Last night I went to bed early but Tyson went to the bar with another volunteer to watch a big soccor game (Peru vs. Paraguay). Apparently it was a lot of fun because I could hear the whole town shriek every time Peru scored. Tyson said that the people were very nice and even bought them a pitcher of coke. That is the general experience we have had with the people here, they are very warm and kind.
After breakfast this morning we went to the market with the doctor and a few of the kids. There were flies everywhere and I don't think the place would have passed our food safe standards. There were stray cats and dogs running around to find scraps of food. We bought some (packaged) snacks for our long bus ride tomorrow. Mamita and the doctor bought tons of fruit, vegetables and fish for the week.
I had mentioned a couple of days ago that they mamitas are very creative with food and they do not waste anything. Well we saw a fine example of this at lunch today. Lunch is usually soup and rice with beans. Today for some reason none of the volunteers touched the soup so I caught on and skipped the soup as well. Tyson must have missed this detail and said "oh noodle soup!" and poured himself a big bowl. Mamita seemed very pleased with Tyson and gave him a couple of limes as a treat. As he tried it, there was a distinct fishy aroma and he proceeded to gag on the fish head soup that he had just tried. We had had fish friday last night so they had saved the heads for lunch today. Obviously the mamitas (and the doctor) do not look kindly to waste so we had to be very sneaky in disposing of the rest of the fish head soup. They served fish soup again for dinner and it made me nauseous.
After lunch the doctor asked me to get one of the young girls a new pair of shoes from the storage room as her current pair looked at least three sizes too small. So I took her upstairs and she selected a new (to her) pair. As we came back downstairs a young boy looked curiously at the shoes and said (in Spanish) "water gets into my shoes all the time" and proceeded to show me how the soles were completely detached from the rest of the shoes and the toe area was worn away to the point that I could clearly see his socks. Now I have to ask, back in Canada would we ever wait until our shoes were used or worn out to this point before we buy new ones? I think we just buy new ones when we feel like it, or when we see a cute pair we just have to have. And as a bonus we get to select our own preferred style of shoes to purchase. Also I was thinking about Tyson and the fish head soup, Tyson threw his away and bought other food. The kids eat everything they get and seem to appreciate it. They don't have the luxury to not like the taste of their food. Just a thought.
As we were trying to get our things together today for our big bus ride tomorrow (One of the many modes of transportation we will be utilizing to get to Machu Picchu), I came accross an interesting piece of information. On the train that we will be taking, there is a five kilogram luggage limit. We have to pay $4US a kilo to a maximum of ten kilos more for everything we have over that and it goes on a different train. We have about 25-30 kilos of luggage. Or we could store it at a bus station for $10US per day. Or we could leave it at the house here and not have anything with us and have to come back to Chaclaccayo which is about four hours out of the way. All options suck.
Tomorrow the cab will be picking us up at 10am (after baby hour) to take us to the bus station in Lima. In case its worth mentioning: cabs cost 90x the price of busses. When a bus would have cost us one sole, a cab is costing 90 soles.
The doctor went to mass before dinner tonight and for some reason shut off the wifi before he left so I decided some physical activity would be beneficial. I went for a walk, there was great weather and I felt safe (except for having to watch out for cockroaches). I even passed by a fire station and got a tour of the inside. It was a treat.
It's going to be hard to say good bye to this place.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
After breakfast this morning we went to the market with the doctor and a few of the kids. There were flies everywhere and I don't think the place would have passed our food safe standards. There were stray cats and dogs running around to find scraps of food. We bought some (packaged) snacks for our long bus ride tomorrow. Mamita and the doctor bought tons of fruit, vegetables and fish for the week.
I had mentioned a couple of days ago that they mamitas are very creative with food and they do not waste anything. Well we saw a fine example of this at lunch today. Lunch is usually soup and rice with beans. Today for some reason none of the volunteers touched the soup so I caught on and skipped the soup as well. Tyson must have missed this detail and said "oh noodle soup!" and poured himself a big bowl. Mamita seemed very pleased with Tyson and gave him a couple of limes as a treat. As he tried it, there was a distinct fishy aroma and he proceeded to gag on the fish head soup that he had just tried. We had had fish friday last night so they had saved the heads for lunch today. Obviously the mamitas (and the doctor) do not look kindly to waste so we had to be very sneaky in disposing of the rest of the fish head soup. They served fish soup again for dinner and it made me nauseous.
After lunch the doctor asked me to get one of the young girls a new pair of shoes from the storage room as her current pair looked at least three sizes too small. So I took her upstairs and she selected a new (to her) pair. As we came back downstairs a young boy looked curiously at the shoes and said (in Spanish) "water gets into my shoes all the time" and proceeded to show me how the soles were completely detached from the rest of the shoes and the toe area was worn away to the point that I could clearly see his socks. Now I have to ask, back in Canada would we ever wait until our shoes were used or worn out to this point before we buy new ones? I think we just buy new ones when we feel like it, or when we see a cute pair we just have to have. And as a bonus we get to select our own preferred style of shoes to purchase. Also I was thinking about Tyson and the fish head soup, Tyson threw his away and bought other food. The kids eat everything they get and seem to appreciate it. They don't have the luxury to not like the taste of their food. Just a thought.
As we were trying to get our things together today for our big bus ride tomorrow (One of the many modes of transportation we will be utilizing to get to Machu Picchu), I came accross an interesting piece of information. On the train that we will be taking, there is a five kilogram luggage limit. We have to pay $4US a kilo to a maximum of ten kilos more for everything we have over that and it goes on a different train. We have about 25-30 kilos of luggage. Or we could store it at a bus station for $10US per day. Or we could leave it at the house here and not have anything with us and have to come back to Chaclaccayo which is about four hours out of the way. All options suck.
Tomorrow the cab will be picking us up at 10am (after baby hour) to take us to the bus station in Lima. In case its worth mentioning: cabs cost 90x the price of busses. When a bus would have cost us one sole, a cab is costing 90 soles.
The doctor went to mass before dinner tonight and for some reason shut off the wifi before he left so I decided some physical activity would be beneficial. I went for a walk, there was great weather and I felt safe (except for having to watch out for cockroaches). I even passed by a fire station and got a tour of the inside. It was a treat.
It's going to be hard to say good bye to this place.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
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