January in Peru

January is an interesting month. I always considered January a “filler” month. A month where nothing ever really happens and is usually marked with my winter time slump. For the majority of my life, January was associated with going back to school and I‘m always happy to turn the page on my calendor to February, the short and sweet month. I’m still in the phase of my service where I celebrate every month that passes as a month I survived and being that much closer to completing my two year stint. So everyday, I wake up and mentally cross off one more day until the end of my least favorite month.

This year however, things are a bit different. For starters, it’s not winter. Since I arrived at site during the relentlessly gray and cold August, I have been looking forward to the arrival of summer. I loved the idea of spending my overwhelming amount of free time at the beach, reading, taking long walks, getting a tan so I would not look so gringo. But summer is here and it is not at all what I expected. The heat has arrived, along with a muggy humitity, but there is still no sun. That’s an exageration. The sun does come out, but most of the time, it is still cloudy and grey. My friends have a beach house in Punta Hermosa, the town right next to mine. I’ve only been to the beach when they are down, and both times I have been have been without sun. Yesterday I went and spent a few hours on the beach reading Harry Potter. Candice and Tania decided to go in the water. Tania, who has lived in several countries all over the world, said that it was the dirtiest ocean water she’s ever been in. This provides me with little motivation to be a beach goddess for the next few months.

So summer has brought a whole new slew of things that bother me. It goes without saying, that the heat can be overwhelming. Sitting in my room is like sitting in an oven. There is no airconditioning anywhere and my family took the fan that was mounted on my wall the first day of summer (just one more example of how they´ve made me feel welcome in their house). All the houses are opened aired and cannot be closed off, not to mention screens also are non existant here. And since we live right on the farm, the flies have become part of the family. I am not exaggerating when I say there are hundreds of flies and bugs in our house. It is ridiculous. I do my best to keep flies out of my room, but it is an all uphill battle. I usually spend a half an hour a night killing flies right before I go to bed. It is so annoying to be woken up every 5 minute to a fly buzzing in your ear and landing on your face.

Last night I successfully alleviated my room of flies and fell asleep earlier than usual. Around 1 in the morning I woke up cause I was so hot and uncomfortable I couldn’t sleep. I made the sleepy decision to open my door for a little while to let the cool night air in. About a half an hour later I woke up with my door still open, and covered in mosquito bites. Lesson learned. On top of that, I woke up an hour or two later to the sound of rain. RAIN! I live in the desert and all through the winter and fall it didn’t rain once. It only lasted a few minutes but enough to make the dusts stick to the ground this morning. I’m told it’s La nina. That summer is not usually this grey and cloudy and that would explain the strange rainfall.

Another thing I find interesting about summer in Peru, is that my family still eats soup for both lunch and dinner. I don’t understand it. I can barely drink my morning coffee I get so overheated. But hot soup twice a day? Just another example of the never ending list of things Peruvians do that don’t make any sense to me.