We arrived safe and sound at the Lima airport on Saturday then spent the night on the floor outside the domestic flight check-in counter. The airport is very modern and clean, a nice surprise since we were, as I said, on the floor. 4 a.m. saw us checking in for our flight to Ayacucho. The flight was an hour long and took us over some amazing Andean peaks that seemed to be only a few feet below the aircraft. Upon arrival at our home base, we immediately took to our beds between just our general exhaustion and the altitude, over 9000 feet above sea level. We missed breakfast and lunch but did manage to clean ourselves up with a predictably cold shower before heading down to meet our housemates. There are currently 24 people in the house staying from 1 to 4 weeks, some having been there for 2 months already.
When I have told people back home about our trip to Peru, I have felt quite adventurous, like I am such a brave person to be going on a (gasp!) 3 week trip to a developing country. But the moment I started talking to our housemates, that feeling completely disappeared. These people have traveled all over the world, for months at a time. Some have been working in the clinics and the jail for weeks on end, while others have done time providing medical care in some of the world´s poorest areas. It is awe-inspiring as well as humbling to be with such a group of people.
Today we visited several of the sites where volunteers work, getting a feel for our placements and what is expected of us. I had a chance to learn about the political and economic situation in the Ayacucho region from locals as well as see some of the social programs that have been implemented by the current president. Though the services here would appall us if they were in the United States, compared to my experience in Guatemala, I was actually fairly impressed. At least things such as maternal health, vocational training, and child nutrition are on the radar and there is an attempt to address the needs of the community. Tomorrow we will start our placement in the kindergarten which should be a lot of fun.
So far we have not made it out on the town, but that will change as soon as the post is up. We are in desperate need of cereal apparently. Breakfast this morning was a hard biscuit with jam-OK but not quite sufficient for the day. I suspect that the cooks are used to the volunteers that have been here longer and are quite comfortable shopping for their own food at the market. Hopefully we will feel the same very soon. In the meantime....Nature Valley granola bars to the rescue again. And yes, the brown sugar ones are delicious. Other than that, the only other inconvenience, this one a bit more irritating, is that I cannot seem to log onto my mac account as Apple has so helpfully "improved" their services and now one must use only particular browsers to access email. Particular browsers which do not seem to be commonly found in internet cafes in the Andean highlands of Peru. So any suggestions are certainly welcome and that is also my excuse for not emailing anyone back home.....
Off to the tienda to purchase cocoa pops or something equally nutritious as it seems that the Latin world is obsessed with high fructose corn syrup products. A social commentary much too intricate to delve into at the moment....Hasta luego from the Andes!
Jenny
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