement,) and the other girls simply gathered around our chairs, too busy asking my other friends their names, and chatting excitedly every time I told which country he or she was from. Estelle especially could barely hold back her energy, and frequently ran off to drag over a new friend of hers to meet us or tell the story of how now there were two girls named Emily. It was clear from the beginning that Estelle wanted to be everyone's friend, but the most amazing part to me was how hard she worked to make sure that absolutely all of her friends had a chance to be included and not left out.

I spent the whole morning with them, and a good part of the afternoon, letting them drag me by the hand running all around the school to show and tell me everything that they loved about their school, introduce me to all of their friends, and even bring me into their math lesson for a while. I was surprised at how patient the girls were with me when I asked them to repeat or explain something, or repeat a word I didn´t quite understand at first. To me it was even more special because they were the first people that I felt had truly accepted me right away, despite my differences or imperfect spanish, and didn´t judge me for anything that they considered to be strange. They just wanted me to be their friend. Like all little girls, they were adventurous and curious about everything. Estelle especially reminded me of my younger sister in the US, who, in my opinion, is one of the most fearless explorers I know.

Towards the end of our afternoon together, the girls, me, and one of my friends from France went to plant a few of the trees we had brought. Estelle then named every living thing she could find after my friend from France, (ranging from trees to butterflies and a cute little grub,) much to the amusement of the professor and secondary student who came with us. After planting the trees, we had to say goodbye to the girls one last time, (after countless goodbye hugs and a few more group photos,) and run through the gates of the school to catch up to the bus before it left without us, waving behind us at the girls running behind us to shout goodbyes.

We barely made it onto the bus as it had already started to leave, our friends worried where we had been, but it was totally worth it for those last few moments with our new best friends.