Time flies

Wow – how has it already been about 2 1/2 weeks since I arrived in Peru? I can’t believe how fast everything is flying by. I am trying to soak up every moment. I will try to share some highlights since the last time I wrote!

Haley and I got 4 new roommates in the house, which our host mom told us the night before! Fortunately, everyone turned out to be great. It has created the experience of staying in a volunteer house/hostel, bonding with people of similar interests and values. I was happy that one of the girls, Sonja from Amsterdam, is a medical student and is now at my volunteer site with me. We have started walking to and from the clinic – about 2.5-3 miles each way! Great exercise and fun time for conversation. Even though she is from a different country and her first language was Dutch, we connect really well and share similar passions and thoughts about healthcare and humanity.

Speaking of the health center, it is so dang cute at times. Right now, they are celebrating “La Novena”, a Roman Catholic holiday in which people pray and reflect for nine days in a row. The other day at the clinic, Lida, the woman who I spend most of my time working with at the lab, told me she had to go start cooking. I asked if I could help, she said yes, and next thing I knew we were cooking over a tiny stove in a storage closet. You cannot make this stuff up! We proceeded to prepare a three course meal of soup, salad, and steak, and the entire health center stopped working for about two hours to enjoy a church service and a feast together. Lida insisted that Sonja and I take time to reflect, and she then had us read our reflections aloud to all the workers at the health center, in Spanish! They were touched by our reflections, regardless of our broken Spanish.

Otherwise, I have gotten to enjoy a few fun activities in my free time! We go to salsa every Tuesday, I went paragliding in the Sacred Valley, went on an ATV tour of Moray and Salineras Salt Mines, and also went to the Cusco versus Lima soccer game. Paragliding was surprisingly relaxing, coasting peacefully through the sky and gazing towards the Andes. I was grateful for this unique way to see the Sacred Valley, the gorgeous land and small, rural villages that surround Cusco. Moray was a beautiful site of agricultural history. The Incans built this amazing circular structure to study the different layers of the earth and the crops that they grew. Peru has over 80 micro-climates due to the variety of terrain and close proximity to the Andes, and the Incans closely studied this as part of their relationship with the land and farming. The Salt Mines were also really something. A tiny spring, initially fresh water but turned to salt water by minerals in the earth, feeds over 4,000 saltwater pools on a mountainside. Over 650 families “harvest” salt from these pools, and they then sell it as cooking salt, medicinal salt, and in a variety of tasty snacks and chocolates. This tour was super interesting and taught us more about Peruvian culture. The soccer game was also tons of fun. Lima and Cusco are of course rivals, so it was a big game! As part of the pregame intro, they had fireworks, colored smoke, balloons, and confetti, and you better believe the whole crowd was chanting the fight song at the top of their lungs. Cusco ended up losing, but it was still a fun experience, and I now better understand the importance of soccer in Peru. Sports really can be an integral part of the history and culture of a country. Otherwise, my roommates and I have enjoyed cooking classes on Fridays, dinners with our host family, and occasional nights out on Plaza de Armas.

Finally, Jay just got here! Woo! We spent the weekend in Lima, exploring Peru’s capital city and catching up on the past few weeks. Unfortunately we both had our first travelers tummies, but hey that’s just part of the experience, right? We are heading back to Cusco tonight, and I am so excited to show Jay all the wonderful places and people I have gotten to know. It’s hard to believe this chapter of the trip is coming to a close soon. Time to appreciate Cusco for one more week, and then onto the next chapter!