Somos Surcenos!

Tomorrow is Jeff’s cumple (bday), and we’ll simultaneously get to celebrate that occasion along with moving in to our new depa in Surco. It ended up being the first place we saw, and it reminded me of when we went to the animal shelter to ‘just take a look’ at some pups and ended up signing Olive’s adoption papers (she was also the first and only dog we saw that day). This apartment charmed us with it’s airy terrace on the top floor of a cool, calm residential area. The rest of the space looked a little rough with uncovered potential, but we mostly liked imagining ourselves hanging out in the sunlight (or at least the cloudlight as it is almost perpetually gray here for now) of the terraza looking out at some nearby mountains. It seems like a great place to host friends - we’ll even have a charcoal bbq up there at some point :)

It was a bit stressful figuring out how to get the downpayment for the apartment. Much more complicated than I had anticipated. After many failed attempts at multiple banks, I finally got a Western Unit money transfer to go through that would arrive for the real estate agent a few days later. Then Jeff and I made our way back to Carabayllo on the Metropolitano buses, a 3 hour trip, and went back to the Socios office the next day to tuck in to some TB papers, protocols, and the like. We found that it takes us a long time to get through even just a single Peruvian Health Ministry TB protocol :p We also rounded out our education this week by studying a few songs in Spanish that we’ve been digging: one salsa featuring a local group, a reggaetón, and a few indie rock jams we discovered on a playlist. It’s been fun creating the soundtrack to our first few weeks here!

After the rush and hassle of committing to an apartment, Jeff and I started to worry that maybe we had moved too quickly, wondering if we might get screwed by the real estate agent. I had, after all, wired her a hefty sum, and we felt like we didn’t have much leverage in case the apartment turned out to be some elaborate scam (not implausible). In the end, though, it turned out fine and we got our new home for the next 9 months :) Our landlady is still getting it all set up with fresh white paint and new furnishings, but we should be able to move in later today. Embarrassingly, this depa is three times as expensive as the one in Carabayllo. When local friends and our surrogate Peruvian parents asked us how much we were paying, I took off 50 bucks out of shame. I wish they didn’t ask, but they’re just looking out, making sure we don’t get ripped off. 

More on our surrogate parents: they are lovely. They are Hansel’s actual parents, and they took us in unquestioningly, arms wide open (cue Creed) last Sunday post-apartment hunting after we realized it was late to be heading all the way back to Carabayllo. So they welcomed us to their place, also in Surco not far from where we are moving. Coincidentally they have the same names as my mom and stepdad, Patricia and Alex, and Alex even has the same birthday as my mom. Also coincidentally, two of their sons are currently in Utah not far from where Jeff will be when he goes home for xmas, so he’ll get to meet the whole family! Jeff and I seem to have a ridiculous amount in common with Hansel and the Mundaca family. I really enjoy hanging out with our new fam, so I’m glad we won’t be far away.

Last night we had our first Socios en Salud band jam sesh, mostly playing rock songs by Red Hot Chili Peppers and the like. Jeff and Bruno played acoustic guitar (Jeff was stoked that he gets to borrow one of them for a while), Hansel kept it real on the bass, and I improvised slapping my lap to create the percussion section. Hansel’s brother, who plays piano on the same cruise line Gabrielle used to work for, was also there hanging out, and ‘our parents’ looked on and recorded videos. It was fun singing familiar songs together, and I’ll be looking forward to when I get to sit behind an actual kit or at least on a cajón (a wee drum box).

For Jeff’s bday, we are having lunch with the Mundacas today and taking a surfing lesson tomorrow morning. Hopefully we can fit in some soccer as well, and I imagine we’ll go out later tonight. Next week will be our first full week at the Hipólito hospital that will be base camp for the year. Although we’ve enjoyed reading about TB in journal articles and study protocols, we’re excited to get more hands-on experience. This week will likely involve more patient office visits like we saw last week (to check for adverse effects via exam and lab tests), trips to health outposts where community health workers go daily to administer anti-TB meds, and administrative work to help with data input and organization.

And now for my daily cup of instant coffee :)