Some Drama and Then Some Calm

Wow...so much has happened since I last posted although it's actually only been two days. On Tuesday I started off the day by going to the clinic and meeting with Señora Alicia. This clinic has several parts to it but the part where I volunteer is with the children who have cerebral palsy. She told me that this week I will be working in the "school" portion of the clinic and introduced me to the teacher who explained that the activity of the day was to draw maps of Peru. However once we started she said that she had to step out for a moment and never returned! Occasionally she would pop in to get something from her desk but then she would leave again. Although nurses would come and go to take the kids to their daily physical therapy exercises I was basically alone the whole time which was extremely difficult because I had no way of communicating with the kids since most of them could not speak. At the end of my shift I expressed my concerns to Señora Alicia and she said that the next day I would work in the hospital instead.

Later on in the day I met with my tandem exchange partner, Alexandra, for the first time. She is currently studying English at Maximo Nivel. We talked for a bit and then we decided to go walk around Plaza d'Armas where we were joined by her cousin Magaly. Once I returned to the office I went to my Spanish class which was interesting but unfortunately I couldn't enjoy it because I was feeling feverish. When I finished class I was informed by the office staff that my host family had been caught "breaking the rules" and housing people outside of the volunteers and the knowledge of Maximo Nivel. The other volunteers had been moved out of the house and in the afternoon and I was told to pack up my things so that I could be moved out as well.

I now live in a volunteer house, La Florida, with several others, some of whom I met at my orientation. Although I enjoyed the authentic aspect of staying with a Peruvian family, I think that living at this house is for the best. The next morning I did not go to the clinic because I was sick and instead stayed home and rested. In the afternoon I went with Ariella and Neja, the two girls from my Spanish class, as well as Thomas and Ashleigh, who I met at the house, to some of the markets on the way to Maximo Nivel. Ashleigh is actually from Winnipeg and has one year left to study before becoming a nurse. Thomas is from Indiana and he is the same age as me. While at the market I bought myself some hand-woven colorful wool socks to keep me warm during the freezing Cuzco nights.

After Spanish class, Ariella and I met up with Alexandra and we walked to the Plaza de San Francisco. We were pretty hungry so we went into a restaurant and I had a delicious soup with noodles, beef, a poached egg, and a bunch of spices. Once we returned to the house everyone was pretty tired so we all stayed in and had a movie night.