Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Entry # 13 Long day in Sacred Valley and train ride
Today was the longest day of our touring, we woke up around 6 and didn't get home until 6:30 pm. We walked around the property with Suzy as she promised. It was truly amazing to see these ancient Inca terraces being used in everyday life! On this solely local path we pass grazing cows and goats, orchids and wild roses, roaring water ways with original stonework. It is something totally off the beaten path! We hike back down to the car drop off to being out day after a delicious breakfast where Jesus and Lorenzo are waiting for us. Our first stop is one of the most important Inca sights called Ollantaytambo. It's one of the most important sights because the largest rocks of any Inca sight are found here, at what remains to be the Temple to the Sun. When we pull up it's a tiered system of terraces, remains of grain storage buildings and huge perfect stones facing east for the sun. We climb to the top, which requires a few breaks to catch our breath, and it's an impressive view down the entire valley. There is access to see another valley for protection as well. Jesus tells us that these huge rocks were actually carted here from across the river!! Some of these stones weigh a few tons, how could they possibly have brought these boulders halfway up a mountain side! Well Jesus told us that when it was the dry season the river was a lot lower and they would divert the river and bring the stones using Llama rope and man power! Crazy. I have to add that nowadays in each of these small towns the women and men wear distinctly different hats distinguishing themselves from different villages. Some of the hats are small with red flowers, some are stark white tophats with black ribbon and others are yellow medium sized. It's pretty cool to see all these different hats. Anyway so we leave Ollantaytambo and head up to almost 13,000 ft to the Moray circles. Theses are circular terraces that instead of going up the side of a mountain they go down into a huge crater sized area. The circles are perfectly sized and stopped me in my tracks. They're crazy. Please google them right now just to see, Moray Circles Peru. The whole area looks like the wooden Russian nesting dolls, where the one inside is smaller and they keep getting smaller. At least that's what I saw. You're able to actually climb down to the bottom of these terraces, which we did, and hear the perfect echo once fully at the bottom. My mom and I were really lucky because our guide Jesus timed it perfectly that when we were hiking down everyone was leaving so we were in this ancient spiritual sight alone! When we were at the bottom we stayed silent just listening allowing our ears absorb everything. Next was the hike back up- which was brutal at that altitude. The steps aren't normal staircases, they're rocks jutting out called a floating staircase. I like the look of these floating staircases they're very cool because when you're at the top the staircases make a perfect zigzag lines down the entire structure - just look it up in google to see what i'm talking about. I would put pictures up on this thing but I need about 200 more GB of space for all my pictures which is why none are on facebook either. My computer is full.
We left the Morays and head towards the Maras salt deposits, but we take a brief pit-stop to have a picnic on the side of the Andes no big deal. Lorenzo and Jesus work like a well oiled machine getting the table and chairs and propane tank (would have been a little more worried while driving had I known that was in the back) and we have a hot meal looking over fields of crops and in the distance enormous mountains tower over us, the clouds exposing snow caped mountains and glaciers, it was amazing. I just kept thinking, 'Yep, here we are, just having a 5 star picnic in the Andes, traveling after graduation was the bests decision ever!!' After eating we pack up the picnic and head off to Maras. Along the way we had extra food so we stopped and gave the remaining fruit and bread to this little boy and girl who were in charge of about 30 goats/sheep and cows. These kids were elated, their smiles still make me smile! We arrive at the salt mine and it is jaw dropping - again please google Maras Peru and you'll see a shallow pooled terrace covering 3/4 of the mountain. The Incas found the natural spring containing a fair amount of salt and decided to set up terrace systems to harvest and use the salt to their advantage. Each small pool had an aqueduct delivering the water and continuing onto the ones below. Sometimes just a small pebble could cut off the water supply because the aqueducts are so tiny. Jesus takes my mom and I down through the salt fields on a 45 min hike down to the bottom where the Urubamba is flowing ferociously! Once down we cross a small wobbly pedestrian bridge where Lorenzo is waiting for us to take us back to our slice if heaven. We hike back again to our oasis where the next day we're going to MachuPicchu!!!
Early wake-up and departure because we're catching the 8:30 train from Ollantaytambo to Aquascalientes- which is now renamed MachuPicchu Pueblo because too many tourists kept saying they wanted to get to MachuPicchu - but didn't want to go to Aquascalientes. . . they're the same place people! Stupid tourists not doing their research. The train is amazing, huge windows, a little snack, but one of the slowest trains i've ever been on. We arrive to a rainy Aquascalientes, so we purchase a poncho and board the bus which takes you up to the historical sight. The bus company runs about 35 buses for the short 20 min drive, but there will always be a bus waiting for tourists - it's actually a very good system, absolutely no waiting around so no unhappy tourists. As the bus ascends up the mountain face and it's magical, seriously magical. Clouds are everywhere changing the scenery every few seconds and the lush green mixed with a constant waterfall in the middle of every switch back, the place is seriously out of a hollywood film set. We reach the top and eager tourists make sure their newly purchased ponchos are going to do the trick. We get inside and Jesus lets guest zoom past us as we wait for the foot traffic to calm so we're left standing alone looking over the lost city of the Incas. It immediately a sense of calm, when we look over trying to squint through the clouds, the place is huge, with the sense that this place was a real community where people actually lived, complaired to the previous sights we've seen before. The rain and wind add for dramatic effect whipping small beads of rain at us from every-which-way. Jesus gives us a great tour and keeps us away from the blobs of bright colors (ie the poncho covered tourists) He shows us all the temples, the famous Condor, and let us wonder around. MachuPicchu is the a home to 15 Llamas and one baby! These Llamas have free range over the place and on our second day at the slight nearly mauled someone over, they had to literally jump out of the way onto another terrace!
On our second day at MachuPicchu we hiked to an old Inca bridge which is part of the Inca trail, were able to wander more throughout the sight and sit to meditate. On our second day it was also sunny which was amazing! We left for Cuzco the next day and Lima the day after then home. It was a truly amazing trip, the whole 5 weeks and I encourage EVERYONE - whoever reads this- and others to travel to Peru. It is so lush with nature and vegetation, different landscapes, and seriously wonderful people. The food is amazing and the history is so vas. Also while I was in Peru I was reading off and on Three Cups of Tea and it is seriously an amazing book! Everyone should read it!! This is my last post because I'm home right now looking for a job. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!!
xoxo
over and out
Lola
We left the Morays and head towards the Maras salt deposits, but we take a brief pit-stop to have a picnic on the side of the Andes no big deal. Lorenzo and Jesus work like a well oiled machine getting the table and chairs and propane tank (would have been a little more worried while driving had I known that was in the back) and we have a hot meal looking over fields of crops and in the distance enormous mountains tower over us, the clouds exposing snow caped mountains and glaciers, it was amazing. I just kept thinking, 'Yep, here we are, just having a 5 star picnic in the Andes, traveling after graduation was the bests decision ever!!' After eating we pack up the picnic and head off to Maras. Along the way we had extra food so we stopped and gave the remaining fruit and bread to this little boy and girl who were in charge of about 30 goats/sheep and cows. These kids were elated, their smiles still make me smile! We arrive at the salt mine and it is jaw dropping - again please google Maras Peru and you'll see a shallow pooled terrace covering 3/4 of the mountain. The Incas found the natural spring containing a fair amount of salt and decided to set up terrace systems to harvest and use the salt to their advantage. Each small pool had an aqueduct delivering the water and continuing onto the ones below. Sometimes just a small pebble could cut off the water supply because the aqueducts are so tiny. Jesus takes my mom and I down through the salt fields on a 45 min hike down to the bottom where the Urubamba is flowing ferociously! Once down we cross a small wobbly pedestrian bridge where Lorenzo is waiting for us to take us back to our slice if heaven. We hike back again to our oasis where the next day we're going to MachuPicchu!!!
Early wake-up and departure because we're catching the 8:30 train from Ollantaytambo to Aquascalientes- which is now renamed MachuPicchu Pueblo because too many tourists kept saying they wanted to get to MachuPicchu - but didn't want to go to Aquascalientes. . . they're the same place people! Stupid tourists not doing their research. The train is amazing, huge windows, a little snack, but one of the slowest trains i've ever been on. We arrive to a rainy Aquascalientes, so we purchase a poncho and board the bus which takes you up to the historical sight. The bus company runs about 35 buses for the short 20 min drive, but there will always be a bus waiting for tourists - it's actually a very good system, absolutely no waiting around so no unhappy tourists. As the bus ascends up the mountain face and it's magical, seriously magical. Clouds are everywhere changing the scenery every few seconds and the lush green mixed with a constant waterfall in the middle of every switch back, the place is seriously out of a hollywood film set. We reach the top and eager tourists make sure their newly purchased ponchos are going to do the trick. We get inside and Jesus lets guest zoom past us as we wait for the foot traffic to calm so we're left standing alone looking over the lost city of the Incas. It immediately a sense of calm, when we look over trying to squint through the clouds, the place is huge, with the sense that this place was a real community where people actually lived, complaired to the previous sights we've seen before. The rain and wind add for dramatic effect whipping small beads of rain at us from every-which-way. Jesus gives us a great tour and keeps us away from the blobs of bright colors (ie the poncho covered tourists) He shows us all the temples, the famous Condor, and let us wonder around. MachuPicchu is the a home to 15 Llamas and one baby! These Llamas have free range over the place and on our second day at the slight nearly mauled someone over, they had to literally jump out of the way onto another terrace!
