I want to talk a little about some random experiences that happen in Peru:
The first thing thats in my head are temblores.. or small earthquakes.. This monday was my first time to experience a pretty big temblor, and let me tell you its something. At least for tornados in Alabama you know when they are comin, temblores hit suddenly. I was upstairs with my brother, and the whole house started to vibrate and then shake. My brother told me to get down and down I went along with everyone else in the house. It lasted roughly 10 seconds, which is a pretty long time to me. Octoberish is the season for temblores, so i might have some more in store for me. Its really a hard situation since theres not much you can do about it and of course afteer the big earthquake a year ago people have that memory of what could happen, but the house has been secured for those.
I am communicating more with the little girl in our house Camila.. She is two years old and only knows the world through whats hers and whats yours hah, and not surprisingly she thinks everything is hers. She is cute even when she ignores any request you may tell her to do. its different hearing a baby girl in spanish since every time i hear her i want to think shes gonna say somethin in english.. still need to get use to that one. The mother works a lot so the maid has taken up the duty in watching over her 24,7, which she does.. i dont think camila ever gets a break from chaperones.. but thats the everso watchful eye of a peruvian mother.
I walk to school sometimes.. a really nice and quiet neighborhood is between me and my university, and its my time for myself. I listen to music, probably sing too loud, and just walk. its about 35 minutes, which is a nice chuck of time to have, but really not enoguh for me hah. I have found some nice roads to take so that its not so busy traffic and i hit some nice parks. I cant help but wonder how weird it must look seein me walkin through this district, but that could just be me thinkin that.
I dont work out, but I do do pushups.. every other day im doin too many pushups and sometimes some ab and balance workouts. I have gotten a little gut since ive gotten here.. but thats to be expected with good food and cheap everything coughbeercough.
i have a little blanket i use as a pad for my hands, and you can see me next to the comp just pushinup on through.
My first individual grade Ive gotten in my university was an 11 out of 20... which of course is horrible but i am not worried. I cant wait for the new life of gettin really low grades.. hah. I actually didnt read all the material, but man readin so much for classes takes a lot of energy out of ya, and its all in spanish of course.
I went to see a play at the National Library. It was Arsenic and Old Lace, an old movie that luckiyl ive seen before. I didnt understand a lot of it. Then we went to McDonalds.. hooray.. they were surprised when i told them i dont eat restaurants like mcdonalds, but i got a strawberry sundae and a chicken wrap haha.
I am not cut out for the greetings in Peru. Whenever there is some type of social interaction, a greeting is required. For girls its a kiss on the cheek, and a handshake for guys, but I am a hugger! hah and when ive tried to do some hugs its just weak! plus, my face is never smoothe, so i always got some scruff or razor sharp cheeks. Sorry peruvian girls!
Nothing in this city resembles the wild. Everything is man made, even the trees look manufactured for looks. The parks are a joke.. but they do appear like a painting by someone in the form of flora. It is nice, but Ive realized how much truth is in the saying concrete jungle. People havent a clue about the wildlife, about things that arent created by us.... I think its a necessity that is lacked in Peru, but they do have that nice ocean.. which I will see tonight.
Peru is almost always has a clouded sky.. not cloudy.. fully clouded.. It is rare to see the sun in its round form.. and when the sun is out it cant be handled. Supposedly it is the season, so when summer rolls around (november and december) it should be clearer.
I went to a bar place and listened to a tribute band to Bon Jovi.. it wasnt that great...
Ill post more later.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Un techo para mi pais
So Im gonna talk about my little volunteer trip i had... it was grand.
There was a pretty devastating earthquake that struck Peru last year in August, where thousands upon thousands lost their homes to the quake, so almost immediately some youths decided to do somethin about and started the program un techo para mi pais (a roof for my country). They get volunteers to rebuild houses for all the families that lost them, and now its rollin pretty well.
So i decided to do it, since i am a pretty big fan of Habitat for Humanity. I went over to the Techo building, which is actually just a house and seems more like a hang out spot than a formal office. i signed up and i get teleported by some random invention they made and its friday... night.
They got a huge turn out for this trip, over 300 volunteers, all between the ages of 18-30.. their goal is 75 houses in one weekend.. yeah i dont know how either... we all met up at a stadium at night... the planned departure was probably around 9 pm.. but being in peru, where everything is formally an hour late, we didnt leave the place until 11:30... and the city (Chincha) is over 3 hours away.. WOOHOO
on the bus, sittin next to Elaina (stephanie, samantha, aaron, jamie, and john all came too from my program) she could pleasantly sleep while i couldnt.. which would turn out to be the rest of the trip It was a rough ride, squished and miserably wanting sleep..
