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| View from my house! The blue thing is a moto! |
It's funny how three laid back weeks can feel like months! I feel like so much has happened in the last three weeks, despite the fact that everyday in the heat passes extremely slow and I feel like I still have nothing really to show for my time here. However, I know come March when I'm running around busy as can be, community time won't come often enough and siestas will be far and in between!
Anyway, I was welcomed into my Peruvian family's home last Friday with lots of hugs, bienvenidos, and a brand new room they built specially for me. Haynes and Rosa's home is lovely, it isn't much to the American eye, but to them it is perfect! The outside facade of the house is of red bricks, the inside walls are made of some kind of clay painted blue, their roof is made from bamboo support beams and aluminum sheets, the floor is dirt, the three kids, Gianelle, 15, Othmar, 13, and Irma, 7, all share a room, and Haynes and Rosa have to room in the addition to the main house next to the kitchen. The house is decorated with religious figures, five calendars, and random little pictures and things. They have an old tv, a new refrigerator, two buckets used to wash dishes, and a stone burning stove. The stove is probably my favorite, it's so intelligent, the stone has 6 holes in the top and a middle layer where they insert the wood to burn. They uncover only the holes where they want to cook something so all the heat goes there, just like a normal burner. The bathroom is outside but has running water between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm. After 6 pm they fill a bucket and leave it in the bathtub with a smaller bucket to use to pour water over yourself. My first shower this way was like ripping off a bandaid. I knew the water was gonna be freezing so kinda just have to go for it, pour it over yourself quick and don't think about how it feels. My "backyard" contains a large clothes line, an orange tree, lemon tree, 3 roosters, 4 ducks, 8 chickens, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 40 ginny pigs.
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So there's my new house! As for my time spent in this new house, it's mostly been spent, eating, sleeping, sweating, reading, eating, sleeping, studying Spanish, eating, and sleeping! I've also obtained 26 new mosquito bites on my legs, held chickens, ginny pigs, and toads. Gone on a couple little hikes to overlook the city and even more so the country side. The Sierras are so close it looks like we can touch them! They are beautiful and blue, rising 18,000 feet above Chulu, with solid green landscape leading up to them!
More funny Chulu observations:
This has got to be the loudest city in the entire world. Between the constant blaring music at all times of the day and night, the roosters, dogs, pigs, cows, and horses constantly talking, neighbors partying, trucks honking, motos honking, cars honking, loud mufflers, motorcycles, people building things, and rain on the steal roof top, it's impossible to sleep here. Good thing I attempt to often!
Chulu has the population of almost 45,000, however, you'd think it was closer to 45, with the amount that people talk, how quickly news spreads and how everyone knows everyone. For example, Friday we're going to our host families around 5:30 at night. The ladies at the Obispado warn us that we have to be very careful with our bags at this time of night especially on a moto. We nervously hail a moto and show him the three addresses. After looking at the paper for two seconds he tells us he knows exactly where these addresses are cause he was friends with the volunteers who lived in them last year.
My host mom is an amazing cook, but good thing I started liking fish and don't mind steak for breakfast?
So the Super Bowl was Sunday, right? Well, thanks to the invention of Skype we were able to watch it. Unfortunately, we had to leave the wifi before the game was over. Funny thing was no one ruined who won for me because no one in Chulu even knows what the Super Bowl is. However, Beyonce's performance did make national news the next day.
Lastly, mom and dad, I'm changing your professions! Trying to explain the point of an insurance company and what human resources is, in Spanish, to people that have never heard of such a thing is really difficult. Dad you are now a firefighter and mom you're a human assistant.
Anyway, I was welcomed into my Peruvian family's home last Friday with lots of hugs, bienvenidos, and a brand new room they built specially for me. Haynes and Rosa's home is lovely, it isn't much to the American eye, but to them it is perfect! The outside facade of the house is of red bricks, the inside walls are made of some kind of clay painted blue, their roof is made from bamboo support beams and aluminum sheets, the floor is dirt, the three kids, Gianelle, 15, Othmar, 13, and Irma, 7, all share a room, and Haynes and Rosa have to room in the addition to the main house next to the kitchen. The house is decorated with religious figures, five calendars, and random little pictures and things. They have an old tv, a new refrigerator, two buckets used to wash dishes, and a stone burning stove. The stove is probably my favorite, it's so intelligent, the stone has 6 holes in the top and a middle layer where they insert the wood to burn. They uncover only the holes where they want to cook something so all the heat goes there, just like a normal burner. The bathroom is outside but has running water between the hours of 6 am and 6 pm. After 6 pm they fill a bucket and leave it in the bathtub with a smaller bucket to use to pour water over yourself. My first shower this way was like ripping off a bandaid. I knew the water was gonna be freezing so kinda just have to go for it, pour it over yourself quick and don't think about how it feels. My "backyard" contains a large clothes line, an orange tree, lemon tree, 3 roosters, 4 ducks, 8 chickens, 2 dogs, 2 cats, and 40 ginny pigs.
.JPG)
.JPG)
So there's my new house! As for my time spent in this new house, it's mostly been spent, eating, sleeping, sweating, reading, eating, sleeping, studying Spanish, eating, and sleeping! I've also obtained 26 new mosquito bites on my legs, held chickens, ginny pigs, and toads. Gone on a couple little hikes to overlook the city and even more so the country side. The Sierras are so close it looks like we can touch them! They are beautiful and blue, rising 18,000 feet above Chulu, with solid green landscape leading up to them!More funny Chulu observations:
This has got to be the loudest city in the entire world. Between the constant blaring music at all times of the day and night, the roosters, dogs, pigs, cows, and horses constantly talking, neighbors partying, trucks honking, motos honking, cars honking, loud mufflers, motorcycles, people building things, and rain on the steal roof top, it's impossible to sleep here. Good thing I attempt to often!
Chulu has the population of almost 45,000, however, you'd think it was closer to 45, with the amount that people talk, how quickly news spreads and how everyone knows everyone. For example, Friday we're going to our host families around 5:30 at night. The ladies at the Obispado warn us that we have to be very careful with our bags at this time of night especially on a moto. We nervously hail a moto and show him the three addresses. After looking at the paper for two seconds he tells us he knows exactly where these addresses are cause he was friends with the volunteers who lived in them last year.
My host mom is an amazing cook, but good thing I started liking fish and don't mind steak for breakfast?
So the Super Bowl was Sunday, right? Well, thanks to the invention of Skype we were able to watch it. Unfortunately, we had to leave the wifi before the game was over. Funny thing was no one ruined who won for me because no one in Chulu even knows what the Super Bowl is. However, Beyonce's performance did make national news the next day.
Lastly, mom and dad, I'm changing your professions! Trying to explain the point of an insurance company and what human resources is, in Spanish, to people that have never heard of such a thing is really difficult. Dad you are now a firefighter and mom you're a human assistant.
Brit- this is so fun & educational to read,
ReplyDeleteand you are such a great writer! I love
it. What an incredible experience!
Thanks for sharing. Margie