Today was the first actual day that I woke up pretty refreshed and somewhat on time. Made it down to breakfast with a good amount of time, and headed off to work with Liz, Ben , and Luke. We all caught a taxi and got dropped off at our respective spots.
I can assure you that when I woke up this morning, I did not know just how amazing work was going to be today. So I get there and see Natalie, the volunteer from Switzerland. She tells me that today was actually our day off. I was surprised and asked if there was any specific reason why. She explains to me that today there was going to be a march that a lot of the mothers and kids from our center were going to participate in. The protest is about the government’s plan to cut down the ration of milk given to families through whatever program they have here in Peru similar to Welfare. The ration has been 5 litres of milk per family, but the government is trying to cut it down to 3 litres. Natalie and I are both unsure of what the march is going to be like, and if we should participate or not, but we decide to stay around for a bit just to help the Mamitas out. All of the parents had been asked to bring in an empty bottle (either water or Inca Kola or any sort of recyclable bottle). We then filled them all up with milk so that the kids would have enough nutrients during the march. I have to say that it was absolutely amazing to see the kids with their parents. To see how much more relaxed they are, and their genuine smiles and giggles is just a treat that you only see when they’re around their parents. Another precious thing was that even though the march was supposed to mainly be for mothers and their children, there were a good deal of fathers there as well, and even an older brother who came to walk with his two younger brothers.
Once all of the parents that were expected to march had arrived, we left the center and began on our way to the beginning point of the march. Natalie and I still didn’t know if we should participate, but we figured our volunteer houses were in the same direction so we might as well walk with the mothers. Eventually, there’s a visible opening and all of our mothers rush in to fill the spot. Natalie and I go in as well, and are given signs to carry around. I was so proud of mine, which said “While the government gets fatter, our children are getting skinnier.” There were so many great signs out today, I was just overwhelmed by the massive amounts of participation. The march wasn’t very long, and began at the bottom of Avenida el Sol and travelled all the way up to the Plaza de Armas, which then cut into another side street and town square. At the end of the march, there were a lot of cameras there to cover the event. Because I was a participating Gringo, I was actually interviewed. (I know this because they yelled out Gringo! Gringo! Aqui!) So perhaps I’m on some news channel with a little fifteen second spot saying “Un mayoria de estas familias ya tienen vidas dificiles, pero nunca tienen quejas. Pero la primera prioridad de estos padres son sus niños, entonces cuando el gobierno deciden a hacer cosas que afectarán las saludas de estos niños, es obvio que habrá mucha ira y muchas protestas. Pero pienso que hay mucho esperanza con todas las personas que están aquí, y no puedo esperar para una solución.” (A majority of these families already have difficult lives, but they never have complaints. But the main priority of these parents are their children, so when the government decides to do things that will affect the health of these kids, it’s obvious that there will be a lot of anger and a lot of protest. But I think that there is a lot of hope with all the people that are here today, and I can’t wait for a solution.)
The protest only lasted until mid-day, so I had plenty of time to spare before going back home for lunch. By exploring a bit, I found a store called Topitop which has more…”Western” clothes if you will. They were also having a two for one jeans sale, so I decided to stop in. They were almost a cross between Express and H&M. I probably spent a good hour or so in there meticulously looking through every rack and trying on plenty of clothing. In the end, I was able to buy myself two pairs of jeans, a nice olive windjacket, some Bermuda shorts that double for clubbing and professional wear, and a couple of shirts. It was a bit of a spree yes, but I suppose I didn’t think of it until afterwards. And though I don’t regret any of my purchases, in hindsight, I feel a tad bit bad that after protesting against the government’s mistreatment of these families which have so little, I ended up spending a decent load of money on myself.
On the way home, I made a few more stops. I stopped by the pharmacy and picked up some cold medicine and vitamins, just because I felt a bit of a scratchy throat coming on. I wasn’t really too sure about the vitamins, but the lady behind the counter made a good sell and I couldn’t resist. I’m a bit of a chicken and have yet to try the vitamins cause they’re a bit horse-pill-y. After the pharmacy, I made a purchase of the most delicious pineapple. Granted it was out of a wheelbarrow, so we’ll see how this works out for me. After that, I dropped into one of the markets and picked myself up a navy visor beanie and some gold hoops with tiny llamas engraved. I only brought my diamond studs here, so I was beginning to feel not like myself without some hoops on. =].
