Good news and bad news

Well, I’m back in San Marcos. I was really excited to get back after so long. I went to Huanchaco (a small BEACH town close to Trujillo) where I got to hang out with everyone from my training class (Peru 8). But, I have to say, it’s been a pain getting back here… I took an overnight bus that started at 11pm and arrived in Huaraz at 6:15am. So, needless to say, I was a little tired. I tried to sleep but I was on the second floor of the bus and there were lots of twists, turns, and bumps on the steep mountain road. I left my stuff in a hotel that I stay at a lot. In fact, the owner let me crash in a room for three hours free of charge! Yay! So, I went out at 9am to try and buy a bus ticket for 2pm to get back to San Marcos (a three hour bus ride… on a good day). Well, all the tickets were sold out. I was so upset! Emilia, my director, is coming on Tuesday and I needed to get everything set up for the meeting as soon as possible! I asked for help finding another bus company at a restaurant where I’m friends with the family that runs it and they didn’t have any ideas except ask the bus agency who else goes to San Marcos. So, I went back and asked and there was one other company. I went over there and they were sold out too. I walked back to the first company, and found a lady that sold me her ticket because she wanted to leave the next day. Yay! Lucky!
I left on the 2pm bus and as luck would have it, Jane, another Peace Corps volunteer, was on my same bus! So it was really nice to have someone to talk to on the bus ride. However, the bus ride was horrendous. It appears that the rainy season has officially hit Conchucos. We stopped about five times for no apparent reason, once to clear the mud off the road, and once to move two giant rocks that had fallen. All in all, we pulled up to my house at 8:45pm. That´s right, fifteen minutes shy of a seven hour bus ride. I reiterate, this is a three hour trip. The first of many, according to Jane. Woohoo.
Ok, so the next day…
I get a phone call from Peace Corps headquarters. Well, now there is no pass from Huaraz to here because fourteen straight hours of rain has caused two mudslides on the main highway so it’s a good thing I got on that bus. But now my director can’t come because of the roads so she told me that she is coming the next day. Let´s recap, I’ve invited the mayor, the governor, the director of the orphanage, the director of the high school, the president of the PTA, the director of the hospital, and the IDESI representative to a meeting on Tuesday. The process of inviting took about a week and a half. Oh, and in addition to fixing all my stuff, could I please go tell Tsutsuy that she’s not coming? We can’t get connection to her community phone. So, instead of starting to run all over town to talk to everyone I need to talk to, I have to hike an hour (two hours, with return trip) to tell Tsutsuy that she’s screwed too. Jeez. Tsutsuy also had an authority meeting planned. She was appropriately frustrated. I got back to San Marcos at three. With two hours until five when all working people, well, stop working. I waited at the mayor’s office until 4:30pm and still couldn’t get the date fixed on the invitation because there were so many people waiting to get in. So, I changed my plan.
My new plan is to have the meeting anyway and during the meeting any interested party can plan an appointment with Emilia for the following day and Emilia and I will go to them. So, I go to tell my counterpart about this. I casually ask if she can make it, and proceeded to get reamed because I knew that this was her lunch hour (which is why I planned the meeting then, so Emilia and she could meet afterwards…) and so obviously she can’t come. Ok, fine. Not a big deal. I also casually ask if I could use the projector (which is not called projector… after five minutes of hand movements I find it is indeed called a multi-media…duh). Oh no you can’t, you need to fill out a paper for that thing about two weeks in advance. You never told me you wanted a multi-media. And there is no one to supervise you (because she’s going to be at lunch…remember?)
I`m so frustrated right now. I think the meeting is going to be just fine and will be highly informative for anyone who happens to show up but I’m getting really frustrated with my, well, counterpart. The only one who doesn’t seem to understand that two major mudslides are, in fact, not my fault.