Day 27 - But I just got settled in

Saturday July Twenty-fifth

     I awoke after only four hours of sleep which was really hard, but it was my last day here so I wanted to enjoy every minute! The first last thing I had to do was go the big cathedral in Plaza de Armas which I hadn't done yet because you can only get in for free during mass which was from seven until nine which was way to early for me! However today I dragged myself up and got there right on time which is practically a first for me. Here's a picture I found online of it

      I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside but it was spectacular, the amount of gold in that place! It was like they were trying to see how much they could possibly put on every surface. Here's another picture I found online

       This was where the priest (apologies if that's the wrong title) was giving his sermon (apologies again) and it was just a really cool experience. There were tons of people there and it was interesting to see how different everyone was, old ladies were standing next to teenage boys, whole family units and single nobodies all came to worship their shared beloved faith. Catholicism here is like a type of blood that connects this whole country and feeds it's beating heart, and there is just something awesome about that!

I then went to a nearby café to have breakfast with U.S. Caroline and two new volunteers.

Monica & Sophia: A Spanish mother, Monica, and her daughter who grew up in California where they now live. Sophia is only fourteen. They were both really nice, awesome people! I think it's something about the fact that it takes a certain kind of person to travel all the way around the world to volunteer for the underprivileged that makes us all really like each other! I've never met such an awesome group of people! Oh so much nostalgia today!

        After breakfast we decided to go horse back riding around some old Incan ruins called Saqsyhuaman just outside Cuzco. It would be a great way to start Monica & Sophia's trip and a really great way to end mine. It was so great to be around horses again, they say you can tell if someone's a horse rider if they smell horse poop and think it smells good, well I did, it's that grassy smell you know means horse riding is soon! I got a particularly sassy horse with the best name, Cappuccino, but sassy is nothing hard for me to deal with as the horse I ride back in Colorado is literally named Sassy, and boy does she live up to that. One of her favorite games to play is to run laps around the pasture when I'm trying to catch her. So rude. 

         We walked up this little steep path that wound it's way through the countryside where there was nothing but trees and the occasional rural house. It was just such a cool change to hear nothing but silence after being in the city where taxis honk to tell you they're empty, to tell you they're full, and whenever there is a car in front of them. The air was clean and fresh and I just loved it!

Me and Caroline happily on our horses!

Me and Caroline appreciating the view!

Caroline

         We got back to the house around lunch time and I was planning to go help Caroline settle into her new home stay after lunch but irrational María told me I couldn't because it wasn't my house. I don't even know what that means or why that would have anything to do with it. I was actually pretty irritated at this point though because I really wanted to spend my last afternoon with Caroline, but there was no convincing her. Ugh!

        Instead I went to get some more presents that I hadn't found yesterday from a market and Caroline was going to come after she was done settling in. However she never came as María had told us the wrong time that Caroline would be able to meet. So glad I'm leaving today, or I think our relationship would have deteriorated further. We said our goodbyes at the house even though she was going to drive me to the airport, and she said I was one of the best volunteers she's had and gave me a ceramic teapot with a bear sitting on it, and a coin purse, I gave her a card. Then we went to the airport.

      I thought getting there an hour and a half before my domestic flight was pretty conservative but when I saw the length of the check-in line I thought it might not even be enough! The line was barely moving and it started to really worry me, I saw a representative of the airline walking down towards me and I was about to ask him but before I got the chance, he adressed everyone and told us that all flights had been cancelled. He didn't even give a reason her just said no one would be going anywhere. I was in shock. I had four connecting flights, four!

      The problem was I wasn't going home, I was going to meet up with my family in L.A. and fly directly to New Zealand to visit my entire family as we always do once a year. I just couldn't even comprehend the terrible domino affects of missing this crucial first flight.

      María luckily has had some experience with dealing with airport problems, having hosted so many foreign volunteers and pushed me right up to the front of the priority line, using my status as a minor to justify it, although it was only supposed to be for star alliance members. This line was ten times shorter but just as slow.

