Day 112 in Peru

So, It has been about 2 months since my last entry so I will try to make this one as long and entertaining as possible.

Where we left off was the beginning of March, where I had just finished pouring the cement for the trenches of the earthbag project. Now the earthbag building is almost complete. If you want to see pictures of the project from start to finish click here.

Then on March 17 a giant group of us all went to Lima for Saint Patrick's day and partied it up. Then I was supposed to go to Cuzco to meet up with some PSF friends but there was a miner's strike so all the buses going south were delayed for 3 days. I didn't want to wait that long so I decided to go with a group of awesome girls to Huanchaco.

After the 9 hour night bus ride north, we arrived at 5am to Trujillo, the second largest city in Peru. From there, we took an hour long, bumpy, sketchy, crouded, 1 sol bus ride to Huanchaco.

Let me just say this to describe Huanchaco: I want to live there forever. It is this small sunny beach surf town, not much unlike Santa Cruz. There are little shops everywhere and an adorable AWESOME market that I didn't get lost in (unlike the massive Pisco market). I love it. AND, I just found out there is an NGO there that is in constant need of volunteers... (hmmmm gap year #2?...)

The hostel that we stayed at in Huanchaco was 15 soles a night, which is around $5. It had really comfy beds and it had an entire camping area with a campfire and a 'kitchen' , if you can call it a kitchen. It had three gas burners. lol. And a fridge. But we made some epic meals in the three weeks I was there.

Yes, I ended up staying for three weeks. What did I do there, you may wonder... Well, multiple people from PSF met us there and at one point we were up to 12 of us. Every morning we would go to the market to get food for dinner then we had lunch at Luca's a super cheap super awesome italian man who made super amazing pizzas and pastas. Then we would normally have nap or bracelet making time then around 4:00 we would start cooking dinner. YUM! That's about all we did in Huanchaco. I surfed one day, I was aweful.

The thing that made Huanchaco the best time ever was the amazing people I was with and the awesome conversations and fun times we had together. It's amazing how close you get to people who you've only known for a month or two, but when you are living, eating, and working with them every day, its hard NOT to get to know them. I am having such an awesome time here.

After Huanchaco, I went to Iquitos, then back to PSF. More to come on that in the next few days or so, when I have the motivation to sit down and type with my aching hands. To see pictures check out my Peru, Wanky Hipster Photography, tagged photos, and In the Jungle albums on Facebook.

Day 42 at PSF

This week I worked on the Earthbag project. I've been working on it since its first day where we started digging holes to get to the good dirt. Then the project took a couple weeks off, but it just started up again and 2 weeks ago we started leveling the ground and digging the trenches. Then this week we finished pouring the cement for the foundation. YAY! I also taught a few English classes. I love them all! The three fisherman that I teach told me that I could go out harpooning octopi with them some weekend!!!! there's a ton of new people here which is awesome and they are all really great! Also I might be taking over an admin job here in the next month or so which will be cool. I already have been doing a lot of PR and networking online and editing the facebook page and twitter accounts for PSF. Like our page on FB please!!!! http://www.facebook.com/PiscoSinFronteras

skipping a few weeks.... Day 33?

Its so easy to lose track of time here in Pisco. So much has happened in the past few weeks. About half of the volunteers have left, so our numbers are down, but there have been new people arriving everyday, many of them staying for a long time. So today is friday, and on tuesday, I stepped on a plank with a 4 inch nail sticking out of it, and the nail went through my boot and about a half inch into the ball of my foot. It didn't actually hurt that bad and after about a half hour it stopped bleeding and I went back to work. Then the next day I woke up with a really high fever, so I went to the clinic to see if they had the tetanus anti imuno injection, but they didnt so they told me to go to the hospital. So David took me to the nicer private hospital and they were being so rude and unhelpful, some local lady told us to go to the government hospital. So we went there, but they told us that you can only get the tetanus injection in the morning. So they gave me an injection to make my fever go away, in a TENT. a tent. then we had to go back yesterday (thursday) morning to get my tetanus shot. Then I found out I have to get another one in april then another in august. :( Then last night my fever came back, BLEH, but today I feel better, so my antibiotics are probably starting to kick in. YAY!

Day 18: Tuesday, February 7th

Today I worked on the Earthbag project. This project is eventually going to be a community center in a small rural area outside of Pisco. We are also going to build a garden and a bridge that goes across the little creek. The reason it's called "earthbags" is because we get these bags and fill them with a mixture of dirt and sand and flyash, and that is what we build the center out of because its very flexible in case there's an earthquake.

We basically dug for 8 hours... lol. But it was actually quite fun and we got a good workout.

Day 17: Monday, February 6

Today I did DEMOLITION!!!! So there was a family whose store/house was essentially just rubble and brick walls and the government gave them about 2 weeks to clear the land or they would lose it, so we finished breaking down walls, pulling up the tile and clearing the rubble. There were some brick walls, concrete pillars, and the floor was tile, so we had to get rid of everything and level it down to the dirt. Today was almost the last day, so all we had to do was finish taking down three pillars and the brick wall. I got to use the pick ax which was really fun because I just got to hit a wall as hard as you can. It's very emotionally therapeutic. Then I got to use the jack hammer, which was so much fun but very heavy.

Around 1:00 these sweet old ladies brought us homemade lunch which was of course delicious. Then Kathryn, one of the Australians, and I went to Senati to teach. :)

Then we had dinner and bed time. woo!

FYI: PICTURES

So I've taken over part of the Education position for PSF, so I have been super busy this week so that's why im so far behind on the blog. But im sick today and hopefully i can get this week blogged. :) If you want to see pictures now, because it will take me awhile to post them here) you can go to my fb page, add me as a friend if we arent already then go to my peru album. :)  my facebook page:   http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=589252676

the album: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150548393717677.373340.589252676&type=1

Day 16: Sunday

The next morning we all woke up from the sun beating down on us because we all fell asleep next to the fire. I got out of my sleeping bag, then fell back asleep. Finally around 9:00, it got too hot, so I went in the water. Then I got out of the water, sunscreened up and laid out in the sun and slept. That's basically all I did the entire day, ocean, sunscreen, sleep.

We left Paracas at around 4 and went back to PSF and cleaned up then went over to the gas station/restaurant/bar/store and watched the Superbowl! Go Giants... I guess...