On our second day at MachuPicchu we hiked to an old Inca bridge which is part of the Inca trail, were able to wander more throughout the sight and sit to meditate. On our second day it was also sunny which was amazing! We left for Cuzco the next day and Lima the day after then home. It was a truly amazing trip, the whole 5 weeks and I encourage EVERYONE - whoever reads this- and others to travel to Peru. It is so lush with nature and vegetation, different landscapes, and seriously wonderful people. The food is amazing and the history is so vas. Also while I was in Peru I was reading off and on Three Cups of Tea and it is seriously an amazing book! Everyone should read it!! This is my last post because I'm home right now looking for a job. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it!!
xoxo
over and out
Lola
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Entry #12 Life After Ayacucho!
So as many of you know I'm back in the USA and this is going to be my last blog about my time in Peru, so get settled, it's going to be a long one!! I left Ayacucho on January 9th to meet my mom, who came down for a week to travel all throughout the Sacred Valley, Cuzco and Machu Picchu. However in Ayacucho there are only 4 flights in and out a day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. But since it's the rainy season the afternoon flights are usually canceled because the storms roll in across the mountains. The previous day had been just beautiful, Amelia and Caitlin had gotten out with no problems to go to Cuzco, so I just knew that we were going to have problems getting out. And sure enough when I woke up it was the second day in the whole 4 weeks that it was cloudy in the morning, so I knew something was going to happen. We leave for the airport at 6:15 and I was supposed to be meeting my mom in the Lima airport for our 9:30 flight. We we're checking in the wonderful staff of StarPeru informed us that our 7:30 am flight was now scheduled to depart at 3:30 PM. The reason being for the delay was because they were repaving the runway. YEP. Repaving the runway. Only is Ayacucho, Peru would that EVER be the problem. Why couldn't they have done it the afternoon before when it was super nice and sunny ensuring that it would be fully functioning in the morning? So now we're all driven back to the house to sit and wait for 8 hours. I have to frantically try to get a hold of my mom who was in Lima, and I instructed her to take the flight to Cuzco and I'd have to spend the night in Lima because the last flight from Lima to Cuzco was at 1:45 pm. . . before my Ayacucho flight ever takes off!
Anyway, such a mess, my mom and I finally met up at the Cuzco airport and we headed straight towards the Sacred Valley, the main area of the Incan civilization - Cuzco was actually the capital before the Spanish conquered them. Lorenzo (our driver) and Jesus (our amazing tour guide) inform us as we drive along the canyons, stopping to let us take pictures of the gorgeous landscape. Everything is green, it reminds me of the movie Land Before Time, with this roaring mud colored river called the Urubamba, which is actually the mouth of the Amazon, and very vas mountain ranges. Some have snow caps, but most peaks are hidden behind rapidly moving clouds. The whole place is magical. Our first stop was one of the most magnificent sights I'd ever seen. An almost 13,000 ft. mountain littered with these perfectly preserved or restored Inca terraces. Pisca is the name of this small town, and women are waiting as we pull up to the entrance of the ruins each one of them holding what I guestimate to be around 40 lbs worth of the exact same merchandise. Of course my mom gets hounded by these women with her lack of spanish but excellent talent to want to look at everything, she was like a mouse being pounced on by cats! She agrees to buy a head strap and we proceed. This is my first encounter with the Inca ruins and it is seriously mind blowing! The way the HUGE terraces trickle down the steep mountain side and the way the rocks perfectly fit together like a lock system that not even a blade of grass can penetrate in some areas! Jesus tell us that Pisca was one of the Incas main agricultural areas and not many people actually lived where we were it was just for farming. There is an excellent waterway system that is still running! An area where the imperial family used to wash or give to the gods- a reason why the majority of their buildings were so high so they could be closer to the gods. We get to an area where one can look down both sides of the mountain, on one side, facing south are the vas terraces and on the other is a small waterfall cutting into a little valley. On the opposite mountain wall you can't help but notice holes everywhere in the side of the mountain rock. Jesus tells us that this is where the Incas would mummify and engrave the dead. The Spanish looted all these tombs, stealing everything ounce of gold the Incas had, but the holes are amazing. The whole Sacred Valley is amazing, extremely lush with not only vegetation but as well as animals and humming birds - they're everywhere!! We leave the ruins after spending a good almost 2 hours wondering around to go to this local restaurant to eat some local lunch! The whole place was amazing!! Right on the river, Lorenzo, Jesus, my mom and I ate outside in an enclosed porch, because inside was super noisy and outside was tranquil. The food was amazing too!!! Quinoa soup, corn, avocado, pollo, anything you could dream of! Then after lunch we drove along the river towards our hotel, stopping to look at more Inca ruins - they're seriously everywhere! We finally arrived just as the rain started to a small village called Yucay. As we pull onto a street we stop to grab one of the workers because he was going to show us to the hotel. I had no idea at the time why we had to pick up this old little man until the van stops at a dead end - we get to hike to our hotel!!! It is completely unreachable by car, one must hike along old Inca waterways just a short 5 mins, in the rain mind you but no big deal. Huge 20 ft Inca terrace walls are on your right while fields of potatoes and corn pass us on our left. The path is narrow so we watch out step. Finally we make it to a small flight of stone stairs and as we ascend the most enchanting place you've ever seen in your life awaits you! Suzy is the owner who speaks fluent english thanks to a British boarding school from the age of 10, but she's Peruvian and wont let you forget it! Palm trees and mowed grass, a few small separate spanish style adobe buildings only linked by connecting roofs sit pleasantly against an enormous mountain beckons for visitors to explore the once Royal Inca palace. Suzy invites us for tea and tells us all about how she acquired this wonderful property and what it's meant to her. She dines with us too since we're the only guests- the place can only sleep 6 guests total. Suzy is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu when she was 17 so she knows her way around a kitchen, so you can assume the food was amazing! Because of the high altitude Peruvians eat their larger meals at lunch time and a small tide over for dinner to help with digestion, so we ate a wonderful soup, equivalent to squash but the best thing I've ever tasted! The next morning Suzy asks if we'd like to take a walk about the property and the surrounding lands to get a feel for the place - so we being the next morning with a nice walk for about an hour. This is taking too long for one blog so i'm going to do it in two, sorry.
More to come!
Anyway, such a mess, my mom and I finally met up at the Cuzco airport and we headed straight towards the Sacred Valley, the main area of the Incan civilization - Cuzco was actually the capital before the Spanish conquered them. Lorenzo (our driver) and Jesus (our amazing tour guide) inform us as we drive along the canyons, stopping to let us take pictures of the gorgeous landscape. Everything is green, it reminds me of the movie Land Before Time, with this roaring mud colored river called the Urubamba, which is actually the mouth of the Amazon, and very vas mountain ranges. Some have snow caps, but most peaks are hidden behind rapidly moving clouds. The whole place is magical. Our first stop was one of the most magnificent sights I'd ever seen. An almost 13,000 ft. mountain littered with these perfectly preserved or restored Inca terraces. Pisca is the name of this small town, and women are waiting as we pull up to the entrance of the ruins each one of them holding what I guestimate to be around 40 lbs worth of the exact same merchandise. Of course my mom gets hounded by these women with her lack of spanish but excellent talent to want to look at everything, she was like a mouse being pounced on by cats! She agrees to buy a head strap and we proceed. This is my first encounter with the Inca ruins and it is seriously mind blowing! The way the HUGE terraces trickle down the steep mountain side and the way the rocks perfectly fit together like a lock system that not even a blade of grass can penetrate in some areas! Jesus tell us that Pisca was one of the Incas main agricultural areas and not many people actually lived where we were it was just for farming. There is an excellent waterway system that is still running! An area where the imperial family used to wash or give to the gods- a reason why the majority of their buildings were so high so they could be closer to the gods. We get to an area where one can look down both sides of the mountain, on one side, facing south are the vas terraces and on the other is a small waterfall cutting into a little valley. On the opposite mountain wall you can't help but notice holes everywhere in the side of the mountain rock. Jesus tells us that this is where the Incas would mummify and engrave the dead. The Spanish looted all these tombs, stealing everything ounce of gold the Incas had, but the holes are amazing. The whole Sacred Valley is amazing, extremely lush with not only vegetation but as well as animals and humming birds - they're everywhere!! We leave the ruins after spending a good almost 2 hours wondering around to go to this local restaurant to eat some local lunch! The whole place was amazing!! Right on the river, Lorenzo, Jesus, my mom and I ate outside in an enclosed porch, because inside was super noisy and outside was tranquil. The food was amazing too!!! Quinoa soup, corn, avocado, pollo, anything you could dream of! Then after lunch we drove along the river towards our hotel, stopping to look at more Inca ruins - they're seriously everywhere! We finally arrived just as the rain started to a small village called Yucay. As we pull onto a street we stop to grab one of the workers because he was going to show us to the hotel. I had no idea at the time why we had to pick up this old little man until the van stops at a dead end - we get to hike to our hotel!!! It is completely unreachable by car, one must hike along old Inca waterways just a short 5 mins, in the rain mind you but no big deal. Huge 20 ft Inca terrace walls are on your right while fields of potatoes and corn pass us on our left. The path is narrow so we watch out step. Finally we make it to a small flight of stone stairs and as we ascend the most enchanting place you've ever seen in your life awaits you! Suzy is the owner who speaks fluent english thanks to a British boarding school from the age of 10, but she's Peruvian and wont let you forget it! Palm trees and mowed grass, a few small separate spanish style adobe buildings only linked by connecting roofs sit pleasantly against an enormous mountain beckons for visitors to explore the once Royal Inca palace. Suzy invites us for tea and tells us all about how she acquired this wonderful property and what it's meant to her. She dines with us too since we're the only guests- the place can only sleep 6 guests total. Suzy is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu when she was 17 so she knows her way around a kitchen, so you can assume the food was amazing! Because of the high altitude Peruvians eat their larger meals at lunch time and a small tide over for dinner to help with digestion, so we ate a wonderful soup, equivalent to squash but the best thing I've ever tasted! The next morning Suzy asks if we'd like to take a walk about the property and the surrounding lands to get a feel for the place - so we being the next morning with a nice walk for about an hour. This is taking too long for one blog so i'm going to do it in two, sorry.
