I've been spending most of my weekday mornings working as tech support for a small business that helps disabled citizens in the area. I've been fixing printers, installing drivers for USB so they no longer have to use floppy disks, and working on getting the internet up and running! In the afternoons I have been looking into some longer term projects I might be able to do. Right now if I can find some funding, I'm hoping I'll be able to work in rural areas to install clean burning wood stoves in houses who basically cook with indoor camp fires and no ventilation causing all sorts of respiratory and eye problems.
Before
After
After discussing volunteer opportunities with my program director, he introduced me to the rest of the volunteers working in Cusco this summer. All college students from the U.S. 13 girls and 1 other guy...Rough life for me, I know! The next day was time for my first salsa lesson with the group...let's just say I need to practice a bit more...my hips don't move quite as well as Shakira's just yet!
After returning to my house I told my "mom and sister" my embarrassing salsa tale. After I finished, they broke out a CD player telling me they would help me out, and boy did I need it! We had quite a few laughs (mostly them doing the laughing) and by the end of our 2 and a half hour dancing session, my other brother and sister were in on the act too...we kind of had an impromptu salsa dancing party at the house! It was a first for me as that definitely doesn't happen back home!
Aside from people laughing at me while dancing, the family also got a pretty good laugh when I attempted to wash my clothes by hand for the first time in my life! I guess I'm not a natural at that either! The laughing continued when I attempted to say my program director "he" wants me to do something. After mixing up a few pronouns I ended up telling my host family that I "want" my program director, sweet, now my family thinks I like men and I do drugs!
Washin' Clothes
Aside from that, I think I've been getting along pretty well with the language, which was my biggest concern before leaving the states. Now my biggest daily dilemma is weather or not to take a shower. I know I mentioned before that the showers here were cold...they haven't gotten any better, especially when you take them at night. 55 degree water mixed with 40 degree air in the bathroom makes for a bad combination! The showers along with the little dance I have to do in order to get myself psyched up for the shower are two things I don't think I'll ever get used to! More to come soon…
Until next time, keep livin’ the dream!
This reads like a letter to your grandma. I want to hear about all the gross stuff. Post a picture of where you go poop or at least something interesting like an itemized list of all the cute girls you've seen.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I was in salsa club in high school so I might be able to give you some pointers. But I really only ever went for the free mexican food.
Dude, from somebody who understands cold showers, they never get any better. The only option is to do something to get really hot and sweaty beforehand so that the cold actually feels good...
ReplyDeleteyou have a real nack for using exclamation points. Are you really that excited all the time? Hope you're having fun, good luck with the ladies.
ReplyDeleteupdate more often! I'm bored here in St. Louis and all I have to do is keep up on the blogs of all my cools friends doing cool things this summer! But seriously, if you have to wash your clothes by hand, you probably dont have awesome access to the internet, so I understand. Sounds like you're having a good time! Congrats and things going well with the language. Proud of you! And alos, for having hips and a butt like I do, I can't salsa dance worth crap. So I'm sure you're better than me.
ReplyDeleteLove Da