We have been here for over a week now and are starting to settle into a routine. We have experienced a lot in the last week. I will try and hit the highlights. We are loving having the market close by. The ladies there recognize us now. We buy all our vegetables there and fresh eggs, olives, some spices, fruits, lentils, potatoes and fresh cheese made daily. Food is so cheap. A pound of potatoes costs us about .15. We buy our bread from a little old lady who has a store on the corner. The most common bread looks like a type of little pita and costs .03 for each one. We continue to cook in our kitchen. We have made quinoa soup, lentil stew, pasta, scrambled eggs with peppers and onions. We eat lots of cucumber, tomatoes, avocado, carrots, oranges, apples, and today we found pears. We also stay stocked on wine and chocolate. We work from 2:00 -6:15. In the mornings we shop, go into town sometimes, read and check in with all of you on email and FB. Getting into town is an interesting experience. So far we have taken the bus and a few taxis. The buses are packed and they just put more people on. Just when you think they could not possibly fit anyone else on....they do. There is a person who stands on the bus steps and tells you to hurry up and get on (or off). When you want to get off you have to work your way to the front. No time for personal space issues, just push and hope you don't touch anything you don't want to touch. The upside is the bus costs about .15. It takes 12 min to get into town. When you get there you just hope that there are no strikes or protests (or at least no tear gas). That actually has not happened to us but did to GeGe recently. We have experienced a few great restaurants in town and we found a place where Moyra can get here coffee fix. On Sundays there are ladies on the plaza selling all sorts of cookies so of course we have to buy some of each to try them all. We have found the main tourist shopping places. I have a bit of a textile fetish so this is heaven for me (and one of the reasons I have always wanted to visit Peru). This weekend we went with much of program staff on a field trip to some beautiful Inca ruins. We left at 7:00 AM. Our first stop was a little detour to see a waterfall. Well, this 10 min walk (actually 90 min of us sucking serious high altitude air) humbled us a bit. We stopped at two different ruins locations. In one town we wanted to visit the church that had ruins in front and happened upon a traditional wedding. We were standing at the church doors as the bridal party came out. I didn't know that they lit firecrackers until one went off against my leg (very glad for the jeans and no need to shave that part of my leg any time soon). They also throw candy and it was all rather wonderful to watch. People talked us and asked what we thought of the wedding and if we wanted to come to the party. It was an exciting day which became even more exciting when we decided to take a "new" road back, we did not know for a long time if we were on the correct road. Keep in mind it is pitch black except for our headlights. This is a road with many rocks and cracks, and we are up in the mountains. There is room for one vehicle, no shoulder, and nothing to keep you from going over. We had driven for about 10 hours or more on one tank of gas. This "new" road had no towns, no gas, no cell phone service. I was sitting in the second row in the van and noticed when we were on 1/8 tank of gas. Soon we were flagging down every passing vehicle and police trying to buy gas as we had several hours to go. They all said no. After about 2 hours of stress we stopped a police truck again and they agreed to take Alejandro to town to buy some gas and return to us. Luckily Ayacucho was downhill at that point and we coasted for the last 45 min. We were all very happy to get home at 10:30. We had a glass of wine, took showers and thanked God for our rock hard beds.
Yesterday we met Amanda (who works with women at the prison here) and Katie (a US med student here shadowing doctors) so they could show us the artisan market. After the market we all me GeGe for a good-bye pizza dinner. GeGe leaves for her vacation tonight. We will miss her but she has shown us how to do things and she has an amazing staff.
My next blog will be all about the program and the incredible work being done here with kids.
A few random details about our life here. The water is not safe to drink so we boil it for 10 min. We even brush our teeth with boiled water. As in many countries you do not flush anything down the toilet unless it came out of you. Some places have holes instead of toilets. I'm still not so good at those. There are scorpions and recluse spiders here...don't play with them. Don't get in the way of buses....they don't necessarily stop. Red lights are a suggestion only. People continue to be wonderful to us here and we are thankful for the adventure. Tomorrow morning we are going with Amanda to the prison. There are 180 inmates, many there on drug charges. Amanda told us about one woman whose husband was involved in drugs and because she knew about it she received the same sentence. The sentence could be between 8-15 years with no time off for good behavior. Amanda says the women there are getting younger and younger...very sad. It reminds us to be so thankful for all that we have. We miss you! Until next time, ciao!!!!
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