More to come!
Friday, January 08, 2010
Entry # 11 Daily Life in Peru!
So I don't know if I've written about this before, if I have, well sorry. Recently I've been waking up around 6:30, sometimes earlier, to hop into a FREEZING shower. I can count on one hand how many times we've had warmish showers. No wonder everyone wears 17 layers of clothing a day here, because their showers are always freezing! But then we come downstairs to breakfast, including a roll (awesome because I was trying to be gluten free), butter, strawberry jam and a freshly made smoothie, usually mango, pineapple, banana, strawberry and some kind of mixture. Only this week have we been getting eggs on some days! Then we leave for placement. Since everyone's at different placements and we only have one van, the Prison folk aka me and Amelia are last to leave because our drive is close to 25-30 mins! We jam out to Zeta Pop and Rock (the only station that plays english music) with Alejo, our driver, and count the number of stray dogs roaming the streets! The other day we counted mas or menos 140 stray dogs!!! And there are so many more!
We enter the prison by three different check points - each equipped with a stamp, so by the time we're finally inside we're tattooed up on our forearms! They search our bags, smell our water bottles and give us a pat down while passing check point 2! Today ALL the volunteers from the insight program came today and one asked when the stamps come off, and I simply said 'they don't' I have a faint ink mark from Monday at the prison! ha but the stamps change daily and we have our favorites! Amelia and I prepare an activity of the day before we go to placement, some including making valentines day cards, origami, learning english, coloring with the kiddies and of course dancing! These little activities provide the women with breaks during the monotonous days of weaving, knitting and embroidering. Although they do make wonderful things, which I hate to take them away from, but they are more than wiling to participate! By the time we get in it's around 9:15 and we have to leave by 11:30 when the guard comes back to let us out, so our day is the shortest out of all the placements. Alejo comes back to get Amelia and I around 11:45 and we're FAMISHED by the time we get back because in higher altitudes you burn more calories! We're just over 9,000 ft in altitude, so we're pretty high! We get back to the house around 12:15 ish and this meal bell rings signifying that lunch is ready!! Everyone RUSHES to get food because everyone is hungry! The food is good, larger meals at lunch and smaller ones for dinner, which I'm not used to! But after 4 weeks I've gotten used to. Yesterday we had guinea pig!! BLAHHH No gracias!! The new volunteers ate some while I passed, I had tried it earlier and really didn't enjoy! Then we have a speaker, spanish lessons, field trip, or free time. Yesterday we went to a Shining Path Museum which was really awesome - not because of what happened but it was really informative. Before coming to Peru I knew of the Shining Path but to no extent as to the damage they caused! It was a pretty scary and terrible movement. What we found out yesterday was that in Ayacucho - not only where it began- but about 70% of the population in the 80s went missing or killed! Just in this provence alone. So here in Ayacucho there are many streets named after significant events that occurred during the Shining Path Movement. I have to pack my things because I leave tomorrow, SERIOUSLY TOO SAD!! I can't believe it went by this quickly! Well until next time!
xo
Lola
We enter the prison by three different check points - each equipped with a stamp, so by the time we're finally inside we're tattooed up on our forearms! They search our bags, smell our water bottles and give us a pat down while passing check point 2! Today ALL the volunteers from the insight program came today and one asked when the stamps come off, and I simply said 'they don't' I have a faint ink mark from Monday at the prison! ha but the stamps change daily and we have our favorites! Amelia and I prepare an activity of the day before we go to placement, some including making valentines day cards, origami, learning english, coloring with the kiddies and of course dancing! These little activities provide the women with breaks during the monotonous days of weaving, knitting and embroidering. Although they do make wonderful things, which I hate to take them away from, but they are more than wiling to participate! By the time we get in it's around 9:15 and we have to leave by 11:30 when the guard comes back to let us out, so our day is the shortest out of all the placements. Alejo comes back to get Amelia and I around 11:45 and we're FAMISHED by the time we get back because in higher altitudes you burn more calories! We're just over 9,000 ft in altitude, so we're pretty high! We get back to the house around 12:15 ish and this meal bell rings signifying that lunch is ready!! Everyone RUSHES to get food because everyone is hungry! The food is good, larger meals at lunch and smaller ones for dinner, which I'm not used to! But after 4 weeks I've gotten used to. Yesterday we had guinea pig!! BLAHHH No gracias!! The new volunteers ate some while I passed, I had tried it earlier and really didn't enjoy! Then we have a speaker, spanish lessons, field trip, or free time. Yesterday we went to a Shining Path Museum which was really awesome - not because of what happened but it was really informative. Before coming to Peru I knew of the Shining Path but to no extent as to the damage they caused! It was a pretty scary and terrible movement. What we found out yesterday was that in Ayacucho - not only where it began- but about 70% of the population in the 80s went missing or killed! Just in this provence alone. So here in Ayacucho there are many streets named after significant events that occurred during the Shining Path Movement. I have to pack my things because I leave tomorrow, SERIOUSLY TOO SAD!! I can't believe it went by this quickly! Well until next time!
xo
Lola
Thursday, January 07, 2010
Natural Healer and orphanage!
Tuesday we had a natural Healer speak to us about all the different types of natural medicines that the Peruvians have used for thousands of years. She came with a bunch of little dishes filled of crazy looking nuts, berries and coiled-up vines! She was not a healer herself but a student of natural medicine, however, she did show us pictures and speak about natural healers and shamans. Let me just say that everything she told the group just brought back all my memories of watching the guinea pig and blahh it is still the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life! But in terms of it working, I believe that it worked. Caitlin who had the guinea pig done to her, she had blood clots in her lungs and gets her blood tested every where of being here and her blood has been getting better since she went to the healer. . .
The healer also had these red dried berries and flap silvery button seeds that both had meanings. The berries are symbols of good luck in health and the button looking seeds are for good luck in wealth. To obtain the good luck a person must give them to you has a gift, you can't just buy them at the market which is where you could buy everything she brought in. The lecture was super cool and I had been looking forward to it this whole time.
Wednesday is visiting day at the prison so we never go, instead we usually go to the orphanage! Since it was my last time going I decided to bring my camera and tell the kids it's only to look not to touch. The actually obeyed my request which was shocking because when the last volunteers brought the camera the kids took it and were taking pictures with it! But the kids not only remembered me by face they were screaming LOLA!! (my Peruvian name) The women at the prison call me Lola also! haha But I got the best pictures ever! The boys LOVED the pictures, seriously went crazy, posing every where and tackling others out so it was just a solo picture. The kids received new clothes from Papa Noel on Christmas and halfway through the day changed and were showing me and the other volunteers their new clothes! Around 11:30 they had to be round up to go on a special trip into town! The kids were PUMPED! We had to leave which was really sad because I don't know when I'll see those kiddies again.
Later on Wednesday Caitlin, Amelia and I had to go to a meeting with the Wawa Wassi (baby house in Quechuan - Native language to Peru) mama's to teach them about CPR, chocking, treating cuts, burns and concussions. These Mama's are like daycare teachers who teach in some of the worst conditions. The government set up this program and funds it so that both parents of a household are able to work. The WawaWassi soup kitchens and volunteered women who are able to take some of the food for their families as payment for cooking and distributing the food to all the various WawaWassi's. Anyway, since we're interns we had to teach these women and demonstrate what to do in an emergency situation. Many people a year die of chocking because in the poorer areas they're focused on brushing teeth and washing hands more so than CPR or heimlich. So I decide to be the dummy for the demonstration for CPR (Not really knowing where we were going to be doing the teaching) We arrive on the dirt road full of trash and feces and think 'Oh Crap, what have I gotten myself into. there is NO WAY I'm lying on the street to act as a dummy.' THANK GOD it looked like it was going to rain so Rudy (the man in charge here) asked to move it inside of the WawaWassi. The inside actually had a floor, which was nice, but the amount of flies to feed an army! So there I go on the floor, pull my rain jacket hood over my hair so I didn't catch anything and play dead! The lesson seemed to be very beneficial because we made the women actually practice after we demonstrated so they would learn. It was awesome to see that with such a small piece of knowledge from us - that we take for granted - they can now hopefully save a life and teach others so that if they were chocking or unconscious someone would help them because of us!
