Will and I are ending our adventure in Peru today. We’re staying the night in Lima waiting for our next flight to the states. In my last post, I know I sounded a little bit frustrated, but I'm now feeling a lot better. I was writing in the blog to vent my frustrations, but now I just wanted everybody to know that I'm okay and we're okay, and that overall my experience was not bad.
I feel like I learned a lot. My Spanish improved, I’m more self-confident, and I became more outgoing or willing to talk to people. I also learned a lot about the medical system in Peru and the Peruvian society; for example, I decided to focus on disabled and elderly people for my thesis paper. And for me the best part was that we got to work with the people and bring them services, rather than being stuck in an office and not really knowing what the situation is really like for them. We got to meet the people and we may not know what it is like to be them, but we can understand a little bit more by seeing their homes, hearing their stories, seeing their schools, and just knowing them a little bit more.
Anyways, I really did enjoy my experience in Peru, even though there were some stressful times, we also had a lot of good times and we met so many great people who made a big impact on us :) I'm also happy and blessed really because I now have another family in Peru, a lot of people who really cared about me when I was sick.
I'll be home soon and we're going to be starting the NEXT stage now. Writing our thesis, job searching etc.
Love,
Catherine
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Phew: Life and Pictures from Arequipa
Well, like Catherine eloquently wrote, it's been a long last month, but things are getting better slowly, progress is being made on the thesis, and preparations are moving forward to head home. I've gotten really sick twice in the last month, Monday and Tuesday I couldn't do anything but lay in bed... I was literally in bed for almost 48 hours straight--it was very rough.
All better now however, and my stress levels are down. It's been a relaxing week--went to see Harry Potter yesterday (opening day), and somehow got tickets. Well, not all of the shows were sold out, it's not as big a thing here in Peru. Besides that we've been working a lot with our advisers on the thesis thing.
One of our friends leaves Sunday for the US, and I automatically said "I'm sorry" jokingly. Then I realized that I wasn't sorry for him, I was sorry that it wasn't us going home! I miss a lot of things, luckily we're back soon to a less stressful and controlled environment. Our days are built around "acceptable dining hours" at the house we eat at. Very sad actually.
Well, I was sick for the Arequipa mission (among other issues and being very occupied as the only translator in Dental) so I have only one album of pictures to share with all of you, but here they are!
All better now however, and my stress levels are down. It's been a relaxing week--went to see Harry Potter yesterday (opening day), and somehow got tickets. Well, not all of the shows were sold out, it's not as big a thing here in Peru. Besides that we've been working a lot with our advisers on the thesis thing.
One of our friends leaves Sunday for the US, and I automatically said "I'm sorry" jokingly. Then I realized that I wasn't sorry for him, I was sorry that it wasn't us going home! I miss a lot of things, luckily we're back soon to a less stressful and controlled environment. Our days are built around "acceptable dining hours" at the house we eat at. Very sad actually.
Well, I was sick for the Arequipa mission (among other issues and being very occupied as the only translator in Dental) so I have only one album of pictures to share with all of you, but here they are!
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| Clinic Arequipa |
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Vacations to Machu Picchu and Puno
One of the few vacations I actually did take in my 6 months here (the other being to Chile for 3 days to renew a visa). Wow we worked hard! The photos are in reverse order from the actual events.
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| Family Tour - Lake Titicaca |
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| Family Tour - Bus Cuzco to Puno |
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| Family Tour - Horse Tour |
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| Family Tour - Machu Picchu |
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| Family Tour - Valle Sagrado |
Thursday, July 2, 2009
We're still alive :)
We have 5 weeks left here in Peru. We are not doing the Arequipa Eye mission this July because they do not need more interpreters, so the June Arequipa mission was officially our last mission. We our using this month to help out in the MMI warehouse three times a week, and then the other 2 days plus weekends we will be doing research for our thesis. I have done 2 interviews so far, one with Tania and one with Brian. I also did one electronic interview, with a nurse who lives here somewhat permanently, Karen. Luckily Will has a tape-recorder on his MP3 player, so I haven’t had to worry about copying down things too much. It helped a lot. Now I just have to transcribe stuff over to paper. I have a few more people I want to interview, so I need to talk to them about what times are good for them, but at least I’m making some progress, which is good.
Other than that, things are going okay. We are trying to wind down after doing 3 missions basically back to back, we had like a week break in between Colca-Puerto, and 2 weeks between Puerto-Arequipa but we went to Machu Picchu and Puno the week before the Arequipa mission so we didn’t really get to rest too much. These past 3 months have gone really fast because we’ve been so busy. The Arequipa mission was probably not my favorite. It was huge, it was all a blur really, and I wasn’t able to meet many people or able to get to know many. I got really sick, and I’m still sick, so it made it even harder to relax and focus on the mission, and the whole mission was really stressful. But oh well. I wish it was different, because I know some people had really enjoyed the experience, so I’m sure it was because I was so sick and stressed from traveling and working the past few months.
So, now we have a month to help out in the warehouse and get things ready to come home. I think we are both ready, as much as we like Peru it’s time to come home for awhile :) Anyways, it was about time one of us wrote a post :)
Catherine
Other than that, things are going okay. We are trying to wind down after doing 3 missions basically back to back, we had like a week break in between Colca-Puerto, and 2 weeks between Puerto-Arequipa but we went to Machu Picchu and Puno the week before the Arequipa mission so we didn’t really get to rest too much. These past 3 months have gone really fast because we’ve been so busy. The Arequipa mission was probably not my favorite. It was huge, it was all a blur really, and I wasn’t able to meet many people or able to get to know many. I got really sick, and I’m still sick, so it made it even harder to relax and focus on the mission, and the whole mission was really stressful. But oh well. I wish it was different, because I know some people had really enjoyed the experience, so I’m sure it was because I was so sick and stressed from traveling and working the past few months.
So, now we have a month to help out in the warehouse and get things ready to come home. I think we are both ready, as much as we like Peru it’s time to come home for awhile :) Anyways, it was about time one of us wrote a post :)
Catherine
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Puerto and Colca
We’ve been busy the past month. In May we had two missions, with only a week to rest: Colca, which was freezing cold, and Puerto Maldonado, which was humid and hot. Chivay was beautiful, the landscape was gorgeous and the way people dressed was beautiful, unfortunately it was just so cold at night we were never really able to keep warm. Showers were absolutely the worse, because although they were warm, we would be cold and wet when we got out. It was a fun mission though, and a good group. My job here was to do Fluoride Treatment along with another girl. We went to a few schools, and over 2 weeks we did 500 children. It was fun, and it improved my Spanish a lot.
Puerto Maldonado was really different, it was hot, but mostly what was bad was the humidity. Nothing dried – our towels, our clothes if we washed them ourselves, nothing. There was a lot of rain and lots of mud and lots of mosquitoes. Even worse, they have some of the biggest bugs I’ve ever seen. It was very green compared to the rest of Peru, but I’m from Seattle, so I’m used to green. I expected bigger trees and monkeys everywhere…but it wasn’t quite like that. We saw some beautiful birds, tons of pesky butterflies, and a river otter, and lots of bugs. We didn’t go to one of the tours, and I guess on that tour you can see cool animals in the jungle but in cages…But it’s not really the same. This mission had some funding problems, which add tension in the group. People wanted to know what happened to their money, etc. It was mostly the fault of the municipality of PM not helping out, but a lot of people were upset, which changed the tone of things. Plus, once people got sick, they even got more frustrated…PM was not my favorite mission :P However, my job was sort of mixed. I was supposed to be a runner, but I wanted to do Fluoride again. We did about 200 (because we went to a big school). I also helped with interpretation for a couple of the doctors (Will pushed me a little bit and helped me) as well as Integrated Health. I think I was most proud of the fact that the second to last day, I interpreted one girl’s testimony from English to Spanish in front of a group of 12 or so, and they understood me.
We have been in Peru for over 4 months. We have a little over 2 months left, and 2 big missions left: the Arequipa Mission which is in 1 week, and the Arequipa Optical Mission, which is July 13th. We are still very busy, and we haven’t made very much progress on our research. We are only now making decisions on what we want to write about, and trying to come up with questions to ask people. Problem is, June is sort of shot, can’t interview people in June, all we have is like 3 weeks in July to get things together. But, it’ll work out.
BTW, sorry I haven’t written in something like 2 months. I takes time and concentration. Now I have a computer (thanks to my mom) and so I can type blogs any time I want.
Catherine
Puerto Maldonado was really different, it was hot, but mostly what was bad was the humidity. Nothing dried – our towels, our clothes if we washed them ourselves, nothing. There was a lot of rain and lots of mud and lots of mosquitoes. Even worse, they have some of the biggest bugs I’ve ever seen. It was very green compared to the rest of Peru, but I’m from Seattle, so I’m used to green. I expected bigger trees and monkeys everywhere…but it wasn’t quite like that. We saw some beautiful birds, tons of pesky butterflies, and a river otter, and lots of bugs. We didn’t go to one of the tours, and I guess on that tour you can see cool animals in the jungle but in cages…But it’s not really the same. This mission had some funding problems, which add tension in the group. People wanted to know what happened to their money, etc. It was mostly the fault of the municipality of PM not helping out, but a lot of people were upset, which changed the tone of things. Plus, once people got sick, they even got more frustrated…PM was not my favorite mission :P However, my job was sort of mixed. I was supposed to be a runner, but I wanted to do Fluoride again. We did about 200 (because we went to a big school). I also helped with interpretation for a couple of the doctors (Will pushed me a little bit and helped me) as well as Integrated Health. I think I was most proud of the fact that the second to last day, I interpreted one girl’s testimony from English to Spanish in front of a group of 12 or so, and they understood me.
We have been in Peru for over 4 months. We have a little over 2 months left, and 2 big missions left: the Arequipa Mission which is in 1 week, and the Arequipa Optical Mission, which is July 13th. We are still very busy, and we haven’t made very much progress on our research. We are only now making decisions on what we want to write about, and trying to come up with questions to ask people. Problem is, June is sort of shot, can’t interview people in June, all we have is like 3 weeks in July to get things together. But, it’ll work out.
BTW, sorry I haven’t written in something like 2 months. I takes time and concentration. Now I have a computer (thanks to my mom) and so I can type blogs any time I want.
Catherine
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Arequipa
We're back in Arequipa, and I'm typing on my new laptop! I'm entertaining my Grandma, Uncle, and Mom, and we're going to dinner at my host mom's house tonight! Mom and I went out last night and today we walked around all afternoon. It's been a lot of fun. Soon we're going to Lima, Cuzco, Puno then back to Arequipa for the Arequipa medical mission--tourism!
