pt. 3

There’s daily life, and like in Austria there are always things happening during that. It is never just the same every day, and especially here there are lots of events and holidays (even though we don’t really attend many of them).
Last week we had a big party at our school. It was “Children’s Day”, and of course there were no classes. But nevertheless we went to school, even earlier than usual, because we were supposed to prepare fruit salad (that was sponsored by our organization) for all the kids. So Maria and I, and our two English teachers sat in the classroom and cut fruits for hours – you need a lot of fruits if you want to make 200 kids happy. Outside everybody was waiting since the whole party would start with that fruit salad. It was quite some work, but we had fun and the fruits were delicious! When we finished there was a short speech about AUFWIND and then we served the fruit salad. After that our “work” was over and we could enjoy the party. Everybody was gathered on chairs in the yard, there was a clown, music and all kinds of snacks and drinks were given out to the children (we also helped with that, and so I learned how to serve 15 cups of chicha morada at once). There was a lot of dancing (it’s amazing how even the young Peruvians can dance already) and it was just a big, crazy party. It was definitely one of the moments where I just felt happy to be able to be here, and experience this country and its people.
In the afternoon we had a little adventure, which was to change the gas bottle that runs our stove. We just wanted to cook and enjoy our free afternoon, when the stove just stopped working and we realized we were out of gas. Julia was still in Lima, so we were by ourselves and those gas bottles are kind of suspicious to me. We called her, and asked what to do, and talking on the phone in Spanish is something I really don’t like to do. But then we decided to try our best, and find a place where they sell those bottles – how to change it was another story. But we got lucky, and besides that everybody laughed at the two gringas trying to buy gas, everything turned out to be easy. The guy from the store took us back to our house, in a minivan full of gas (not scary at all) and changed the bottle for us. I’m really glad I didn’t have to touch that thing, and that our adventure had a good ending, including some delicious broccoli soup after we were able to use the stove again.

That weekend we had a long weekend because of some holiday and whenever we have time like that we try to use at least one day kind of “productive”. Since on Saturday we had a lot to do for work and were kinda stressed out because there was a lot going on we had to deal with, we went out at night. Our Argentinian couchsurfer was also here for another night, but he didn’t come with us.
And like it usually is after going out in Peru, Sunday ended up as being a really lazy, sleepy day. Only in the afternoon we went to get some hangover food (French fries, piccarones, and a strawberry milkshake) and went a little restaurant to hang out with our couchsurfer, who had just watched an important Argentinian soccer game. Later I went to the hostel, because one of my friends had just gotten back from Lima and it’s been a while since I’d been there (usually I hang out there quite a lot).
But on Monday we had planned to go hiking, and we actually got up early and took a colectivo to that small village, where I started my hike the first time too. The weather was perfect, which is something that doesn’t happen very often anymore since rain season has started and it usually rains every day in the afternoon, and it gets more and more, so nights and mornings are rainy too.
Anyway, on that day there was no single cloud in the sky, and we were happy to have some time we could use to go up into the mountains. After a while we reached the entrance of the Huascaran National Park and from there on it was supposed to be only 1 ½ hours more to a nice lake. We got up pretty high in altitude, and walking got more and more exhausting – and after more than two hours there was still no sign of the lake. We were exhausted, and not knowing how much further we had to walk didn’t make it better. But after a while we finally reached a little house, and a sign pointing out a small path up to the lake. We were so glad we finally got there (we were about to turn around..) and the lake, though it was small, was really pretty. The water had a unique color of some milky-turquoise and right behind it was a snowy mountain reaching up into the sky. Exhausted as we were, we first sat down and ate our lunch. The we went to the little sign that gave information about the lake and the altitude – kind of proud we realized that we got up higher than Austria’s highest mountain, and even for Peru 4,500 m are not that bad. But you could definitely feel the altitude – the air was thin and it got cold. When we were about to leave and go back to Huaraz, we ran into some friends from Lima that were spending their long weekend here and with who we already went out and played a huge game of Jenga (the one who loses has to drink a shot of coca liquor) a few days before. They had just gotten to the lake, and were here with their car and some food. So we decided to stay a little longer, since they could also take us back and we wouldn’t have to walk another 5 hours. We played a game, and started to cook until it got really cold, and rain and hail were starting to fall. Our attempt to build a shelter wasn’t too successful, and so we decided to go to the little house and see if we could go in. The keeper of the house was very nice, and let us come in and finish our cooking in his kitchen. We ate, and then realized that it was time to go back. Even though everybody was cold, and we had to sit tight in the back of the car, it was a great day and we had lots of fun.