We arrive at our school where we are going to spend the nights, and its like 2 am.. im ready to pass out.. but what do the leaders do??!? They have an icebreaker activity to get to know names!! Why sleep, they ask me, why sleep!?
so of course us (gringos) being not so chipper, we complain and give mean faces as everyone is somehow ready to build houses in that moment... next its 3 am and someone is brave enough to ask what time well be gettin up cuz ya kno we need like 7 hours sleep for this work right?!!?
We'll be waking you up at ooo 6:30
What.... did you just say, jefe? not even 3 hours of sleep for the first night.. and its really nice being in room that makes my nose act like a dam for air and 30 people sleepin around you on a floor
so im thinkin everyone is gonna be miserable.. but who gives us a chipper howdy in the mornin? the directors ... Do they even need sleep?
for breakfast some tasty stale bread and juice.. alright go build! im with 3 people to make a house.. they house is 6 meters by 3 meters.. so almost the size of an average room in an american house.. made out of wood.. we have two days to build.. my jefe for the group is gustavo, and theres an exchange student from france named cristelle and a highschooler named tamia... we are the dream team
the first thing we gotta do is level the land... thats nice... we start levelin with a shovel and other inventions that dont use electricity until we get to a part... hmm it seems kinda rough we think.. so we bash it a little to see that its just a big ROCK... so lets level rock with some simple tools... i got my pick and was wailing on it... for 2 hours..
the rock.. NEVER.. ended... so we failed and had to raise the land a little.. a good compromise since its the first day, hot, and im miserable.. so go take a good swig of water and what did i buy!?! CARBONATED WATER... you see, regular water and carbonated water are popular in Peru, and you have to read it before really knowing.. and i just took one... so i drank it, almost gagged, and i never truly quenched my thirst that day..
we work until late.. we probably worked 8 or 9 hours thatday and just finished gettin the floor in. everyone is smelly and dirty and we go back to the school, where there isnt a clean bathroom and definitely no showers.. we are goin dirty the whole weekend.
the cool thing thatr kept my spirits up was meetin a group from Loyola university in LA. i was chillin with some guys form there and had a good time until we had to pass out.. one guy was actually on the show NEXT on MTV.. how.. weird..
so was pass out at 3:30 am i guess, i dunno.. and i was like good lets get some sleep, i dont care that my nose is completely stopped up... im passin out... but Halleluja a director bursts into our room at 6 or 7 and tells us Buenas dias
im glad i didnt have a shoe in my hand... but i looked up and the guy was wearing a clown suit... i looked deep into his eyes... i saw that he was literally insane.
so i got some more stale bread in me and we hit the road.. gotta finish the house
the house is made of wood with a tin roof, pretty simple really with two windows and a door (i want to make a house without a door)
we were cruisin and i got to know my group pretty well and we were jokin the whole tim.. for lunch the family prepares us meals and we sat down and watched a dvd on 70s and 80s american music.. HELL YEA! got some Blondie, Grease, Jackson 5, and disco.. cant beat that.
so we finished the house at like 5.. it looked nice we tried not to mess up any but its hard with our inexperience. everything looked good, we hugged the lady of the house and took a break. and i was like yes lets hit the road i gotta get home sleep and do work.. but NONE of the hosues were finished... so even though i was hallucinating i was so tired i had to go work more.. cheers, we got done with the houses at around 10 or 11 pm, and i had school the next day... i woudlnt get home until 2 or 3ish... i havent recovered yet.
in the bus ride, i was talking to elmer fudd at a coffee shop. it was cozy, occasionally wed be interupted by scary 18 wheelers being 5 inches away from our bus and passing us. Elmer told me somethin about some rascaly rabbit that always messin with him.. i was like , yo fudd, take it easy, let the rabbit be.. there are other rabbits out there to eat.. we talked some politics, and he had to go to mrs fudd, who was piggy from the muppet show.. i thought she had a thing for mickey mouse. i didnt ask..
There was a pretty devastating earthquake that struck Peru last year in August, where thousands upon thousands lost their homes to the quake, so almost immediately some youths decided to do somethin about and started the program un techo para mi pais (a roof for my country). They get volunteers to rebuild houses for all the families that lost them, and now its rollin pretty well.
So i decided to do it, since i am a pretty big fan of Habitat for Humanity. I went over to the Techo building, which is actually just a house and seems more like a hang out spot than a formal office. i signed up and i get teleported by some random invention they made and its friday... night.
