Day 11: Tuesday, January 31

Today I woke up feeling just super awesome because I am not sick anymore! YAY!!! After breakfast, I went with Sandra and Wera to the sports program. We took a collectivo (taxi) to a little town just outside of Pisco which was basically just a desert with little shacks everywhere. But in the middle of town there was a very nice concrete soccer field. There were about 15 kids, mostly boys ages 5 to 12 and three girls. We started out cleaning up the field which surprisingly the boys got pretty enthusiastic about; they liked using the giant brushes to sweep the sand off the field.

Once the field was clean, we played a game kind of like duck, duck, goose. Then we played freeze tag. It was exhausting. Those little buggers sure can run fast! After freeze tag we did some body warm ups. Then the boys played soccer and the girls, Wera, and I set up the volleyball net and started doing warmup exercises. The girl I was warming up with was Nicole. She was very good already and she was only like 12 years old. She was definitely better than me! I told her that she should play in high school and then she could get a scholarship to college. She told me that he whole family plays and she practices all the time because she really wants to be on the high school team. After we warmed up a bit, we attempted to play a game but it was really hot and the 2 little girls were tired so Wera and Nicole played and I 'refereed' the boys' soccer game while Sandra played mini-soccer with the little kids.

An hour and a sunburn later, we packed everything up and said goodbye to the kids and took a collectivo back to PSF HQ. I tried to get as much sand off of me as possible then scrounged around in the fridge for some lunch.

After lunch I went with Claudia, Robbie, and Noemi to Ludoteca, which is the daycare sort of facility. First the younger kids came and I tried to talk to them. I kept telling them to speak slower and that they needed to help me practice my spanish. They would laugh everytime I said a word wrong but then they would help me pronounce it correctly. :) They were so sweet and courteous, when they came in the building they automatically gave you a kiss on the cheek and said, "Hola". We played with marbles, did puzzles, and played chess. Then when the older kids came we played a series of very intense UNO games.

At 4:00 we went back to PSF HQ. I showered, ahhhhhh. And now I'm just waiting on dinner. YUMMM!!!!! :)

the boys at the soccer field

cleaning the field

boys playing soccer

 ludoteca

 claudia playing with the kids

little stories by the kids

Day 10: Monday January 30th

At around 12:15am this morning there was a 6.3!!!! magnitude EARTHQUAKE! I sleep on a top bunk, so I thought it was just my roomie moving around in the bed, but then everyone is screaming EVACUATE!! EARTHQUAKE! So I jumped off my bunk and we all ran downstairs and outside to the earthquake spot. For a lot of people, this was their first earthquake so many people were really freaked. I didn't think it was that big of one, because nothing even fell over and it was really short, but a little while later I looked up on the computer that it had originated about 7 miles south of Ica, which is about an hour south of where we are now. The earthquake that hit Pisco in 2007 was an 8.3, so this was nothing compared to that. As far as I know, no one was injured and nothing collapsed. When we were able to go back to bed, we were instructed to keep our passports and some money with us in case there were more tremors, but luckily there weren't. :)

This morning I feel a lot better, but still not up to work, so I am blogging and cleaning around the house. YAY!

Day 9: Sunday January 29th

Sick again today, but feeling a bit better I guess. I ate some rice for dinner and some crackers. Layed on the couch in the common room and watched like 10 minutes of Cowboys and Aliens until it stopped working, then watch a BBC documentary on South America which was actually very interesting. Then went to bed. another boring sick day.

Day 8: Saturday January 28th

I woke up feeling awful so I went to the clinic with Carlos, a Spanish and English speaker. In the clinic, you pay 30 soles for a consultation with the doctor. We only had to wait like 5 minutes then the nurse called us in. She took my temperature and my blood pressure. My temperature was 39 degrees Celsius, which is about 102 degrees Fahrenheit. I needed to get tested for infections and Typhoid but they said they couldn't test me until my temperature went down. So they gave me two GIANT injections. One in my hip, and the other in my arm vein. Each shot took like 5 minutes to push in because she had to do it so slowly. It hurt pretty bad, especially because I already felt like crap. But after about 20 minutes, my fever was practically gone and I didn't feel nauseous anymore. So they tested my blood for typhoid, and about an hour later I found out that YAY I'm Typhoid free. :) But I do have an infection. I got some antibiotics, so I hope these things work.

Day 7: Friday January 27th

Today I woke up with a fever and was very sick. I basically laid in bed the entire day, so unfortunately I have nothing interesting to report. :(

Day 6: Thursday January 26th

Today I woke up so sore from yesterday's FMB work. My forearms hurt the most from wheelbarrowing all the bricks. So after the morning meeting and breakfast I was on FMB again, so I headed over there and for about 3 hours, I broke down pallets.

Breaking down pallets is an exhausting process. First you have to move two concrete cylinders into position on the ground. Then you set the pallet in between the cylinders. Then you take a long wooden plank and slide it through the pallet and put the ends of the wooden plank on the cylinders. Then you get a thick plank of wood and put it underneath the other side of the pallet. Then you get a small wooden block and place it between two of the panels of the pallet. Finally, you take the big-ass sledgehammer, like a boss, and swing with all your might and hit the block which should separate the planks from the crossbars of the pallet. I did about 4 pallets, and they went pretty fast, until I started getting to the stronger, newer, pallets. These took about 20 or so times to even loosen up. At this point I started feeling dizzy, so from 11 to noon, I denailed some panels.