The rest of the week was quiet, and there wasn’t even really much to do at school because the village where the school is was celebrating its anniversary and only a few kids came to school. So on Wednesday we gave up teaching 5 children after 20 minutes and on Friday we put two classes together because there were only so few students.
On the weekend we for once did something else than only going out, because we were invited for a “late brunch” by Maria’s Spanish teacher. We had chips and guacamole, and some Apfelstrudel (this time it already turned out better than last time) and it was nice to be around some girls instead of hanging out with guys all the time. So we had a really nice evening.
But still, I’m hanging out at the hostel a lot, and it’s fun to talk to all different kinds of people from all over the world. We can also borrow books there, which makes me a happy person – so when I’m at home I got something to do besides writing and drawing and sleeping. But it’s actually really nice to have those quiet days too, like today, where it’s been raining pretty much all day and I’m just sitting in my bed with a cup of tea and some music. It’s great when you have nothing else to do, and the stress at work also got a little better.
Good life! J

chacas, peru

Just for a two-day-vacation, and to see something different, I got up early and went to the bus station to go to Chacas. I was the only gringa, and I felt a little nervous, because I knew that we had to go through mountain roads and Peruvian buses are pretty rusty. It also didn’t calm me down that we had to put down our fingerprints before entering the bus.
And it turned out that my feeling was right. After a little while the bus stopped in the middle of the road and they had to fix something at the tire. But then we went on and after a while I lost my anxiety.
We went up serpentines, on one side the Huascaran and on the other side other snow-capped peaks.
And then, in a turn, the bus suddenly stopped. And then it started to roll down backwards, the breaks not working.
I already saw the bus falling down, but the driver managed to turn it and so we “only” crashed backwards into a wall. Everybody was scared and we got off the bus as fast as possible.
We were in the middle of nowhere, no phone service, not far from the Olympic pass but we didn’t know how far exactly it was. And it was cold, all that happened at an altitude of about 4,500 m.
The drivers started to work on the bus, but there was no way I would get on that vehicle again. Fortunately some other people shared this opinion and we decided to start walking – the view was amazing, there was nothing but the highest mountains of Peru. Some cars came by, but most of them were already full.
After about an hour, a guy from Lima and I found room in the trunk of a car, together with a third person. It was definitely not the most comfortable way to travel, but I by now I could already laugh about the whole situation and it was better than walking for another 4 hours. And we did arrive safely in the little town of Chacas, paying our new driver as it is the habit in Peru for a ride.
When I got to Chacas, I didn’t know what to do at first, and I didn’t see the guy from Argentina anywhere. But the town has a really nice main square, so I sat down and ate, and after that I walked around a little. After a while I ran into the Argentinian guy by accident and together we broght my stuff to the hostel.
The rest of the day I didn’t do much. We went to eat at a small restaurant – in Peru there are many options for a really cheap lunch menu. You get soup (I don’t because it usually has chicken in it) and then a huge portion of some meat or fish and rice and potatoes. Other than that I just walked around, read or drew, and after watching the sunset I had some good Peruvian chocolate cake.
Chacas is a very pretty but also quiet town, and people here seem to have no worries. But they’re also not used to gringos, and I don’t think they cared much.
But still, just what I needed to get out of Huaraz and relax for a little bit.
I only spent one night in Chacas before going back home, and I was quite nervous when entering the bus and going back on the mountain roads. But I made it back safely!

