Blogs from Ayacucho, Peru, South America - page 4

Have you ever read an email that made your stomach jump? Well, on New Year´s Day we got some news from our upstairs housemate that pipes had burst, the laundry room was flooded and likely our apartment as well. He couldn´t get a hold of the landlord yet. We emailed Jeannine & Pete, who we left keys with, and asked them to go over when they could. Today we found out that pipes in our closet did indeed burst and our entire apartment was indeed flooded. They had to call the City to get the water shut off! John must be clairvoyant to have brought our computer and wii to baby-sitters. Evidently there was a service company in our apartment drying all of our worldly belongings and no doubt helping themselves to the 6 PBRs, one ... read more

THE SHORT VERSION things are going well... its a period of adjustment =) no hot water, got a little sick when i got here and fainted in the middle of the night. soon to be eating all the delicious food i see around me, but will write details later because the computer just rebooted as i was writing this entry. OK, HERE´S THE LONG VERSION (apologies to my family who got this before i added this next part and was worrying about my dramatic oversimplification of ¨fainting¨) shower yes, the shower is cold (there is no water heater at all) and much of the city uses cold water, so i´m adjusting and now feeling grateful for the last warm shower i took before leaving Seattle. cold showers, for anyone who hasn´t taken one in ... read more

Ich bin wieder da, lebend! Die letzten vier Tage habe ich Trampeltier in der freien und wilden Natur verbracht, umgeben von einem Haufen Halbstarker und einigen Professoren. Als wir am Mittwoch Abigail ueber den Weg liefen, fragte sie mich spontan, ob ich Lust haette, nicht am campamento teilzunehmen. Ich hatte! Also packte ich Donnerstag hastig einige Sachen zusammen, duschte ein letztes Mal und machte mich mit Maglite und Schweizertaschenmesser ausgeruestet auf, zum Kampf gegen Natur und vorallem gegen Insekten (fuer Jan: Also, ich habe eine Mischung aus Hornisse und Tausendfuessler gesehen, ein Tier, dass sich duemmer bewegt als jedes andere und dazu rote Libellen mit einem Pelzkragen um den "Hals", sehr interessant jedenfalls.). Da ich als deutsches Maedel keine Pflichten scheue, bin ich auch gewandert, statt gefahren. Ich war einfach froh, mal aus der Stadt rauszukommen ... read more

Hey all!! This week was interesting week as I got to work at the rehabilitation centre where Melissa has been working recently. It is for children with physical disability of developmental delay. Melissa has been working alongside a physiotherapist, and I got to work with the OT!! It was really interesting. Paulina (the OT) has made most of her resources herself and helps design activities for kids who have difficulty with motor control, and I've helped with painting and threading activities. Tuesday we went out for Lauren's 20th birthday, and my leaving dinner, was really good craic. We went to a chinese restaurant which was absolutely delicious, and nearly better than what you would get back home. We headed on to the Black Magic tavern, which had both great music and a fantastic atmosphere!! We got ... read more

Carrying on from part one, we made it back to the village and stopped to mop up sweat and down bottles of water!! Then it was back to the boats to go back upriver, we found a beach to stop and have lunch on (more peanut butter yum!!) and then we went swimming, it felt so good!!! We were extra careful not to pee in the river, just in case there were any of those fish who try to get in your bladder.... Back in the boats again and we stopped further upriver to visit a real peruvian jungle tribe, friends of Panchos. We hiked through large forests of banana trees and marshy patches, where I found my boots are indeed waterproof again. We stopped beside a patch of red berries that resembled strawberries, Pancho broke ... read more