After lunch, I realized I didn't feel very well, so for the rest of the day I made a lesson plan for the English class. It was really fun, I made up a three page word document of games to teach English.

Later that day I got to go to San Andres, a big fishing town about 10 minutes away, to teach a small group of fisherman. They were so friendly and willing to learn. We went over verbs with them: past vs present tense. We also worked on pronunciation and we tried to get them to form sentences. Finally, we played charades, where we took turns acting out verbs and they had to guess the verb in English.

After teaching, we went back to PSF HQ and had dinner then went to bed. :)

Day 5: Wednesday January 25th

Today I worked at FMB (aka Bollywood) which is the warehouse where all the wood and supplies are stored that are used to build the modular houses. For the first half of the day we unloaded bricks off the roof and loaded them into wheelbarrows which we then wheeled over to Schoolhouse (another PSF house/storage area). Then we stacked them neatly against the wall. After the bricks came the cinder blocks, which we also stacked. After that was done we went back to PSF HQ and had lunch.

After lunch we took a minibus over to Aceros Aeroquipas (I probably spelled that wrong) which is a steel mill that donates its pallets and wood to us. Once there, we loaded a bunch of pallets and wooden planks into the truck. After we were done loading everything up, we got into the back of the truck and were driven all the way back to Bollywood. We formed a 'chain' to unload everything from the truck. We finished around 4:00pm. From 4 until 5 we started de-nailing planks. At 5, we packed up, locked up Sphinx the kitten, and headed back to PSF HQ.

We had a delicious, as always, dinner then later that night went out to Mystica, one of the discos (nightclub). They played a lot of american music, but the dancing is so different than in the States, they actually do real dancing which of course I have no idea how to do. So, some of the Peruvian girls taught me how to salsa, kind of... I was terrible but at least I tried... Sorry, no pictures of that... too embarrassing. :) So, that was my wednesday.

Day 4: Tuesday January 24th

Tuesday I signed up to cook dinner for everyone, so three other girls and I had the day off so we could go to the market and prepare everything. We made a list of all the food and portions we would need to make our meal. There's about 50 people to cook for, which is why we get a whole day to do it.

We went to the market and got a ton of vegetables, fruits, and a giant slab of pork.

We spent the rest of the day cooking our butts off.

We finally finished dinner by 6:30pm. Our feast consisted of bbq pulled pork, coleslaw, cornbread, baked beans, salad, and for dessert, apple crumble. Everything was made from scratch and it was pretty darn good if I say so myself.

Day 3: Monday January 23rd

Monday morning I woke up at around 6 then walked down to Pisco Playa (the beach) with my roomies, Lobb (another Englander), and Gringo the dog. We did some "yoga" on the beach for awhile, watched the waves, saw a jellyfish washed up on the sand, played with Gringo, then headed back to PSF headquarters for breakfast.

For breakfast, they had prepared warmed fresh-baked rolls with an assortment of avocados, tomatoes, cheese, and meat. Also, a fresh fruit salad, oatmeal, coffee and tea.

After  breakfast I had my first morning meeting. This is where everyone gets to choose their work assignments for the day. It being my first day, I was automatically signed up for the freshman orientation.

After everyone signed up for what they wanted to, the other 'freshman' and I watched a movie of the actual Pisco earthquake that happened in 2007. I found out that the earthquake was actually an 8.4 on the Richter scale, but the government only reported it as a 7.9 so they wouldn't have to pay more to their citizens. The video that we watched was heart and gut wrenching. The main part of the video was a group of people trying to pull a man out of a bunch of rubble. All you could see were his eyes and blood on his face. Everything else was just gray. Everyone should see this documentary. It's called Terremoto and it has footage from 8 different earthquakes.

After that video we took a tour, with Hanna as our guide, around Pisco. We saw many of the areas that were mainly affected by the earthquake such as the Playa and the Plaza de Armas (I probably spelled that wrong). Afterwards we got to go to the market, which has all the fresh produce, meat, cheese, clothes, basically anything you could want. It's kind of like a GIANT flea market/farmers market, but like 20 square blocks. It's probably less, but it seemed huge! We had a delicious lunch at the market, for 5 soles, about 2 dollars, I got a huge plate of food!

Our tour finished early, so Madi and I started helping Jo formulate a lesson plan to teach english to kids, teens, and adults. I got really excited about this and got really into it. I found and typed up a list of 'learning english' games and their instructions. I even made up my own version of Jeopardy and Hot Potato to help teach English. I think I may be teaching my first class on Wednesday, so we'll see how it goes!

