Sorry I didn´t get to a computer yesterday to let you know what´s been up since our first day; by the time we got home it was around 830pm and I was so tired I just went right to bed! But I´ve for about 20minutes before we leave for Maximo Nivel (the home-base of our spanish lessons as well as our volunteer placements) so I´ll do the best I can to cram it all in now!
So yesterday began with me finally realizing how big of a dirtbag I´ve been since I hadn´t had a shower since last thursday (yesterday was sunday) which meant time to get my face and body all full of diseased water in an attempt to be clean once more! We have ¨hot¨water here!!!!! (Hot apparently means so-friged-im-surprised-ice cubes-didnt-come-out) which meant the worlds quickest shower! I did, however, stay in the shower long enough to learn all about the wonders of ëlectric¨showers. Water here is heated up with a big clunky cylinder connected to the shower tap. The cylinder is heated using a livewire so that, in theory, your water will come out warm. At 5´7¨, I´m above-average height here and so when I went to scrub shampoo into my hair I just happened to put my finger RIGHT ON the livewire. You can imagine how awesome it felt to have electricity kind of zzzzap through my hand (althouhg it was only a little tingle, but moreso the fear of the fact that I was soaking wet):I was standing on a plastic mat, however, and so because my feet werent touching the metal pieces on the drain I got out with no problems other than an awful huge fright! I haven´t been back in the shower just yet.... lol
The altitude sickness started to creep up on us yesterday, what with the wonders of travel finally wearing off. I have had an incessant ringing in my ears for two days and every now and again my heart goes wacky because here in Cusco there is 30% less oxygen, as we are around 3500m above sea level. Daniel has had paresthesias (tingling in the hands and feet) since we got here, so we´re gonna go ahead and blame the altitude sickness pills on that too hahaha. But todya hopefully will be better. They say it taked 3-4 days to acclimatize and this is day three so... fingers crossed!
The dog count (wind dogs are like pidgeons around here) for yesterday was 31. Whee!
I also realized that i forgot my camera charger. So.... shit.
We had orientation about our first week of projects. Today im starting my placement at an orphanage. I´m in a wing of the orphanage where about 10 girls ages 13-16 live who have been taken from their families as they were used for prostitution. My job is to help rebuild their self-esteem enough to get them to be able to go to a coed classroom to learn skills to be successful when they leave the orphanage. So I get to play with the girls and do whatever i can think of to help them, including I guess be someone to talk to (although the language barrier is a definite problem) if they decide they want to open up about what they´ve been through. I´m going there around 2:30 today, the same time Daniel goes to the same orphanage but goes with the boys. he´s the only volunteer with abour 40 boys ages 4-17, so he´s got his hands full! I´m hoping to teach my girls how to make balloon animals sometime... maybe once I get over the altitude sickness and can breathe without wanting to black out lol.
We also went to Plazas de Armas (Tourist central) for a little while yesterday and went to our second Starbucks in Peru! They serve the food to you and have security dressed like James Bond inside the starbucks so its awesome and kind of hilarious. The best part is there´s toilet paper and soap in their bathrooms!!!! We also went to a place called Norman Rat´s Tavern and ate fries. Mmm. Americanized Peru.... So that was great as well! We got 2 Corona, 2 bottles of water and a plate of fries for about 8 dollars canadian total. :-D
Last night a girl was sick here. We were serenaded by the lovely noises of dry heaves well into the night and then woken up again at 4am to these other two girls having some kind of party in their room across the hall from us. It was SuPeR. I think they were going home, and I think they missed their taxi to get there this morning. :-P
Lastly, the name of this journal. You see... our windows in our room dont REALLY close all that well. Theyre glass panels you can push to one side or another but dont stick in any one place. The place next door must be a club or something because all hours of the night you can hear the most random 80s/90s music and people singing the wrong words. These songs are always interrupted every 30 seconds with a screach of something that soudns akin to the worlds biggest pterodactyl. This... while at first annoying... is now pretty much the most funny part of our stay. I said to daniel when we were tryin to sleep ¨man! That pterodactyl must really love his karyoke!¨and Daniel (who sleeps like a sloth here every spare minute we get) started cracking up for like.... 10 minutes.
Well! I´ve got to head out for our first 2hr spanish lesson and then to a place called San Blas for lunch (the artsy district... we havent been there yet!) then to our placements... so hopefully Ill be able to write again tonight! Until then.... Ciao!!!!
xoxoxoxoxox
-Angie
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