Blogs from Ayacucho, Peru, South America - page 23

Well I’m finally in Ayacucho, Peru. It was a long flight with even a longer lay-over in Lima. I arrived Lima around 1130pm on Saturday night and my flight did not leave till 6 in the moring. I met several of the other volunteers in the food court and we wereable to drink lots of coffee, chit-chat and drink more water then thought possible. Ayacucho sits above 9,000 ft and so I impressed apone my new freinds the importants on hydration at altitude, needless to say we were all runing to the bathroom frequently! The good news is no headach! So back to Lima....... after much confussion at the Aero Condor desk we received our tickets to Ayacucho and had to make a mad dash to the gate. Nothing new for me to be running in ... read more

I will be leaving for Ayacucho in THREE DAYS! I've decided to keep this online journal in the hope that it will motivate me to record my experience. I also want to keep you folks at home informed about my trip, for those of you who are interested. Afterall, without your encouragement and support, I would not be making this journey. Monday I learned my job assignment for the two weeks that I will be in Peru. I will be working at a Wawa Wasi (Baby House) which is a community run daycare for families living in extreme poverty. A woman will volunteer her home for other families to bring their children and the government provides her with a small amount of food and toys. As a volunteer, I will mainly be taking care of the ... read more

Almost forgot, yesterday I was at a boy´s home. Not too much to say about it, except that it really seemed like a clean, healthy, positive place. All the boys seemed pretty happy. I spent most of the day with a kid named Freddy, teaching him geography. Freddy´s parents come and see him, but can´t afford the take care of him and his 4 sisters. So they put him in the home. There is also an albino kid there who had 20/100 vision. He had glasses, but would never wear them. So, Dick and Lynn took him to the optometrist and got him new prescription sunglasses. They only improved his vision to 20/50...but still! He is so happy, and it only cost $35USD. Here are some pictures of the kids. ... read more

One thing I have forgot to mention about this trip is the food, and people getting sick. This was a major theme to the Africa trip, but here it´s not really a big subject. The food is boring. That´s about the only way I can explain it. Not bad, not good, just food. For example, last night we had white rice (which we have with every meal), some veggie dish, and this potato-based dumpling with some kind of meat and egg white in it. Eatable, but definitely not delicious. A lot of nights there is only vegatable dishes, and on those nights I find myself at Magic Negra ordering a Calzone with Ham, Charizo, and Cheese. Not too bad. The stable dishes here are meat (cow or alpaca) which tastes a little gamey, chicken (which we ... read more

Had to drop a quick note about what I did after work today. My hair is getting too long (meaning, you can actually see it) so I had to go find a place to get a haircut (yes, Elisa, you were right). So I wandered the streets of Ayacucho for awhile, and dropped in on a few beauty salons, where all the women looked up from their soap operas to stare at me as if I´d just landed from Mars. Of course, I can´t speak Spanish, so I would just rub my fist along my head and make a buzzing sound. I got a lot of laughs, but no offers to shave my head. Finally I came to a salon where the lady seemed to know what I was talking about. She sat me down in ... read more