-Catherine
-Catherine
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Puerto Maldonado
I was reminded, yesterday, why the rainforest bears that name. It rained about noon and didn't stop until we were back in the albergue. We didn't see much wildlife: couple turtles, birds, a lizard, frogs. Nothing I would call "jungle." This part is a lot like Seattle, just more humid, with bigger and nastier insects. 3/10 rating for the tour and unprepared tour agency.
So, besides the tour, the rest of the mission is... meh. The group is cool, really young and full of energy, but there's more drama than normal. Mostly we're not getting the support that the municipality promised us, and so there are budget issues. The clinics are going well, and either are really busy or really empty, and it wears on us either way.
It's very hot and humid. The bugs are HUGE. Mosquitoes, grasshoppers, beetles, etc. I don't like it at all. All sorts of nasty, biting bugs to make life miserable. Anyway, some photos to keep everyone a little happier.
So, besides the tour, the rest of the mission is... meh. The group is cool, really young and full of energy, but there's more drama than normal. Mostly we're not getting the support that the municipality promised us, and so there are budget issues. The clinics are going well, and either are really busy or really empty, and it wears on us either way.
It's very hot and humid. The bugs are HUGE. Mosquitoes, grasshoppers, beetles, etc. I don't like it at all. All sorts of nasty, biting bugs to make life miserable. Anyway, some photos to keep everyone a little happier.
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| Clinic Puerto Maldonado - Jungle Tour |
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| Clinic Puerto Maldonado - Señor de los Milagros (Days 5-7) |
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| Clinic Puerto Maldonado - El Centenario (Days 3-4) |
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| Clinic Puerto Maldonado - Centro Comunal Del Centro Poblado Menor La Joya (Days 1-2) |
Monday, May 11, 2009
Chile Photos
The album caption:
"We have spent 3 months in Peru now, and so we had to renew our visas. As such, we decided to take a quick jaunt across the border to Arica, Chile. We spent the night in Tacna on the way since we were tired and just wanted to rest. The next morning we went through the border ordeal (which includes contracting an hour-long taxi and dealing with customs) and got to Arica. It's a very nice city along the beach in Northern Chile. We saw almost everything in the two days we had there. Overally, it was very relaxing, and a nice get-away."
"We have spent 3 months in Peru now, and so we had to renew our visas. As such, we decided to take a quick jaunt across the border to Arica, Chile. We spent the night in Tacna on the way since we were tired and just wanted to rest. The next morning we went through the border ordeal (which includes contracting an hour-long taxi and dealing with customs) and got to Arica. It's a very nice city along the beach in Northern Chile. We saw almost everything in the two days we had there. Overally, it was very relaxing, and a nice get-away."
Domi's Food! YUM!
These delicious dishes are prepared by the same person who usually cooks for us on missions! - aka "Comida."
Back in Arequipa
There's a lot to catch up on now.
We're back from Chile! We had a lot of fun there, but we're going to Bolivia next.
We finally bought our tickets for Puerto Maldonado, for about the same price we've been expecting this entire time, but after hours and hours of frustration with the Lan Chile site we went into the actual physical office. This was after we got back from Colca:
Colca
We got back from our 2-week mission trip in Colca on Friday. It was cold to say the least, according to the paper we got down to (-10) degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit). Wow, right? This plus no internal heating anywhere in the Colca valley means we were using many, many blankets at night. The mission itself went well, but quite a few people got sick from various things, including myself. The biggest issue was altitude sickness, since we were at tweleve thousand feet in Chivay (our base camp) and 15500 feet at our highest clinic. Most people just had more trouble sleeping than normal, a few were dizzy, sick, weak, etc. The other thing that aflicted the group was some stomach issues. The worst cases were vomiting and sick in bed, the rest of us had some gurgles.
It was a pretty rough trip, with some very tough cases as well. But overall it went well, and was fun. Christian was there, and brought his dentist friend from Lima. Besides that, there were quite a few young people (Mick--Christian's girlfriend's brother, Dr. John's daughter and her boyfriend, etc). The rest of the group was fun too, and the trip as a whole was one of the funner ones I've been on.
I was almost sent home to rest on Thursday, but I fought Tania and convinced her to let me go anyway. I had a lot of fun at 15500 feet, and actually felt better there than anywhere else on the mission, I even ran up a small hill there to see the view. Catherine got burned, clinic was very informal, everyone was tired and it was a long trip back to Chivay (almost 4 hours). We had spent the last two nights in the small village of Callalli, where it was even more cold than Chivay, and the middle of nowhere. There was a bonfire, and good food, including questionable trout (that everyone blames for getting sick).
Bad news on the Arequipa front, the MMI office here was robbed while we were in Colca. They took both computers in the office among a ton of other things (including a surgicial equipment set) and nothing has been recovered yet. Hopefully they'll find some things today, if not... ugh. It's just a bad situation all around. Many many un-backedup documents have been lost.
Anyway, photos on the next post (just testing the email-posting feature of Blogspot right now), coming in a second!
-Will
We're back from Chile! We had a lot of fun there, but we're going to Bolivia next.
We finally bought our tickets for Puerto Maldonado, for about the same price we've been expecting this entire time, but after hours and hours of frustration with the Lan Chile site we went into the actual physical office. This was after we got back from Colca:
Colca
We got back from our 2-week mission trip in Colca on Friday. It was cold to say the least, according to the paper we got down to (-10) degrees Celsius (14 Fahrenheit). Wow, right? This plus no internal heating anywhere in the Colca valley means we were using many, many blankets at night. The mission itself went well, but quite a few people got sick from various things, including myself. The biggest issue was altitude sickness, since we were at tweleve thousand feet in Chivay (our base camp) and 15500 feet at our highest clinic. Most people just had more trouble sleeping than normal, a few were dizzy, sick, weak, etc. The other thing that aflicted the group was some stomach issues. The worst cases were vomiting and sick in bed, the rest of us had some gurgles.
It was a pretty rough trip, with some very tough cases as well. But overall it went well, and was fun. Christian was there, and brought his dentist friend from Lima. Besides that, there were quite a few young people (Mick--Christian's girlfriend's brother, Dr. John's daughter and her boyfriend, etc). The rest of the group was fun too, and the trip as a whole was one of the funner ones I've been on.
I was almost sent home to rest on Thursday, but I fought Tania and convinced her to let me go anyway. I had a lot of fun at 15500 feet, and actually felt better there than anywhere else on the mission, I even ran up a small hill there to see the view. Catherine got burned, clinic was very informal, everyone was tired and it was a long trip back to Chivay (almost 4 hours). We had spent the last two nights in the small village of Callalli, where it was even more cold than Chivay, and the middle of nowhere. There was a bonfire, and good food, including questionable trout (that everyone blames for getting sick).
Bad news on the Arequipa front, the MMI office here was robbed while we were in Colca. They took both computers in the office among a ton of other things (including a surgicial equipment set) and nothing has been recovered yet. Hopefully they'll find some things today, if not... ugh. It's just a bad situation all around. Many many un-backedup documents have been lost.
Anyway, photos on the next post (just testing the email-posting feature of Blogspot right now), coming in a second!
-Will
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Colca
We´re in Colca, we made it back from Chile just in time to leave for the Colca mission 3 days later. When I get back, I owe you pictures from Chile, Colca, and Comida (food!). Something to look forward to. Right now we´re buying our plane tickets for the jungle mission in Puerto Maldonado. Internet is being slow. As such, I´m blogging really quick to let you all know we are still alive! And very, very busy and tired.
Hugs from both of us!
-Will
Hugs from both of us!
-Will
Monday, April 20, 2009
Leaving for Chile
This is going to be short because... well... there´s no reason to make it long. We´re in Tacna, Peru, where we stayed last night about to cross the border into Arica, Chile for a few days break. We had yummy Chinese food last night--maybe some of the best since getting here, and soon we´ll find something for lunch today. Wish us luck crossing the border! Two more stamps, here we come!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Three Weeks
Well, we´ve been in Arequipa about three weeks now, and it shows. It´s not that being here is boring, quite the contrary, it´s just nice to have the missions to mix things up. Well, the next two months are going to be exciting and non-stop so maybe the rest was good.
Anyway, here´s the next two months blocked out:
April 18-23rd: Arica, Chile to renew our tourist visas
April 26-May 7th: Colca Mission, lots of fun, very cold
May 14-28th: Puerto Maldonado Mission, lots of insects, very hot
May 29-June 2nd: Catherine´s family is in town, who knows what we´re going to do
June 4-13th: Chris (Stinky) in Peru to hang out until the mission, probably Macchu Pichu
June 14-28th: Arequipa mission, fun, lots of work
June 28-July ?: Dad in town to hang out, who knows what we´re going to see
July ?-?: Bolivia to renew our passport once more before we leave.
Anyway, that´s through mid July at least. Somewhere in there we have to fit in studying and research. It´ll be a blast!
Anyway, that´s life for the next few months.
Pictures to come, I promise!
-Will
Anyway, here´s the next two months blocked out:
April 18-23rd: Arica, Chile to renew our tourist visas
April 26-May 7th: Colca Mission, lots of fun, very cold
May 14-28th: Puerto Maldonado Mission, lots of insects, very hot
May 29-June 2nd: Catherine´s family is in town, who knows what we´re going to do
June 4-13th: Chris (Stinky) in Peru to hang out until the mission, probably Macchu Pichu
June 14-28th: Arequipa mission, fun, lots of work
June 28-July ?: Dad in town to hang out, who knows what we´re going to see
July ?-?: Bolivia to renew our passport once more before we leave.
Anyway, that´s through mid July at least. Somewhere in there we have to fit in studying and research. It´ll be a blast!
Anyway, that´s life for the next few months.
Pictures to come, I promise!
-Will
Monday, April 6, 2009
Quick Arequipa Update
Will was kind of annoyed I have't written any posts, so here is mine.
We've been back from Lima for over a week. I really liked the mission, but I was really worn out by the end. 3 weeks straight was tiring. I had 3 Peruvian rooommates which was fun and good practice for my spanish, but it made it hard to sleep at times - because they like to talk. Will had 7 or so roommates so I can't complain, I had it easy ;)
My job for my 1 week in Camana and 2 weeks in Lima was to be translator in the Pharmacy. It's not the most exciting job, but I guess somebody has to do it ;) It was very beautiful in Camana and in places of Lima.
We're now back in Arequipa, working in the office and the children´s home. I'm also trying to get my stuff together for my first mini-paper I have to write for school. So I'm writing interview questions, reading some stuff out of my text books for ideas, and researching a little bit. But we need to get moving a bit, I think.