      While I waited I started talking to a nice old couple behind me in Spanish. They had been told that the flights had been cancelled because of the sunset, the sunset? That happens every single day! It must of been an excuse for some other problem that they didn't want to tell us or something because that's ridiculous! Anyway I kept talking Spanish to them and I kind of wanted to see if I could make them believe I was Peruvian so I pretended to speak English very badly, they were originally from Minnesota. This was going great, and they even offered to try and use their star alliance card to help me out. Unfortunately then María came back and it was reviled that I was actually American and had been lying. This was especially awkward because they had just offered me the use of their card. I tried to brush it of as having been lost in translation but I'm not sure they bought it. 

       At the front of the line I had to sneakily slide over to the non-priority counter and the lady there took pity on my connecting flight situation and got me onto another flight that left about ten minutes later. So I ran like the wind, shoving aside people and suitcases (not really) cutting in line (again) at security (really) and going so fast that I forgot to take off my money belt which contained about thirty coins going through the metal detector, so I had to run back out to the end of the conveyor belt, grab a tray, threw my belt in it run to the front of the line, cut again, and put the tray on the belt and then run through the metal detector again. Meanwhile looking like a complete idiot the whole time.

     I made it on just in time, and was the third to last. The two others who were about a minute behind me, and ran on without their shoes, were the nice old couple from Minnesota. They un-awkwardly got seats right next to and in front of me which was great... Oh Karma I'm sorry for duping old people!

     The plane took off and it suddenly hit me that I was leaving Cusco! I looked down at the city I had fallen in love with and felt deeply sad, I even cried a little, and the whole time I was thinking of that John Denver song.

        "Because I'm leaving on a jet plane

         Don't know when I'll be back again

         Oh Peru, I hate to go."

      Well that's how I sang it anyway. 

      The flight I had originally planned was direct from Cusco to Lima and then I had three others, one from Lima to San Salvador, then San Salvador to L.A., and then L.A. to Rarotonga where we had a three day stop over before continuing to N.Z. However the one the Cusco flight person had booked me on was a connecting flight through Aerequipa (further south) to get to Lima (north of Cusco). So that was annoying, but at least I could sit with the old couple during my layover in Aerequipa. They told me all about their life as missionaries and all the crazy things they did!

Thanks for overlooking the whole I'm Peruvian thing Ruth and Bill!

       Then the next flight to Lima, two of the now five flights that I had to take, and I got into Lima at around 10:30 but it felt much later due to the lack of sleep from last night. Then I walked over to a check-in machine as the counters didn't open until one am and so I used the machine, I scanned my passport in and it came up with my flights and I pressed check in, I thought that that would be enough, it told me at the very end to go to a counter and I assumed that meant so that I could check any bags I needed to. Happily I went and found a little nook between a wall and a shoe counter and settled in until one am.

Day 26 - Epiphany

Friday July Twenty-fourth
     The house just felt so empty this morning. Tommy, Hunter, German Caroline and her husband, and Lara have all gone. Lara only for a short trip to visit her boyfriend, but the rest permanently. It was just me and U.S. Caroline left, although I guess I don't need to distinguish between them anymore! How sad!
     My last day at work was also sad, I made my teacher and the teacher's assistant cards and got them cupcakes, and my teacher Jacky got me a cool Peruvian pencil case and the mom of the second most troubling kid in my class got me a really nice small shoulder bag and belt which was so nice of her. She probably knew how much patience it took! I then gave the kids each either a little toy car or a hair clip. It was so sad! I'd become really attached to them all, and I loved my job, kids are a never ending source of amusement, but it was also really satisfying to watch them learn and grow! It was also the last day of school for them before winter break and so I got dressed up yet again in traditional clothing and the whole school had a fiesta where we celebrated Peru's day of independence, which isn't actually until next week, so we had traditional dances and as per usual a ton of food. I didn't eat the food though as the traditional dress was tied really, really tightly!

