Mi primera salida

Hello everyone! Well, I guess it has been a week since my last entry. I’ve done quite a lot, and yet, sometimes it feels like I haven’t done anything at all. Since last week, I’ve “presented” myself to several new people, including the high school in my town and the “Aldea Infantil.” I did not know what an aldea infantil was (directly translated it, in fact, means Infant Village, this did not help). So, when I got there, I was greeted by about forty kids hugging me and very excited that I was there, I was a little overwhelmed. :) To get in this place you have to ring the buzzer and wait until this scary looking fellow opens the little peephole and brusquely says, “What do you want?” I feel like I should respond “The golden eagle flies at dawn.” Or some equally uninformative and cryptic response. I went for the first time last week and when I came again today, I was greeted with the exact same face and voice. I guess I’ll just have to get used to it.
Anyway, I talked with the director, who was super nice and excited to have any and all help, she told me to come on Monday and talk with the psychologist and the nutritionist to help coordinate activities. What?! They have a who? I was very confused at what I had happened upon and wasn’t sure if they even needed my help. They have a nutritionist, for goodness sakes. So, fast-forward to today. Scary man, entrance, and go…
So I get there and am taken up to the office to meet the equipo (which is team, more or less but also means equipment, which I find slightly humorous every time it is used) and there is silence throughout the entire compound. Meanwhile I’m thinking this place is a school and am quite confused. During the meeting with the social worker, director, and nutritionist, the light bulb turns on… it’s a home for orphans and children in abusive situations. Hence, they feed them so they need a nutritionist; they obviously need a social worker and a psychologist, etc. And all in all, I’m really excited to help out doing whatever I can and I know they definitely need all the help they can get. They all seem interested in me helping during the vacation and said that I can come play with the kids anytime in the afternoons when they don’t have school (school here gets out around 1:30pm). Yay! So excited! Last time I hung out with them and played volleyball with the older girls.
Still looking for that language professor. I’ve been by her house and knocked on her door several times and am now friends with her neighbor… so that’s fun times. She’s very sweet, and also not a language professor…
I had ceviche with my super cool friends Roger and Olga. They are a couple who are both professors in the elementary school and have a son who is graduating high school this year and one who is about 14 and I would say her grade but I’m not sure what it is. Anyway, they were friends of the volunteer who I just replaced and love learning about different cultures and hanging out in general which is always super fun. And Olga is an amazing cook. I wasn’t really impressed with Peruvian food upon entry into this grand país but little by little it’s winning me over. This could be because I’m getting hungrier… Day in and day out it’s not the most amazing stuff on the planet and those who now me well, I tell you I’m missing my frozen peas and canned corn… a lot. :( But when prepared well, they have some good dishes. Ceviche is definitely one of them. Yum…
On Saturday, I hung out with another friend (I’m not sure what anybody really thinks of me, by the way, basically I’ve decided she’s my friend…) Yovana and we sat around in the restaurant (also a stretch they sell Coca-Cola, Inca Kola, water, gum, I think that may be it, they have tables…oooh, I saw some beer once… and they also pick up mail from Huaraz so people come by to get their packages…obviously) and then went to mass to take a picture of her niece taking her first communion (with fifty of her closest friends). Everyone was dressed in white and it was all very cute.
Let’s see, last Wednesday I went on a hike of sorts to Jahuash, this name might not really exist but I think that’s what it was called. Anyway, my host-sister and her friend walked through the valley and up the hill. Along the way, we were talked to and about with much Quechua, none of which I understood. However, I guess there was a lady that was jovially concerned that these two had made the delicate white girl walk all the way up here. I didn’t know that there was a belief that people with pale skin also can’t do much as in physical labor. Anyway, something new.
A lady who also works with me in the health post asked me if everyone in the U.S. was thin. Sorry everybody, I told here there are very high rates of obesity and therefore diseases that accompany such a life style in the states. All in all, we had a really nice conversation about the U.S. and then about problems in this area of Peru and the different communities as well as some of the bases of the social problems that plague the area. Very interesting, sad, large, varied, and well rooted problems abound…. I hope and can do something.