We got dropped off in town because almost everyone is sick in our house - including me- We needed to pick up some couch syrup, etc. But as we're walking back we see this little boy, probably 3 or 4 just pull down his pants in the middle of the sidewalk and start peeing!!! If we hadn't of stopped for a second we would have been peed on!! It was a close call. Sorry this one was so long!! There are more to come too!!
xo
Lola
The healer also had these red dried berries and flap silvery button seeds that both had meanings. The berries are symbols of good luck in health and the button looking seeds are for good luck in wealth. To obtain the good luck a person must give them to you has a gift, you can't just buy them at the market which is where you could buy everything she brought in. The lecture was super cool and I had been looking forward to it this whole time.
Wednesday is visiting day at the prison so we never go, instead we usually go to the orphanage! Since it was my last time going I decided to bring my camera and tell the kids it's only to look not to touch. The actually obeyed my request which was shocking because when the last volunteers brought the camera the kids took it and were taking pictures with it! But the kids not only remembered me by face they were screaming LOLA!! (my Peruvian name) The women at the prison call me Lola also! haha But I got the best pictures ever! The boys LOVED the pictures, seriously went crazy, posing every where and tackling others out so it was just a solo picture. The kids received new clothes from Papa Noel on Christmas and halfway through the day changed and were showing me and the other volunteers their new clothes! Around 11:30 they had to be round up to go on a special trip into town! The kids were PUMPED! We had to leave which was really sad because I don't know when I'll see those kiddies again.
Later on Wednesday Caitlin, Amelia and I had to go to a meeting with the Wawa Wassi (baby house in Quechuan - Native language to Peru) mama's to teach them about CPR, chocking, treating cuts, burns and concussions. These Mama's are like daycare teachers who teach in some of the worst conditions. The government set up this program and funds it so that both parents of a household are able to work. The WawaWassi soup kitchens and volunteered women who are able to take some of the food for their families as payment for cooking and distributing the food to all the various WawaWassi's. Anyway, since we're interns we had to teach these women and demonstrate what to do in an emergency situation. Many people a year die of chocking because in the poorer areas they're focused on brushing teeth and washing hands more so than CPR or heimlich. So I decide to be the dummy for the demonstration for CPR (Not really knowing where we were going to be doing the teaching) We arrive on the dirt road full of trash and feces and think 'Oh Crap, what have I gotten myself into. there is NO WAY I'm lying on the street to act as a dummy.' THANK GOD it looked like it was going to rain so Rudy (the man in charge here) asked to move it inside of the WawaWassi. The inside actually had a floor, which was nice, but the amount of flies to feed an army! So there I go on the floor, pull my rain jacket hood over my hair so I didn't catch anything and play dead! The lesson seemed to be very beneficial because we made the women actually practice after we demonstrated so they would learn. It was awesome to see that with such a small piece of knowledge from us - that we take for granted - they can now hopefully save a life and teach others so that if they were chocking or unconscious someone would help them because of us!
We got dropped off in town because almost everyone is sick in our house - including me- We needed to pick up some couch syrup, etc. But as we're walking back we see this little boy, probably 3 or 4 just pull down his pants in the middle of the sidewalk and start peeing!!! If we hadn't of stopped for a second we would have been peed on!! It was a close call. Sorry this one was so long!! There are more to come too!!
xo
Lola
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
Entry #9, Discoteca!!!!
Saturday 6 new volunteers arrived in Ayacucho and we had to say goodbye to having the house to just the 5 of us! There is a family, two friends and a single woman by herself. They're part of this program called Insight - which is a group of only one week, so they do different things each day of the week, so that they are able to experience all of the different placements. They still insist that we all squeeze around one table for meals which are called to us by the cook ringing a bell.
With the new people here we thought we'd show them parts of Ayacucho since they only have a week. We arrived at the discoteca at 11, which until I arrived thought was an appropriate time - false. The place was empty, if it were a bad movie crickets would have been chirping. . . but we took advantage of the empty dance floor and the DJ was playing all sorts of American music, a few hours later they would play Grease Summer Nights, and EVERYONE knew the arm moves, it was hysterical! We danced with some local men who weren't creepy then made some friends with girls our age. We danced all sorts of dances; salsa, merengue and swing, it was super fun! As we were leaving the live band was just setting up, and we didn't leave early! The next day at 7 am I woke up, even after getting around 5 hours of sleep, probably less, but we're on such clockwork we can't break the cycle! Although I stay in bed until around 7:30 watching Amelia and Kathryn hustle and bustle around the room I finally am the last one of our roommates out of bed! What else is new?
Ever since the first week of visiting Quinoa and the Wari Ruins I have wanted to return and wonder around the ruins because they're so amazing! There's only about a 1% chance of ever running into anyone else while being at these ancient ruins. So Caitlin, Kasia, Amelia and I called Oscar, a local taxi driver who wants to great a taxi service and negotiated a price to drive us 45 mins one way to these ruins! The drive takes so long because he wanted to be safe with us around the insanely dangerous roads that hug the sides of cliffs. While there you can walk round and the ground is littered with shards of ancient pottery and Chilean turquoise that date back to around 400-600 AD. Disgusting, enormous FLYING crickets also litter the ground and use you as jumping block as they randomly will fly and hit you. The ruins also give a great view of the surrounding countryside which is nice to take pictures of the mountains and the constantly changing crazy weather! In the distance loomed an insane storm so we knew we only had an hour at most! Oscar waited/ napped in his taxi while we roamed the ancient graves and on the way back would stop along the way to have us take pictures of historical sights and picked Tuna - prickly pear - and had us try it. The tuna is found all over the cacti which grow abundantly over the rolling hills! It's about the only plant that grows in copious amounts! It was a wonderful day, and as we drove back the storm was brewing, making trees bend-over-backwards and rain pelted our windshield! When we got back it down poured! We were pretty lucky!!
Each week we'll have a few guest speakers in the afternoons regarding various subjects, yesterday we had a speaker who spoke about health insurance, family planning, sexually transmitted diseases etc etc. The obstetrician only spoke spanish so we had this male translator who decided sometimes to change what the doctor was saying. . . very annoying because we understood the majority of what she was saying - so we knew! For example, she was saying how Peru is very Catholic after the Spanish invaded, so since they're very Catholic they don't believe in condoms or birth control and she was saying that the government is trying not to step on the Churches toes but they want to educate people because in a normal family a mother will have anywhere from 5 - 12 kids!!!! Seriously insane! So the translator takes this information and turns it to tell us that the ways of catholics is the better way and the government is stopping giving the majority of the contraceptives for free - because now almost everything is free for the majority of the population. The number of births has decreased in the past few years but what appalled me the most was the Jungle statistics. The youngest age of girls having children is 10 YEARS OLD. Flipping disgusting!! The translator said no, no they don't have kids but we were staring at the statistics from 10 -15 in '08 52 ninos were born from that age group! I'm like Sir, hello we're not stupid nor are we blind! But overall a very informative speaker because we were able to learn about the different life insurances and hospitals etc.
In the prison yesterday I interviewed many of the women for the paper we have to write at the end of this internship. Their answers were very interesting and the majority of their dreams for the future are to return to school and continue working with their hands creating clothes, animals and mantas! It was really awesome to hear what they liked most about the volunteers as well.
Ciao
With the new people here we thought we'd show them parts of Ayacucho since they only have a week. We arrived at the discoteca at 11, which until I arrived thought was an appropriate time - false. The place was empty, if it were a bad movie crickets would have been chirping. . . but we took advantage of the empty dance floor and the DJ was playing all sorts of American music, a few hours later they would play Grease Summer Nights, and EVERYONE knew the arm moves, it was hysterical! We danced with some local men who weren't creepy then made some friends with girls our age. We danced all sorts of dances; salsa, merengue and swing, it was super fun! As we were leaving the live band was just setting up, and we didn't leave early! The next day at 7 am I woke up, even after getting around 5 hours of sleep, probably less, but we're on such clockwork we can't break the cycle! Although I stay in bed until around 7:30 watching Amelia and Kathryn hustle and bustle around the room I finally am the last one of our roommates out of bed! What else is new?
Ever since the first week of visiting Quinoa and the Wari Ruins I have wanted to return and wonder around the ruins because they're so amazing! There's only about a 1% chance of ever running into anyone else while being at these ancient ruins. So Caitlin, Kasia, Amelia and I called Oscar, a local taxi driver who wants to great a taxi service and negotiated a price to drive us 45 mins one way to these ruins! The drive takes so long because he wanted to be safe with us around the insanely dangerous roads that hug the sides of cliffs. While there you can walk round and the ground is littered with shards of ancient pottery and Chilean turquoise that date back to around 400-600 AD. Disgusting, enormous FLYING crickets also litter the ground and use you as jumping block as they randomly will fly and hit you. The ruins also give a great view of the surrounding countryside which is nice to take pictures of the mountains and the constantly changing crazy weather! In the distance loomed an insane storm so we knew we only had an hour at most! Oscar waited/ napped in his taxi while we roamed the ancient graves and on the way back would stop along the way to have us take pictures of historical sights and picked Tuna - prickly pear - and had us try it. The tuna is found all over the cacti which grow abundantly over the rolling hills! It's about the only plant that grows in copious amounts! It was a wonderful day, and as we drove back the storm was brewing, making trees bend-over-backwards and rain pelted our windshield! When we got back it down poured! We were pretty lucky!!