pt. 2 - huaraz, peru

When I arrived in Huaraz, I was the only AUFWIND-Volunteer.
On my second day, I was still feeling terrible because of the altitude and the long journey, but two of the teachers already took me to a school event in Wilcawain, another 500m up.
I had no idea what to do, and I didn’t understand much Spanish at that time. But the teachers talked to the coordinator of the school and told me that classes would start next week – so I had a few days to settle, which I really needed.
Those first days were quiet, but Julia started to show me around Huaraz. We went to the market on the street, the supermarket, the main square, the Feria Artesana and some other places. Most things are in walking distance from the house, but in the beginning every meter was exhausting for me and I had to drink a lot of coca tea to make my headache go away. And in Huaraz too, eventhough it’s a lot smaller than Lima, impressions are endless.
The moment when the sun goes down behind the mountains.
The Peruvian women, very many of them wearing traditional Peruvian clothing, doing their laundry at the riverside.
The food you can buy on the street – only a few things are vegetarian, but there’s just so much I still don’t know.
The market, where you can buy anything from fruits, vegetables, meat over clothing to housewares, and that is always colorful and full of people (in the beginning, every time I went to the market I forgot what I wanted to buy because there’s just so much).
The traffic, chaotic and loud, but still much better than in Lima.
The fiestas, parades and shoots that take place every weekend, and on some weekdays too.
The main street, full of stores and people.
The many dogs on street, all different kinds you can imagine.
The bars, drunk people and salsa music on weekend nights.
So – it’s a lot. And it took me while to get used to all of it.
Most people here are poor, and you can see that especially when you go a little out of the city, to the small villages in the mountains. Many things are very traditional and basic, for example agriculture. Animals are used as working animals, and so you see lots of donkeys and cows, but also sheep and pigs. Clothes are all washed by hand, many roads are unpaved, and water is cold. There a lots of little stores (tiendas) and usually people just live in the back of the sales room, behind a door. Also many people sell their own vegetables and fruits on the streets (usually only women) and they carry incredible weights in their colorful cloths.

After about a week, Patrick came back and now I wasn’t alone with Julia anymore and also had someone to talk to. That wasn’t good for my Spanish because I learned a lot with Julia, but it was also good to be able to have a normal conversation.
We got along very well, and since we kinda have our own house (Julia just comes by sometimes and we eat or drink wine together) we were independent and Patrick explained to me some other important things in Huaraz. We cooked a lot, watched movies (bought on the street, for 2,50 Soles), walked around and most of the time we went to bed early.
The house we live in is small, but we have everything we need. Two bedrooms, a kitchen/living room, a bathroom and a rooftop where we have a cage for our cuys and a couch. The stove is a gas stove, and the bottle full of gas is right next to it. We always have to turn the bottle off after cooking because otherwise that nice smell of gas fills the kitchen pretty fast. The best thing is probably our mixer – super old and retro orange, and perfect for making soups or banana milk shakes. We also have a TV, which we don’t really use, with a few Peruvian channels where they show weird game shows, and sometimes also movies in Spanish. We have no heater, so sometimes I gets pretty cold in the house and warm socks are definitely needed. The shower works, but you have to be lucky to have warm and a lot of water (I’m so glad I cut my dreads!) and also in the kitchen there is no hot water. The water we drink, we have to cook first (in a nice, whistling teapot). So I got used to drinking warm water, because we always have to consider our “water cooking times” in our day planning which we still forget sometimes.
It’s basic, there’s no dishwasher or fridge or a big mirror – but you get used to things like that fast.
Julia is not here most of the time, and so it really is kinda my first own house, which is pretty cool.

When I had my first day in class I was happy that Patrick was still here. It was a couple days later than originally planned (things like that are just normal here, plans change) and I didn’t know what to expect, since I’d never done anything like this before.  So I was quite nervous to stand in front of a Spanish-speaking bunch of kids and teach. But there are some things you just have to do, to learn that they’re not as scary as they seem at first. The AUFWIND-teachers organized a meeting with all the other teachers of the school and we arranged the schedules for the English classes.
Then we had our first class – in this one I was mostly quiet and watched, but the next time we went to school, I already dared to teach a little myself.
The school is something you would never see in Austria. A small, cold building with 3 classrooms and a “room” for the teachers (it really is just a place with two desks, surrounded by some closets which separate it from the hallway). The rest of the classes are outside, surrounding a little yard and you can’t even really call them rooms. Walls and roofs are made of wood and corrugated metal, they don’t have a floor and between wall and roof is a hole through which you can see the sun shining (or in future, probably it will be a nice entrance for some rain). There is no electricity in the classrooms nor do we have running tap water – there is a little creek behind one of the classrooms. There are no computers, TV’s or anything like that. The kids come from poor families and most of them only have basic school utensils – a booklet, a pencil, maybe some color pencils too, and some of them have to walk for over an hour to get to school.
We teach 6 different grades, and of each are two classes (but most of them are together). And the way it works, is that the teachers prepare class and do the main part of explaining – we volunteers help them, practice pronunciation, draw and write on the board. When the kids have to do something themselves we all walk through class, help them or answer questions if they don’t know what to do. All this was very new for me, especially being called “profesóra” and correcting their work, but now I’m already pretty used to it.
Teaching is exhausting, but it’s fun and now the kids got used to me being in class too (in the beginning they were always talking about me, which wasn’t very helpful for my self-confidence) and when I come in the morning they are happy to see me and come over to give me a hug.
They are amazingly cute, willing to learn, and some of them are really smart. With “our” teachers I get along very well too, and I really like what I’m doing.

