It´s true - I survived the month of cleaning plazas, shoveling rocks and dirt, cleaning out mud, grass and debris while shoeless in canals, managing 8 kids on my own and, in general, being one of 8 adults with the responsibility of handling 53 15 year old, kind of spoiled brats. I learned a lot about picking my battles, about having patience, about laughing at myself, about my own self-esteem, about where my limits are , and about Peru.
The best way to describe the whole experience is an emotional rollercoaster. The stress of working like this and dealing with these kids 24/7 (and their constant questions, their constant complaints, and their constant mocking of me and my Spanish), along with the frustration of plans and decisions always changing (one of the things my kids mocked about me was that I always said ¨Todo puede cambiar¨in response to their questions because I never really knew what was going on or what would be happening next), made me break down a couple of times during the month. Other times, I just felt extreme extreme depression - and I think I only got through those moments by writing letters and talking with the other American volunteer Nate.
I really don´t quite know how to process the whole experience yet - I am hoping that the five day silent retreat in Arequipa will help me think about all that I lived and dealt with - but wanted to at least put an update up with some information. This pueblito is home to 350 people and is a tiny, humble place in a valley, surrounded by high mountains (me and three of the asesores - the adults - one day just left early in the morning and climbed one of these and the views from there were just incredible). The people mostly raise cows (the area is famous for its cheese), grow zapallos (which are kind of like pumpkins) and aji (hot peppers), and generally are very poor. The municipalidad of the region only recioeves 3000 soles per month to run everything of the government (and that is equivalent to about 1000 dollars). It was a pretty beautiful place, and very very tranquil, but I very seldom got to experience that because I was trying to deal with these kids and getting them to listen/work/become involved in the experience of living simply and for others for a month. Also, the area is known because there is a lagoon there and they use the water both to irrigate a lot of the crops in southern Peru, but also for electric power that covers the entire area of Southern Peru from Tacna even up to Lima.
Our work mostly consisted of using picks, machetes, shovels and assorted other things to clean out the canals. I had a lot of fun at times with the work, although it could be exhausting. One of the best stories (or funniest) came out of one day when I cut my pinkie with the machete. I was shoeless in a canal and covered in mud because I had been trying to use the pick to get all these roots out of the middle of the canal. I was cutting some grass along the edge and badly cut myt pinkie. I screamed ¨mierda¨and grabbed my finger. I jumped out of the canal and began to run toward the little medical outpost of the town. But since I was a little frightened, I didn´t put my shoes and was running through rockey fields of alphalpha and short cornstalks holding up my left hand and screaming very quickly, ¨f*ck, f*ck, f*ck¨and trying to step really lightly. Since I was descending, my group of eight kids were up in the canal laughing and laughingat the crazy gringo. About ten minutes later, I arrived at the medical outpost with my hand covered in blood, shoeless and with my legs and body full of mud. The nurse there gave me the strangest look - like I was absolutely insane. Needless to say, it turned into one of the kids favorite weays to joke about me (to mimick the way I was cursing and high stepping it through the alphalpha fields).
There are a million other little stories and for all the bad moments and couple times I even broke down in tears, there were some real good one-on-one conversations with kids and times when I just realized how much I value certain things (like talking with my mom or being able to sit and drink a cup of coffee and do a crossword puzzle). I learned a lot about how Peruvians operate - and everything truly can change from one moment to the next here - and about the things that Peruvians value (it was pretty touching to see these 15 year old punks break down in tears when they recieved letters from their family or met up again with their family at the end). I will try to write some more about everything I went through and post some more photos, but for right now, here are a couple I took at the end of the experience showing some of the physically changes I went through (losing a bunch of weight, getting my legs and arms all cut up, and growing an ugly ugly beard). Later I will get up the more interesting ones showing what the area was like, who the kids were, and what not.
The best way to describe the whole experience is an emotional rollercoaster. The stress of working like this and dealing with these kids 24/7 (and their constant questions, their constant complaints, and their constant mocking of me and my Spanish), along with the frustration of plans and decisions always changing (one of the things my kids mocked about me was that I always said ¨Todo puede cambiar¨in response to their questions because I never really knew what was going on or what would be happening next), made me break down a couple of times during the month. Other times, I just felt extreme extreme depression - and I think I only got through those moments by writing letters and talking with the other American volunteer Nate.
I really don´t quite know how to process the whole experience yet - I am hoping that the five day silent retreat in Arequipa will help me think about all that I lived and dealt with - but wanted to at least put an update up with some information. This pueblito is home to 350 people and is a tiny, humble place in a valley, surrounded by high mountains (me and three of the asesores - the adults - one day just left early in the morning and climbed one of these and the views from there were just incredible). The people mostly raise cows (the area is famous for its cheese), grow zapallos (which are kind of like pumpkins) and aji (hot peppers), and generally are very poor. The municipalidad of the region only recioeves 3000 soles per month to run everything of the government (and that is equivalent to about 1000 dollars). It was a pretty beautiful place, and very very tranquil, but I very seldom got to experience that because I was trying to deal with these kids and getting them to listen/work/become involved in the experience of living simply and for others for a month. Also, the area is known because there is a lagoon there and they use the water both to irrigate a lot of the crops in southern Peru, but also for electric power that covers the entire area of Southern Peru from Tacna even up to Lima.
Our work mostly consisted of using picks, machetes, shovels and assorted other things to clean out the canals. I had a lot of fun at times with the work, although it could be exhausting. One of the best stories (or funniest) came out of one day when I cut my pinkie with the machete. I was shoeless in a canal and covered in mud because I had been trying to use the pick to get all these roots out of the middle of the canal. I was cutting some grass along the edge and badly cut myt pinkie. I screamed ¨mierda¨and grabbed my finger. I jumped out of the canal and began to run toward the little medical outpost of the town. But since I was a little frightened, I didn´t put my shoes and was running through rockey fields of alphalpha and short cornstalks holding up my left hand and screaming very quickly, ¨f*ck, f*ck, f*ck¨and trying to step really lightly. Since I was descending, my group of eight kids were up in the canal laughing and laughingat the crazy gringo. About ten minutes later, I arrived at the medical outpost with my hand covered in blood, shoeless and with my legs and body full of mud. The nurse there gave me the strangest look - like I was absolutely insane. Needless to say, it turned into one of the kids favorite weays to joke about me (to mimick the way I was cursing and high stepping it through the alphalpha fields).
There are a million other little stories and for all the bad moments and couple times I even broke down in tears, there were some real good one-on-one conversations with kids and times when I just realized how much I value certain things (like talking with my mom or being able to sit and drink a cup of coffee and do a crossword puzzle). I learned a lot about how Peruvians operate - and everything truly can change from one moment to the next here - and about the things that Peruvians value (it was pretty touching to see these 15 year old punks break down in tears when they recieved letters from their family or met up again with their family at the end). I will try to write some more about everything I went through and post some more photos, but for right now, here are a couple I took at the end of the experience showing some of the physically changes I went through (losing a bunch of weight, getting my legs and arms all cut up, and growing an ugly ugly beard). Later I will get up the more interesting ones showing what the area was like, who the kids were, and what not.
Please continue to read up and email and write me - I miss having regular contact with a lot of you and am feeling like I am losing contact with a lot of the people who are important and who I value in my life.
2 comments:
Dude, Holy shit, sounds like one hell of an experience. I've been waiting for the next post. I'm hoping to get a letter sent to you sometime this month. Talk to you soon. EB
Hey, eat some more... and hang in there. Kira and I are planning on a visit but not for a while. Thinking about you all the time. Love you.
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