Time Is Flying By

I apologize that it's been more than a week since I made my last post! Although in my mind I was going to make posts weekly, I've gotten busy with different activities and volunteer work. On the 26th, I'm going on a five day mission trip to a town called Chincha and will likely post at a time after that. For now It's going to be a quick and somewhat choppy post.

The last two and a half weeks have gone by quickly. I actually feel like I know a little bit of Spanish now. Enough that I recognize words and can *somewhat* (read barely) follow conversations. The community is great, and it feels like I've been in Peru for a lot longer that I have. Below are pictures of the Church I go to.

Figure 1: Church.

Figure 2: A lucky picture of the courtyard not being used.

Although I am learning, most of the time I don't have the vocabulary to vocalize what I did for the day, what I'm going to do later, or how I'm feeling. Not talking (as much as I normally do) has caused me to feel somewhat contemplative. I think it's a good thing for now. I see Peru as an opportunity to understand myself more, and part of that, is time away from other people. On the other hand, it is important that I fully throw myself into learning Spanish since I am going to be here for 5 months.

In my last post, I promised to take pictures of the people I hang out with and my family.  I forgot, of course, so I raided Facebook for some photos! Below are the pictures.

Figure 3: Alejo, who's pretty much my boss. As you can tell he likes to rap.

Figure 4: This is Carlos. He is the only child of Janet and Augusto, the family I live with.

I'll try to get more photos at a later time.

Miss you all!

First Week

It´s been quite the week. First of all I apologize for spelling words wrong, my spell-check is in Spanish and I can't seem to fix it. One of the most surprising things about Peru is the amount of bugs we eat! It's a lot like the Lion King. Below is a picture of dinner.

Figure 1: Dinner. Thumb size for comparison.

Just kidding! Judging by it's colors, that bug looks like it would taste like me dieing. I did think it was cool that I found such a huge bug though. Pertaining to the picture, it is important to note that I have big hands.

Have you ever stood in a river, about waist high, and the water is strong enough that you almost can't hold your footing? I kind of had that experience earlier this week, which I will explain in the next few paragraphs. I´m volunteering in a kindergarten for children who are 2-5 years old. I can´t really remember being that old but the kids are semi out of control, which, I imagine, is how young Carl was. The children are great! whenever I do anything, they laugh at me.

The first time I met the 5 year old kindergarten class, they rushed me like it was black Friday. Luckily it's hard to get trampled to death by 25 screaming children. Apparently the children just wanted to give me a large impromptu group hug, which I imagine was a lot more fulfilling than a 50% off television set. Who knows though? I never liked shopping.

My first days here I visited the shanty towns. They are built into the hills where there is no electricity of running water. I made the picture large so it was easier to see everything.

Figure 2: Houses built from cardboard, scrap metal, and wood. The poverty continues for some distance in all directions.

The disparity between wealth and poverty is much more obvious here than in India. In India, everyone seemed poor. Here, there is a wall on top of the hills pictured above. Because of the view, there are ten million dollar houses on the other side of the hill. I find it somewhat sad that literally within a 300 foot distance, one man make millions of dollars a year, and his neighbor makes less than $5000 per year.

I also spent Saturday asking people for money to help kids with cleft palates seen below.

Figure 3: My collection box and the picture I pointed at before demanding money.

I didn't speak much Spanish and could pretty much only tell people, "help me" and, "thank you". I tried to make up for my lack of Spanish using smiles and shamelessness. It seemed to work pretty well because I collected more money than many of the volunteers.

I was touched by the amount of people who are willing to give in Peru. In the US, I would have raised more money, but less people would have been willing to give. The people in Peru aren't as well off as in the US, but many more are willing to part ways with the little money they have. I believe this is an important lesson for me to learn, that there is more to life than being financially well-off.

Afterwards, everyone was pretty impressed by my money collecting skills, so I decided to impress them even more using my intimate knowledge of Spanish. I told everyone I made so much money because I was the, "Magic Gringo". Unfortunately, when I talk, 'mágico' sounds a lot like 'México'. Everyone was super confused about what a, "Mexican Gringo" was, and why a Mexican would be so terrible at Spanish. I was confused why everyone kept asking if I was from Mexico.

Anyways, sorry for the long post. For the next time I write, I'm going to try to get a picture of the family I'm staying with, the people I hang out with, and maybe the places I work. I miss you all.

Day 1

Hola from Peru!

My flight to Peru left yesterday at 7:30am. Unfortunately, the night before I mistook my arrival time with my departure time and woke up about 30 minutes late for the flight! I spent a good part of the morning on the phone with American Airlines trying to fix this self-inflicted complication. Needless to say, I felt pretty dumb. The good news is that I got to have an extremely short and wonderful breakfast with two great friends before leaving, plus I got to sleep in.

Since it was the fourth of July and nobody was flying, I was able to rearrange my flights. I was supposed to have a 12 hour layover in Miami before flying out to Peru. The layover gave me time to find new flights. With a small flight change fee I left Denver around noon for Dallas and from Dallas made it to Miami for the flight to Lima. On the flight to Dallas I got to talking to the guy next to me. He bought me a beer, likely for my stunning good looks.

Above: A picture of my seven dollar beer, courtesy of my handsome features. (Thanks Paul!)

From Miami I left for Peru at midnight. About six hours and 3000 miles later I arrived. After making it through the swarm of Peruvians demanding that I get in their taxi, I was picked up by a brother at the airport. By 6am I was in the home of an extremely generous family who are housing me for the week. They are a family of three. All of the boys in the house have a name that is some variation of Carl which I find hilarious.

Anyways, I thought everyone would appreciate a quick update. My Spanish is bad but I can somewhat understand people. I´m looking forward to seeing where I work, learning about Peru, and becoming better at Spanish.

I love you all.