But it took a while until everything started to go as smooth and regularly as it does now (if you can ever call something in Peruvian life regularly). In my first couple weeks I was sick a lot and my weeks were chaotic because of that.  It’s also not a very good feeling when you have fever for two days and don’t really know why and what would help. I lost a lot of weight and my body got weak – and every time I started to feel better I got sick again. There were days where I felt good, but in the beginning they were rare – I always had something. Also I had to organize a lot for the school (that’s the disadvantage of working for a small organization – you don’t just work for it, you kind of are the organization), still many things were new to me and not having a rhythm is exhausting.
But on the good days I went to explore with Patrick (or by myself), and I didn’t even notice how many things started to get normal to me.
For example the busride to the school in a full colectivo on a bumpy, unpaved road. Or doing my laundry by hand with cold water and only sometimes having a hot shower with more than a few drops of water. After about two weeks we were together in Huaraz, Patrick left because he was going back to Austria. Julia was in Lima too, and so I had the house for myself for a few days (in which I was sick).
But at school we had regular classes by now, just interrupted by the many fiestas that take place all the time (people here really like to celebrate) and I was at a point where I felt like I was now living my other, Peruvian life, far away from Austria. I was used to many things here (of course there’s still a lot that’s new to me), my Spanish got better, I knew the streets I needed, knew which Internet station was best to go to and I stopped caring about people staring at me and calling me “gringa” – I just felt like now I had really arrived in my new home.
When Maria, the new volunteer, came with Julia all these things got even clearer to me because now I was the one showing her around and explaining some Peruvian specialties.
In the beginning living with her was totally different that living with Patrick, but after a few days we got used to each other, and now everything is working out pretty good. We got a second key so we can come and go without depending on each other, but we also spend a lot of time together. Cooking works great, we always have new ideas about what to make and we also had some good Kaiserschmarrn and Apfelstrudel already (which isn’t the easiest thing to make without scales, but we’re masters by now).
My life here has also gotten pretty busy – school, and also work in the afternoon, writing emails and reports, shopping, cooking, cleaning, friends, and so on.
We also go out quite a lot, with two Peruvians who I met through a swiss girl who was working in a hotel here in my first weeks. They are fun, and they also speak English. Here people drink a lot, and the music in the “discotecas” is very different – it’s probably very funny when gringos try to dance to salsa music.
When we don’t go out to party, we go out to eat or just hang out at the hostel, which belongs to the family of one of my friends and is very nice.
There were weeks where I really didn’t have much time to relax, which is exhausting but also good because that way I don’t have much time to think about Austria. I like being here, and Huaraz really feels like home now.

On one of my free days, I decided to get out of the city and go hiking for a little bit. I didn’t really have a plan where I was going , so I just took a (full) colectivo to a small village I already knew, and started walking from there. I hardly saw any people, all that was around me were mountains, the sun and the sounds I made. The landscape was gorgeous and I really enjoyed having this day for myself.
A few days later, we had a couchsurfer from Argentina stay at our place for two days – we showed him around a little bit (feels weird to show someone around in a city where everybody thinks you’re a tourist yourself) and on Sunday afternoon Maria and I made Apfelstrudel and also had another friend and Julia come over to eat – Austrian food with international guests, and since there was almost nothing left I guess they liked it.
The next day the couchsurfer left for Chacas, a small village on the other side of the Cordillera Blanca, and I decided to go there too, just a day later.

pt. 1 - lima

Now I’ll finally try to write a summary of my time in Peru, the first five weeks I’ve been living here. That’s not an easy thing to do, but I’ll try my best to give an impression of how life is here and what I’ve been doing.

