My Peruvian Adventures: 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