And other than that, I'm still alive and healthy.
Love,
Catherine
We've been back from Lima for over a week. I really liked the mission, but I was really worn out by the end. 3 weeks straight was tiring. I had 3 Peruvian rooommates which was fun and good practice for my spanish, but it made it hard to sleep at times - because they like to talk. Will had 7 or so roommates so I can't complain, I had it easy ;)
My job for my 1 week in Camana and 2 weeks in Lima was to be translator in the Pharmacy. It's not the most exciting job, but I guess somebody has to do it ;) It was very beautiful in Camana and in places of Lima.
We're now back in Arequipa, working in the office and the children´s home. I'm also trying to get my stuff together for my first mini-paper I have to write for school. So I'm writing interview questions, reading some stuff out of my text books for ideas, and researching a little bit. But we need to get moving a bit, I think.
And other than that, I'm still alive and healthy.
Love,
Catherine
Back in Arequipa
You people don't comment anymore. Bad!
We're back in Arequipa, and have been here for about a week since the Lima mission (see the pictures in the previous post). Not much has happened in the last week, we've just been working at the orphanage (4 days last week) and the MMI office. The kids at the orphanage have accepted us now, which isn't necessarily a good thing. They're little hellions sometimes, and have decided that I'm their personal pack mule and that I'm required to have one child on my shoulders every minute I'm standing up (or sitting down sometimes too).
This week is a little more exciting since it's Semana Santa (Holy Week). It's also Danitza's birthday (the 15-year old that lives in Catherine's house and just started Med School--Tania and Helen's cousin) on Thursday, but since Thursday is a day of reflection, we're probably going to do something Wednesday. Semana Santa also means a 3-day work week for us this week.
It also means a special menu for the week--no red meats allowed (not sure about chicken) but we're going to have a lot of fish and seafood this week... YUMMY!
We have to leave the country this month for Visa purposes, so we're thinking about going to northern Chile around the 16th for the better part of week, and come back in time for the Colca mission. We have to leave the country again in July, so we're thinking about a nice trip to Bolivia and lake Titicaca and Copacabana. That'll be our longer trip, this short jump across the border to Chile isn't going to be anything big--we can't make it down to Santiago as we would like, just Arica.
We've started working on our Practicum requirements, but there's a lot left ahead of us. The biggest thing we need to keep in mind is to not get too distracted by work and get everything done now so we can polish and perfect later on when we get back to the US. It's hard to start the day at 8, get done with everything at 8 and then try to get more work done, but it has to be done. Luckily there's a 4-day weekend without possibilities to go out, so we should get a lot done this weekend.
We're back in Arequipa, and have been here for about a week since the Lima mission (see the pictures in the previous post). Not much has happened in the last week, we've just been working at the orphanage (4 days last week) and the MMI office. The kids at the orphanage have accepted us now, which isn't necessarily a good thing. They're little hellions sometimes, and have decided that I'm their personal pack mule and that I'm required to have one child on my shoulders every minute I'm standing up (or sitting down sometimes too).
This week is a little more exciting since it's Semana Santa (Holy Week). It's also Danitza's birthday (the 15-year old that lives in Catherine's house and just started Med School--Tania and Helen's cousin) on Thursday, but since Thursday is a day of reflection, we're probably going to do something Wednesday. Semana Santa also means a 3-day work week for us this week.
It also means a special menu for the week--no red meats allowed (not sure about chicken) but we're going to have a lot of fish and seafood this week... YUMMY!
We have to leave the country this month for Visa purposes, so we're thinking about going to northern Chile around the 16th for the better part of week, and come back in time for the Colca mission. We have to leave the country again in July, so we're thinking about a nice trip to Bolivia and lake Titicaca and Copacabana. That'll be our longer trip, this short jump across the border to Chile isn't going to be anything big--we can't make it down to Santiago as we would like, just Arica.
We've started working on our Practicum requirements, but there's a lot left ahead of us. The biggest thing we need to keep in mind is to not get too distracted by work and get everything done now so we can polish and perfect later on when we get back to the US. It's hard to start the day at 8, get done with everything at 8 and then try to get more work done, but it has to be done. Luckily there's a 4-day weekend without possibilities to go out, so we should get a lot done this weekend.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Photos and more photos!
Wow, do I have pictures to share!!! Since there are so many albums you're going to all have to be self-motivated and click on the links below. I don't want to crash any browsers or annoy anyone, I know the page is already slow to load from the older albums.
So first off, pictures from the Albergues (Orphanges) we're working at:
Next is the one-week we spent in Camaná for the clinic there--I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was working hard translating in Dental:
Then, our last mission this month--our two weeks in Lima. I was translating in triage, but since my teammate (a nurse from Canada named Allen) was very effective despite only knowing 3 words in Spanish (3ish I mean) I was able to run off and take pictures as well. Some other random pictures here as well besides the clinic ones...
I hope you enjoy!
-Will
So first off, pictures from the Albergues (Orphanges) we're working at:
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Next is the one-week we spent in Camaná for the clinic there--I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was working hard translating in Dental:
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| Clinic Camaná |
Then, our last mission this month--our two weeks in Lima. I was translating in triage, but since my teammate (a nurse from Canada named Allen) was very effective despite only knowing 3 words in Spanish (3ish I mean) I was able to run off and take pictures as well. Some other random pictures here as well besides the clinic ones...
I hope you enjoy!
-Will
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
From Lima
Once again I would like to apologize for the frequency (especially the lack of) of posts during the last few weeks. We’ve been very busy with limited internet most of the time. And finally that we’re here in Lima, it’s within safe walking distance in a relatively safe part of town (I certainly wouldn’t want Catherine walking out here alone).
Anyway, we spent one fun week in the sun in Camana, where we went to the beach on Saturday-only got a few pictures of that though, because it was very windy and the sand would have gotten all inside my camera. Not the best thing that can happen to a DSLR. But I have some decent pictures from the clinic, despite being stuck in dental the whole week we were there as a translator. Catherine was stuck full time in Pharmacy, the poor thing spent much less time outside her room than I did.
We took a bus ride on Saturday night to Lima, it was a nice, long 12 hours. But we went first class, so only 12 people in the whole cabin (compared to the 40-some upstairs). We both sleep really well for a bus trip, but badly for a regular night. We arrived in Lima sleep starved from the week before, and took a long 3-hour nap when we arrived.
We’ve had a long, but great two weeks here in Lima with a lot of the same friend we had in Ica: Cristian (dentist), Yelina (dentist), Karem (optometrist from Moquegua), Keren (dentist from Ica), Willy and Enrique (both of which were in Ica). Tania is leading this mission--it´s her last year, next year Enrique is going to be in charge of the Lima mission.
So expect pictures as soon as I can get them uploaded (when I get back to the office on Monday). Apart from that, we’re heading back to Arequipa on Friday night at 9pm, and hopefully the ride won’t take the 15 hours that I’m expecting. Or at least that I’ll be able to sleep and watch a movie. Catherine is well, she just called home to say hi, but she’s definitely alive too!
Sorry for the sparse updates, but we’ll hopefully be able to update more frequently now that we’re heading back to Arequipa for 3 weeks--at least until we have to leave the country for our visas (we’ve spent 6 of the last 9 weeks in Peru on missions!!!).
Take care everyone!
-Will (and Catherine)
Anyway, we spent one fun week in the sun in Camana, where we went to the beach on Saturday-only got a few pictures of that though, because it was very windy and the sand would have gotten all inside my camera. Not the best thing that can happen to a DSLR. But I have some decent pictures from the clinic, despite being stuck in dental the whole week we were there as a translator. Catherine was stuck full time in Pharmacy, the poor thing spent much less time outside her room than I did.
We took a bus ride on Saturday night to Lima, it was a nice, long 12 hours. But we went first class, so only 12 people in the whole cabin (compared to the 40-some upstairs). We both sleep really well for a bus trip, but badly for a regular night. We arrived in Lima sleep starved from the week before, and took a long 3-hour nap when we arrived.
We’ve had a long, but great two weeks here in Lima with a lot of the same friend we had in Ica: Cristian (dentist), Yelina (dentist), Karem (optometrist from Moquegua), Keren (dentist from Ica), Willy and Enrique (both of which were in Ica). Tania is leading this mission--it´s her last year, next year Enrique is going to be in charge of the Lima mission.
So expect pictures as soon as I can get them uploaded (when I get back to the office on Monday). Apart from that, we’re heading back to Arequipa on Friday night at 9pm, and hopefully the ride won’t take the 15 hours that I’m expecting. Or at least that I’ll be able to sleep and watch a movie. Catherine is well, she just called home to say hi, but she’s definitely alive too!
Sorry for the sparse updates, but we’ll hopefully be able to update more frequently now that we’re heading back to Arequipa for 3 weeks--at least until we have to leave the country for our visas (we’ve spent 6 of the last 9 weeks in Peru on missions!!!).
Take care everyone!
-Will (and Catherine)
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Lima!
We´re still alive, I know it´s been a long time, but we´ve been busy with missions. We spent a week in Camana and now we´re on week one of two in Lima, Peru. I´ll post as soon as I get a chance--there´s just no viable internet near the home we´re staying at. Pictures, many pictures coming as well.
-Will
-Will
Friday, February 27, 2009
Our week in Moquegua
It’s Friday, February 27th, and Will and I just returned form our 2nd mission. This one was shorter than the last – only Monday thru Thursday – since I took the fist week of the mission off for medical reasons.
Moquegua was a small town, very calm compared to Arequipa’s crazy traffic. My job changed, as did Will’s. Instead of working in the pharmacy, I helped Cathy in Salud Integral playing with the children. My job was to take them into my room, have them color, do math or teach them English and play a little bit, and then give them toys as a reward. It also helped to keep them entertained while their parents had to wait in line for the doctor’s appt or attend Salud Integral.
3 Canadians in our group got a large donation of toys from a toy store in Canada so I had a lot of toys to give away (3 bags full). Because they were active children, I also took them outside to play baseball, Frisbee, or play with the legos and cars. Will got to be a translator for one of our doctors. So he didn’t get to take as many photos this round since he was very occupied helping patients. We had another photographer in the group, so he hopes to get some photos from her so that he can put them on the MMI website.
Overall it was a fun group. The Municipality of Moquegua provided food and housing for us, so we stayed in a nice hotel. Unfortunately, both our lunches and dinners came from restaurants, so it was a lot of food and it wasn´t too good.
We were all invited to their town hall, and the Mayor made us citizens of Moquegua and gave us little fancy pins. So that was nice. We were unable to help everybody who came to the clinic, they were just too many people, but overall we helped nearly 1,300 people.
