Andes mountain voyages

I am going into week 7 of training and what a week 6 it was!

I started out by going to the zoo on Tuesday with my Spanish class and another class. It was a really good time and I really enjoyed seeing all the animals and just doing something other than study and learn how to be good volunteers. Then, Wednesday night, all of MAC (environment group) and Salud (health group) left for a trip to Ankash! Ankash is an Andes mountain region, and we were going to visit volunteers and get some field practice in real volunteer sites. We went on an overnight bus, which as impressive in terms of how comfortable it was and I slept the ENTIRE way.

I cannot express how beautiful it was there. These volunteers live in regions between 3,000 and 4,000 meters above sea level (and I don’t know what that is in feet, probably over 10,000 for sure). They have clear views when there are no clouds of ice capped mountains. One volunteer even has a national park nearby with a beautiful view of the mountains and a gorgeous glacier lake. The first site we went to, right after an overnight bus and feeling a little queesy from the altitude, we had to give presentations to little kids about trash, how to sort it, store it, etc. It was nerve racking, but we had to give three, and by the third one, we all felt a lot better. Afterwards we did a trash pick up with the kids in the town and it was an amazing amount of trash! The kids seemed to really enjoy it, and I hung out with some very shy little girls, helping them find stuff to fill up their trash bags. The next site was the one with the beautiful lake and mountain views, where we got up at 5:30 in the morning the next day to help with a community clean up (more trash!). Afterwards, we went to the school where two different classes presented numerous songs in Spanish and Quechua. They also were incredibly environmentally forwards in this school, having recycled goods all over the classroom and sorting their trash between organic and inorganic. I was very impressed. We then spent the rest of the day mostly walking around and looking and pretty things like animals and mountains. The third day was Halloween, and then volunteer was already in costume when we arrived, giving us talks about tree planting as a pirate! It was pretty comical.

In terms of altitude, the PC doctors gave us all pills to take to help with altitude sickness, which include nausea, headaches, and soreness. I didn’t really want to take them, but I did, and unfortunately, I still got a little sickness. Most of us did actually, mostly because of the new types of foods we were eating and how high we were. I found I was exhausted all the time and was never hungry. Every meal I had to force myself to eat a little and nothing ever looked appetizing (although, I’m sure in Lima it would have looked great… my stomach was just not up for much). The MAC group spent the two nights in sites either sleeping in peoples houses in their guest beds, or sleeping on the floors of the volunteers rooms. Lucky for me, I got a bed both nights. But, none of us had showers, and none of us had toilets for about 4 days. I guess it is a good thing to get used to because I wont have either of those things on a regular basis for two years! But really, going to the bathroom in a hole is not bad at all, it is almost comfortable. Salud on the other hand, apparently had hotels with HOT showers, which I am still envious about. Oh, and did I mention is was COLD. I was a little unprepared because I don’t have a coat, but I wore about 3 layers for two days and the second day I was freezing cold allllll day long. Luckily, the third day was a lot warmer and sunnier. We spent Halloween day and night in the main city of Huaras and wandered around looking at markets and cafes. A group of us eventually found a place for dinner that felt like a ski lodge, was warm, and had pretty Americanized food like sandwiches and quesadillas! After having no appetite and stomach pain for days, a change from Peruvian food was highly welcomed. We spent the night on the bus again, arrive home at 5:30 in the morning and I went directly home to sleep for another 2-3 hours.

Oh… and did I mention I have a cell phone now? Thank you Peace Corps! It has free incoming calls and texts from anywhere, so if you want to call me (long distance…), just shoot me an e-mail and I’ll send you the number! Love you all!