Day 10 - I ate a Guinea Pig

Wednesday July Eighth

     'Hola hola coca cola!' -one of my Kindergarten kids when I arrived at work this morning, haha! 

      We were pretty late this morning, maybe half an hour, as Hunter hates mornings, and I'm just incredibly slow! Apparently Matt of all people was mad at us for being late, I'm sorry you're 42 you can be at work by yourself! 

       The lack of sleep is really starting to affect me though. It was another late night salsa dancing last night. It seemed hard to do the simplest things, talk to the kids, grade their homework. I was even exhausted, just sitting there at my desk. Then things got worse, I drank some milk and rice at snack time with all the kids, but it did not sit well with my stomach. So then I was exhausted and feeling sick!

    I remember sitting on a bench in the courtyard just watching all the kids run around and scream at play time, and being like 'nope this isn't happening' Hunter came over and was feeling just as tired, and we agreed to go home in half an hour, an hour and a half early. 

     While I was sitting there totally out of it a little girl came over to me in tears, and was like I miss my parents! It made me think of last night, and I was like me too chica, me too.

      We left, and the ride home never seemed so long, we got home and I fell asleep almost instantly.

       I awoke an hour later to María knocking on the door. I was a little disoriented at first because I had had a dream where I was back in the U.S. 

    I had been dreaming my trip had already ended and I was so sad and confused and wanted to go back, and mum kept telling me all the amazing things I hadn't done. It was a relief, when I awoke to see that I was still in my little Peruvian bedroom. Then María called again through the door 'everyone is waiting for you two!' And I realized I'd completely forgotten we had all planned out to go out with Caroline's parents to try a local delicacy, Quoi.  

    I scrambled to get ready, but actually since I'm always scrambling to get ready here that's no surprise. And in truth, if we're being honest, I'm always scrambling to get ready even at home in the U.S. so that's really not that weird, and then I joined the others and we went out.

     We had do take two taxis there,where ours was to follow the other one, but we lost them after a bus hit us. 

      It finally happened, after all the close misses and centimeter gaps between vehicles, we crashed. It was nothing too serious, a bus just pulled into our land trying to go into the spot we were occupying, which of course wasn't going to end well. Our taxi slammed on the breaks but the back of the bus clipped the front of our taxi and we were all jolted sideways. It wasn't that big of a jolt, it was just awkward because I was lying across German Caroline in the back, yet again, that seems to happen so much! So I was jolted into the door at an odd angle. 

    The two vehicles then proceeded to pull over and I got to witness the Perunvian insurance system, they got out and yelled at each other. After a few minutes and with no sign that the yelling had accomplished anything, our taxi driver got back in and we continued.

     I was more scared than ever before of the dangerous roads! Before I had thought that maybe the roads were so dangerous that they heightened everyone's collision avoidance, and road awareness so that crashes were actually pretty uncommon, but I was under no illusions now! 

     Then the taxi driver turned around and asked us where we were going and I realized That we had no clue as we were supposed to be following the other cab. However after a few minutes of deciphering María's, as per usual, cryptic directions over text we managed to ended up at the right restaurant. It's always a nightmare trying to get directions from her.

     The restaurant was a small local one and the service was horrendously slow even though we were the only ones there. But eventually the Quoi, or guniea pig, arrived.

     And it was horrifying! It came out as the whole animal, and I couldn't look at its face, the open mouth with it's sharp teeth, and it's staring eyes! I was impressed with German Caroline though who just went right at it, hacking of it's head without hesitation!

U.S. Caroline wasn't as impressed

       The whole animal came out
       Hunter and I shared one, but there was hardly any meat on it, and you had to hack through an enormous amount of skin, bones, and internal organs to get to it. I felt like I was in science class dissecting something, yuck! It tasted okay, but it was hard to get over the fact that it had once been such a cute little animal!

Identical horrified expressions!

      After we finished, we were given a shot that helps you digest the tough fat. It was my first shot, and I was actually nervous about taking it, no one ever seems to really enjoy them, do they? They make that terrible face afterwards! However when in Rome! Down it went and it was actually not that bad! Very strong yes, but not unmanagable, and although it tasted of black liquorish, which I've never been a fan off, it didn't taste terrible! 

     Then in the afternoon, Me, Germany, Aton, Jorge, and Ana, went to see still more Incan ruins, just for a change! The bus ride there was about an hour long, and thankfully without any crashes! Phew! 

     The further we got from Cuzco, the more impoverished it became. I saw people on the side of the road making Adobe bricks out of the dirt they found around them, and I tried to imagine what it would be like to live like that, to not go to college, to not travel, to not have an iPhone, or a car, or so many of the tiny comforts we take for granted. Good shoes, new toothbrushes, ect. But I couldn't.

The rural village of Tipon, where this farmer was herding his animals right through the main square

      We took a taxi up the narrow winding path to the ruins, and around one bend a bunch of cows suprised us and the taxi had to swerve out of the way, so I almost got in a cow crash as well as a car crash!

      The ruins at Tipon were awesome, it was basically more terraced Incan farm land but it had this awesomely intricate irrigation system of small canals and waterfalls.

The Incas were such amazing engineers! And everything they did was so beautiful!

The Andes are always so stunning! 

What awesome people :) (Caroline took this photo)

I'm on top of the world! (Caroline took these photos)

Sunset on some beautiful ruins

These terraces put Moray to shame! (Another Caroline photo)

Aton looking off into the sunset!

     Back at our house we had planned a birthday party for three of the volunteers who have birthdays around the next week. U.S. Caroline and Ana who are both turning twenty three and Colleen who is turning 27.

      María had decorated the house and we played some fun games like blindfolded darts and a did a piñata. Although the piñata turned out to impossible to open, everyone took a swing at it including the guys, Aton, Tommy, and Matt but no one could bust it! They all walked up to it like it was going to be trivial but then had to walk away again and hand the bat over to someone else! In the end María just pried it open! There were a few sets of jacks in the piñata and so María taught us all how to play, she's really good! 

So much sugary food! Sugar overdose!

Party hats!

María is the one with light brown hair front and center

Hunter throwing a dart from behind the piñata!

    After dinner the music was turned on and María got her salsa on! First jacks and now salsa she keeps surprising us tonight! We all decided to go out and salsa dance afterwards as well.

     I am terrible at makeup, have only put it on about twice in my entire life, so before we went out U.S. Caroline and Hunter helped me which was really nice :). U.S. Caroline trimmed my eyebrows and gave me some concealer, and Hunter helped me with my eyeshadow and we were ready to go!

Feeling good!

    In the end only me, Hunter, U.S. Caroline, and Matt went, but Matt was so weird, just like in the kindergarten instead of jumping in and doing stuff, he just sat at the back drinking, and watching us..how weird! To clarify he does not drink at the kindergarten. So then it turned into a really fun girls night! I danced with this one guy who was really good but quite a bit shorter than me, we nicknamed him the hobbit, which was really fun except it was a little awkward when he tried to spin me as I would have to duck down! After about midnight we all decided to go home, but Matt said he wanted to stay, what?! He wasn't even doing anything！I think I'm in the minority in this but I think he's a little strange, and don't like him.