I got sick again, but I’m hoping it’ll pass quickly. I am a little worried that this will happen every time I go on a mission, but let’s hope my body gets stronger. And other than that, my Spanish is getting better, especially my comprehension, but my conversation is better as well, I am able to communicate with people, and they usually understand me.
Anyways, I’m going to go rest.
AND PICTURES!!!!
Moquegua was a small town, very calm compared to Arequipa’s crazy traffic. My job changed, as did Will’s. Instead of working in the pharmacy, I helped Cathy in Salud Integral playing with the children. My job was to take them into my room, have them color, do math or teach them English and play a little bit, and then give them toys as a reward. It also helped to keep them entertained while their parents had to wait in line for the doctor’s appt or attend Salud Integral.
3 Canadians in our group got a large donation of toys from a toy store in Canada so I had a lot of toys to give away (3 bags full). Because they were active children, I also took them outside to play baseball, Frisbee, or play with the legos and cars. Will got to be a translator for one of our doctors. So he didn’t get to take as many photos this round since he was very occupied helping patients. We had another photographer in the group, so he hopes to get some photos from her so that he can put them on the MMI website.
Overall it was a fun group. The Municipality of Moquegua provided food and housing for us, so we stayed in a nice hotel. Unfortunately, both our lunches and dinners came from restaurants, so it was a lot of food and it wasn´t too good.
We were all invited to their town hall, and the Mayor made us citizens of Moquegua and gave us little fancy pins. So that was nice. We were unable to help everybody who came to the clinic, they were just too many people, but overall we helped nearly 1,300 people.
I got sick again, but I’m hoping it’ll pass quickly. I am a little worried that this will happen every time I go on a mission, but let’s hope my body gets stronger. And other than that, my Spanish is getting better, especially my comprehension, but my conversation is better as well, I am able to communicate with people, and they usually understand me.
Anyways, I’m going to go rest.
AND PICTURES!!!!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Moquegua
We´ve been here all week, and we leave to head back to Arequipa tomorrow (Friday). I didn´t get near as many pictures this week since I was a dedicated translator for one of the general medicine doctors. So I´ll probably put them all into one album. I´ll have another album for scenery and whatnot pictures probably. We´ll see how everything turns out when we get back!
Anyway, time for our goodbye dinner--we´ll have a goodbye lunch in Arequipa with a few less people on Saturday hopefully. I need to sleep tho, I´ve been up late every night playing cards. Hopefully Helen doesn´t yell and bounce and scream this weekend :-P!
Anyway, time for our goodbye dinner--we´ll have a goodbye lunch in Arequipa with a few less people on Saturday hopefully. I need to sleep tho, I´ve been up late every night playing cards. Hopefully Helen doesn´t yell and bounce and scream this weekend :-P!
Monday, February 23, 2009
Moquegua
We made it here safely last night, celebrated Manuel´s birthday, and then rested and lounged around. We´re lucky to be coming in fresh--everyone else here has been working for a week already. Today is the first day of clinic, I´ll let you all know how it goes!
Saturday, February 21, 2009
Vamos a Moquegua
Will and I are going to have a little less access to internet starting tomorrow since we are going to start our next mission in Moquegua. It´s just a short 1 week mission, and I´ll probably do something similar to what I did last time (work in the Pharmacy) so as not to be too stressful. Will might actually try doing some translating, which will be good for him. But we´re a little excited because the weather is not so fun here - it´s similar to Seattle´s spring really - 60s or so and rainy, rainy and when it´s not rainy it´s cloudy. It´s beautiful in the mornings though when it´s not raining. Moquegua is the coast area where it´s more like 75-80 degrees, so it´ll be nice change.
Other than that, nothing new has been happening. I´ve been helping out a little in the MMI Office, but since my computer doesn´t work, I´ve really just been helping Will select photos or help Helen my host sister with e-mails in English.
My host cousin who lives with me, just got in to med school, which is amazing since she is 15. She started school early when she was little, and therefore she graduated early (normally students graduate at 17 here). She was the top of her class and she studied like crazy and did really well. After 6 years she will be a doctor, it´s kind of weird, different than how the U.S. does it, with the 4 years of UnderGrad and then Med School. She´ll be a young doctor, a baby doctor. Anyways, she just got in today, and everybody was excited for her. Tomorrow is Carnival, and they celebrate it by throwing water and paint on people, Will and I are not very excited about that. We´re hoping we get out of here and to Moquegua before people begin. However, we did try to dump water on my host cousin to celebrate her entrance into Med School, for fun :) Because it´s funny when it happens to other people...but when we´re carrying all our things we don´t really want them to get soaked (like our cameras!)
Anyways, I´m going to go pack some more things and go to bed.
Other than that, nothing new has been happening. I´ve been helping out a little in the MMI Office, but since my computer doesn´t work, I´ve really just been helping Will select photos or help Helen my host sister with e-mails in English.
My host cousin who lives with me, just got in to med school, which is amazing since she is 15. She started school early when she was little, and therefore she graduated early (normally students graduate at 17 here). She was the top of her class and she studied like crazy and did really well. After 6 years she will be a doctor, it´s kind of weird, different than how the U.S. does it, with the 4 years of UnderGrad and then Med School. She´ll be a young doctor, a baby doctor. Anyways, she just got in today, and everybody was excited for her. Tomorrow is Carnival, and they celebrate it by throwing water and paint on people, Will and I are not very excited about that. We´re hoping we get out of here and to Moquegua before people begin. However, we did try to dump water on my host cousin to celebrate her entrance into Med School, for fun :) Because it´s funny when it happens to other people...but when we´re carrying all our things we don´t really want them to get soaked (like our cameras!)
Anyways, I´m going to go pack some more things and go to bed.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Tying Up Loose Ends
Well, due to limited internet access, we've had to pre-date a few of our blog entries, the most exciting of which is assuredly the "Scorpions!!!" one from last week (also the entry right before this is pre-dated a few days ago). Go back and read that, and check if there are any other ones you've missed too :). Hope you're enjoying our adventures so far.
So about the bus mishap, since I don't think (upon reflection) that I wrote about it. Long story short, I got on one of the two right busses, but going in the wrong direction. I spent over two hours trying to get to where I meant to go in the first place, but I saw one of the most beautiful parts of Arequipa (Sachaca) on accident. So, 2.5 hours in busses, 10 minutes in taxi, to get to Catherine's host family's house which is a short 20-minute bus ride from my house. It was fun though.
Tonight, after a week of convincing Tania, we finally get cake! A nummy carrot cake, since Helen (Catherine's host sister) doesn't like chocolate cake. We're heading to Ilo tomorrow (Saturday) or Sunday since we have a Youth Group to go to tonight--and besides, we were supposed to take a full week off anyway.
Catherine got her ear wax cleaned out without any mishaps--but it's something she's going to need to have done again eventually due to her skin type. Also, we got her EEG results to her US doctor who has had a chance to look at them, and said they're "normal"-ish for her. So... we're really confused about what's going on there.
Anyway, Ilo and Moquegua this week. Hopefully I have some relaxing job so I can take a lot of pictures again (since I'm now official photographer for MMI's work in Peru--unpaid of course :-P). I've also been updating pictures from Tania's various missions to the MMI website (http://txo.mmint.org/Projects_Photos_Gallery/Albums.aspx), and I'm working on a YouTube account for their promotional video materials.
Talk to you all soon!!!
So about the bus mishap, since I don't think (upon reflection) that I wrote about it. Long story short, I got on one of the two right busses, but going in the wrong direction. I spent over two hours trying to get to where I meant to go in the first place, but I saw one of the most beautiful parts of Arequipa (Sachaca) on accident. So, 2.5 hours in busses, 10 minutes in taxi, to get to Catherine's host family's house which is a short 20-minute bus ride from my house. It was fun though.
Tonight, after a week of convincing Tania, we finally get cake! A nummy carrot cake, since Helen (Catherine's host sister) doesn't like chocolate cake. We're heading to Ilo tomorrow (Saturday) or Sunday since we have a Youth Group to go to tonight--and besides, we were supposed to take a full week off anyway.
Catherine got her ear wax cleaned out without any mishaps--but it's something she's going to need to have done again eventually due to her skin type. Also, we got her EEG results to her US doctor who has had a chance to look at them, and said they're "normal"-ish for her. So... we're really confused about what's going on there.
Anyway, Ilo and Moquegua this week. Hopefully I have some relaxing job so I can take a lot of pictures again (since I'm now official photographer for MMI's work in Peru--unpaid of course :-P). I've also been updating pictures from Tania's various missions to the MMI website (http://txo.mmint.org/Projects_Photos_Gallery/Albums.aspx), and I'm working on a YouTube account for their promotional video materials.
Talk to you all soon!!!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Valentines Day in the Hospital
Will and I were supposed to go to Ilo last Sunday but as many of you know I went to the hospital last Friday (the 13th) because I had two seizures. I don't remember much about the experience, just bits and pieces. So I've taken the week to rest since I still have a cold. My EEG was abnormal, so I have to get another in a month. And I've been having ear issues for about 2 weeks, so I finally went to an ear doctor who is going to clean my ear out so I can hear again. I've been full of problems since I got to Arequipa, but hopefully things get better now. Will and I have been doing work at MMI's office in Arequipa this week since we couldn't go to Ilo, and we're going to go Friday or Saturday.
I'm doing much better now and Will has been staying with me to make sure I've been taking my medicine on time and that I'm ok, which makes me feel better for right now.
-Catherine
I'm doing much better now and Will has been staying with me to make sure I've been taking my medicine on time and that I'm ok, which makes me feel better for right now.
-Catherine
Monday, February 16, 2009
Ceviche
I have tried this Peruvian delicacy, and I have decided it is, indeed, good. We went to Don Piero yesterday, a trout restaurant just outside of the main part of the city, in Sachaca (the location of my infamous bus mishap--which I think I wrote about). This trout place was soooooo good, that anyone that visits me will be taken there. I promise. Mmmmm.
Today things were a lot more relaxing after our long weekend. We went to MMI´s office, had a devotional, talked about plans for the upcoming week, and then did work. I´m currently working on uploading pictures to the MMI website for the Ica mission, as well as reviewing the MMI Peru songbook to make some minor grammatical and content changes in both the English and Spanish songs. Tomorrow is more of the same, and a few other things as well as they come up.
The plan now is to go to Ilo Wednesday to help out with the mission there, then Moquegua the week after. After that, we have a week break, then two missions back to back in the central part of Peru (the second in Lima where we´ll be able to see our Peruvian friends from the Ica mission).
