No, I don´t watch a lot of basketball, but March is certainly full of the fun type of madness.
I am still traveling constantly. This month I went to the coast (southern Lima), to the mountaines regions of Ancash, and finally I headed back to Lambayeque (where I used to live) for a training event with the most recently arrived volunteers. I had a great time in Ancash when you can see ice capped moutains at every turn! The altitude didn´t affect me as much as it did when I went to Junin, another mountaines region where one volunteer is living at the highest altitude in the world (amongst Peace Corps volunteers). I stayed with a friend of mine from my training group who is doing a third year in the city of Huaraz and we had a really fun time making breakfasts, chatting about Peace Corps and our fellow groupies who have already left, and the year ahead of us. This I took home were excellent coffee for cheap, manjar blanco and honey! All delicious contribuciones to my diet.
I am currently finishing up my time in Lambayeque where I spent a week in Olmos with the newly arrived group of volunteers. They have been in their sites for three months and we spent a week together going over the information they have gathered and training them in how to solicit financing for their projects. Olmos was SOOOO different because it is the rainy season, and this year there has been a lot of rain. Everything is bright green and there are so many bugs. Our first night in the hotel, there was a bug invasion! They are little black beetles that are attracted to the light. They were EVERYWHERE! In beds, on the floor, in the bathrooms, in our clothes and shoes. The volunteers were not thrilled. The second night there was a downpour and many of the rooms leaked! Including my own room. So, I had to sleep on the half of my bed that didn´t get soaked! haha. Peace Corps is always full of adventure. On the last night together, the volunteers had a small talent show. A group of musically inclined volunteers put together a song about Olmos that spoke about the bugs, the heat and the food. It was hillarious and I hope to get the lyrics soon!
So my life has been pretty much non-stop traveling around Perú. I´m loving seeing different parts of Perú and all the wonderful things volunteers are working on. April will be the same, I´ll only be in Lima for about a week and a half the entire month!
But my reflection for this month is about Lima, and something that really is madness: Public transit in Lima. I take a combi/bus to work every day and back again. But, I also have the joy of navigating these little busses (sometimes more like vans) around the city when I want to go places. There are also taxies of course, but the cost a couple soles more and I try to only use them for getting around at night or if I have to get somewhere fast.
So combis in Lima. Here are some of my observations about my experiences:
-They drive like madmen, weaving in and out of traffic and stopping at the last possible second and somehow manage to not hit anything (most of the time).
-You have to know exactly where you are going because there is no warning about when stops are coming up. When you want to get off, you have to get up and yell ¨¡baja!¨ It was really hard for me at first, I am, in fact, a little shy. But now I will yell out like no other when it is my stop because it is a necessity and missing your stop is a pain.
-When you take a new combi for the first time, I find it to be very stressful because I usually do not know exactly where I am going. I have gotten lost more times then I can count.
-Usually because I will tell the ¨cobrador¨ (the person that arms the door and collects money) where I want to go and he will charge me for it agreeably even if they don´t even go there! Lieing is a problem and I cant tell you how many times I´ve gotten fairly lost.
-Everyday is always an adventure!
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