Episodio Diez (July 18, 2011)

Buenas noches, amigos!

Well, here we are... my last full day in Peru! I begin my voyage home tomorrow, and then I pretty much turn right around and head down to Kansas to start my teacher training. Crazy! Daniel will remain in Cusco for about another week and a half to help give things a final push before he flies back at the end of July. So hopefully we can wiggle at least one update out of him while he´s still here. =)

Our highlight of this chunk is that Jeffrey is here!! (In case you don´t remember, he´s our professor/mentor from Gustavus.) He arrived yesterday, and after resting up last night we went on a rather whirlwind field trip today! Since our time together here is short, we took Jeffrey on a little tour of all the places relevant to our work here. First we hopped in a taxi and took the 30-minute drive out to Occopata. It´s a BEAUTIFUL drive... all up in the mountains and out in the country. Lots of sheep.  Buuuuut I didn´t take any pictures of the scenery. Just the posta de salud! (health post)

It´s super cute and little -- and happy inside! Lots of light and very clean. Occopata (in case you don´t remember) is the small community on the outskirts of Cusco that we hope to work with on our first project. Basically it´s a bunch of adobe-brick houses (ie made of mud and straw in brick form) plus a primary school, the posta de salud, an almost-finished colegio (like a junior high/high school), and a church. It´s surrounded by a lot of fields and (it seems) almost as many sheep as people! The couple people we talked to were very friendly -- it seems like a great place! 

After we got back down the mountain (the road was under construction, so we had to sit for 40 minutes and wait till the ´down´ part of the road opened up again at noon), we headed to a sweet restaurante criollo (criole restaurant -- basically Afro/indigenous food) for lunch. Jeffrey shared that one of his favorite dishes is ´tripa´ (tripe... aka intestines...) and Daniel decided to try it!

Yes, those onion ring-looking things are bits of pig intestine! I tried one -- they´re actually pretty good, albeit rather chewy. Think calamari.

Then after lunch we headed down to Belenpampa (where Daniel volunteered last time) to check it out. We were lucky to run into the three awesomest people in the whole hospital all at once -- Nora, the head of personnel and volunteer go-to lady, Esther, the head nurse, and Dra. Haydee (aka Mamita!), the new boss of Belenpampa! It was fun to introduce Jeffrey to all of them -- plus Mamita was lookin GOOD!!! Last time we saw her we just went to hang at her house for dinner, but today she was wearing a SUIT and looked like she RAN the place! (Which she does!) It was fun to see her being all in charge of things. I think she´ll be really good. =)

Finally, after a brief jaunt around parts of Belenpampa (it´s too big to look at all of it), we took a taxi up to Siete Cuartones, the hospital where Adolfo works now, to meet him and introduce him to Jeffrey. It was so fun to finally see the two of them meet! They´ve both been so instrumental in the bringing about of Wiñarisum and this whole idea of community partnership, that it´s fun to watch our mentors actually get to meet and talk face to face! We had a great chat.

Then on our way back to Jeffrey´s hotel we wandered around el Mercado San Pedro (the St. Peter Market... by St. Peter cathedral) and I got a sweet Peruvian apron! (It has lots of pockets, since the women here generally wear them as they go about with their fruit carts or whatever, so they need lots of pockets for change.) We decided to give the aisle of dead sheep a miss.

Now I´m just packing up... and hoping everything will fit in my luggage. Tomorrow morning we have a meeting with UNICEF... which I will try to focus on, haha... and then after lunch it´s off into the wild blue yonder with me!

Thanks for reading along with us! Like I said, hopefully we can get at least one update out of my lovely husband before he comes home. Other than that, if you want to keep following us out to Kansas, we will probably start a blog for that soon. (Once it exists I´ll send out the link.)

I will leave you with this lovely sunset view from our balcony a few days ago.

Enjoy your last Spanish lesson! Hope you all are well, y un abrazo muy fuerte del Perú!

Rebequita y Danielito

VERY, VERY IMPORTANT SPANISH PHRASES

Lesson Eight: Viajando (Traveling)

Soy un turista. (I am a tourist.)

¿Puedo llevar una bicicleta a bordo? (May I bring a bicycle on board?)

¿Hay enchufes eléctricos a bordo? (Are there electrical outlets on board?)

Ésta es una trampa para atraer turistas. (This is a tourist trap.)

¿Puede recomendar un buen albergue juvenil? (Can you recommend a good youth hostel?)

¿Tiene un catre para el niño? (Do you have a cot for the child?)

Me gustaría armar una tienda de campaña aquí. (I would like to pitch a tent here.)

¡Utilice un casco de protección! (Wear a helmet!)