Each week we'll have a few guest speakers in the afternoons regarding various subjects, yesterday we had a speaker who spoke about health insurance, family planning, sexually transmitted diseases etc etc. The obstetrician only spoke spanish so we had this male translator who decided sometimes to change what the doctor was saying. . . very annoying because we understood the majority of what she was saying - so we knew! For example, she was saying how Peru is very Catholic after the Spanish invaded, so since they're very Catholic they don't believe in condoms or birth control and she was saying that the government is trying not to step on the Churches toes but they want to educate people because in a normal family a mother will have anywhere from 5 - 12 kids!!!! Seriously insane! So the translator takes this information and turns it to tell us that the ways of catholics is the better way and the government is stopping giving the majority of the contraceptives for free - because now almost everything is free for the majority of the population. The number of births has decreased in the past few years but what appalled me the most was the Jungle statistics. The youngest age of girls having children is 10 YEARS OLD. Flipping disgusting!! The translator said no, no they don't have kids but we were staring at the statistics from 10 -15 in '08 52 ninos were born from that age group! I'm like Sir, hello we're not stupid nor are we blind! But overall a very informative speaker because we were able to learn about the different life insurances and hospitals etc.
In the prison yesterday I interviewed many of the women for the paper we have to write at the end of this internship. Their answers were very interesting and the majority of their dreams for the future are to return to school and continue working with their hands creating clothes, animals and mantas! It was really awesome to hear what they liked most about the volunteers as well.
Ciao
Friday, January 01, 2010
Entry #8, FELIZ ANO NUEVO!!!
HOLA 2010!! Feliz Ano Nueno mis amigos! I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years Eve last night!! In Peru they do things a bit differently! For starters EVERYTHING is yellow. From confetti to face-masks to balloons, EVERYTHING is yellow! It's crazy. They have venders covering the streets of the plaza, and the pedestrian walkway leading up to the market. Inside the covered market you can get anything from meat, cheese, herbs, electronics, new years decorations, school supplies, candles, etc. But yesterday especially, because Amelia and I went back two days in a row, for picture taking, the market was packed! The side street to the market yellow flowers and Ruda (an herb that you can either wash in or rub over your clothes right before the new year for good luck in the new year) overflowed the streets, as well as people trying to sell every type of firework. When the clock struck 12 on xmas eve and the beginning of Christmas the Peruvians celebrate by setting off fireworks. I thought there were a lot that night but last night was something I've never seen!! My house mates and myself decided that we were going to just hang at our house because we'd heard that some of the discotechas had rival wars between each other and people died. I didn't really want to be apart of a discotecha war, so we had a fire on our roof deck instead. The moon was so bright and clouds loomed in the distance of the mountains, with warning flashes of lighting, we didn't know if we were going to have a dry countdown. We lit the fire, had it going for about 2 hours then the inevitable RAIN. Miraculously, the rain cleared 20 mins before the countdown, so up to the roof we went again to see the coolest thing I've ever seen! We have a roof deck but then there's another plateau where our water and oil tanks live, so we climbed up there to get a 360 degree view. 5 mins before the countdown and until about 20 mins after the New Year, I want to say around 200,000 fireworks went off, not an exaggeration!! From small bottle rockets to huge beautiful fireworks!! It was the most amazing experience. The whole time I kept screaming I LOVE FIREWORKS, since Ayacucho is so small it felt like we were going to be killed for 50% of it because people just shot them off small patios and hope everything turns out okay. The air quality started out clear and by 12:20 we could barely see the top of the mountains, so much smoke! I got some good pictures of everything but Kaisa got a video which hopefully captured how loud everything was! But just wanted to update everyone!!! HAPPY 2010!!
xo
xo
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Entry #7, The Healer. . .
Ameila, Caitlin and I saw a Quechuan Healer. It was something that I will NEVER forget. We drove just 5 mins away from our house with Marisol, our house mom if you will whose grandfathers had been healers so she has a very expansive knowledge about herbal medicine, which is something that I am very interested in learning more about and my mom has been all about natural medicine before I was born. Anywho, we pull up to a normal looking peruvian home- tin gate and walls made from mud and rocks - we entered into the "courtyard" to find chickens, dogs, and kittens roaming freely. The Healer was with someone at the time so we waited in what looked like a bedroom with mud floors but a tv and computer on the table. We all were very excited and anxious about what she was going to say! Oh, so back up to what we needed to bring to the healer. . . White flowers and a live GUINEA PIG. . . I had a guinea pig as a pet but here they're used as food and thought of as sacred which is a complete 180 from how our culture treats guinea pigs.
So we are called into the healers room and there are only two simple benches and a small shrine that everyone was able to face. Marisol is translating for us the whole time because the healer only speaks Quechuan. Caitlin is up first, she is getting the Guinea Pig treatment.( Before going into this session I knew about the Guinea Pig passing because of my friend Shelley had a similar experience on her trip to South America. But supposedly once the guinea pig is passed all over your body it dies and when you skin it, wherever it's bleeding you are feeling pain in those areas ) The healer reads Caitlin's coco leaves, while smoking a cigarette and chewing coco leaves herself for protection from Caitlin's ailments. After the leaf reading the healers orders Caitlin to take off her shirt just leaving her bra on so that it's just animal to skin touching! The whole time Amelia and I were grabbing at each other as this small Peruvian woman rubs this animal all about Caitlin's torso and limbs. It was very disturbing to watch but as we found out later that wasn't the worst of it. . . After the rubbing is over the guinea pig is supposed to be dead. . . however, he was still alive. ughhhh still sends shivers down my body! So then the women skins the guinea pig alive and squealing. I will spare you of the most gruesome descriptions but basically the guinea pig was bleeding everywhere Caitlin was having problems - SO FREAKY. She has blood clots in her lungs we had said nothing to the healer and the guinea pigs lungs were bleeding all over! During the whole thing the healer was smoking puffs of the cigarette and we had to too, for protection. I didn't want any of Caitlin's problems! I thought we were going to have some type of séance or something it was so strange. Since the guinea pig finally had died so will her problems, after the healer cooks and eats the guinea pig! It was probably the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life, and I will never forget it! Marisol nearly fainted she needed to sit down during the middle of it!
Then it was time for Amelia and me! We weren't doing the guinea pig, but we were having an egg passing - basically the same idea as the guinea pig but not with a live animal and instead of skinning an animal she opens the eggs into a glass of water and analysis them! The passing of the egg took about 5 mins, half the time of the guinea pig!! I felt so badly for Caitlin because she was just trying to be still and the thing kept nipping at her while he was being passed! AHHH anyway, the healer read our coco leaves - told me a lot of true things about myself, pretty weird, then she passed the egg, lightly hit me with white flowers and put shit special oil in my hair. Amelia had the exact same process. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that we had to take our shirts off. . . We're going back on thursday 31st to drink this root so that for the new year we're all going to be rid of our bad energy and be healthy!! Now and for the rest of the day Caitlin has to stay inside because she's very vulnerable for bad energy! so she's tucked up on the couch watching a movie and drinking tea! The healer said that I'm having stomach problems which i think is related to the amount of wheat we've been eating! Oh also I forgot to add the whole time it was POURING, and rain hitting a tin roof is the loudest thing in the world! it made the whole experience even more wild! We sneaked a few pictures so those will go up soon, but i couldn't take the pictures of the skinless guinea pig. . . blah i think that image will haunt me for a while!
xo until next time
So we are called into the healers room and there are only two simple benches and a small shrine that everyone was able to face. Marisol is translating for us the whole time because the healer only speaks Quechuan. Caitlin is up first, she is getting the Guinea Pig treatment.( Before going into this session I knew about the Guinea Pig passing because of my friend Shelley had a similar experience on her trip to South America. But supposedly once the guinea pig is passed all over your body it dies and when you skin it, wherever it's bleeding you are feeling pain in those areas ) The healer reads Caitlin's coco leaves, while smoking a cigarette and chewing coco leaves herself for protection from Caitlin's ailments. After the leaf reading the healers orders Caitlin to take off her shirt just leaving her bra on so that it's just animal to skin touching! The whole time Amelia and I were grabbing at each other as this small Peruvian woman rubs this animal all about Caitlin's torso and limbs. It was very disturbing to watch but as we found out later that wasn't the worst of it. . . After the rubbing is over the guinea pig is supposed to be dead. . . however, he was still alive. ughhhh still sends shivers down my body! So then the women skins the guinea pig alive and squealing. I will spare you of the most gruesome descriptions but basically the guinea pig was bleeding everywhere Caitlin was having problems - SO FREAKY. She has blood clots in her lungs we had said nothing to the healer and the guinea pigs lungs were bleeding all over! During the whole thing the healer was smoking puffs of the cigarette and we had to too, for protection. I didn't want any of Caitlin's problems! I thought we were going to have some type of séance or something it was so strange. Since the guinea pig finally had died so will her problems, after the healer cooks and eats the guinea pig! It was probably the most disgusting thing I have ever seen in my life, and I will never forget it! Marisol nearly fainted she needed to sit down during the middle of it!