Me and Jacky my classroom's teacher

Nataly and Adriana in adorable mini costumes!

Marcela and Nataly in matching costumes!

     In the evening I went out to a giant Artisan's market to get gifts for everyone back home as the local school were I had been teaching English had already started their winter break. Then I walked one last time back home, through the dirty rubbish filled streets lined with tiny shops where shopkeepers would try and sell you the same stuff as the next twenty stores. I had never really thought that much about poverty during this whole trip, seeing as my Kindergarten was so privileged, but I thought about it now as I was preparing to return to a first world country.
     So much of so many people's lives here is centered around survival. They have to constantly worry about where that next sol is coming from to pay for that next meal to give them energy for their next job to get that next sol for that next meal and so on and so on! It must seem like money is the most important thing in life.
     But the lack of money is not the most amazing thing I've seen here, it's how poverty brings people together, and how strong the communities are around here. How everyone looks out for everyone else. This kind of community centered society is exemplified in how they kiss each others cheeks when they greet, and are so warm and friendly to complete strangers like me! It's easy to think I'm better off than they are because I have an easier lifestyle, but I'm not sure that's necessarily true. In the U.S. as I'm sure it's true in other first world countries, since we have everything we could want and a seemingly infinite amount of time, we forget how important the simple things in life are and instead our lives are centered around the competitive need to be the most successful or the wealthiest. I've never really had any struggles or life changing experiences that put everything into perspective that are so common here, and because of that I don't think I know as well as people here what the value of life is, and I don't think I appreciate as much what's around us and what we have. It's a bit sad to think actually that the more you have the less you value it.

A picture from my pensive walk home.

       Me and Caroline talked a little more about María and we think that she just gets really really emotionally invested in people so that when things are going great they're going really great, and when they are bad she feels personally attacked to a degree that the other person never intended. Also she is just a really illogical person which doesn't help anything. So deep down she really does mean well but sometimes she gets so caught up in trying to do good that it ends up all bad.
       After dinner me and Caroline went out salsa dancing one last time to send me off and I was so sad and so happy at the same time! I really, really don't want to leave!

U.S. Caroline and me from another night :)

Day 25 - Come Back Caroline!

Thursday July Twenty-third
      It's funny that walking to work used to scare me, it's crazy to think how unfamiliar and strange this place used to be. Now it's so normal and familiar, the stands of fruit and black market books, the dirty streets packed with honking taxis, the crazy intersections. But even though it is dirty and loud, I don't want to leave! Can I just stay forever? I don't want to get nostalgic too soon though, I do still have two days left.
      Hunter facebooked me to say that she had made it back to the U.S. safely but had woken up disoriented, still thinking she was in Peru at first, but then sadly realised she wasn't. It was really sad for me too, to go to work alone!
       Work was good but I started to get nostalgic again, I'm going to miss all the kids so much!

The last boy is Dairon

Samuel and Nathan (pronounced Natan) are the identical twins

Here's another picture of them, un-confusingly their mother decided to dress them the same today. Great. Also love the look on Alejandro's face, haha!

