Made it to Lima!

Leaving Rochester was tough. Lots of crying on my last night with Em and early on the morning of my flight when she had to leave for the hospital at 6. I was surprised by how intensely the sadness hit me, but at the same time it made me feel good because it showed that we care about each other a lot. Mixed in with all of that, I was excited and nervous to be going to Peru. My Spanish is out of practice, and I wondered if I'll like the volunteer work.

While eating in the Atlanta airport, I noticed an Olive hair made its way into my tupperwared meal, and I ate it happily. I'll miss her very much and others, too. I was reminded of how much I enjoy people watching in the airport, and I had friendly neighbors on both plane rides. Sat next to a guy on the first flight who had just broken his leg and gone to a random country hospital in that em and i happened to drive by on our way back from camping. We'd pointed it out and commented how unlikely a place it seemed for a hospital. This man had a severe stutter, with his tongue sticking out and catching between his teeth. Despite him struggling to get the words out, we had a good, albeit brief conversation. There was an even bigger coincidence when i set next to an Uzbek-American reading Sharp Objects. I struck up conversation, saying I'd loved Gone Girl, and she complimented my neck sleeping scarf thing. We got to talking about where we were headed, and it turned out she is volunteering in Yantalo, the tiny town I'd done a project in a couple summers ago. Small world! We connected quickly after that, talking about her work, places, and striving to be a better human. Hopefully i hear from her again!

Upon arriving, I was in a great mood after those positive human interactions and after watching the Mr. Rogers documentary. My after-midnight meetup with the chauffeur was very smooth. The drive to my apartment way up in Carabayllo was an hour, and we chatted about soccer, dogs and New York wildlife (couldn’t remember the word for deer but he could understand Bambi). Overall I was pleased with how well the words were coming out, though at times have been frustrated by not knowing how to say something. That's been true the last few days, too. I've been stoked to be speaking so much Spanish, but I've still got lots of room to improve.

On my first day at the office, I had a great conversation with three receptionists on my floor over lunch (I had aji - almost definitely the most popular sauce in the country - on chicken and rice with fresh juice). We laughed about hospital mishaps, my chattiness (which they appreciated, but they also warned against predatory strangers in the street), dancing, food, even the death penalty. I also quickly formed a strong connection with Claudia the volunteer coordinator, who was my contact person when I applied for this gig. The other volunteers seem really nice, most arriving recently and staying for a while. As for work, still have no idea what I’m doing, but for they assigned me to do some somewhat tedious research ethics modules that take forever to complete, as well as some translations and a training presentation to give on Tuesday (should be entertaining to see how that goes in Spanish!). On Friday I mostly worked on my modules, but also got to sit in on a discussion about a research article relevant to the work of Socios en Salud. I really enjoyed being able to understand almost everything that was being said, although I didn't contribute much.

Figuring out how to get around has been a bit challenging. There are tons of buses, and it can be hard to tell where they go, especially when I'm not sure of where exactly I needed to go. But another volunteer and I have managed to navigate the journey to and from the office successfully (with some minor hiccups), and we even made it to downtown Lima where we met up with a group on Saturday for a Peruvian cooking class that was hosted in a lovely home in the Surco district. I was happy I made the long journey from Carabayllo. Got to meet some nice people that I think I'll see again, and the food was delicious. Central Lima is also much greener and prettier than where I'm currently living. Although I was initially surprised when I learned this, I'm grateful that Jeff and I have to move because (as it turns out) our supervisor works in a hospital that's very far from the office.