Then it was time for Amelia and me! We weren't doing the guinea pig, but we were having an egg passing - basically the same idea as the guinea pig but not with a live animal and instead of skinning an animal she opens the eggs into a glass of water and analysis them! The passing of the egg took about 5 mins, half the time of the guinea pig!! I felt so badly for Caitlin because she was just trying to be still and the thing kept nipping at her while he was being passed! AHHH anyway, the healer read our coco leaves - told me a lot of true things about myself, pretty weird, then she passed the egg, lightly hit me with white flowers and put shit special oil in my hair. Amelia had the exact same process. Oh yeah, forgot to mention that we had to take our shirts off. . . We're going back on thursday 31st to drink this root so that for the new year we're all going to be rid of our bad energy and be healthy!! Now and for the rest of the day Caitlin has to stay inside because she's very vulnerable for bad energy! so she's tucked up on the couch watching a movie and drinking tea! The healer said that I'm having stomach problems which i think is related to the amount of wheat we've been eating! Oh also I forgot to add the whole time it was POURING, and rain hitting a tin roof is the loudest thing in the world! it made the whole experience even more wild! We sneaked a few pictures so those will go up soon, but i couldn't take the pictures of the skinless guinea pig. . . blah i think that image will haunt me for a while!
xo until next time
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Entry #6, Papa Noel!!
How do I describe the indescribable? I guess I'll just tell you everything we did on the days surrounding Navidad! On the 23rd we started to create cards for the prisoners (elderly men, 60 and above, the kiddies and their mothers) we were part of Santa's or Papa Noel's staff! We had to make over 160 Christmas cards with various sayings in them and for the elderly men and the kiddies we personalized them! It was actually a really great time between all of us volunteers! Our common room was like a red, green and white explosion! Colors everywhere! Then we made over 10 bags of colored popcorn to be passed out between all of the prisoners! It was awesome when we got there, we had everyone come to the Cuna, cradle in spanish, which is where all the kids go to play with the other kids when they want to get some kid on kid time! Everyone sat in a circle and we passed out the food and then one of the elder men had brought his violin and he played some music for us! Then the oldest of the elders, Roberto, read a poem/blessing to us about how much we've touched his life because even during such a family oriented holiday, his had forgotten about him, and had for a few years now. He also sang us a song, this little cute 87 year-old-man singing in his high voice, in the midst of the chaos of the prison his voice brought a moment of peace - very moving to say the least! Then we had beanie babies for all the ninos, so those were distributed. Then everyone sang Feliz Navidad! Ha it was great!
After that we went back to our house to eat lunch, and then we slip into two groups, one went to an elders home and the other went to help out at an after-school program Non-Profit called Kids at the Crossroads. This woman GiGi quit her job, sold her house and moved from Oregon to start this amazing program! Kids from all over the area come to her house to participate in an after school program which is where the kids basically have a period of a second schooling. It was an amazing program to participate in because GiGi said that the teachers of the local schools have asked kids where they've been getting extra help because she's made such an impression on their education! The kids played games and she feeds them a snack, always consisting of a protien, starch and veggie! Most of these kids don't come from good families so they depend on this program. I'd say from what I observed that a good 75% of them come on their own free will because they love it! There were between 120-130 kids in the backyard of her home. She also teaches the kids about hygiene and the importance of small things that we take for granted in our every day lives. I hope to go back to help her out at least 3 times a week next week at the after school program!
On actual christmas we went to the orphanage. The normally don't want volunteers to come to the orphanage because they don't want to get the hopes up of the kids, but since Amelia and I had been there before they allowed us to go! It was amazing, the kids not only recognized me from before but attacked everyone with their love! The kids only wanted to be loved and payed attention to which was what we could give them. The little boys were a little nuts at the beginning all hyped up on their christmas presents from Papa Noel - donations from people, I hope to start a donation service for these kids for clothes and toys when I get back. But just running around with their plastic bags so happy for the smallest gifts! They kept screaming MIRA MI ROPA GRINGA ( to those who are like WHAT i can't believe they called you Gringa - EVERYONE does - it's not offensive or anything, i'll be in the market and people will just call at me gringita (small gringa) But enough about that, it was hysterical to watch this little kids! We all went outside to join the rest of the kids, and everyone was showing their new toys or wearing their new clothes! I've never seen kids so gracious in my life, it was truly wonderful to see! Then there was Melissa. She was telling me she was feeling a little sick so when we were standing in the middle of the courtyard I was scratching her back like my mom used to do to me and she actually fell asleep STANDING. I didn't know that was possible, but it honestly just melted my heart. Then we went to sit down and she just curled up in my lap and passed out for a while. When it was time to go she cried and asked if I could come back tomorrow - I couldn't but I will be back next Wednesday, so hopefully she'll be there.
Xmas dinner we made breakfast for dinner, it was awesome! We told the cook and cleaning staff that they could have the day off to be with their families, and it's a good thing because Paulina our cook had a baby boy last night!! We're so happy for her, I think we're going to make her something! He's christmas miracle hahah It was very strange to be away from family and friends christmas, but I was able to Skype with my wonderful friends and family from home, thank you for that!!! Kara especially - who yelled at me for not giving her this blog address, hopefully she'll read this and be grateful for the personal shout out I'm giving her! Love ya girl!! I hope that everyone had a very enjoyable christmas with their family and or friends! I encourage everyone to give back a little this year, you can change someone's life, whether a 87 year-old prisoner or a small orphan girl, it makes you feel wonderful! Little steps go along way, that's the lesson I've learned thus far!
sorry for the deep stuff at the end, ha, I can't wait to share some pictures of the kiddies and everything else!
Until next time!
Heath
After that we went back to our house to eat lunch, and then we slip into two groups, one went to an elders home and the other went to help out at an after-school program Non-Profit called Kids at the Crossroads. This woman GiGi quit her job, sold her house and moved from Oregon to start this amazing program! Kids from all over the area come to her house to participate in an after school program which is where the kids basically have a period of a second schooling. It was an amazing program to participate in because GiGi said that the teachers of the local schools have asked kids where they've been getting extra help because she's made such an impression on their education! The kids played games and she feeds them a snack, always consisting of a protien, starch and veggie! Most of these kids don't come from good families so they depend on this program. I'd say from what I observed that a good 75% of them come on their own free will because they love it! There were between 120-130 kids in the backyard of her home. She also teaches the kids about hygiene and the importance of small things that we take for granted in our every day lives. I hope to go back to help her out at least 3 times a week next week at the after school program!
On actual christmas we went to the orphanage. The normally don't want volunteers to come to the orphanage because they don't want to get the hopes up of the kids, but since Amelia and I had been there before they allowed us to go! It was amazing, the kids not only recognized me from before but attacked everyone with their love! The kids only wanted to be loved and payed attention to which was what we could give them. The little boys were a little nuts at the beginning all hyped up on their christmas presents from Papa Noel - donations from people, I hope to start a donation service for these kids for clothes and toys when I get back. But just running around with their plastic bags so happy for the smallest gifts! They kept screaming MIRA MI ROPA GRINGA ( to those who are like WHAT i can't believe they called you Gringa - EVERYONE does - it's not offensive or anything, i'll be in the market and people will just call at me gringita (small gringa) But enough about that, it was hysterical to watch this little kids! We all went outside to join the rest of the kids, and everyone was showing their new toys or wearing their new clothes! I've never seen kids so gracious in my life, it was truly wonderful to see! Then there was Melissa. She was telling me she was feeling a little sick so when we were standing in the middle of the courtyard I was scratching her back like my mom used to do to me and she actually fell asleep STANDING. I didn't know that was possible, but it honestly just melted my heart. Then we went to sit down and she just curled up in my lap and passed out for a while. When it was time to go she cried and asked if I could come back tomorrow - I couldn't but I will be back next Wednesday, so hopefully she'll be there.
Xmas dinner we made breakfast for dinner, it was awesome! We told the cook and cleaning staff that they could have the day off to be with their families, and it's a good thing because Paulina our cook had a baby boy last night!! We're so happy for her, I think we're going to make her something! He's christmas miracle hahah It was very strange to be away from family and friends christmas, but I was able to Skype with my wonderful friends and family from home, thank you for that!!! Kara especially - who yelled at me for not giving her this blog address, hopefully she'll read this and be grateful for the personal shout out I'm giving her! Love ya girl!! I hope that everyone had a very enjoyable christmas with their family and or friends! I encourage everyone to give back a little this year, you can change someone's life, whether a 87 year-old prisoner or a small orphan girl, it makes you feel wonderful! Little steps go along way, that's the lesson I've learned thus far!
sorry for the deep stuff at the end, ha, I can't wait to share some pictures of the kiddies and everything else!
Until next time!
Heath
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Entry #5, some cool stuff! ha
Since my last post, yesterday, we've done a bunch of really fun stuff, so I thought I'd share it with everyone as a little something to read before the madness of the holidays! So last night everyone started the impossible task of making xmas/new years cards for ALMOST everyone in the women's prison plus the elder men, who are so freaking cute! Our common room is still covered with scissors, white,red and green construction paper, glue, snow flakes - even though that doesn't remind them of christmas because it's summer here - didn't think that one through until 1/2 of them were made, but whatever. we're sharing something from our traditions to theirs! Papa Noel - aka peruvian Santa, is somewhat represented among the cards, but then we decided to make red and green popcorn por los ninos, which was special, to say the least. a few batches and consulting the internet for the recipe for food-coloring popcorn and we had a successful red batch! WOO Los ninos are going to be very happy! Their mom's are going to want to kill us because the amount of sugar that's in the recipe is going to leave them wired for when we leave, oops!
