Earthquake and Mission Impossible

Today was awesome. Our trainers paired us up with another person and we had to complete our, “mission impossible.” My partner was Heather and we had to go find a store in a city about 20 minutes away that was an herb store. Heather’s mom knew of a place and she took us straight to one and wow. This lady had everything for any pain. She had teas that cured cancer and hangovers and all sorts of goodies. She even had a tank with (Whitney stop reading here) live frogs. She takes the frogs and some type of liquid and puts them in a blender and turns it on. I also threw up right in the street. We had to ask her questions about everything she had so here was my conversation:
(pointing to a jar with a giant penis)
“What is this?”
“A penis.”
“Yes. It’s clearly a penis. What animal did it come from?”
“It’s a penis I blend to make you want to have sex. You want it.”
“No thanks. I’m fine.”
After all that happened we decided to go to a place called Plaza Vea which is like a Wal-Mart. It was awesome and I bought tons of chocolate for me and my family. Oh the town I went to was called Chosico. I got to take my first combi ride too. It’s a bus for 22 and we had 39 shoved on it. Ha! On the way back I missed my drop off point because I was singing Alicia Keys and drinking Incan Cola (which is so good). We eventually found where we needed to be. The phone just rang at my house and my sister is telling my dad that I brought them chocolate and it’s really good. Oh the little things that make everyone happy. Well I need to go eat and take another freezing shower. Ugh. If anyone can send me a shower that emits some type of warm water that would be greatly appreciated. I will never get used to freezing showers. Oh before I go, today is the first day of spring here and it’s a tradition that kids dress up for school as flowers, princess or butterflies. My sister was a princess. On my walk home from a friends’ house there were two dogs humping in the street, guess they know it’s spring now!
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
These last few days have been full of weird things. The night before last there was a stranger curling up in my bed and the last night there was an earthquake! It was around 3AM and I thought someone was trying to snatch me out of my bed and when I realized no one was in my room I thought maybe an animal was trying to jump on my bed. Once I got up to turn the light I on realized my entire bedroom was in motion. I have never felt an earthquake, but it was kinda weird and neat at the same time. It last for about a minute and it was done. After that I fell back asleep and woke up to the sound of my sister puking in the bathroom. Uggghhh. I need a good night of sleep, not to mention but I drink so much water here I have to pee 2 or 3 times a night. At lunch today my sister stayed home from school so I am trying to avoid here because I don’t want to be sick.
I also think I was able to get across to my mom I don’t eat a lot so I don’t need my portions of food to cover my plate and be 3 inches tall. She was very kind about it and said that it’s ok because she doesn’t want me to be fat and it’s no problem if I don’t like her food (which hasn’t happened yet.)
Last night for dinner was rice with milk and it sounds gross, but let me tell you it is amazing! I am worried the milk might make me sick, but I am prepared because that food was awesome.
Here is a fun fact I learned, Peru has 4,000 kinds of potatoes. Needless to say, I eat potatoes every day, all day. After lunch today I had a bag of Famous Amos cookies and that was unbelievably amazing. (Feel free to send me those anytime)
Oh and here is something important: Please don’t send me packages over 1.1 pounds because I have to pay to get them and I have to find the post office. If you send it in a padded envelope that is under 1.1 pounds they will deliver it to my training center and I can get it pronto. I don’t have a lot of time to find the post office and I only make $2 a day right now. Plus, I really don’t want to have to deal with finding a post office. I can hardly find my way to other volunteer homes. Once I find the post office and I am more comfortable here, I will tell you to send packages often, but now I just want cards and letters.
Not sure if I have talked about this, but Peruvians LOVE calendars. My family has 8 calendars in the living and kitchen. It’s crazy. I am not sure why, but they love them!
I have some exciting things coming up. This Sunday my brother Lucho is coming in to town so hopefully we will have a big dinner and maybe he speaks some English!! All I know is he is 21 and studying at a university in Lima. Also, this Friday I am going to hike the tallest mountain in Chaclacayo with a few friends. It actually happens to be right in my backyard so we will have a good starting point!