10 Peruvian Randoms

July 24, 2012

10 Peruvian Randoms

I'm in Cusco. It's wonderful, but lonely. I wrote this post a few days ago, but don't have the energy to write a new one from my new location yet, so this will have to do for now.

1. The very same water we use to wash our dishes and brush our teeth is also deemed unsafe to drink. Ironic?

2. Speaking of washing dishes...Peru has forced me to come to terms with my deep aversion to sponges.

3. This country has, like, 19481095815 different kinds of corn. Here is a picture I snapped at the grocery store the other day of some very black corn next to some humungous carrots.

4. This week, I was given the task of leading the special education tutoría, and had to coach one of the boys through multi-digit multiplication and decimals. Consequently, I remembered why I can never teach anything above third grade. (at least he earned a high-five every time I verified if his answer was correct using the calculator on my iPhone)

5. The food here is really hit or miss. For breakfast I have cereal with whole milk; lunch is generally some variation of rice, beans, and mystery meat; and dinner is frequently rice with over-medium eggs. However sometimes we're hit with a real whopper. Like Wednesday, when lunch was pig-skin soup. Warning: the following photo is not for the faint of stomach.

I ate cereal instead of lunch this day.

6. On Monday, I was asked to assist Edwin, one of our autistic boys, in getting ready for school. It was quite the process as it involved a supervised shower as well as locating and dressing him in his school uniform. I'm proud to say we both survived, and had a lot of laughs in the process. However, I was unable to help him tie his tie. Luckily, one of our older boys, Fernando, stepped up to the plate and did it for him.

I know this picture probably doesn't mean as much to you all since you don't know these boys, but it just warmed my heart to see Fernando being so gentle and kind to one of the younger kids. As you can see by his facial expression, he was not pleased that I took his picture so I wasn't able to capture what happened shortly after this one: he knelt down and carefully transferred the tie to Edwin's neck and then proceeded to tuck it under his collar, button his top shirt button, and straighten his belt.

7. I've been helping the social worker here at the albergue. Having just earned my MSW, this is something I was crazy excited to do. However, as it turns out, paperwork is just as much the bane of the social worker's existence over here as it is in the US. So far, all I've done is filing. Lots and lots of it.

8. I tried a churro for the first time. It was from a street cart in Trujillo and it was delicious.