So, to begin with the first T: Tragedy. Before I left for a two week trip during vacations, a very sad event occured in our neighborhood here in Habitat. There is a family of three who we as volunteers are very close to. The father, Martin, is a wonderful, McGyver-like, intelligent man who is our main source on Peruvian politics. He goes fishing to the beach with just a backpack of water and possibly some string and catches the bait for himself, and fishes almost all-night long in the water. His wife, Ediht, is the instructor for the step class that I go to regularly and a wonderful, though at times shy woman. She is a character as an aerobics instructor and like her husband and their son, very humble. The son, Jayson, had struggled his whole life with scoleosis (spelling¿) and if he had access to American medical care or was from a wealthier family, when he was young, it probably could have been corrected. As it turned out, his lungs were restricted because the curvature of his spine was so intense and it pained him to even walk the couple blocks to school. The school even moved his classroom down from the third floor because stairs were tough for him. Despite his problems, he was the best student in the school, was wonderful at English, and participated in almost every school event (including the month long service trip they do - mes de mision - where he helped cook and do other chores that he was able to).
The tragedy occured just before we left as Jayson became ill (first with a cold and a fever) and because of complications with his asthma and weak physical state, the illness developed into pneumonia and eventually took his life. To me, as to many, the rapidness with which this tragedy struck was stunning and I was left feeling empty and useless as I tried to process what had happened and also to support the family. The day after his death, his body was placed in the communal building for habitat and there was a all-afternoon and night vigil-wake. The next day they processed with the body to the church, held the funeral service, and then proceeded uptown to the cementary to bury him. Additionally, family and friends helped cook a large meal to serve to all those when they returned from the burial. To see the support and the coming together of the community to mourn and show their care for Jayson and his family was quite touching. For instance, the sudden costs of the treatment for the final days and then of the burial were quite overwhelming for Martin and Ediht, but after a collection was taken, the outpouring was more than enough.
A death is never an easy thing to experience, and for me it was one of my closest experiences with it. My maternal grandmother is the only real close friend or family member who has died in my life (there have been a few others, but none that I was particularly close to at the time of their passing), but I was in Colombia when that occurred and it was sort of a drawn out process with her weakening physical condition that it did not strike me in the same way. I still haven´t sat down and thought about all that I felt and saw (for instance, seeing Martin lead the pallbearers with his son´s body from the church is an image that will be etched in my mind for a long time), so I will keep thinking and writing about this probably.
A second tragedy (I promise, things get better with this one) was that half of my school, Santa Cruz, burned down. I found out early one Thursday morning during vacations that the estera (the bamboo-wood classrooms, which included the English classroom we had) had burned down in an overnight fire. I went to the school that morning to see the black and charred wreckage of about 8 or 9 classrooms. But immediately from the start there was hope as the local government officials arrived with many promises and there were bulldozers already on the scene ready to begin the work needed to make it ready for the start of school. When I returned this past Friday, I was standing in the entryway with the janitor-handyman and a hefty, important looking official arrived. He began to tell us how everything that was needed to complete the work was on its way and then he said goodbye. I later found out that that was the Mayor of Tacna and that the unfinished classrooms were being repaired and other prefabricated ones were going to go up this weekend to have the school ready to open tomorrow. I will see how it all turned out when I show up tomorrow, but the school could actually end up better than before vacation as these prefabricated rooms look better than the estera and they are finishing two of the cement ones as well. I heard that the news of this fire extended far across the country in the press and so the pressure was quite strong on the government to respond.
Phfewf, this is an epic one. Ok, on to Typhoid. Also in the beginning of vacations, I developed a very high fever one day (it reached up past 104 degrees) and had some extreme chills and weakness. When I went to the clinic, I had a blood test and the doctor noted that my white blood cell count was low (which I guess is not your body´s normal response to most viruses or infections - since it usually rises to fight the invader). The doctor called in the internist, who kind of did a whirlwind check and told me that I had Typhoid. In retrospect, his inspection was probably not thorough and they did not actually put me through the whole test for it (which at the time I didn´t know could be done). They did prescribe me some super strong antibiotics that I had to have injected into me with big needles (this kind nurse in our neighborhood came over to do it at night, though with the final injection, she had to stick me three times and cut up my arm a bit before she didn´t realize there was a piece of glass in the cotton that she was using to clean my arm - but let´s not harp on the bad, she was incredibly kind to me). Within a day, I didn´t have any more fever and I rested for the following four and a half days before going on my two week travels. I felt like I was ready to travel and was all fine, though a number of people expressed concerns to me that I should rest more. In retrospect, I had no issues during my travels and in general I think I probably had some sort of bacteria, but not typhoid (which does not start or go away that fast and is almost always accompanied by stomach troubles). But I will get a follow up blood test to make sure something else wacky is not going on, don´t worry.
Travels - so, I might expand on this later because I am feeling a bit tired out and my wrists hurt, but I will give it a short recap now. Nate and I visited the towns and cities of Urcos, Anadahuayllas to the south of Cusco, Cusco, Curahuasi to the west (where my host father is from and still has a lot of family), Arequipa (the white city) and Colca Canyon (which they say is longer and deeper than the grand canyon). All in all, we meet a wide range of incredible people who were very generous and incredibly welcoming. Whether it was the Jesuits in Urcos and in Arequipa or the more distant members of my host family in Curahuasi and Cusco, it was amazing how people accepted us into their homes and treated us as family without any second thoughts or complaints-grumblings. And because of this, I felt like I really got to know more of the country and definitely got to see some of its incredible views in the Andes of Curahuasi and Colca (where we saw some of the emblematic condors). I also got to see some guinea pig cooked, but through the whole process. In Curahuasi the kitchen area where we hung out and talked with the family was filled with them and one night they killed (by snapping the necks), dehaired, gutted, cleaned, filled with a stuffing and cooked eight of them. Even after seeing all the nastiness, they were still delicious.
Nate and I also got to bond and share a lot - from long bus rides overnight, to slowly sipping a good black beer in a bar overlooking Cusco's main square, to doing a ton of walking everywhere, to marveling at the attitudes and acceptance of the people we met along the way. He has a very affable, easygoing way about him that was wonderful to have as a traveling companion to mediate my bad moods and to simply at times walk around the new places to observe and soak them in. We had very few moments of high stress on the trip.
And now to give you a little sense of what it was all like, I have a good treat: pictures!
After climbing back to the top of Colca, Nate and I decided it was time for a picture together. He is standing in a very classic Nate pose.
So, this picture is terrible because you can´t see my face, but wonderful for the view of the plaza in Arequipa and the mountains in the background. This view of the beautiful city comes from the top of the Jesuit church just off the plaza.
We just had to stop at one of the little houses with a red flag flying from it in a small pueblo about 30 minutes from Cusco to try the chicha. It is a very typical beverage which is alcoholic and made out of maize. Only thing that can be said for it - the second and third sip aren´t nearly as bad as the first.
The world famous condor with the view of Colca Canyon in the background. When we arrived, there were five or six and though they are quite majestic, I was a little underwhelmed. But shhh, don´t tell the Peruvians.
After we climbed to the top of the hill (it was quite high up and also had an amazing view) next to Curahuasi, I set my camera on auto and got a picture of us four trekkers together. The girl and the little kid are part of my host father´s family who so warmly embraced us in Cusco and Curahuasi.
