Weekly Report Dec. 3-10

Monday Dec. 3

Found out last night that I will be volunteering at a hospital for the next month. I heard Sunday that we would be volunteering. I thought it was just going to be for a day. As the rotary officials that brought us to thehospital were talking to the head doctor I overheard them saying that "these students are at your disposal everyday for the month of December." It isn't a bad thing, but it would have been nice to know beforehand. Plus theplace that we are volunteering at is really far away, a two US dollar taxi ride which is crazy for here. I needto talk to Rotary about this because I don't have that money to spare. Things at the hospital went alright. It was a bit unnerving at first. It is located in the outskirts of the city.As we walked into the office I didn't notice that many of the peopel that we saw had something in common. As wecame to the first doctors office I noticed that the sign on the door said "Gynocologist"... I then noticed what most of the people around me had in common. They were either pregnant or holding their newborn babies. Commentary:

Me: (In my head) WHAT THE **** ARE WE GONNA BE DOING HERE?!?!?!

That day we ended up just going to this other place where we distributed packets of food and milk to people on the hospital's welfare plan. It was nice but they really didn't need our help so it was boring. Oh yeah and I learnedthat we would be doing this volunteering from 7:30 to 1:30 every day for all of December.

Tuesday Dec. 4

Hospital again today. Got a tour of the place. First we walked into a room where they were reading off reportsof the status of the births that had taken just the night before. Then we went to several other rooms. We basically just walked around for a while seeing all of the rooms of the hospital so that we would have an idea of where everything was. That was about all we did. They really don't have much for us to do there, but since Rotary "Knows the people who run it we have to go there". I am going to ask about working somewhere closer because there is a place where I could volunteer. The taxi ride costs me two dollars a day just to go there,which sounds like very little but when I could spend 20 cents to get to the place that is closer it puts it morein perspective. A two dollar taxi ride here is a half an hour, and a half an hour in a city is a lot. That isone thing that I have gotten used to a bit here. If I have to ride in a taxi for more than 10 minutes somethingis "really far away". In the states 15 minutes to anywhere was a regular thing. Anywho, normal day.

Wednesday Dec. 5

Boring. Hospital, didn't have anything for us to do so we were assigned to be with a doctor for a few hours beforeheading off to get to know some of the area around the hospital. I went into my doctors office, she told me towait there for a minute, and came back half an hour later. Then she left again for about ten minutes. After she had a couple of patients, nothing serious because she deals with minor illness, and after that it was over. We walked around Mariano Melgar, the area that the hospital is located in, up to a white statue of Christ on the top of a small hill. From there we had a nice view of the city. It was a different kind of view though. From where we were we saw much more of the poor community. Houses without a roof or water, some with limited electricity,all walls made from random rocks.

Thursday Dec. 6

Lame day, except for that I got to go to the gym again. With volunteering at the hospital it's hard to get to thegym now.

Friday Dec. 7

Volunteering at the hospital, did an event with lots of kids today to promote brushing their teeth. Went with some friends from the University to eat and chill. Ended up being a really good time. Bday BBQ of another exchanger.Didn't stay out too late because I was tired, and I knew that I would be going out Saturday too.

Saturday Dec. 8

Lazy day. I'm going to go to a BBQ type thing tonight at around five o'clock. I bet that will be a good time. Other than that just a normal Saturday. While I was writing this a friend called and reminded me that his family had invited me to lunch! So guess what... I finally ate guinnea pig. It was... an experience to say the least. So we pull into this place and start walkingup to the eating area. It's really full because it is Saturday, the day when the guinnea pigs are fresh. So wewalk to a different eating area, and we pass this wire line where about 8 or 9 skinned guinnea pics are hanging.That was a little weird. So then we go in and order, and the food comes just about right after we order. You really can't prepare yourself for it all. I had heard that the head was still on and all of the feet and all, butit was still a little weird to see. I was thinking that it would be pretty thick, between 4 and 6 inches, but no...it's pretty flat. Literally everything is there minus the fur. Head, teeth, claws, everything. Including the inside. All of the organs are still there. It's really difficult to eat with a fork and knife so you've got to just grab it and eat. It tasted good, but there isn't that much meat on it and it's difficult to get off, so there is a lot of work involved and after you really aren't that satisfied. However, my appetite wasn't quiteas large throughout so it wasn't too much of a problem. Anyway after that little experience I went to a BBQ. That ended up being really fun. Me and some friends all pitched in a few bucks for a bunch of meat, potatoes, and drinks. We invited a whole bunch of girls from this oneschool and all had a really good time. Once they arrived we threw on the meat and potatoes and made some amazingfood. We talked, ate, and played a bunch of games. Then at around eleven o'clockwe went to the center. There I met some other friends from the University. We made a few different groups and parted. I went to this club that I hadn't been to yet. It was great, definately the best one that I have been to in Peru. Lizzie arrives in about a week so I'm sure that I will be back there before too long.

Sunday Dec. 9

Very lazy Sunday. Didn't really do anything all day but rest and get caught up with a few things on the puter. I went to the mall to buy mouthwash but that was about it.

Pretty good week. Uneventful but still a very good week. Saturday and a couple hours in the wee hours of Sunday morning really made the week. Friday too. The fact that friends called me to go out to eat and invited me to a BBQ really meant a lot. I told them that we should do things like that more often. It costed me three dollarsand thirty cents for the BBQ, which was an amazing time and the food was incredible, and going to the center costedme five dollars. A crazy and amazing night for less than ten dollars? That's pretty good I'd say. I'm hopingthat I'm really busy for the next few weeks especially so I can't think about what I'm missing in the US. Sure, I'm doing things for the first time and shouldn't think too much about home, but it's not that easy.

Hope everyone is doing well.
Love,
Jack