Marcella and Nataly

       I came back at one, and was excited to go to my other job at the local high school in the afternoon, it was going to be my last day there! However I never got the chance to go.
       After I quickly ate lunch, my host mom María asked innocently enough if she could check in with me about how I was doing. Little could I imagine that this would turn into a three hour long intense conversation that bordered on almost being an argument, and her ranting about all the other volunteers. If I had known how awful this would be I would have escaped at the start.
       It all started with Lara, who wanted to come to my work with me again. Lara only works mornings in the orphanage and so had the whole afternoon free, it was also the last day the local school had class. However María was extremely mad at her when she asked if she could go. I tried to reason with María too but she just stated a bunch of really weird reasons back, she couldn't go because it wasn't her official job (even though the director of the school was fine with her helping me), she couldn't go because María wasn't her official ABV coordinator, or because the world wasn't as simple as I wanted it to be! Eventually we got down to the real reason, she was actually mad at U.S. Caroline and had just been expressing it toward Lara.
       Apparently U.S. Caroline had taken both Tommy and Hunter to her work without telling María. María was very upset by this because both Tommy and Hunter had agreed to go to U.S. Caroline's work because they had been unhappy in their work, and so María thinks that it was very wrong of them to just go to another person's work instead of coming to her and letting her help. This lead to a rant about Tommy, how he was evil and manipulative and so on. They had got into a fight a couple of days before he left so it is no wonder that she used such personal, emotionally charged adjectives but I personally have a very different impression of Tommy, as a calm, easy going guy who would never do anything that mean, I mean he did come half way around the world to volunteer which says something, but I wasn't there so I can't say.
         Then the Tommy rant lead to a Hunter rant, how she hadn't told her she was unhappy with her work, how she hadn't filled out the feedback survey at the end of her stay (I'm not sure María would have really wanted her review!) and how she had given the supplies she had brought for underprivileged kids to the kids at U.S. Caroline's work who were much more in need than the ones at the kindergarten. It was very weird, I didn't really understand any of the points she laid against Hunter and it just made her sound like a control freak, and super sensitive which she isn't most of the time.
          The rant cumulated in a huge attack on Caroline who I have never seen speak one bad word or do one bad thing to María. However in her mind Caroline is a backstabbing, sneaky, conniving person who has poisoned the minds of the other volunteers against her and she was unspeakably mad at her. This was just super weird and kind of scary. She sounded paranoid. Which again is very out of character for her. The things she said just made no logical sense, she blamed Caroline for neglecting her work by staying home with a cold, but she works at a hospital! She blamed Caroline for not being more of a mom to me and Hunter, but that wasn't what Caroline signed up for in the volunteer agreement! I felt so bad for Caroline!
            Needless to say Caroline is now moving houses. I'm worried about María though, she's managed to turn almost every volunteer in the house against her, and now I'm not sure what to think of her! The most ironic part of the conversation was that she was talking to me a lot about how Caroline neglected her work but she talked so long I missed my work!
            Then we all went out to dinner, me, U.S. Caroline, German Caroline and her husband Tómas, Lara, and María. U.S. Caroline and María sat at opposite ends of the table. It was a pretty fun night, but a little tense.
            I was nostalgic again walking home, not many of these beautiful Peruvian nights left! Hopefully María doesn't turn against me too in that time!

            When we returned to the house I had to say goodbye to all three Germans! German Caroline and her husband are leaving for a four day backpacking trip tomorrow called the Incan Trail that ends at Macchu Picchu, and Lara is leaving to go see her boyfriend in Aerequipa a different region of Peru. I won't get a chance to see any of them again before I leave!

You always joked that you were old enough to be me and Hunter's mom but you really did take care of us and keep us out of trouble, thank you so much for that! You're awesome and so much fun :)

Here's Lara in Macchu Picchu, although we didn't go together. She's really nice!

Day 24 - Come Back Hunter!

Wednesday July Twenty-second

      Hunter left today. At four in the morning but I woke up to say goodbye. I feel like I know her so well even though we've only spent four weeks together but I guess that's what happens when you spend 24-7 together! Haha! She's one of the funniest, smartest people I know! I'm going to miss her so much :(

However there is already a new volunteer in her spot!

   Lara: A German eighteen year old who is on her first trip out of Europe. She seems really nice, but very quiet and reserved. She dresses very conservatively. Her boyfriend is a Peruvian guy she met a week ago in Aeroquipa (another region of Peru), when he was her Spanish teacher, he's ten years her senior. Although she seems very sure he's legit, I can't help feeling like something is wrong. I guess I've just been warned so much about getting romantically involved with a guy down here.

