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Hey Y´all,
Just an update on Huancayo.
Once I got here, I didn´t quite know why. There´s a town nearby, Hualhuas, that is known for it´s touristy textiles market. There isn´t a Spanish school I was coming to attend, and I didn´t have the details of any homstays worked out. Yet, I made the decision to come.
Well, after a couple of days taking walks, hitting up the market, and reading (a lot!), I finally got that nasty bacterial illness I wasn´t supposed to. We´re talking massive fever, no leaving my bed (situated in a very plesant hospedaje with a very nice señora minding everything), aches and pains, headache, feeling zonked out, etc. for pretty much 24 hours. I woke up without a fever, but still tired and zoned out. Upon reflection, I probably didn´t have typhoid (which I have been vaccinated against), but didn´t want to just rely on antibiotics to solve my problem. I decided to go to the doctor. Within a couple of minutes of leaving my hospedaje, who did I meet but a very nice and helpful naturopathic doctor, who spoke about as much English as I did Spanish.
A side note: foreign languages are much more difficult when one is not functioning normally in one´s mind. I almost didn´t go to the doctor because I didn´t know how to say everything I needed to.
Anyway, Jprge, the aforementioned naturopath, who is from Huancayo but works in Venezuela, convinced me to come to a hospital at which his dear friend is the director. I didn´t really care at that point, so I agreed. The benefit of this was that I got to see a doctor for free, randomly had a friend to help me translate the doctor´s very fast Spanish, and some company. It turns out I was doing everything right, including taking the correct medication, for my mysterious illness.
I am planning on talking to Jorge later about common herbal remedies in Peru, something I am curious about, as most people I´ve spoken to just head to drugstores for allopathic medicines.
I feel almost all better, but am taking it easy. I suspect the reason I got sick was due to not using enough purefication solution for my drinking water. I feel inadequate for not knowing the metric system as wellas I should. Oh well!
Anyway, today was a great day because I finally have a direction for being here! Tomorrow I am moving into a room of a house of a ex-pat woman from the Netherlands, who has an NGO helping local women with various projects. Bregje is helping me find a Spansih tutor and homstay with a local woman, all in the next week or so. Things are looking up, and I no longer feel like the ¨gringo slug¨that I did my first week here.
Hope everyone is fine and swell,
Sus

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