Anyway, now that life is a bit more settled, I hope to be able to walk around more and take more pictures. That is, after my work gets done each day. We´ll see how it turns out, as we´re supposed to be keeping stress (physical and mental) to a minimum as per the doctor´s orders over the next week or two. So, hopefully pictures of Arequipa incoming. Now that I feel a bit more comfortable around here as well, and know how to comport myself.
So that´s the goal: rest and pictures.
Til next time!
-Will
Today things were a lot more relaxing after our long weekend. We went to MMI´s office, had a devotional, talked about plans for the upcoming week, and then did work. I´m currently working on uploading pictures to the MMI website for the Ica mission, as well as reviewing the MMI Peru songbook to make some minor grammatical and content changes in both the English and Spanish songs. Tomorrow is more of the same, and a few other things as well as they come up.
The plan now is to go to Ilo Wednesday to help out with the mission there, then Moquegua the week after. After that, we have a week break, then two missions back to back in the central part of Peru (the second in Lima where we´ll be able to see our Peruvian friends from the Ica mission).
Anyway, now that life is a bit more settled, I hope to be able to walk around more and take more pictures. That is, after my work gets done each day. We´ll see how it turns out, as we´re supposed to be keeping stress (physical and mental) to a minimum as per the doctor´s orders over the next week or two. So, hopefully pictures of Arequipa incoming. Now that I feel a bit more comfortable around here as well, and know how to comport myself.
So that´s the goal: rest and pictures.
Til next time!
-Will
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Photos
Alright, I figured out what was wrong with the albums I posted last... in my supreme brightness, or by the fault of Picasa (not sure which), they were posted as unlisted albums. Soooo, those trying to look at Clinic Day 5, Clinic Day 4, and the Islas Ballestas photos... you couldn't seem them. Well, now you can! You might have to go back a page to see them, but they're there and worth seeing.
Now, I owe you all three clinic days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), and I would have pictures from last Thursday as well, but, unfortunately, my poor Catherine was very sick with Montezuma's revenge, or whatever the Peruvian version would be. So I was taking care of her in the hotel instead. So! Three days of clinic pictures for your viewing pleasure!
Please let me know if you can't see three separate albums below, and I'll try to figure out what's going on.
Clinica Day 6 - Ica
Clinica Day 7 - Ica
Clinica Day 8 - Ica
Now, I owe you all three clinic days (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), and I would have pictures from last Thursday as well, but, unfortunately, my poor Catherine was very sick with Montezuma's revenge, or whatever the Peruvian version would be. So I was taking care of her in the hotel instead. So! Three days of clinic pictures for your viewing pleasure!
Please let me know if you can't see three separate albums below, and I'll try to figure out what's going on.
Clinica Day 6 - Ica
Clinica Day 7 - Ica
Clinica Day 8 - Ica
Friday, February 13, 2009
Phew
It seems that a crisis had been averted. While I understood that I was going to have to drive here in Peru, I expected to be able to have a few weeks (days even) of practice before I was required to do anything extreme... like drive 4 hours between cities--or even around major cities. I guess there was a little miscommunication going on, and I found out yesterday (Thursday) that I was being asked to drive the MMI van between Arequipa and Ilo. I guess Tania didn´t know either, but that the director of that project assumed that I was going to be able to.
This is no normal van, mind you, it is a 15-seater, the size of a small bus. And so the prospect of driving a behemoth such as that, down the small and overcrowded roads here in Peru had me a little nervous, since the last car that was even close to that size that I have driven was my mom´s old truck. And even that I didn´t take out for more than half an hour at a time on back country roads.
Fun fun. Anyway, through a bit of negotiation, Tania and I were able to convince the project director that we were better off if someone else drove this trip. Fine, good, yay. But it still means I get to look forward to driving in the near future.
But plans are final, we leave for Ilo on Sunday, where we´ll be for a week, then off to Monquegua for another week. Supposedly the best avocados in this part of Peru are from Monquegua... mmmmm. I´m supposed to bring back a bag full for Catherine´s host mom. Besides that, it looks likely that I´m going to get to translate this time around, which means less photos, but less running. I´ll do my best to get lots of pictures however.
Tonight. Dinner, then bible study small group, then maybe go out with Catherine´s host sister. The first two things for sure!
This is no normal van, mind you, it is a 15-seater, the size of a small bus. And so the prospect of driving a behemoth such as that, down the small and overcrowded roads here in Peru had me a little nervous, since the last car that was even close to that size that I have driven was my mom´s old truck. And even that I didn´t take out for more than half an hour at a time on back country roads.
Fun fun. Anyway, through a bit of negotiation, Tania and I were able to convince the project director that we were better off if someone else drove this trip. Fine, good, yay. But it still means I get to look forward to driving in the near future.
But plans are final, we leave for Ilo on Sunday, where we´ll be for a week, then off to Monquegua for another week. Supposedly the best avocados in this part of Peru are from Monquegua... mmmmm. I´m supposed to bring back a bag full for Catherine´s host mom. Besides that, it looks likely that I´m going to get to translate this time around, which means less photos, but less running. I´ll do my best to get lots of pictures however.
Tonight. Dinner, then bible study small group, then maybe go out with Catherine´s host sister. The first two things for sure!
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Tongue Twisters (Trabalenguas)
Pedro Pablo Pérez Pinto, pobre pintor portugués, pinta paisajes por poco precio, para poder pasear por París.
Guerra tenía una parra, Parra tenía una perra, ayer la perra de Parra, rompió la parra de Guerra. Y Guerra pegó con su porra a la perra de Parra. Un vecino del barrio, preguntó a Guerra ¿por qué pegas con tu porra a la perra de Parra? Porque la perra de Parra rompió la parra de Guerra.
Guerra tenía una parra, Parra tenía una perra, ayer la perra de Parra, rompió la parra de Guerra. Y Guerra pegó con su porra a la perra de Parra. Un vecino del barrio, preguntó a Guerra ¿por qué pegas con tu porra a la perra de Parra? Porque la perra de Parra rompió la parra de Guerra.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Scorpions!!!
I'm doing much better now. I'm on antibiotics and they are killing off the creatures inside. I was sick since Thursday and everyone was very concerned they were going to send me to the Clinic for an analysis but the antibiotics ended up working. I still have a cold, but I have a few more days to recover. I've lost 10 pounds from all this--being sick, more exercise, and a new diet, which is the plus side of all this.
Will and I are enjoying our time here in Arequipa. Teresa, my host mom, and Tania's aunt is spoiling us like crazy. She babied and took cared of me like crazy while I was sick and she feeds us tons of food. She feeds me so much I feel like I might explode--but I feel like I should eat all of my food, I don't want to hurt her feelings. This is why I don't get how I lost weight.
Will and I bought cellphones on the 7th. My US cellphone did not work here, it was locked, so we had to buy me a phone, but now Will and I can keep in touch while we are apart.
And lastly, last night I found a "scorpion" in my room. We don't know what type of bug it was but it had pincers and claws and a tail and it looked like a scorpion--they don't have scorpions in Arequipa. Teresa had never seen a bug like the one in my room and later she asked her husband about it and he thinks maybe I brought it with my suitcase from Ica--the desert.
The End.
-Catherine,
Will and I are enjoying our time here in Arequipa. Teresa, my host mom, and Tania's aunt is spoiling us like crazy. She babied and took cared of me like crazy while I was sick and she feeds us tons of food. She feeds me so much I feel like I might explode--but I feel like I should eat all of my food, I don't want to hurt her feelings. This is why I don't get how I lost weight.
Will and I bought cellphones on the 7th. My US cellphone did not work here, it was locked, so we had to buy me a phone, but now Will and I can keep in touch while we are apart.
And lastly, last night I found a "scorpion" in my room. We don't know what type of bug it was but it had pincers and claws and a tail and it looked like a scorpion--they don't have scorpions in Arequipa. Teresa had never seen a bug like the one in my room and later she asked her husband about it and he thinks maybe I brought it with my suitcase from Ica--the desert.
The End.
-Catherine,
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Arequipa
We’ve been in Arequipa for 3 full days now. I spent all of Friday sleeping. I thought I was better today and was very excited, but I had a relapse. So unfortunately I’m still sick, maybe slowly getting better, but not quick enough.
Will and I took this week off to recuperate, which was needed since I’m still not better and he is a little sick as well. We’re a little bored since we’ve already developed a routine of him coming over for lunch and hanging out with me until dinner and then going home. Yesterday I couldn’t really go out for very long, but today we were out all day, exploring Arequipa, our new home.
We’re leaving for Ilo, Peru around Friday, I think. We’re going to have a different director for this mission than we had for the last. Hopefully I feel better soon because I don’t really want to show up sick – granted at least there will be a lot of doctors there. I’ll write soon. I now have a notebook so I can write whenever I want!
Also, we have cell phones now, which is good so now we contact each other :)
Catherine
PS I’m afraid my computer might be broken for good – but who knows, it sometimes surprises me. But I have a notebook, my host mom has a good computer, and there are internet cafes which are super cheap. And Will has a computer as well. So I’ll make it.
Will and I took this week off to recuperate, which was needed since I’m still not better and he is a little sick as well. We’re a little bored since we’ve already developed a routine of him coming over for lunch and hanging out with me until dinner and then going home. Yesterday I couldn’t really go out for very long, but today we were out all day, exploring Arequipa, our new home.
We’re leaving for Ilo, Peru around Friday, I think. We’re going to have a different director for this mission than we had for the last. Hopefully I feel better soon because I don’t really want to show up sick – granted at least there will be a lot of doctors there. I’ll write soon. I now have a notebook so I can write whenever I want!
Also, we have cell phones now, which is good so now we contact each other :)
Catherine
PS I’m afraid my computer might be broken for good – but who knows, it sometimes surprises me. But I have a notebook, my host mom has a good computer, and there are internet cafes which are super cheap. And Will has a computer as well. So I’ll make it.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
Of Arequipa and Internet Cafes
We arrived in Arequipa yesterday, and have now seen the houses where we´re going to spend the next 6 months of our lives. We did pretty well for ourselves, I must say! Catherine especially did very well, she has wifi and a billion other things! Plus her host family is amazing! They´re so nice, and since they´re used to hosting people, they know how to make you feel comfortable, welcome, and well fed :).
