La primera semana

So far I am really enjoying Peru.  Of course I miss you guys, but I have a great family here.  I live with a lady named Olinda.  She has three kids, but they are all grown.  We have a dog named Princessa, she has an underbite just like booboo, it makes me miss the little guy, but she seems to like me.  Her husband drives two hours to Lima each Monday and works until Saturday so I haven’t really seen much of him.  The first night I was here he asked me what I thought about suicide, if I read Karl Marx, what I thought about the wars our country was in, and if I believed in reincarnation.  Needless to say it was a trial by fire, but I did ok.  My Spanish, or Castellano as it’s called here, is coming along slowly, but each day I understand a little more and am able to say a little more.  Each night at 8 Olinda and I watch a soap opera called “Al Fondo Hay Sitio”, it’s pretty funy and is a good way to spend some time with Olinda.

The training has been pretty exhausting to this point.  We spend 4 hours a day doing language training, and its difficult to think and speak in a different language, but I guess it’s not supposed to be easy.  The food here is pretty good.  For the most part I have really enjoyed it.  I eat a lot of potatoes, but cooked in new ways.  Also I have had the best and freshest fruit of my life here.  Each day for lunch Olinda makes me fresh juice, sometimes limon, sometimes passionfruit, but it’s always delicious.  The oranges here are so juicy, each time I peel one there is a huge puddle under me.  I’ve eaten more avocados here than ever before.  We have a limon tree and an avocado tree in our courtyard.  Olinda also loves roses, so some of the ones in the courtyard have just bloomed.  The house is pretty nice, we have running water, but no hot water.  I don’t think I will ever get used to cold showers, but it’s a good wake up in the morning. We only have water here from about 6 am to 7 pm, and you throw the toilet paper away instead of flushing it.  Also my toilet doesn’t have a seat, so that makes for some interesting mornings.  I don’t think I will ever take for granted the fact that when we turn on the water it always comes out, it’s so different in that regard here.   My room is pretty big, and I have a double bed.  I go to bed around 9 each night and read for a while, write in my journal, then get some sleep.  I get up about 6:30 each morning and have breakfast with Olinda.  I swear she thinks I’m a bottomless pit, so sometimes I have to politely refuse.

The town I’m in is called Santa Eulalia.  Its right next to the foothills of the Andes, but they are still much larger than any mountain in the Blue Ridge.  I think we are somewhere around 1800 meters up.  It’s pretty warm here, and the winter is just ending.  The group I’m in is great; each person is interesting and completely unique.  The staff here is also very helpful.  Our training center is the most beautiful place you have ever seen.  It’s a closed in area, about half a block, and has exotic trees and flowers, wonderful white and red buildings, and plenty of areas to lie around outside during lunch or the small breaks we get.  Last night a bunch of us went to a town close by called Chosica.  We had some dinner and some beers; it felt like a pretty normal evening.  Surprisingly this place doesn’t feel so different.  Little things are different, but overall it just feels like I’m away from you guys.  I can’t believe it’s been a week already, but I have heard training flies by.