Swearing In and Site

Yea I’m still alive and here. It’s been a long while since my last post. However, I’ve been really busy. I guess I will try to recap the last 2 weeks or so. The last week of training flew by. Most of our sessions were administrative and no one really wanted to be in training any longer. The only reason we didn’t want to leave was because we had all gotten to be a pretty tight knit group. My family threw me a going away party the last night that we were in the neighborhood. Let’s just say it was pretty wild and we will leave it at that. You can contact me for more information. We had swearing in the day after the party then we left to spend the night in Lima. Yet again, another crazy night which details will only be divulged through further inquiry by you the reader. We got into Arequipa city on August 24th. Us first timers participated in our first regional meeting and then headed out for a night on the town. Let me first just say that Arequipa has the best food ever. I’m really happy it’s my capital city. We ate Doner Kebab, Mexican, KFC, actual good pizza…etc etc. There is basically everything you need in the city. On the 26th we left for our sites.

When I got into my site I was exhausted but my host dad who is also my community partner led me to a session that was being given to the teachers at the school. It was a health session about things that I already knew and it lasted about 4 hours. Pretty painful but I put myself out there. The next day I woke up and got to meet a couple of more important people in the community and then was done by about 10AM HAA. It sounds cool but it really wasn’t. I came back to my room and passed out until lunch. I was still adjusting to the altitude and just everything. So, I really didn’t do much that day. Thursday rolled around and my host dad left for a meeting in Arequipa which meant I really had nothing to do again. See a recurring theme here? Haha. Plus, everyone in town goes to their chacra (farm) from about 6am til 6pm. Therefore, there is a lack of things to do during the day. I tried to go running on Thursday but only made it two laps around the soccer field before being completely out of breath because of the altitude. I did manage to take my first shower on Thursday with my solar shower. It was really satisfying. It just stinks because your feet get dirty due to the fact you’re showering outside in the dirt. Eh. On Friday, I was invited to partake in a competition in the community. I thought I was just going to tag along but I ended up being a judge. I’m not sure how I was qualified at all but I didn’t say anything. We were judging the ovens people had made in their homes (out of just dirt, glass, sand etc….these people are resourceful!), the presentation of their kitchens and their improvements made to their andenes (the type of farm that they use here). It took all day to judge everything and I got to hang out with some important people from the town all day which was good. Saturday, I traveled over to a fellow volunteer’s site because his town was having its aniversario. He was hurting pretty bad emotionally and physically so I think he was happy to see me. My family came along too. It was actually their idea to go. We spent the whole day watching the dance competition of traditional dances from the region. It was really cool.

Yesterday, Sunday, I got my first taste of football…aka soccer…at my site. There are 5 teams in my little district. I was invited to play with one team and their game was supposed to start at one. So, I showed up at 1230 to warm up and the game didn’t start until 2. Also, the game at 2 wasn’t the game I was supposed to play in, but I was recruited by another team, Real Esperanza to play. We played the colegio team and won 14-2, hahah. We had 10 people and they had 9, but 14-2 is just ridiculous. I had 4 goals and 3 assists. I was pretty tired and am still adjusting to this altitude. The game was a full 90 minutes and the field is pretty much just dust and rocks. Today, I went to work in the chacra. We are planting our crops on Wed or Thurs. So, we had to prepare the chacra for the seeding. I pretty much just cleared out rocks and what not from the chacra. That’s what I’ve been up to. I’m still definitely adjusting but it’s getting better. The first couple of days were rough but now I feel pretty good physically and mentally!

The internet here is really slow so I will try to post pics when I get into the city. Tupanacama.