I´m living in the NGO´s warehouse, which isn´t near as bad as it sounds. First off, it is a house, a real house, just 3/4ths of it is converted into storage of medicine and medical supplies and equipment. But it´s a decent sized house, and my room is very nice, with two window-covered walls. The bathroom is really nice as well, I just need to figure out how to get hot water out of the shower... especially for the upcoming winter months. The kitchen is still in disarray, but MMI bought me a fridge and a microwave, but I still have to purchase a small 2-burner stovetop for cooking. That means no baking at my house, but Catherine´s host family already told me I could cook over there once in a while if I got the urge.
Right now I´m sitting in the first internet cafe I could find that was open--about 6 blocks from my house. Every time I use an internet cafe here, I promise myself that next timé I´m going to bring my laptop. The computers available are slow, untrustworthy, and often have keyboards that stick (and the browser window will freeze up for 10-20 seconds at a time at random intervals). I never do however.
Anyway, the plan for today is:
Go shopping for basic things like water...
Figure out where the light switch for my kitchen is.
Plug in the fridge and microwave
Head to Catherine´s house at 11:45 for lunch and shopping
Get a local cell chip for my cell phone
Rest some more and try to feel better.
It´s not supposed to be a very stressful day. We´re still trying to aclimatize to the elavation (up to 7800 feet from sea level). It´s sad when I get tired carrying a suitcase up 3 flights of stairs. So I´m walked around my house, probably a few miles yesterday, and probably will do something smiliar today. Anyway time to go shopping! I´ll have pictures up from the last few days of clinic soon. Oh! And church tomorrow :)
Big hugs for everyone
-Will
I´m living in the NGO´s warehouse, which isn´t near as bad as it sounds. First off, it is a house, a real house, just 3/4ths of it is converted into storage of medicine and medical supplies and equipment. But it´s a decent sized house, and my room is very nice, with two window-covered walls. The bathroom is really nice as well, I just need to figure out how to get hot water out of the shower... especially for the upcoming winter months. The kitchen is still in disarray, but MMI bought me a fridge and a microwave, but I still have to purchase a small 2-burner stovetop for cooking. That means no baking at my house, but Catherine´s host family already told me I could cook over there once in a while if I got the urge.
Right now I´m sitting in the first internet cafe I could find that was open--about 6 blocks from my house. Every time I use an internet cafe here, I promise myself that next timé I´m going to bring my laptop. The computers available are slow, untrustworthy, and often have keyboards that stick (and the browser window will freeze up for 10-20 seconds at a time at random intervals). I never do however.
Anyway, the plan for today is:
Go shopping for basic things like water...
Figure out where the light switch for my kitchen is.
Plug in the fridge and microwave
Head to Catherine´s house at 11:45 for lunch and shopping
Get a local cell chip for my cell phone
Rest some more and try to feel better.
It´s not supposed to be a very stressful day. We´re still trying to aclimatize to the elavation (up to 7800 feet from sea level). It´s sad when I get tired carrying a suitcase up 3 flights of stairs. So I´m walked around my house, probably a few miles yesterday, and probably will do something smiliar today. Anyway time to go shopping! I´ll have pictures up from the last few days of clinic soon. Oh! And church tomorrow :)
Big hugs for everyone
-Will
Friday, February 6, 2009
Sickness :(
Forward: I wrote a really long and heartfelt post about being sick and my new host family, but it´s stuck in my computer. So you get a shorter version.
Will and I have just arrived in Arequipa today, after a 10+ hour bus ride with me being sick. I got sick yesterday, Thursday, and so I missed my last day of work. Will stayed home with me to take care of me and force water down my throat since I felt to dizzy to sit up and drink at some points. Luckily the bus ride was a night bus, a doctor I know gave me a sleeping pill, and I also had anti-diarrhea pills which helped for the long ride here.
My new home is lovely. My family is great too and they have been spoiling me and overfeeding me and taking great care of both me and Will. I think I´ll be happy here. Hopefully I get better soon because it sucks being sick when you first get someplace.
That´s is for now.
-Catherine
Will and I have just arrived in Arequipa today, after a 10+ hour bus ride with me being sick. I got sick yesterday, Thursday, and so I missed my last day of work. Will stayed home with me to take care of me and force water down my throat since I felt to dizzy to sit up and drink at some points. Luckily the bus ride was a night bus, a doctor I know gave me a sleeping pill, and I also had anti-diarrhea pills which helped for the long ride here.
My new home is lovely. My family is great too and they have been spoiling me and overfeeding me and taking great care of both me and Will. I think I´ll be happy here. Hopefully I get better soon because it sucks being sick when you first get someplace.
That´s is for now.
-Catherine
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Second Week
It´s our second week in Peru and things are definitely different than last week. I was just getting used to things, and then people left and new doctors came and are prescribing tons of new medicines that I´ve never heard of, and we don´t have as much extra help - it´s rough. Yesterday was really hard because it was just me and the new nurse, and there were so many people that Tania had to come and help us in the pharmacy. Today was the opposite. We have a 3rd person now, which is nice. Today was rough for the doctors since there was only 2 rather than 3. Overall, I think this week has started off a little shakey, but I´m sure it´ll end well (once we all get into the grove of things again).
Sunday Will and I went to church in the evening. It was interesting. They had us come onto stage and say our names and sing...it was a little weird. Tania was joking before we left saying that since I was the only gringa that they would probably want me to do a solo :P They didn´t, but I did get a lot of besitos (cheek kisses). It was a little crazy with all the attention.
We leave for Arequipa on Thursday evening on an evening bus. We get a week or so to rest which will be nice. It´ll be nice to have a room to myself again for a little while, but mostly it´ll be nice to not have such a large suitcase! It´s obnoxious! Anyways, that´s it for today.
Catherine
Sunday Will and I went to church in the evening. It was interesting. They had us come onto stage and say our names and sing...it was a little weird. Tania was joking before we left saying that since I was the only gringa that they would probably want me to do a solo :P They didn´t, but I did get a lot of besitos (cheek kisses). It was a little crazy with all the attention.
We leave for Arequipa on Thursday evening on an evening bus. We get a week or so to rest which will be nice. It´ll be nice to have a room to myself again for a little while, but mostly it´ll be nice to not have such a large suitcase! It´s obnoxious! Anyways, that´s it for today.
Catherine
Earthquakes and Surgeries
I know this is quite suspenseful and all, but yesterday we had a small earthquake (to figure out the significance of this, look up the earthquake in Ica, Peru in 2007)and Catherine learned she had to have a minor surgery done here--don´t worry, it´s nothing big.
Anyway, just a day and a half more of work this week before we head to Arequipa (Willy is buying our bus tickets--with our money of course--right now) to set up a more premanent residence. It´s been a good mission--very trying with the small volunteer base, but a lot of fun. My Spanish went from ok to great to bad over the course of the first 7 days here. But that always happens to me.
I still haven´t downloaded the pictures from the last two days of clinic due to being extremely busy--mostly leisure after the mission day, some due to work. Hopefully those turned out well, and that I´ll have them uploaded soon (and probably apended to this post).
With this, however, I will leave you. I have to get some sleep tonight. As much fun as it is to have 5 rambunxious Peruvian roommates, it bodes badly for sleep quantity and quality. I guess there are less social stipulations about making/receiving phonecalls and text messages at night. Maybe it´s just a youth thing.
Goodnight all!
P.S. No english spell check plus a tired will means some likely spelling mistakes. I´ll fix it when I can connect to the internet with my computer again (like I did on Sunday)
Anyway, just a day and a half more of work this week before we head to Arequipa (Willy is buying our bus tickets--with our money of course--right now) to set up a more premanent residence. It´s been a good mission--very trying with the small volunteer base, but a lot of fun. My Spanish went from ok to great to bad over the course of the first 7 days here. But that always happens to me.
I still haven´t downloaded the pictures from the last two days of clinic due to being extremely busy--mostly leisure after the mission day, some due to work. Hopefully those turned out well, and that I´ll have them uploaded soon (and probably apended to this post).
With this, however, I will leave you. I have to get some sleep tonight. As much fun as it is to have 5 rambunxious Peruvian roommates, it bodes badly for sleep quantity and quality. I guess there are less social stipulations about making/receiving phonecalls and text messages at night. Maybe it´s just a youth thing.
Goodnight all!
P.S. No english spell check plus a tired will means some likely spelling mistakes. I´ll fix it when I can connect to the internet with my computer again (like I did on Sunday)
Sunday, February 1, 2009
People Come and Go
Ok, I probably didn’t mention this before, but despite the heat, the idea of a cold shower just doesn’t appeal to me. Neither in theory nor in practice. I just got out of said shower, and it was painful. But it’s a shower… being clean is good.
So. It was a somewhat sad weekend, since we lost a good portion of our already-small team. Several people had to return home or go along their way, and were unable to stay the entire two weeks. A few replacements are coming in, but not as many as we lost—and they have to be shown around the clinic. It’ll work out fine. At least we’re still able to offer all three services to people—our optometrist left, but we’re getting another one!
In other news, I took a picture that finally replaced the background image of my computer this weekend. Yesterday we went to Paracas, which is a little north of Ica for a tour of the Islas Ballestas (Photo album below). There we saw all sorts of birds, penguins included, as well as sea lions and dolphins.
Catherine, Wilfredo, and I went. It was about five hours in total, and a lot of fun. We didn’t really get burnt at all, which was great considering Friday consisted of an open field and a LOT of sun for the clinic day (Photo album below). We came back from the tour, rested for a few hours, then went and played in the swimming pool for about 2 hours. We played a no-rules no-holds-barred version of water polo/rugby. No one got hurt, but a lot of people swallowed a little water and got a little banged up. Catherine was brave enough to play too! We also recruited someone else who was using the pool, so we had a game of three versus three. Lots of fun. Anyway, today we’re going to rest and then go to service tonight.
Las Islas Ballestas
Clinic Day 5 - Ica
So. It was a somewhat sad weekend, since we lost a good portion of our already-small team. Several people had to return home or go along their way, and were unable to stay the entire two weeks. A few replacements are coming in, but not as many as we lost—and they have to be shown around the clinic. It’ll work out fine. At least we’re still able to offer all three services to people—our optometrist left, but we’re getting another one!
In other news, I took a picture that finally replaced the background image of my computer this weekend. Yesterday we went to Paracas, which is a little north of Ica for a tour of the Islas Ballestas (Photo album below). There we saw all sorts of birds, penguins included, as well as sea lions and dolphins.
Catherine, Wilfredo, and I went. It was about five hours in total, and a lot of fun. We didn’t really get burnt at all, which was great considering Friday consisted of an open field and a LOT of sun for the clinic day (Photo album below). We came back from the tour, rested for a few hours, then went and played in the swimming pool for about 2 hours. We played a no-rules no-holds-barred version of water polo/rugby. No one got hurt, but a lot of people swallowed a little water and got a little banged up. Catherine was brave enough to play too! We also recruited someone else who was using the pool, so we had a game of three versus three. Lots of fun. Anyway, today we’re going to rest and then go to service tonight.
