I decided to spice things up and start my blog off with a picture this time. This is me and my little sister. I knitted both of these hats in Cochan and now we are twins! She loves the hat and has been wearing it all the time and will tell people that her ¨hermanita¨made it. I really enjoy playing with her but she isn´t going to help me with my spanish because she can´t pronounce words right! However, she is definitely the baby of the family and cries alot but that is what happens when your next oldest sibling is 12 years older.
On the milk truck. Don´t be fooled by this picture...we were stopped. It was impossible to take a picture when we were actually moving because I was gripping the bars for dear life.In San Miguel Bron and I went to this place where this guy gave us a ton of information on all of the districts in the province of San Miguel. He put it on my usb drive and it contains lots of maps and other fun stuff! After reading it I just found out according to the latest census that the city of Cochan (where I live) has about 250 people in it. Off the top of my head I can name about 60 of the people that actually live in the city of Cochan, more if you include the caserios. Anyways, I have a ways to go before I can name all 250, but I have 2 more years. The entire district of Cochan has 5,000 people and about 20-25 caserios but they are all spread out on the farmland…hours and hours of walking. For comparison, the provincia capital, has a whopping 2,500 people in the city itself and then another 20,000 in the caserios. Now that may seem tiny but it is 10 times more people than where I live. This is why I get overwhelmed whenever I go into a "big" city. And by big, I mean San Miguel. I start gripping my purse and checking my pockets frequently. You can imagine how I feel when I actually go into a real city, like Cajamarca. And to think that Cajamarca only has about 150,000 people!
Fun Fact: The largest adobe church in Peru is in San Miguel.
Getting back from San Miguel proved to be fun. I called up my friend Robert around 4 because I didn't want to walk back in the dark. We ended up having to wait an hour for a car to Llapa and we arrived in Llapa, 30 minutes later at 5:30. The road from San Miguel to Llapa is so nice...but my definition of nice has definitely changed. It is dirt/gravel but it doesn't have many holes in it. You are definitely driving dangerously close to a cliffs on a windy mountain but it's pretty flat and goes by fast. Once I arrived in Llapa, a bustling town of almost 600 people, complete with a discoteca, Robert and I set off for Cochan. Now the problem is that my foot still isn't completely healed. I can walk on flat ground but when it requires me to move in weird positions for stability it isn't 100 percent. There is a road that winds up and down the mountains but in order to get to Cochan faster we walked 45 minutes straight down the mountain and I thought my legs were going to turn into Jello. I have never been much of a hiker but I really need to get out and walk more. Anyways, so we finally reached the river at the bottom of the mountain that divides Llapa and Cochan and all that was left was to climb back up an equally steep hill. We cut the road short by climbing up the mountain and while this time my legs were fine, I thought my heart was going to explode. I guess this is what happens have you just sit on your ass and knit all day for 3 weeks. A total of 2 hours later I found myself back in Cochan. About halfway through the walk it started to get dark but luckily I had brought my headlamp with me and this helped with the walk back...although I still almost fell a few times because of all the holes in the crappy road. Anyways, all that to check the internet! Next time I can either spend the night and hope to catch the milk truck back the next morning, or I can learn to love hiking and get in awesome shape.
Sidenote: When I was walking back in the dark my friend told me that I can see better because I have green eyes. I had heard of this happening to another volunteer so I questioned him and asked why so. He said because they were green like a cat so I can see in the dark. So there you have it....
I went to another English class because the other section begged me to come. Everyone just wants me to translate sentences for them! Now this wouldn´t be so bad but the sentences they want me to translate are like romantic poems! I guess they are teenagers, but seriously, teenagers in the states don´t write like that! The Spanish language and culture is just a lot more romantic so translating this stuff is hard and feels so cheesy! In addition to translating, they love it when I sing. So I sang and taught them Mary had a little lamb. I really need to learn a new song…suggestions…please!
Right now I am in Cajamarca for the night and taking advantage of all that the city has to offer. This may have involved eating two huge scoops of ice cream for lunch and walking around in sandals even though it is cold! I will be here until tomorrow so feel free to email!!
My host dad trying on my sister´s hat. It almost fits...
0 comments:
Post a Comment