So, what have you been up to lately?

Something I forgot to say in my last entry about Harry Potter was that my mom bought this last book for me as well. I’m sure the usual reasoning that she is always encouraging me to read played a role, but the big reason I asked her to buy it for me is that it is just so dang expensive down here. Back in the states, I think it runs about $25 maybe $30. But here they charge $40. Convert that into the local currency and the book cost me 125 soles. To put that into perspective, my room and board here only costs me 100 soles. So I have a bit more respect for the book now that it cost me more than my rent. Enough about Harry Potter already. Where was I? Oh yeah, PERU!

I feel like I’ve been leading on the idea that I’m fairly miserable and I’ve been doing nothing. That’s not what it’s like at all. I’m actually really enjoying myself, although I do have fumbling moments of uncertainty from time to time. I’ve learned to enjoy the awkward moments of the integration period. If you are able to keep the right frame of mind about you, it’s very entertaining and being able to look back at the time when you had no idea what you were doing and think about all the mistakes you made and how far you’ve come since that time. it makes you happy you stuck out the hard days and uncomfortable situations. Here’s a high light reel of the things that have happened and the observations I have made over the past few weeks.

• I went running with the German volunteer from one of the Hogars. We got chased by lots of stray dogs and decided if we go again, we’re gonna have to make a better plan so that we don’t get rabies. I’m trying not to spend too much time with Antonia though, because as easy and nice as it is, she’s only here for 2 months so I don’t want to get to used to her.
• One of the nuns mother died this past Sunday. I was the only one in the room when she got the phone call. She was crying of course and I have no idea what the proper words of sympathy are in Spanish. Not to mention, she‘s a nun and I didn‘t know if I was supposed to say something about god and heaven. So, what did I do? I fled. I know it sounds bad, but I figured it was better than saying something really inappropriate. It was probably the most uncomfortable situation I’ve had to date
• After the passing or Sor. Maria’s mother, they held the viewing of the body at the orphanage! Can you believe it? They locked the kids upstairs all day while visitors came to view the body that rested peacefully in the cafeteria, while all the nuns and German volunteers served them coffee. In the upstairs rooms, the kids went crazy. I was only there for a few hours, it was all I could take. They all knew there was a dead body down stairs and they all wanted to see it. I’ve never wanted to put children into cages so badly in my whole life.
• I got invited to my first party! I was walking down the dirt road when three guys on bikes past me. Ready to put up my best defenses from the cat calls I thought I would receive, one of the guys stopped and all though I didn’t recognize him, it turned out to be Bianca’s boyfriend’s uncle and his sons. I excepted the invitation to the birthday party, because I’m desperate to meet people. Besides Claudio’s sons, the party was entirely people in their 40’s 50’s and 60’s. Incuding toothless women in hats and poyeras (the typical dress for women from the mountains). The whole 4 hours I was there they played hauyno music and I was forced to dance. Huayno is the traditional music from the Andean culture, to me, calling it music is a stretch. I really don’t like it, but all the people at the party got a huge kick out of watching the white girl dancing Huayno.
• I’ve been to the gym in Lurin twice. It’s not anything like a gym in the states. They only have 4 machines and the treadmill is the kind you have to move manually. You have to hold the hand rails in order to do it. The weights are pretty standard, but I decided my main purpose at the gym would be taking classes. This is a bit of a process however. The classes don’t start until 8 at night. Because it is dark by 630 and I can’t be out where I live alone at night, I leave my house 6 and walk the half hour to Lurin. I bring a book or something to do. I go to a café and sit and read, watch TV and drink coffee for an hour and a half. Then I go to the gym and change (which is interesting because their Locker room is a coed space that is separated from the arobics area by a few wall dividers and no door. Then I wait some more at the gym because this is Peru and nothing starts on time. Finally the class gets going. Its all women and they are all clad in spandex, which is only flattering on about 2 people. There is no warm up and no stretching. But the classes are fun. Yesterday, the instructor turned off the music half way through and made every one give the white girl a round of applause for being white, seriously. Then after the class I talk to some of the ladies and then shower. They have hot, non sulfery showers. Its wonderful. But they are locker room style, so I get good naked bonding time with the ladies in my class. So after all is said and done I leave the gym around 930 and take a moto taxi home. I get home a little before 10. So the whole process of simply going to the gym takes me 4 hours. But I always feel so great after I get home, it makes it all worth it.
• Last week was my host dads birthday so we had a big dinner with about 15 family members and me. We had one bottle of wine, which was split 15 ways. They even give the 1 year olds their own cup. I don’t really see the harm in giving a small child a sip or two of wine, but after Diego finished is half ounce of 13% alcohol, he wouldn’t sit still and demanded to be let down so he could run around the living room and grab everything he could reach. Now, this kid is about 14 months old. All he does all day is run around the living room picking stuff up and throwing it on the floor. He’s a toddler, that’s what they do. So the family was watching his very normal behavior after his sip of booze and kept saying is a very distasteful manner “he’s drunk, look at the bad baby, he’s so drunk”. Alight, A--he’s not drunk from one sip of alcohol and B--why did you give him the alcohol in the first place?! It was mildly annoying to me.
• One of my host sisters knocks on my door every night, sometimes two or three times, and asks what I’m doing. I’m usually cuddled up in my bed reading and not wanting to be disturbed. Last night, after I had just got home from the gym and changing, she knocked on my door. The usual question of what I was doing arose and I told her I was changing, but she didn’t leave. She wanted to know about the gym and what I did there. Then she asked me how to loose weight. This may not seem too weird, but I assure it was very awkward, she’s only 14 (I think). I told her diet and exercise but she didn’t seemed satisfied. Then she said she wanted a favor, she asked if she could borrow 10 soles. I was completely opposed to the idea, but didn’t know how to say no. They warn us about this in training. They say people only see dollar signs when they look at us and 95% of the time, never return what they’ve borrowed. I feel very elitist in this house with my multi-grain cereal and soy milk, my laptop and cell phone, my gym membership and so forth. I feel bad that I have this stuff and they don‘t. I told her I didn’t have 10 soles, which was true. I had a few 20’s but I wasn’t about to give those to her. I ended up giving her 4 soles. We’ll see if she ever pays it back. I almost hope she doesn’t so if she ever asks again I can say she never paid me back the first time.
  

So, these are just a few of the events that have highlighted my life thus far. It’s now Friday, and looking back on the goals I set for myself for this week, I’d say I did fairly well. I definitely hung out a bit more and talked to a lot more people than I have in the previous weeks. Tonight I am going to mass with my family here in Buena Vista and hopefully I will get the opportunity to meet a few more community members. I wanted to go to the gym again tonight, but I giving church presidence, which hopefully will not become a habit. I am looking forward for this Sunday when I get to welcome Peru 10 and get to leave dreary Lima for a day and hang out with Lillian and Dennis (also welcoming in the new group) in the warm sun of the training center.