Las Islas Ballestas
Clinic Day 5 - Ica
The first week
It’s been a while since I’ve updated. My computer has been acting a little weird, especially the past couple of days; I think it doesn’t like the heat so much – neither do I. But at least it is still working, it’s just a little flakey.
We’ve completed 1 week of clinics, and visited 3 different pueblitos last week. My job for now is to work in the Pharmacy getting familiar with the medications. I don’t really get to work a lot with the patients, but it’s still fun and we work hard in the pharmacy. I’m not a nurse or a doctor so it’s a little harder for me, because I don’t know the different names for medication – the brand name versus its medical name, but I'm getting familiar with things.
Our director, Tania, says that MMI is invited to each village we go to, and the village has to provide some type of location for us to set up our supplies. We have dentists, medical doctors, an eye doctor and a pharmacy so we take up quite a bit of space. We had a whole school that was donated from a Canadian NGO on Wednesday and Thursday and it was nice, but on Friday we had a bamboo room which was only enough space for the dentists and eye doctor, everybody else was placed outdoors someplace, scattered throughout the village. The pharmacy was placed under a huge tree, it was kind of nice though with the breeze and all.
These villages were basically destroyed by the earthquake in 2007 since they weren’t well constructed in the first place – so a lot of the homes have tarp covered roofs and a lot of rubble. And they don’t have a very good access to health care, especially dentists, so the whole village basically comes, mostly women and children, but there are some men as well, to get medical care. They also receive health education, which is very good as well.
Week 1 is done, and overall, I’m having a good time and learning a lot. I’m meeting a lot of great people and they are doing really good things for these small villages. I’ll write again soon.
Love,
Catherine
We’ve completed 1 week of clinics, and visited 3 different pueblitos last week. My job for now is to work in the Pharmacy getting familiar with the medications. I don’t really get to work a lot with the patients, but it’s still fun and we work hard in the pharmacy. I’m not a nurse or a doctor so it’s a little harder for me, because I don’t know the different names for medication – the brand name versus its medical name, but I'm getting familiar with things.
Our director, Tania, says that MMI is invited to each village we go to, and the village has to provide some type of location for us to set up our supplies. We have dentists, medical doctors, an eye doctor and a pharmacy so we take up quite a bit of space. We had a whole school that was donated from a Canadian NGO on Wednesday and Thursday and it was nice, but on Friday we had a bamboo room which was only enough space for the dentists and eye doctor, everybody else was placed outdoors someplace, scattered throughout the village. The pharmacy was placed under a huge tree, it was kind of nice though with the breeze and all.
These villages were basically destroyed by the earthquake in 2007 since they weren’t well constructed in the first place – so a lot of the homes have tarp covered roofs and a lot of rubble. And they don’t have a very good access to health care, especially dentists, so the whole village basically comes, mostly women and children, but there are some men as well, to get medical care. They also receive health education, which is very good as well.
Week 1 is done, and overall, I’m having a good time and learning a lot. I’m meeting a lot of great people and they are doing really good things for these small villages. I’ll write again soon.
Love,
Catherine
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
El Olivo Day 1: Clinics
I’m going to use as an example a day at El Olivo (our first day there) as a way to explain a little more in depth about clinics, and how they are run.
6:00-7:00 AM: Wake up, shower, get dressed, get ready for the day (and for some: scratch bug bites accumulated during the night)
7:00-7:20 AM: Group breakfast—which usually includes bread, some kind of meat, fruit, juices, and cereal with yoghurt.
7:20-7:45 AM: Morning devotion—Sing a song or two and then a morning devotional by one of the group. Topics range from personal testimony to the application of biblical passages to one’s daily life.
7:45-8:00 AM: Fill water bottles, get everything together and loaded into the bus (van) to go to the clinic site.
8:00-8:30 AM: The bus leaves the hotel for the clinic site—we usually leave at least 10 minutes after we’re supposed to, due to the bus being late, people being slow, things needing to be done, etc.
8:30-9:00 AM: Arrive at the clinic site and start setting up. Dependant on where the clinic site is, the ride takes 30 minutes to an hour.
8:30-9:30 AM: Set up the clinic site, figure out where the various doctors are going to be. In the case of El Olivo, we were in a primary school with six classrooms at our disposal. The dentists were forced to move twice times because the outlets in various rooms either didn’t work or burned out during use.
9:00-9:30 AM: Introduction and singing.
9:30 AM: Clinic starts.
They were very prepared for us the first day we arrived at El Olivo, there were already 120 patients queued up before we even got in the front door. They were given small slips of paper with the medical assistance they sought and a number. This mission we were very lucky to be able to offer three types of medicine: optical, dental, and general medical (which includes basic pediatrics, geriatrics, among other things).
The first week we had three general practitioners: Javier, Dr. John, and Luzmila; three dentists: Dr. Fredy, Yelina, and Christian; and one optometrist: Yves. Yves was the most busy by far, since most places had basic health and dental care, but no eye doctor for miles around, and the added bonus of the eyeglasses we had on hand for sale brought in extra people.
9:30 AM-1:30 PM: Clinic, Clinic, Clinic! People running everywhere in a semi-haphazard way, doctors trying to keep up with demand (there were huge surges and lulls in patients and kept doctors very busy or waiting around), runners were bringing people from place to place, pharmacy was filling prescriptions, and intake was doing its best to manage the surges. Tania often was running around like a chicken with its head cut off keeping everything in order.
1:30-2:15 PM: LUNCH! Mmmm, never is a break more appreciated in the history of the world than a delicious home-made lunch. Domi sure takes care of us, the food alone is a good enough reason to go on missions. We sit around, talk, relax, take a nap if we can, and eat our nummy food.
2:15-4:00 PM: Clinic again, but a much shorter time, much more reasonable as it were. It’s still very, very hot. It’s probably around 85 right before/after/during lunch—which is quite a shock for those of us coming from the winter months of the US.
After that we go home, have about an hour before dinner in which we shower again/swim in the pool to cool off, nap, read, write, talk. Dinner, around 6:30, is delicious always.
The pictures from each clinic day have captions, which are probably worth reading to give a little more of an idea about what happened each day. I’m sure this wall of text is enough for one post.
6:00-7:00 AM: Wake up, shower, get dressed, get ready for the day (and for some: scratch bug bites accumulated during the night)
7:00-7:20 AM: Group breakfast—which usually includes bread, some kind of meat, fruit, juices, and cereal with yoghurt.
7:20-7:45 AM: Morning devotion—Sing a song or two and then a morning devotional by one of the group. Topics range from personal testimony to the application of biblical passages to one’s daily life.
7:45-8:00 AM: Fill water bottles, get everything together and loaded into the bus (van) to go to the clinic site.
8:00-8:30 AM: The bus leaves the hotel for the clinic site—we usually leave at least 10 minutes after we’re supposed to, due to the bus being late, people being slow, things needing to be done, etc.
8:30-9:00 AM: Arrive at the clinic site and start setting up. Dependant on where the clinic site is, the ride takes 30 minutes to an hour.
8:30-9:30 AM: Set up the clinic site, figure out where the various doctors are going to be. In the case of El Olivo, we were in a primary school with six classrooms at our disposal. The dentists were forced to move twice times because the outlets in various rooms either didn’t work or burned out during use.
9:00-9:30 AM: Introduction and singing.
9:30 AM: Clinic starts.
They were very prepared for us the first day we arrived at El Olivo, there were already 120 patients queued up before we even got in the front door. They were given small slips of paper with the medical assistance they sought and a number. This mission we were very lucky to be able to offer three types of medicine: optical, dental, and general medical (which includes basic pediatrics, geriatrics, among other things).
The first week we had three general practitioners: Javier, Dr. John, and Luzmila; three dentists: Dr. Fredy, Yelina, and Christian; and one optometrist: Yves. Yves was the most busy by far, since most places had basic health and dental care, but no eye doctor for miles around, and the added bonus of the eyeglasses we had on hand for sale brought in extra people.
9:30 AM-1:30 PM: Clinic, Clinic, Clinic! People running everywhere in a semi-haphazard way, doctors trying to keep up with demand (there were huge surges and lulls in patients and kept doctors very busy or waiting around), runners were bringing people from place to place, pharmacy was filling prescriptions, and intake was doing its best to manage the surges. Tania often was running around like a chicken with its head cut off keeping everything in order.
1:30-2:15 PM: LUNCH! Mmmm, never is a break more appreciated in the history of the world than a delicious home-made lunch. Domi sure takes care of us, the food alone is a good enough reason to go on missions. We sit around, talk, relax, take a nap if we can, and eat our nummy food.
2:15-4:00 PM: Clinic again, but a much shorter time, much more reasonable as it were. It’s still very, very hot. It’s probably around 85 right before/after/during lunch—which is quite a shock for those of us coming from the winter months of the US.
After that we go home, have about an hour before dinner in which we shower again/swim in the pool to cool off, nap, read, write, talk. Dinner, around 6:30, is delicious always.
The pictures from each clinic day have captions, which are probably worth reading to give a little more of an idea about what happened each day. I’m sure this wall of text is enough for one post.
Bus Ride Between Lima and Ica
We’ve finally arrived to Ica, Peru, our first destination for the next two weeks. We checked into our hotel last night after midnight and we caught our bus around 10:30 this morning for Ica. The change in temperature has been a little rough, especially since we came wearing winter clothes. In New Jersey it was 14 degrees, in Lima it was 75 and humid. It was definitely uncomfortable last night, and even today with our “summer” clothes. We had a 5 hour bus ride which was sweaty and uncomfortable, but now we’re here resting. Our hostel is nice. I have a room to myself (for now) and Will is sharing with 7 other people from the mission. We need to buy some things for our room, mainly shampoo, soap and a towel since we haven’t been able to take a shower in awhile. We’re going downtown tonight with people from the mission, so we get to change our currency into soles, and go to an internet café, and eat! We haven’t eaten since last night around 9 pm, and it’s now around 5pm (Peru is on Eastcoast time by the way). Anyways, here are some of Will’s pictures from our bus ride to Ica.
-Catherine
Bus Ride Lima-Ica
-Catherine
Bus Ride Lima-Ica
Monday, January 26, 2009
Arrivals and Power Outages
Well, we made it to Peru, despite our 7 hour layover in Newark—which was actually very nice since we got to go get breakfast with Tom, Catherine’s dad. We got out of the airport, had a chance to stretch our legs a little, and relaxed a little more. Then we started our long flight to Lima, which we slept about half of and talked/watched movies for the other half. We were originally on opposite ends of the plane, but I managed to get us both moved into the exit row at the gate, for which, like the plane from Seattle to Newark, we had the entire row to ourselves.