They got a huge turn out for this trip, over 300 volunteers, all between the ages of 18-30.. their goal is 75 houses in one weekend.. yeah i dont know how either... we all met up at a stadium at night... the planned departure was probably around 9 pm.. but being in peru, where everything is formally an hour late, we didnt leave the place until 11:30... and the city (Chincha) is over 3 hours away.. WOOHOO
on the bus, sittin next to Elaina (stephanie, samantha, aaron, jamie, and john all came too from my program) she could pleasantly sleep while i couldnt.. which would turn out to be the rest of the trip It was a rough ride, squished and miserably wanting sleep..
We arrive at our school where we are going to spend the nights, and its like 2 am.. im ready to pass out.. but what do the leaders do??!? They have an icebreaker activity to get to know names!! Why sleep, they ask me, why sleep!?
so of course us (gringos) being not so chipper, we complain and give mean faces as everyone is somehow ready to build houses in that moment... next its 3 am and someone is brave enough to ask what time well be gettin up cuz ya kno we need like 7 hours sleep for this work right?!!?
We'll be waking you up at ooo 6:30
What.... did you just say, jefe? not even 3 hours of sleep for the first night.. and its really nice being in room that makes my nose act like a dam for air and 30 people sleepin around you on a floor
so im thinkin everyone is gonna be miserable.. but who gives us a chipper howdy in the mornin? the directors ... Do they even need sleep?
for breakfast some tasty stale bread and juice.. alright go build! im with 3 people to make a house.. they house is 6 meters by 3 meters.. so almost the size of an average room in an american house.. made out of wood.. we have two days to build.. my jefe for the group is gustavo, and theres an exchange student from france named cristelle and a highschooler named tamia... we are the dream team
the first thing we gotta do is level the land... thats nice... we start levelin with a shovel and other inventions that dont use electricity until we get to a part... hmm it seems kinda rough we think.. so we bash it a little to see that its just a big ROCK... so lets level rock with some simple tools... i got my pick and was wailing on it... for 2 hours..
the rock.. NEVER.. ended... so we failed and had to raise the land a little.. a good compromise since its the first day, hot, and im miserable.. so go take a good swig of water and what did i buy!?! CARBONATED WATER... you see, regular water and carbonated water are popular in Peru, and you have to read it before really knowing.. and i just took one... so i drank it, almost gagged, and i never truly quenched my thirst that day..
we work until late.. we probably worked 8 or 9 hours thatday and just finished gettin the floor in. everyone is smelly and dirty and we go back to the school, where there isnt a clean bathroom and definitely no showers.. we are goin dirty the whole weekend.
the cool thing thatr kept my spirits up was meetin a group from Loyola university in LA. i was chillin with some guys form there and had a good time until we had to pass out.. one guy was actually on the show NEXT on MTV.. how.. weird..
so was pass out at 3:30 am i guess, i dunno.. and i was like good lets get some sleep, i dont care that my nose is completely stopped up... im passin out... but Halleluja a director bursts into our room at 6 or 7 and tells us Buenas dias
im glad i didnt have a shoe in my hand... but i looked up and the guy was wearing a clown suit... i looked deep into his eyes... i saw that he was literally insane.
so i got some more stale bread in me and we hit the road.. gotta finish the house
the house is made of wood with a tin roof, pretty simple really with two windows and a door (i want to make a house without a door)
we were cruisin and i got to know my group pretty well and we were jokin the whole tim.. for lunch the family prepares us meals and we sat down and watched a dvd on 70s and 80s american music.. HELL YEA! got some Blondie, Grease, Jackson 5, and disco.. cant beat that.
so we finished the house at like 5.. it looked nice we tried not to mess up any but its hard with our inexperience. everything looked good, we hugged the lady of the house and took a break. and i was like yes lets hit the road i gotta get home sleep and do work.. but NONE of the hosues were finished... so even though i was hallucinating i was so tired i had to go work more.. cheers, we got done with the houses at around 10 or 11 pm, and i had school the next day... i woudlnt get home until 2 or 3ish... i havent recovered yet.
in the bus ride, i was talking to elmer fudd at a coffee shop. it was cozy, occasionally wed be interupted by scary 18 wheelers being 5 inches away from our bus and passing us. Elmer told me somethin about some rascaly rabbit that always messin with him.. i was like , yo fudd, take it easy, let the rabbit be.. there are other rabbits out there to eat.. we talked some politics, and he had to go to mrs fudd, who was piggy from the muppet show.. i thought she had a thing for mickey mouse. i didnt ask..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)