For dinner, we had pasta with meat sauce which of course was delicious. I got to meet more people and everyone here is so welcoming and nice. I already feel like I fit in. I am truly having the time of my life, and everytime I think about the fact that I'm staying for 6 months, I get even more exciting at all the work I get to do and all the people I'm going to meet and the friendships I'm going to form. :)

 the PSF courtyard

 the woodshop

 gringo

 pisco playa

 jellyfish

 earthquake destruction in downtown pisco

 lolz

 the new church 

 Yummmm arroz con pollo

 Monday lunch in the market

Day 2: Sunday January 22nd

I woke up at 6am, even though my alarm was set for 8, call my parents, got ready, then fell back asleep. I woke up at 9:00am then went down for the complimentary breakfast. It was amazing, an array of meats, cheeses, and rolls; pancakes, sausages, bacon, potatos, orange juice, coffee, etc. Then I checked out and procured a ‘taxi’, but actually it was more of a really nice towncar that took me downtown Lima to the bus station. I was surprised by what I saw because whenever I've seen pictures of Lima in my Spanish books or on tv it looks so beautiful. But what I saw was poverty and dilapidated buildings that were people’s homes. I thought, if this is what Lima, the capital city looks like, then I’m in for quite a surprise when I get to Pisco.

Once I arrived at the bus station I bought my bus ticket and waited in a little glass room with other passengers for about 15 minutes while our bus was being fueled and cleaned. We boarded the bus, and had assigned seats, which I lucked out and got an isle, because if I would’ve had a window seat, My knees wouldn’t have fit. So I read about half of my book on the four hour bus ride, and watched True Grit, with Spanish dubbing and subtitles. The bus ride was quite a site. Most of what I saw out the window was sand, then the occasional 'town' of tin 'houses' if you can even call them that.

Once in PIsco, I found a taxi driver, at least I think he was a taxi driver, his car was just a normal car… But he was nice and spoke English so I told him to take me to Pisco Sin Fronteras, then gave him the address, but everyone is Pisco knows where PSF is, so he drove me there and waited until someone came to let me in.

I knocked on the bright blue gate and was let in by Madi. She told me that mostly everyone was away today, but gave me a tour of everything even though she's only been here a week. I sat down and chilled while slowly more and more volunteers arrived. As I introduced myself, everyone is so friendly and welcoming and I already know that I am going to make lasting friends and a forever home here.

Now, I am all settled in my room. I have a top bunk and I share a room with three very nice british girls. We even have our own bathroom! Hopefully my suitcase with most of my clothes comes soon, because I only have two shirts...

 The hotel in Lima.

 More of LIma.

 Lima.

 Lima

 LIma

Lima

LIma.

 more Lima.

Day 1: Saturday January 21st

The flight from Houston to lima took only about 6.5 hrs, but then with my 30lb backpack and other backpack, I had to wait in line for an hour and a half to get through immigration. Once I got my 6 month visa, I headed for baggage claim. I was easily able to get a cart and was finally able to set my backpacks on it. My shoulders let out a sigh of relief. My two big bags came fast, but my little pink one was still missing. I waited about 15 minutes until there were no more bags on the carousel. Thankfully, about 10 other people from my flight had missing bags as well, so I just followed the herd and filled out some forms so hopefully my bag will be delivered here, to Pisco headquarters Monday morning.

Once I dealt with that, I made my way across the street to the Ramada Costa Del Sol hotel. It is gorgeous, especially compared with the rest of the city. I checked in, went up to my room, skyped my mom,  took a magical shower, had a Cuzquena, then drifted off to sleep at around 2:00am. 

 The yummy airplane food.

 Three hours more to fly.

Day 1: Saturday January 21st

 Mom, Dad, and me. :) Awwww...

So, I woke up this morning at 3:00am, got up at 3:20am, put on my yoga pants, crazy hot pink argyle knee-high socks, Coachella tank, and neon pink sweatshirt, then got in the pre-loaded car (thanks to Jamey). :)

Then my mom and I drove in the pouring rain and fog to meet my dad and the three of us, I mean the four of us (of course we had to bring Tiffany our little yorkie), went to SFO.

After waiting for a half hour, we finally were able to check in. But, of course a problem arose, one of my suitcases weighed 58lbs. To make things worse, the other suitcase weighed over 60lbs. So we ended up having to take 20lbs worth of random stuff, and cram it into my tiny 25lb carry-on suitcase. It took a good 20 minutes. We were those people at the airport; you know, the ones that you hate and curse out in your head... It was rather embarrassing.

Anyways, after that was all through, we had a nice breakfast at the Lori's Diner in the airport, which I didn't even know they had. I had eggs benedict. It was pretty damn good for airport food. Then my parent's and I made the dreaded trek to the security line where we had to part ways. We hugged goodbye and they waited a half hour until I was all the way through security onto the other side, waving and my mom crying the whole time.

I speed-walked to my flight, which was already practically done boarding, and sat in my cramped window seat. Luckily the plane wasn't full, so I had a row to myself to put my legs up. :)

Right now I am waiting in Houston until 3:10pm (their time) to fly 6.5 hours to Lima. So stay tuned! And I apologize for this boring entry, I promise tomorrow and future posts will be more entertaining. :)
Seagrams, Sudoku, and SkyMall...What else could I possibly need?