We then took an almost-hour-long trip to the hotel that we’re staying at. One of Willy’s—a very active member of MMI—family, I think it was his brother in law, picked us up at the airport and drove us down here, where we now sit in darkness. The cause of the darkness is unknown however. Just after we finished changing into our pajamas the lights went out and an alarm type buzzer sounded outside our door. This was coupled with sirens down the street, and when I looked out the window, all the lights in this part of the city were out. I can see the lights still on in downtown Lima, but everything for about four blocks around, dark as dark can be. Rolling brownouts? Blown transformer? Who knows, I’ll ask tomorrow morning.
In the morning we have to be outside the front of the hotel at 10, ready to head to the bus station, where we will purchase our tickets to Ica. I was told that the countryside is very beautiful between here in Ica, so hopefully by my next post I’ll be able to throw up some photos as well!
No problems in customs, no problems in immigration, no plane delays, so besides this only slightly annoying power outage, our trip has gone really well so far. As well as one can hope for two overnight plane trips in a row at least. Now, I’m very tired, and I have to get up in a little over seven hours. I’ll update again soon!
-Will
(P.S. Catherine says hi too, but she’s already in bed trying to sleep).
We then took an almost-hour-long trip to the hotel that we’re staying at. One of Willy’s—a very active member of MMI—family, I think it was his brother in law, picked us up at the airport and drove us down here, where we now sit in darkness. The cause of the darkness is unknown however. Just after we finished changing into our pajamas the lights went out and an alarm type buzzer sounded outside our door. This was coupled with sirens down the street, and when I looked out the window, all the lights in this part of the city were out. I can see the lights still on in downtown Lima, but everything for about four blocks around, dark as dark can be. Rolling brownouts? Blown transformer? Who knows, I’ll ask tomorrow morning.
In the morning we have to be outside the front of the hotel at 10, ready to head to the bus station, where we will purchase our tickets to Ica. I was told that the countryside is very beautiful between here in Ica, so hopefully by my next post I’ll be able to throw up some photos as well!
No problems in customs, no problems in immigration, no plane delays, so besides this only slightly annoying power outage, our trip has gone really well so far. As well as one can hope for two overnight plane trips in a row at least. Now, I’m very tired, and I have to get up in a little over seven hours. I’ll update again soon!
-Will
(P.S. Catherine says hi too, but she’s already in bed trying to sleep).
Saturday, January 24, 2009
It's 3pm already!
Well, we leave in 7 hours--our final family dinner is in 3 hours. We're packed (well almost, almost, almost) and loading up various vehicles. I'm ready... sure. I guess we're both a little nervous to be starting our new lives in another country--in another world almost. Llamas, now that's something to look forward to! Bailey said I should bring her back one. Mira did too. We'll see how well they fit into suitcases--does anyone else want one while we're planning space? My cell phone gets suspended on Monday, so if you want to call me, you'll have to do it before 12 pm PST tomorrow, when my final flight leaves. I'll keep in touch! 24 hours in transit here we go...
-Will
-Will
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Packing Lists
Well it's about time to make a packing list and then start putting things into a suitcase and crossing them off said list. We received a somewhat humorous email from Tania yesterday about certain items we should bring. Here's part of what she said:
We're trying to limit what we bring with us down to the space of a roll-on carry on item and a single suitcase each. That's a little more than what we took to Vermont, and a little less than what we brought back. I suppose if necessary we could go up to three suitcases total, but that is an insane amount of items to try to cart around. Two rolling suitcases and a backpack each would be just enough to be annoying without being impossible.
We now know what is going on when we arrive as well, we are to be met by a friend of Tania's at the airport to be taken to a local hotel where we'll spend the night. The next day, that same friend (I think) is going to take us to the bus station where we'll catch a bus to Ica to meet up with Tania--who will be in contact with her friend the whole time to make sure we're surviving! So we're going to sleep one night on the plane, another night in a "simple hotel" in Lima then wherever we're staying in Ica. I'm glad we're taking the bus during the day so I can take pictures, it's very exciting!
Here's what I'm thinking about bringing:
No te preocupes y como dije, alisten ropa para el calor (playa), el frio y la lluvia tambien (habra mucha lluvia en Arequipa en febrero). Tambien sugiero que traygan mucha mantequilla de mani (si les gusta) porque eso no es facil de conseguir y es medio caro por aca, tambien otros snacks que les gusten.So, we have to bring clothes for warm weather (beach), cold weather, and rain too! And of course, we can't forget peanut butter. Well, Catherine and I had a talk about it yesterday, and we both decided that we can live without pb&j for seven months. That will give us a few more ounces of suitcase space to play with for clothes.
We're trying to limit what we bring with us down to the space of a roll-on carry on item and a single suitcase each. That's a little more than what we took to Vermont, and a little less than what we brought back. I suppose if necessary we could go up to three suitcases total, but that is an insane amount of items to try to cart around. Two rolling suitcases and a backpack each would be just enough to be annoying without being impossible.
We now know what is going on when we arrive as well, we are to be met by a friend of Tania's at the airport to be taken to a local hotel where we'll spend the night. The next day, that same friend (I think) is going to take us to the bus station where we'll catch a bus to Ica to meet up with Tania--who will be in contact with her friend the whole time to make sure we're surviving! So we're going to sleep one night on the plane, another night in a "simple hotel" in Lima then wherever we're staying in Ica. I'm glad we're taking the bus during the day so I can take pictures, it's very exciting!
Here's what I'm thinking about bringing:
- Computer + charger
- Camera + lenses + charger
- Books: School + Dictionaries
- 2 Pairs Jeans
- 1 Pair Khakis
- 1 Pair Slacks
- Swim Trunks
- 3 Collared long sleeve shirts
- As many t-shirts/short sleeve collared shirts as I can fit
- 4 Undershirts
- Underwear
- 2 pairs black socks
- 6 pairs white socks
- Boots
- Tennis Shoes
- Dress Shoes
- Semi Casual Shoes
- Knit Hat
- Sweatshirt
- Wool Coat
- Toiletries (I need to buy sunscreen)
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Our Arrival
Right now the biggest thing on my mind is the exact plans for when we arrive in Peru--we get into Lima at around 11pm on Sunday the 25th. So, what do we do when we get there? We're expected at a mission in Ica, Peru as soon as we can get there... give or take a day. Well, Ica is 200KM (as close as I can measure on Google Maps) from Lima by highway--which while it is only 2 hours straight shot by car, it is closer to five or six--or more!--by bus. We will, during the trip, be blessed with the beautiful Peruvian desert, which will, depending on the bus, afford some wonderful photo ops along the way. Something to look forward to.
The weather in Ica today will be 75°F, so I'm assuming it'll be about the same in two weeks. Medium humidity, no wind. The city is supposed to be a very nice place to stay. But we have to work the minute (day?) we get there, so who knows if we'll have a lot of time to enjoy it. I'm sure Tania, our director, will be willing to show us around.
Anyway, the quandary is this: do we stay in Lima overnight, try to take a bus, rent a car, get picked up, or what? I emailed Tania today to ask her what she thinks we should do as far as getting to Ica, so hopefully I'll have my answer by the end of the day. Last time we were in Lima (2-3 years ago now), we stayed in a nice hostel called Hotel España--a little on the pricy (relative of course to the rest of Peru) side, something like $18 a night for two. I emailed them as well today, to see how much rooms are now. At least the exchange rate remains much the same as it was last time we were there: about three Peruvian Soles to the US Dollar.
Well, we shall know soon what the plans are for when we arrive. It might be nice to stay in a hotel the first night and not have to work immediately after spending 24 hours straight in transit. Then make a leisurely trip across the countryside to Ica, arriving sometime the night of the 26th (and starting work on the 27th).
We will see what happens. Our posts might be a little few and far between right now because not a lot is going on, and once again when we start work, depending on internet access. I hear there are some places in the world that don't have WiFi around every corner!!! I think some of the missions in the mountain are like that.
Anyway, enough for now. I'll try to post again when I know exactly what the plans are for our arrival in Ica.
-Will
The weather in Ica today will be 75°F, so I'm assuming it'll be about the same in two weeks. Medium humidity, no wind. The city is supposed to be a very nice place to stay. But we have to work the minute (day?) we get there, so who knows if we'll have a lot of time to enjoy it. I'm sure Tania, our director, will be willing to show us around.
Anyway, the quandary is this: do we stay in Lima overnight, try to take a bus, rent a car, get picked up, or what? I emailed Tania today to ask her what she thinks we should do as far as getting to Ica, so hopefully I'll have my answer by the end of the day. Last time we were in Lima (2-3 years ago now), we stayed in a nice hostel called Hotel España--a little on the pricy (relative of course to the rest of Peru) side, something like $18 a night for two. I emailed them as well today, to see how much rooms are now. At least the exchange rate remains much the same as it was last time we were there: about three Peruvian Soles to the US Dollar.
Well, we shall know soon what the plans are for when we arrive. It might be nice to stay in a hotel the first night and not have to work immediately after spending 24 hours straight in transit. Then make a leisurely trip across the countryside to Ica, arriving sometime the night of the 26th (and starting work on the 27th).
We will see what happens. Our posts might be a little few and far between right now because not a lot is going on, and once again when we start work, depending on internet access. I hear there are some places in the world that don't have WiFi around every corner!!! I think some of the missions in the mountain are like that.
Anyway, enough for now. I'll try to post again when I know exactly what the plans are for our arrival in Ica.
-Will
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Getting Ready
We're in the final stages of getting ready for our trip to Peru, various people have been contacted, we both have homes for when we arrive (although we aren't going directly home as I'll explain below), and it has finally sunk in that we're going! We leave on the 24th late at night, and will arrive in Lima late on the 25th (around 11pm local time).
We are, in fact, not going directly to Arequipa as we had originally planned--Tania informed us that there is a mission going on when we arrive in a city close to Lima. So we're going directly from the Airport to Ica, where we're going to be part of a 2-week long program there before we bus our way down to Arequipa. It's a LONG bus trip--12 hours if I remember correctly from the last time we were there.
Anyway, the blog has been started, and we hope to update it with both pictures and posts as our trip progresses. Lots, and lots of pictures I hope! The picture slide show at the top are my pictures from last time we were in Arequipa--so don't get too excited.
Anyway, we'll update soon!
-Will
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