   I felt like I was sleepwalking the whole time during work this morning, as I was exhausted from being sick and not having eaten enough recently. Although I did have a small breakfast this morning which was good. I mostly just sat motionless at my desk and yelled at any kids that needed it from across the room. Not that they really listen to me anyway.

     Then I ate a little lunch and went back to the local school in the afternoon to help the Englishteacher, Lara came along even though her actual work was in the morning in the orphanage. She, like everyone else is unsatisfied with her work as she too feels useless, and was looking for another work.

     She enjoyed it but in truth her thick German accent did make it hard for her to teach pronunciation!

     The teacher had a meeting after our first class so me and Lara went for a walk to a market where the meat section was something out of a horror movie, but the fruit smoothies were amazing! 

    We made it back with plenty of time before our next class, but the teacher didn't show up on time!

    We waited and waited, and talked to the very curious kids about our life in the U.S. and soccer, but still no teacher! We eventually realized she wasn't coming.

    So I took charge and taught the class! It was an awesome experience! I found it really natural and easy to teach. The only thing was that it was really hard to keep the kids attention, seriously the teacher sees everything so easily, there's no inconspicuousy like you think as a student! This one girl and boy of about fourteen spent the whole time attacking each other, I think they were flirting.

     We went out to dinner but I barely ate anything again, and then sleep! Oh if I've learned nothing about poverty or a different cultures, I've certainly learnt the importance of sleep! 

Day 23 - No, just no

Tuesday July Twentifirst

     I thought I was feeling a lot better when I woke up, but then had breakfast and it went sharply downhill. I attempted to go to my work, made it five minutes down the road, collapsed onto a bench, deliberated for a minute, and then turned around and came back.      

     I spent the rest of the day sleeping.

Day 22 - Home again

Monday July Twentieth

     I was incredibly sick last night waking up every few hours to have to run to the bathroom. My stomach was just doing all sorts of crazy things. 

     I just felt so lonely on top of everything, having to do everything yourself even when you're feeling so bad really does that, having no one to take care of you. No one to talk to, no that even cared.

     Packing was awful, I would stuff two or three things in my pack at a time and then collapse back onto my bed working up the energy for the next round. I still couldn't face eating so didn't have breakfast. Then to the airport to go back home, or at least my Cusco home!

     It was the most uncomfortable 45 minutes imaginable, every position that I tried more uncomfortable than the last, and every minute longer. 

     I was so, so glad to touch down in Cusco! Familiar territory! I didn't even have the energy to barter a reasonable fare for the taxi and so heavily overpaid, but at long last I was home! Yay!

     It was awesome to be reunited with Hunter and Caroline, and the other Caroline! 

    All I wanted to do was collapse but it was my first day at work at a local high school helping the English teacher. After I lay down and deliberated for a bit I decided I felt a little better and would go.

   However it turned out that feeling bad wasn't the only problem I had to face. I had to take a bus to get there and completely missed the stop and rode it to the end of the line. I got off very worried but luckily for me that was still within walking distance of the school. Phew! That was a close one! 

     It reminds me of the school I attended in Italy for one year, two stories, courtyard in the middle, with no greenery. It took me a while to find the right classroom but once I got there the teacher greeted me with a big hug and kiss. Peruvian people are always so warm and friendly even if you've just met! It's one of my favorite things about their culture!

      Teaching was a lot of fun! Although it was hard to get their respect as they were the same age as me and quite a few were older! However I was a lot of help, the first lesson the teacher was teaching was how to talk about time except she was teaching them to say o'clock after every time, such as 3:17 O'clock!

    I corrected her on many occasions but felt a bit bad about showing her up in front of her class so would say things like, that might be correct but it's more common to say, or maybe in other parts it's like that but in Colorado... Haha!

    I got home tired but feeling a little better, even ate a little dinner, and then slept even more! 