But today, Amelia Catlin and I (who are interns) went to the country side to see small villages that were virtually eliminated by the Shinning Path in the 80s. There are 8 or 9 provinces, some of which are only accessible by walking an hour or 2, but we went to the 2 main ones, one of which has the only clinics for all 8 or 9 regions and they don't have a doctor just a nurse, obstetrician and a nurses aid. The clinic was brand new and was actually nicer than the ones in Ayacucho, but still hard to believe that people have to walk up to 2 hours just to come visit the nurse if they're sick. Then we visited a kindergarden where the kids were just absolutely adorable. The school was so surprising nice and modern, it looked very similar to the schools in the states, which is a shock for us who are used to seeing schools in Ayacucho that are semi-rundown. Since school is almost over here, because it's their summer, the kids were just playing! But they were so freaking cute! The school also kept the kids hygiene surprisingly in check! Everyone had a bottle and a toothbrush that was kept in the classroom!
Then later today we had this speaker come to talk to us about the Coca production and the history of that. THEN we had the speaker individually read our cocaleaves aka our futures. IT'S WAS SO COOL!!! Peru is so amazing!
But today, Amelia Catlin and I (who are interns) went to the country side to see small villages that were virtually eliminated by the Shinning Path in the 80s. There are 8 or 9 provinces, some of which are only accessible by walking an hour or 2, but we went to the 2 main ones, one of which has the only clinics for all 8 or 9 regions and they don't have a doctor just a nurse, obstetrician and a nurses aid. The clinic was brand new and was actually nicer than the ones in Ayacucho, but still hard to believe that people have to walk up to 2 hours just to come visit the nurse if they're sick. Then we visited a kindergarden where the kids were just absolutely adorable. The school was so surprising nice and modern, it looked very similar to the schools in the states, which is a shock for us who are used to seeing schools in Ayacucho that are semi-rundown. Since school is almost over here, because it's their summer, the kids were just playing! But they were so freaking cute! The school also kept the kids hygiene surprisingly in check! Everyone had a bottle and a toothbrush that was kept in the classroom!
Then later today we had this speaker come to talk to us about the Coca production and the history of that. THEN we had the speaker individually read our cocaleaves aka our futures. IT'S WAS SO COOL!!! Peru is so amazing!
Monday, December 21, 2009
Entry #4, LA COSTA
Holaaaa!! This weekend my group and I all went with our friend Pancho to la costa! More specifically Ica, Nazca Pisco and a few other towns! The drive was so freaking long, ugghh, 7 hours in the back of this van. Pancho was our crazy driver who is basically the man. He owns a restaurant in Nazca we kept calling him the major! But the drive was pretty sketchy, the policia stop whatever vehicle or car whenever they want and choose to search the car for drugs or whatever. But luckily we were stopped a bunch but never searched. It was actually terrifying but Pancho wouldn't have let anything happen to us! So we got to Ica at night so we had no idea where we were except for a small oasis in the center of the VERY small town. The next morning we woke up and I thought we were in Arabian nights from Aladdin. We were completely surrounded by ENORMOUS sand dunes and actually realized why our hotel was called the American Oasis, because we were literally at a natural oasis in the middle of the desert!
That day we woke up super early to go on dune boogies and go sand boarding which is SOOOO fun! I sat in the back of the boogie with Kasia and Catlin and we were being tossed around like crazy! It was just amazing, nothing in sight just sand EVERYWHERE. The sand boarding was awesome, we started on small dunes then finished with una loca grande! a few people in the group burned their elbows but no one was seriously hurt. We left that afternoon to drive 2 hours to Pisco and visited a winery where they make pisco the cultural drink of Peru. Then we left and drove to Nasca where the next day we did the coolest thing - took a plane and viewed the nasca lines from the air!! If anyone doesn't know about the Nasca lines, they're old lines that create images of a spider, humming bird, and various other lines. the Nasca people created these unreal creations a few thousand years ago and only discovered in the 20s. The pilot had the plane basically doing barrel rolls so that everyone could see them, we almost had a few people get sick, but the pilots had a special cure! After that we went to a special local place where this grandmother and her grandson make unique nasca pottery! It was so magical. Then we went to a museum where this shaman read everyone's energy and gave those who were low in energy this special flower oil, it looked like gasoline but it smelled wonderful. He said that I had the highest positive energy of the whole group and didn't give me any of the special flower oil. Then we went back to Ica to stay at the same hotel as the first night. we met some people from ireland and NZ had a good time and left super early the last morning to go to the coast to see penguins and sealions which was so cool!!
overall an amazing amazing trip! then we had the dreaded 7 hour car-ride back through the Andes. It was a great weekend, but only to be followed by an even better week! This week we're going to make small gifts for the kids of the orphanage and prison for christmas, and even though I really miss my family I am so happy to give these kids a christmas they wont forget!
Until next time!
Heather aka Lola - the prison woman can't pronounce the letter 'H' so they all call me Lola!
I hope everyone has a fabulous christmas and santa is good to everyone!!
That day we woke up super early to go on dune boogies and go sand boarding which is SOOOO fun! I sat in the back of the boogie with Kasia and Catlin and we were being tossed around like crazy! It was just amazing, nothing in sight just sand EVERYWHERE. The sand boarding was awesome, we started on small dunes then finished with una loca grande! a few people in the group burned their elbows but no one was seriously hurt. We left that afternoon to drive 2 hours to Pisco and visited a winery where they make pisco the cultural drink of Peru. Then we left and drove to Nasca where the next day we did the coolest thing - took a plane and viewed the nasca lines from the air!! If anyone doesn't know about the Nasca lines, they're old lines that create images of a spider, humming bird, and various other lines. the Nasca people created these unreal creations a few thousand years ago and only discovered in the 20s. The pilot had the plane basically doing barrel rolls so that everyone could see them, we almost had a few people get sick, but the pilots had a special cure! After that we went to a special local place where this grandmother and her grandson make unique nasca pottery! It was so magical. Then we went to a museum where this shaman read everyone's energy and gave those who were low in energy this special flower oil, it looked like gasoline but it smelled wonderful. He said that I had the highest positive energy of the whole group and didn't give me any of the special flower oil. Then we went back to Ica to stay at the same hotel as the first night. we met some people from ireland and NZ had a good time and left super early the last morning to go to the coast to see penguins and sealions which was so cool!!
overall an amazing amazing trip! then we had the dreaded 7 hour car-ride back through the Andes. It was a great weekend, but only to be followed by an even better week! This week we're going to make small gifts for the kids of the orphanage and prison for christmas, and even though I really miss my family I am so happy to give these kids a christmas they wont forget!
Until next time!
Heather aka Lola - the prison woman can't pronounce the letter 'H' so they all call me Lola!
I hope everyone has a fabulous christmas and santa is good to everyone!!
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Entry #3, Day 1/2 at Prison!!
Placement Day!!
awake by 6:30 to do yoga on our deck with the sun and the mountains was an amazing way to start our day! Kerry, from SD, was the leader of the session, then the bells rings for breakfast at 7:30. Breakfast is the same every day: yogurt, fruit, pita/englishmuffins butter and jam. already by day to we're all sick of the uniform breakfast. but whatever, today is placement day! Everyone is really nervous, but I'm looking forward to going to the prison.
Alejandro drives us to our placement, it rained a little yesterday but the streets are still full of mud so the cars have to drive on crazy streets just to get us to the prison. We arrive, and the prison is so far away from everything - clearly it's a prison - but we have 3 separate checkin areas where we need to bring our passports and they hold on to them. then we're searched for any type of weapons and padded down. We get a total of three stamps, two on one arms and one on the other! we look like we've been out all night clubbing or something. Then we're lead by Mariscol - our 'house mom' she is our intern coordinator and is super cool. her husband and son live in New York right now, but she isn't a citizen yet which is why she's still in Ayacucho. But then we have to wait for the prison guard to unlock the first sets of doors to the women's section, once inside it is a huge open courtyard with women lining the walls to be protected by the super strong sun! It's about 70 - 75 during the day and sunny! But today we brought music for the women to do some dancing! ALL of the women are knitting or making a rug, everything they make is amazing! they can literally make anything you want. There are some kids running around but most of all they're attached to the mothers legs.
After about an hour of talking to the women and being given a tour by Emma, an inmate (we saw her cell that she shares with about 8-12 other women, it was horrible. I can't believe that these women who are so lovely and nice live in such horrible conditions) three other volunteers and myself got up and turned on the music that we brought them for the day. It was awesome, one of the volunteers is Indian and she taught us this whole intricate dance and then some of the women joined in as well. We were in the middle of the courtyard so everyone was basically watching us and it kept everyone entertained because we were clearly horrible at this intricate Bailliwood dance but it was fun none the less.
Then we got back to our placement, had lunch, walked around the town, had a speaker come talk to us about the Shinning Path, because what I was unaware of was that it basically started in Ayacucho, the town where I am! But the Shinning Path isn't a problem anymore after a huge civil war in the 80s.
Today is Wednesday, I couldn't finish my blog yesterday bc of the computer situation, but today we don't go to the prison because it's visiting day every Wednesday so Mimi and I are going to the orphanage then we have a tour of the Inca ruins set up which should be super cool!
peace out
ps this weekend we're going to the coast to see the Nasca Lines from an airplane!!! so freaking cool!
awake by 6:30 to do yoga on our deck with the sun and the mountains was an amazing way to start our day! Kerry, from SD, was the leader of the session, then the bells rings for breakfast at 7:30. Breakfast is the same every day: yogurt, fruit, pita/englishmuffins butter and jam. already by day to we're all sick of the uniform breakfast. but whatever, today is placement day! Everyone is really nervous, but I'm looking forward to going to the prison.
