Buenos días, amigos!
Today I am quite frustrated with this internet cafe (the space bar is very stubborn and the connection is slow), but I will persevere. =)
Let´s see, what has happened in the last few days? Well first, we are now residing in a very nice (and cheap, at less than $50/week!) hostel pending a move to Adolfo´s house, where they have an apartment for us
that just needs a little TLC. For those of you with very good memories, yes, I did say we were going to move to Adolfo´s brother´s house, but that ended up not working out. So now we´re in a lovely hostel right by the airport (the sounds of takeoff at 8:00 in the morning remind me of My Cousin Vinny) and loving our nice, hot shower. (The last place didn´t have hot water, so this is a very welcome improvement!) We will stay here in the hospedaje (hostel, in Spanish) till our week is up, and then we will get to move in with Adolfo, Cheryl, and Rafo!
Another pretty sweet thing that has happened over the last few days is that we´re beginning to meet with the members of the team Adolfo has "assembled" to help start work on our health projects. Two nights ago we got to have dinner with Ricardina (aka Rica), an obstetrician whose room we found out we were occupying! Hospitable gal that she is, we didn´t even know the apartment she found us was hers until the day we left! Anyway, we took her out to a chifa (Chinese + Peruvian = Chifa) restaurant and got to know each other a bit. Her role in things, since our main organizational goal is to reduce maternal and infant mortality and childhood malnutrition, is to come up with educational materials that we can use to help educate pregnant mothers so that they (and thus their children about to be born) will be healthier and safer. Rica´s fantastic -- full of energy, very confident, and with a heart to do some good in the world. Also, fun fact, she is a hardcore chess player! We mentioned our (Daniel´s) cousin Aidan, who has now won national chess things for his age group -- we thought she´d be impressed -- but silly us, she took a national title in Peru when she was growing up!! Come to find out, much of her family plays chess very competitively, and a few of her brothers and cousins even play professionally! All in all, it was a super fun dinner, and a good way to meet our first team member. =)
Then last night at a little juice cafe we met another team member, Adolfo´s tio (uncle) Wilbur. Wilbur is a Jehovah´s Witness, and has spent the last 25 years or so as a wandering missionary in one (or several, not totally clear on that) of the rural states of Perú. His particular expertise is his experience working with campesinos (rural folks, usually of indigenous descent) and his ability to speak Quechua (primarily spoken in rural/indigenous communities, often instead of Spanish). We spent a good hour last night acquainting him with the mission, values, goals, etc. of the organization (which, have I mentioned?, will be called Wiñarisum, a Quechua word meaning "let us grow!"). He seemed to be very interested, and said he would be happy to help out in his spare hours once we get going. We also talked about possible neighborhoods in which to do a "pilot" version of our idea, so we´ve got some definite concrete "next steps" to do.
Also last night, after we met Wilbur, we met up with Dra. Haydee (Mamita) and her son, Gabriel, for a drink (aka super tasty juice). We hung out until Gabriel started to fall asleep on the table, poor dear. It was good to catch up and sort of start some "repair" on this relationship. We talked about all sorts of things, including life catch up and thoughts on the recent presidential election here, and we made plans to head to Haydee´s for dinner some night. She is an excellent cook. =)So, more exciting meetings and progress! It seems like with each meeting we have, we get closer and closer to actually starting something! Will continue to keep you posted as events progress. In the meantime, I will leave you with this extremely useful and edifying list of "key phrases" that no Spanish-learner can be without, pulled from the lists on my little translator/dictionary thing. I have certainly found these phrases to be indespensible, and I hope you will study them with great urgency, due to their frequency of use in daily conversation.
Hasta luego-- (Until later--)
Rebequita y Danielito
VERY, VERY IMPORTANT AND USEFUL SPANISH PHRASES!
LESSON ONE: AROUND THE OFFICE
Soy miembro del sindicato. (I am a member of the union.)
Usted puede comunicarse conmigo llamando a mi radiolocalizador. (You can reach me by calling my beeper.)
Bajé esto del Internet. (I downloaded this from the Internet.)
Tengo síndrome del túnel carpal. (I have carpal tunnel syndrome.)
El manual no fue útil. (The manual was not helpful.)
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