Living at 12,000 feet with the Priests.

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For those of you that don't know, I decided to come live in the mountains of Peru at a place called Huancavelica for a month during my summer vacation. I wanted to get out of Lima for a little since I am going to be there another year and I don't have enough money to just travel, so I looked for volunteer opportunities where I could basically live for free. It turns out the school I was teaching at helps out this town of Huancavelica through it's priests, so I had the opportunity to come up and live in the seminary and teach some English. Huancavelica is a small city of about 40,000 people in what is called the sierra or mountain region of Peru. It is at about 12,000 feet and is surrounded by mountains. It is one of the poorest places in Peru.

I arrived 3 days ago after aan all night 10 hour bus ride. I didn't sleep very well on the bus and I was not used to the altitude, so I was very tired the first day. I slept for a while, played a little calm soccer with the kids, ate lunch, and slept some more. By dinner I was feeling better and of course I could not sleep at night after sleeping all day.

The next day I went to a small town even higher up in the mountains and the priest I am here with gave a mass at a small church and we ate lunch with a family there. I went with the priest and about 10 kids that he teaches music to. We walked around up there for a while after lunch. It is very beautiful. I have pictures which I will post soon. I can't upload pictures on the computer I am on.

Yesterday, the weather was really nice so I walked around town a lot and took a bunch more pictures. I also bought a hat and scarf to help with the cold. It isn't that cold here compared to Colorado right now, but there is no heat inside, so it is cold pretty much everywhere. When it rains it gets very damp and cold though. Also, I have become kind of a wuss after living in wsarm weather for a couple years.

Today, it was very rainy so I didn't do too much. I went to the house of the priest and we ate cuy, which is guinea pig, with his family. Cuy is good, but it is hard to eat because there are a lot of bones and skin and not much meat. It is also very weird eating something that people have as pets. This afternoon I played basketball with the priestsand beat them. I am pretty accostumed to the altitude now, and I think growing up at 9,000 has helped even though I have lived at sea level for a year and a half.

Overall, I am having a good time. It is definitely a great experience. I have a lot of free time and there is not too much to do, especially when it is raining, so I have done a lot of reading. Also I have been able to take a nice afternoon nap everyday. I teach the kids here a little English right now, and I am going to teach them a lot more in a couple weeks when they get back from a trip to Lima that they are taking. In the meantime I am going to travel around to a couple other cities with a priest that is an English teacher. I am going to teach him and another guy more English, so they can teach better when I leave.

Pretty much my schedule right now is: wake up around 7:30 for breakfast, hang out and read in the sun(it has been sunny every morning), do something around town or around the seminary, eat lunch, take a nap as it is usually raining by this time, wake up, read some more, eat dinner, watch a little tv, and read and go to bed by 10. I eat my meals at the seminary with the priests. Never in my life did I think I would eat at a table with 8 Catholic priests. I guess you never know what is going to happen. The food is pretty good. They have soup for almost every meal, whih is nice when it is cold. The hot water is very unreliable and since it is cold it is hard to take a frreezing cold shower. I took my first shower today because there was finally warm water.

Tonight is New Years Eve, and I don't really know what I am doing. I know that we are having a New Years Eve dinner, but I have no idea how that is going to be different than other dinners. After dinner, I don't know what is going to happen. I haven't asked. I like just going with the flow. They said it used to be a tradition to burn old tires and other things in the street at night, but the government has put a stop to that, so we'll see what happens. Tomorrow we are hiking to a city that is close. I guess that is a tradition for the city.

Well that is everything so far. I will try to find an internet place that I can upload photos at soon, and I will give an update on my New Years celebration and other adventures.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I hope you have a great New Year. Post a comment of what you do. I like to know what is going on back in the States.

Talk to you all soon,

Farley

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Comments

[chelsey]

you ate guinea pig!!?? please tell me next you are gonna eat little fluffy bunnies and golden retrievers!! i hope you got to burn tires... pretty similar to my night except for the tire part... tORE up the dance floor!! you should facebook me a good mailing address for you when you get a chance!! missssssssss you farley pants!!!

[Isaac]

Hey Farley Congrats on fantasy football and the rest of the adventures. It's sounding like things have been very eventful in lima/peru so far. I'm looking forward to the trip there; I already bought my ticket if I didn't let you know already. New Years here was fun. Varner had people over to his place and it was a great. We also went skiing in Vail with jmac and jukes. Other than that, I'm just looking forward to a little more travel. Judie and I are going to Vegas for the weekend but will only be there for a day. It'll be interesting.