Alejandro drives us to our placement, it rained a little yesterday but the streets are still full of mud so the cars have to drive on crazy streets just to get us to the prison. We arrive, and the prison is so far away from everything - clearly it's a prison - but we have 3 separate checkin areas where we need to bring our passports and they hold on to them. then we're searched for any type of weapons and padded down. We get a total of three stamps, two on one arms and one on the other! we look like we've been out all night clubbing or something. Then we're lead by Mariscol - our 'house mom' she is our intern coordinator and is super cool. her husband and son live in New York right now, but she isn't a citizen yet which is why she's still in Ayacucho. But then we have to wait for the prison guard to unlock the first sets of doors to the women's section, once inside it is a huge open courtyard with women lining the walls to be protected by the super strong sun! It's about 70 - 75 during the day and sunny! But today we brought music for the women to do some dancing! ALL of the women are knitting or making a rug, everything they make is amazing! they can literally make anything you want. There are some kids running around but most of all they're attached to the mothers legs.
After about an hour of talking to the women and being given a tour by Emma, an inmate (we saw her cell that she shares with about 8-12 other women, it was horrible. I can't believe that these women who are so lovely and nice live in such horrible conditions) three other volunteers and myself got up and turned on the music that we brought them for the day. It was awesome, one of the volunteers is Indian and she taught us this whole intricate dance and then some of the women joined in as well. We were in the middle of the courtyard so everyone was basically watching us and it kept everyone entertained because we were clearly horrible at this intricate Bailliwood dance but it was fun none the less.
Then we got back to our placement, had lunch, walked around the town, had a speaker come talk to us about the Shinning Path, because what I was unaware of was that it basically started in Ayacucho, the town where I am! But the Shinning Path isn't a problem anymore after a huge civil war in the 80s.
Today is Wednesday, I couldn't finish my blog yesterday bc of the computer situation, but today we don't go to the prison because it's visiting day every Wednesday so Mimi and I are going to the orphanage then we have a tour of the Inca ruins set up which should be super cool!
peace out
ps this weekend we're going to the coast to see the Nasca Lines from an airplane!!! so freaking cool!
Monday, December 14, 2009
Entry #2, Day 2 in Ayacucho
Here I am in Ayacucho, Peru and it couldn´t be more beautiful. I´m at this internet cafe where the computers and speed are from 1980 but that´s fine because I don´t plan on spending much time here. Anyway, getting here was in itself an adventure. I spend the night in the airport, so I can check that off my list! I had emailed with my group before and we agreed to meet in the food court, which wasn´t hard to find, but I was the first to arrive and everyone was getting in to Lima almost 3 hours after me. . . awesome. So there I was sitting in the Starbucks, trying to get by in my broken spanish. I order an iced tea only to remember halfway through that I wasn´t supposed to order anything with ice, so mistake #1 check. Then I had the whole Lima Airport Starbucks staff calling me ´New York´ which was funny until all the paying customers joined in as well.
But by 1:30 am I´m was worried I was in the wrong place because the rest of my group was no where to be found. around 2 I did find them and we all click so well!! There are 8 of us total, and one guy, named Jon. Poor Jon, I told him to write a book or something after speinding 2 full weeks staight with just girl! There were 3 other girls who will overlap with us one week, then go home for the holidays. Our group has decided to do a secret santa for xmas which should be fun!ç
Okay about Ayacucho! So we left Lima at 6 am, so I had be awake for about 24 hours at that point, but we took this small plane through the Andes at sunrise and it was amazing, the clouds were low but the peaks were exposed it was so beautiful. Our landing was a bit sketchy, it was at the beginning of a clif so if the pilot had been a little off, SPLAT, into the side of the mountain, but we were lucky. we´re going down the runway which is the so bumpy it makes one of the oxygen masks launch out of the ceiling onto a passanger. we´re in baggage claim and i realize that i´ve forgotten something from the plane, I take off running back through the doors only to be chased down by the policia because they thought I was trying to do something dangerous. it was a rough morning to say the lease.
But Ayacucho is just amazing. It is surrounded completely by mountains and we´re a good 9000 feet up, which didn´t effect me at all but made a bunch of ppl really sick when we got here. the town is small but very poverished. the older women wear traditional peruvian clothes. the homebase is acually very nice. there are some 12 rooms with 2 bunks in each, I´m rooming with Mimi, whose from England and Kathryn whose from South Carolina, they´re wonderful, but so is everyone else in the group!! Yesterday we went exploring in the afternoon and after about 2 hours we went to this cafe to get a drink and it downpoured on us. . . i have never seen rain like this. we should have brough a boat with us because it would have been easier than a car to get back to the home base. the waitress Anna, who´s english was amazing, kept asking us if we were scared and that the rain would probably last a few hours!! we were expecting her to say a few mins or something but nope 4 hours later it was dinner time!!
Today we went around to the volunteer locations which was really awesome to see where almost everyone was going to be. One place we went, the children´s house the three boys had locked the ´mama´out and drank the biggest bottle of cocacola to them selves and were so freaking cute. the mama had been locked out for an hour! haha those three boys were going to be trouble for our volunteer. Then we went to a clinic where a woman was actually having a baby, but with one doctor and one nurse we were hoping for the best for her. last we visited the outside of the prison. apparently it is the most rewarding place to work because most of the women are tricked into drug trafficking or wrongfully accused. I am actually really pumped to be working with them because the three other girls who we´re over laping with, 2 of them work there are cried today about leaving! tomorrow is day 1 in the prison.
this computer is so old and the connection is so slow that i need to get off to insure that this will go through! hope you, again who ever reads this, enjoyed reading about my first day.
until next time
heath
But by 1:30 am I´m was worried I was in the wrong place because the rest of my group was no where to be found. around 2 I did find them and we all click so well!! There are 8 of us total, and one guy, named Jon. Poor Jon, I told him to write a book or something after speinding 2 full weeks staight with just girl! There were 3 other girls who will overlap with us one week, then go home for the holidays. Our group has decided to do a secret santa for xmas which should be fun!ç
Okay about Ayacucho! So we left Lima at 6 am, so I had be awake for about 24 hours at that point, but we took this small plane through the Andes at sunrise and it was amazing, the clouds were low but the peaks were exposed it was so beautiful. Our landing was a bit sketchy, it was at the beginning of a clif so if the pilot had been a little off, SPLAT, into the side of the mountain, but we were lucky. we´re going down the runway which is the so bumpy it makes one of the oxygen masks launch out of the ceiling onto a passanger. we´re in baggage claim and i realize that i´ve forgotten something from the plane, I take off running back through the doors only to be chased down by the policia because they thought I was trying to do something dangerous. it was a rough morning to say the lease.
But Ayacucho is just amazing. It is surrounded completely by mountains and we´re a good 9000 feet up, which didn´t effect me at all but made a bunch of ppl really sick when we got here. the town is small but very poverished. the older women wear traditional peruvian clothes. the homebase is acually very nice. there are some 12 rooms with 2 bunks in each, I´m rooming with Mimi, whose from England and Kathryn whose from South Carolina, they´re wonderful, but so is everyone else in the group!! Yesterday we went exploring in the afternoon and after about 2 hours we went to this cafe to get a drink and it downpoured on us. . . i have never seen rain like this. we should have brough a boat with us because it would have been easier than a car to get back to the home base. the waitress Anna, who´s english was amazing, kept asking us if we were scared and that the rain would probably last a few hours!! we were expecting her to say a few mins or something but nope 4 hours later it was dinner time!!
Today we went around to the volunteer locations which was really awesome to see where almost everyone was going to be. One place we went, the children´s house the three boys had locked the ´mama´out and drank the biggest bottle of cocacola to them selves and were so freaking cute. the mama had been locked out for an hour! haha those three boys were going to be trouble for our volunteer. Then we went to a clinic where a woman was actually having a baby, but with one doctor and one nurse we were hoping for the best for her. last we visited the outside of the prison. apparently it is the most rewarding place to work because most of the women are tricked into drug trafficking or wrongfully accused. I am actually really pumped to be working with them because the three other girls who we´re over laping with, 2 of them work there are cried today about leaving! tomorrow is day 1 in the prison.
this computer is so old and the connection is so slow that i need to get off to insure that this will go through! hope you, again who ever reads this, enjoyed reading about my first day.
until next time
heath
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Entry #1: Preparations for Peru
Wednesday Dec 9, 2009
As you - who ever you are - know I will be volunteering my time and energy in Ayacucho, Peru. But what most of you don't know is that I was placed working in a women's prison - is that a joke. Hence the name Peruvian Penitentiary PenPal. . . I will be working with the women and the children of the prison, helping them with arts and crafts, keeping the children entertained but most importantly teaching/helping the women create crafts to sell in the markets so they know the legal way to make a living. Drug trafficking is the main reason the women are in the prison. I am nervous but more than excited about helping these women and children have a better, LEGAL life.
I will write on this blog as often as possible so that people can follow and see how life in the prison is treating me! Comment if you'd like, if not I hope I can entertain you with some stories from my adventures!!
Until next time,
Heather
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