When I left Austria at the end of August, I only knew that I was going to go to Lima first. But I didn’t know where I would stay, and I had no idea of how Lima was and what I’d have to expect.
Fortunately, when I was waiting for my connecting flight in Panama City, it turned out that Julia (AUFWIND’s “mama peruana”) could pick me up at the airport and that I could stay at her house in Lima before we would go to Huaraz together.
So after I got my luggage and went through immigration (I was glad everything went well), I was happy to find her waiting at the airport and we took a taxi to her house. My first impression of Lima was incredible – first you have to negotiate about the price of the taxi, and then we drove on a gigantic, dusty street with huge holes in it, everybody in old cars where you would think that they fall apart every second. And they drive like crazy, honk all the time and it’s just like the stronger one wins. I was tired and overwhelmed, had no idea where we were going and Julia kept talking to me in Spanish.
When we got to the house, I went to sleep (which I did a lot in the following days) and after a while Patrick, the other volunteer, arrived in Lima too. Luckily his Spanish was better than mine and he knew Julia because he’d been here for two months already. Together with Julia we had a big dinner – she’s a great cook and plates are always stuffed with food, but I don’t think she’s too happy about me being a vegetarian.
I also managed to go to an “internet station” (thanks to Patrick haha) – a mostly dark place with a bunch of computers where you pay per half an hour. In Peru they are at every corner and you always see kids playing games because only few people have a computer or internet at home.

On my second day in Lima I already went to my first Peruvian fiesta. I could barely get out of bed, but I’m glad I didn’t miss it, because it’s quite different than in Austria (I don’t know what isn’t).
It was the baptism of a son off some relatives of Julia. After church we went to a place they rented (it was a rather rich family) – I felt like the decoration was totally out of place compared to what’s going on on the streets. We waited until everybody was here and I thought then we would finally eat (it was getting quite late). But no, now only people started to do speeches and I didn’t understand a word. Only some snacks were given to us and when they were finally done with the speeches every woman (yes, me too) had to dance with the baptized baby (yes, in front of everybody that was there) and pictures were taken in every family and non-family constellation possible.
More snacks and beer, and everybody started dancing. Every table got bottles of beer, but for drinking there is only one glass. One person drinks, and then the next and so on. And the music was a very interesting mix between Peruvian rythms and Gangnam Style.
The actual dinner came a few hours later and, how could it be different, it was cuy (guinea pig). A whole one, on a plate next to potatoes – definitely a thing you have to get used to.

The next days in Lima were calm, I didn’t do very much because I was tired and every time I left the house I came back exhausted. Like taking a bus to a place – you wait at the side of the street and the first challenge is to find out which bus is the right one. Destinations are yelled by the conductor and written on the side of the bus, but you have to be fast. The bus stops wherever people want to get on or off, and they can’t be stuffed enough. In Lima it can also happen that people try to sell sweets or other things on the bus, or play music. The streets are crazy, big, loud and dusty and just looking out the window and seeing the poor neighbourhoods full of people, and then suddenly skyscrapers of American companies or nicer neighbourhoods with restaurants and tourists overwhelmed me with impressions.

Everything was new, everything was different, and I didn't know anything.
Patrick left for Cusco after two days, so I was alone with Julia and my little knowledge of the Spanish language. But it’s the best way to learn, and in those days I my Spanish got a lot better. It’s still pretty basic, but compared to how it was when I arrived it’s great ;)

But still, I was happy when we left for Huaraz after four days in Lima – it was just enough for the beginning.
We took a bus, one of the cheap one’s that are used by locals, and started our eight-hour-journey up into the Andes. The bus was a little rusty and sometimes I was scared it wouldn’t make it, but the scenery is amazing. First along the coast, then to the east, through villages and cities and a lot of farmland. And then up, mountain roads, only small villages with few houses, animals on the streets, long distances with no houses and a whole different vegetation.

Huaraz is at an altitude of a little over 3000m, and you can feel that. When we arrived, I was tired, had a headache and felt like my whole body was aching. But from the first moment I kinda liked the city, maybe also because it’s a lot smaller than Lima and not as crazy. We could walk from the bus to the house, which has a nice little courtyard and a roof-deck with a great view, especially at sunset. Julia showed me the house, which is very basic but enough to live, and my room is nice too.
Since the sun was already going down when we arrived, it was time to go to bed for me, filled with the curiosity of how everything here would be like.

More will be on here soon