After getting home for some lunch, Todd and I decided to head over to El Molino (their legal black market here, low priced electronics and everything else, yet they pay taxes haha) and go on a hunt for pillows and board games. You see, the pillows that we have here in the house are quite flat, and don’t do anything for the lungs or comfort of your neck. It was only about a five minute taxi ride away, so I knew there’d be enough time before heading over to class. It was such a crazy Mecca of items there, we had to try hard to keep blinders on for our pillows and board games. We first saw this lady with some pillows, but she was asking for forty soles, so we walked on. Soon afterwards, we saw Clue for fifteen soles and decided it’d be a pretty fun game to play in Spanish. And very shortly after that, we found another game stand that had Pictionary for twenty soles. I ultimately bartered it down to fifteen soles again so we were happy for our 5 dollar board games that we were sure everyone else would enjoy. Though the board games were an easy find, I can’t say the same for pillows. We passed such a large number of stands after the games that we were sure the reason the lady was charging forty soles was because she knew she was the only one. But low and behold, we found a stand that had pillows hanging off of hooks which just looked so amazingly comfortable. I asked the lady how much it would cost, and we were told that it would be eighteen soles for the large pillows. Eighteen was the most beautiful number in the world, so we immediately bought them. On the way out, we also stopped by one of the MANY DVD stands and picked up a few things. I picked up Charlie Bartlett, the supposed Ferris Bueller of my generation, figuring that even if it was bad, 1 dollar wouldn’t be too much of a waste of an investment. By the way, they have iPod nanos and classics for 160 soles (54 bucks or so) which I hear are pretty legit, so let me know if you need one or any sort of electronic in general. =]
We got home with the biggest grins on our faces, so proud of our accomplished mission. It was like we were going home after winning the game; it was that great of a feeling. I left pretty soon after that, because I wanted to stop by some side streets near Maximo to see if I could find myself a hair dryer. I’ve mostly been letting it dry by putting it into French braids or a bun, so I thought a cheap hairdryer might not be too bad of an investment. But my luck had it that the stores I was told were supposed to have these things were actually closed, and I went to class empty handed.
Class itself was pretty fun, since it was the last class with my teacher before she went on vacation, and my two other classmates are leaving on Monday. During break we actually had a really great conversation, because Mona is a 3rd year resident at UCLA specializing in Internal Medicine, while Erin is applying to Med school and is thinking of Child Psychiatry as well. It’s amazing how many people down here are in the med field and have so much to tell me about planning out my future. It’s an amazing amount of help that I would not have expected to find down here on my trip.
To finish off class, we listened to the song “La camisa negra” by Juanes, to practice our listening skills. We were given a lyrics sheet with blank spaces that we were supposed to fill in. It was pretty hilarious how off we were for some of the lines, but we just laughed it off. The song was pretty catchy, and quite depressing at the same time. It was about the guy only having a black shirt, because it symbolized the mourning of the death of their love. After class, I bumped into Simon who had just gotten back from his class field trip to the bar, and we walked home.
I met this kid Tzvi, who was visiting our place for the night because he was friends with Ben and they were jamming on their guitars. It was pretty funny just sitting around and hearing them adlib some stuff. Tzvi’s also eighteen and on a gap year, and actually from New York city. He’ll be going to Lewis & Clark in the fall, because he wanted a change from the city. He told me he’ll be sure to let me in on all of the best of New York City though, and maybe show me around when he’s back home and I’m there as well. Dinner came around, and we all ate, and then all got ready to go out. After all, it was Friday night. =] We ended up walking all the way from our house to San Blas, where there was this bar that’s owned by the family of one of the teachers at Maximo Nivel. We all went to the back patio area and had a good time lounging on the patio benches.
Afterwards, we decided to hit a few discotecas to go dancing. I’ll start off with a warning here that this was quite an interesting night. After the first club, Matt and I somehow got separated from the rest of the group, and it was only us two and Jorge (the Maximo teacher) and Jorge’s nephew travelling together. Now here comes the part that I warned about: it is ridiculous how readily available all sorts of drugs here are. I was offered free cocaine straight from the jungle three times, in the same club, on the same night. Of course I’ve seen my good share of documentaries, tv shows and movies, read my fair share of articles and books, and seen enough people affected by other addictions to know right from wrong. I profusely refused all offers, and when they wouldn’t back off, Matt just pretended to be my older brother who was very strict and keeping a watchful eye on me all night. I’m actually very proud of myself and my will power to refuse the drugs, but it’s still a sickening thought to me of all of the people that probably gave into the offer because they figured they were on vacation in another country and out to have a fun night. I’m just extremely grateful that I was raised to be strong enough to pass up the offer, and to be surrounded by friends and family who have the same strength as well.
Towards the end of the night, we were about to head into one more place, but there was an entrance fee of thirty soles that I was not down to pay. I kept saying, “I don’t care how popular this place is, I’m not paying thirty soles.” So we ended up taking a taxi home, and being greeted by everyone waiting for us in the living room, wondering what had happened to us.
Overall it was an amazing day, and a fun night, and a fantastic way to start off the weekend. Hasta mañana. xxoo
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