Day 21 - Food Poisoning round two

Sunday July Nineteenth

     So I had to wake up at the terrible hour of five this morning. I was so confused when I woke up, I wasn't in my room in Colorado, I wasn't in Cusco, and then I remembered I was in the Amazon Rainforest! How amazing. I stood up and as if to prove my point there was an awesome sunrise that morning.

View from my room

A little later

    And the sun!

I had breakfast and played with the cat named Gatto. No one knows where he came from but apparently he just showed up one day out of the jungle and as time went on he came closer and closer to the lodge until now he wanders around it asking to be fed and petted as if it were his home. 

     Then we went onto the boat where I was still exhausted from last night so I fell asleep and then I also slept on the bus ride back to Puerto Maldonado. Then I slept some more once we got back to the tourist company's office/hotel! I was starting to get worried about why I was sleeping so much.

    As it turned out, I was right to worry.

    I was awoken by a knock on my door. It was Melissa coming to tell me that they had spotted a sloth outside the room. I dragged myself out of bed and saw the sloth. It was actually quite cool as it was really close to the footpath, but as I was standing there watching it very very slowly eating a leaf I started feeling very very very bad. 

    Then it came. The food poisoning, at first I though it was a bad reaction to the malaria pills, but I later learnt that others had also gotten food poisoning from the dinner I ate last night, I went back to my room and ran to the bathroom, I then spent four or five hours in absolute misery, lying in my bed feeling like death, and only springing out to run to the bathroom. I couldn't eat lunch and could barely get up the energy to go to the bathroom. My stomach was doing somersaults and was cramping very badly. It was all I could think about.

    I really didn't know if I felt up to going on the afternoon trip to Lake Sandoval. But I gritted my teeth, really wanting at least one good experience from this trip and dragged myself up which took a mountainous amount of effort. It took everything I had to get to the boat where I immediately collapsed and fell asleep again.

    On the way there we also picked up another couple honeymooning, I really wouldn't have imagined humid mosquito filled Amazon as a relaxing honeymoon spot. Lake Sandoval was 3 km from the boat drop off. I really did not know if I could do it considering even standing was an issue at the moment.

      The walk turned out to be hell on earth. I finally found out why they gave us mud boots that went up to our knees after I went through mud pit after mud pit that went up and over my knee high boots. Sometimes getting stuck and needing to be wrenched out which required a lot of effort. The mosquitoes were also overwhelming and especially bad if you were wearing black or blue like me they would just follow you around in packs as those are their favorite colors. I am sure the jungle would have been really amazing if I could have focused on anything else besides how bad and weak I was feeling. 

The disgusting mud

Me and Melissa with a GIANT tree!

     A termite nest. Apparently if you ever get lost in the rain forest, eating these little insects is one of your best hopes of survival...yum.

     We eventually got to the lake after what felt like an eternity and I collapsed onto a bench at the end. Amazingly enough at that is that exact moment a troop of monkeys passed directly overhead in such a way that I didn't even have to get up from my bench to watch them! Yes!

Here is one sitting in a tree

Here is one suicidal monkey jumping about 10 feet between trees. They were crazy but awesome.

     The lake was also beautiful.

In the swap area that led to the lake.

And the lake!!

Wow, wow, wow!

Me on the boat, with a lovely finger close up. Sadly about five minutes into the boat ride my phone died and I couldn't get any more photos. I think this trip is cursed.

    We saw black Caiman (a different species than the ones in the river), tons of birds, turtles, and even a few more monkeys. It was definitely the best part of my journey to the Amazon. It even took my mind off of my condition for a bit.

   I didn't think it could get worse than the walk there, but the walk back was. I was feeling exhausted on top of everything else, my stomach was murderous, and the mosquitoes had gotten worse. We were practically fending for our lives against them.

   I slept on the boat ride back and then crawled into my bed as soon as we got back without eating dinner. I had not eaten anything for almost the whole day.