Habla Espanol?

 June 12th

Habla Espanol?

I have been in Peru now since Friday June 10^th, so approximately 48 hours. We flew into Lima around 10pm, and after going through immigration we sorted through what seemed like millions of bags to get all of our stuff together to head to our retreat center. After loading up on the bus all 52 of us arrived safe and sound at the retreat center about 2 hours outside of Lima. Granted by the time we arrived it was pitch black because it was past midnight. We were told to choose a roommate, I immediately yelled for Amanda Rodgers and then we all headed to our rooms with all of our bags (reminder: we were told we would not have access to our luggage the entire weekend.) After lugging all of our bags to our room, (down two flights of stairs) we opened our massive bottles of water and tried to settle in. A lady came around, after she had heard complaints of hunger from several volunteers, with sandwiches (a piece of cheese between two slices of white bread). Everyone dug in before heading to bed. 

Waking up bright and early on Saturday, to have our first Peruvian meal, which consisted of bread (pan) juice (jugo) and coffee (café), was the perfect time to talk to more of our group members. We all congregated in this huge room after breakfast where we introduced ourselves and then were briefed on safety and security. We then split up between business volunteers and youth volunteers and continued to do ice breaker activities and were given a brief overview “PowerPoint” of our program. We of course then broke out into arts and crafts, because that is what youth volunteers do best.  Everyone joined together again to be introduced to our language trainers, who will be my saving grace! We all headed to lunch where we were served Avocado topped with a mayo topping that consisted of mayo, peas, tomato chunks, and green beans. Following the starter we were served steak, vegetables, and potatoes!

After lunch we moved on to a more free form afternoon, attending a survival Spanish, speaking with the doctor, getting our picture taken, and receiving our first stipend or “walk around allowance.” We had a final “wrap up” activity before we were allowed to separate. Afterwards, a few volunteers (Hallee and Nicole) joined me for what I like to call a “mini-bootcamp” where I wrote down circuits of exercises I used to do at boot camp at home. After 50 minutes, we were covered from head to toe in black, Hallee has a picture and it is ridiculous! We all had to take super quick (ice cold) showers, before heading down to dinner. Dinner consisted of a “chicken noodle” soup to start, a beef/egg/rice dish, and finished with the Peruvian version of flan. After dinner I utilized the Internet they had available to Skype my parents and also check up on some Facebook. I was then invited to play Yhatzee, which I obviously did! I sat around and talked to several of my fellow volunteers before heading to my room to pack and go away. It was a jammed pack day but it was fun and informative.

This morning when I woke up I realized it was my last day being roomies with Amanda, who is amazing by the way. We headed to breakfast of eggs and hotdog chunks, before heading to our final session of the pre-training training. We got to ask current volunteers questions, before we headed back to our rooms to grab all of our stuff. We lugged all our stuff down to the five separate buses that had come to pick us up to take us to where we will be staying for the next three months, which is with host families from the community. This is also when we had to say goodbye to the business volunteers, who we are separated from, it was muy triste (very sad!).

            I was extremely nervous to meet my host family. Not speaking much Spanish at all is a little bit nerve racking especially when you are moving into a family that speaks almost no English. I met my mom Betrice, and found I would be staying next to another volunteer, my friend, Sabrina. We both lugged our bags with our host mothers to a taxi and headed to our homes. I arrived to my host family’shouse, which is on the side of a mountain, and as I walked in, I was blown away. Their home is beautiful, and very nice! I was greeted by Beatrice’s three daughters (all of whose name start with a K.), and we talked for two hours before eating lunch. (When I say talked I use that term loosely, I stumbled over words and tried not to confuse my host mother and her daughters, while they politely listened to me butcher their language.)

For lunch we had chicken with rice and vegetables, and afterwards Sabrina (my friend and current next door neighbor) came over with her host mother who offered us to join along for a shopping trip they were about to embark on, so we did! We took our first rid in a bus, which is like a little bus/van/car thing. We went to the market where we purchased beans and then headed to the center of city and were told to wait by a fountain while the mothers were in the chicken shop. Little did we know a moto-taxi was going to pull up with dead gutted pig inside, and park right in front of us, (see picture below). We sat and waited patiently for our host mothers, I was given a bag of chicken, which did have some blood on the handles, which I have a feeling I will have to get used to, we lugged the bags to the corner, and Sabrina’s host mother ended up heading back to her house, leaving Sabrina, my host mom, and myself to walk to the city center. In the city center on Sundays (domingos) there is a huge market (Mercado) with food carts, crafts, and pastries. We purchased a huge peace of cake with flavored leche layers, and we shared it while sitting in the grass in the park. We ventured to another market after that, which seems to be a lot like a smaller Wal-Mart, my host mom explained what different fruits and vegetables were there, before we finally took a taxi back to our home. I just finished unpacking, and took some pictures of my new home. I am so happy with my host family placement, they are so kind and understanding of my lack of Spanish knowledge, but also have provided me with a wonderful place to call home for the next few months.

I hope you enjoyed the update, pictures, and I hope that the pig picture offended no one!

 Life in Peru is different, but I will be learning poco a poco (little by little).