First Day of Work

Hello there, beautiful blog readers!

Happy Dia de Trabajadores! The "Day of Workers" was actually officially celebrated yesterday, but many workers are given the day off today as an act of appreciation. Apparently, we at ProWorld have far too much to do to merit a day off, so "heigh ho, heigh ho," it's to work we went!

Laura kindly led the way to the ProWorld office so that I would know how to get there in the future, though I'm hoping that I'll be able to follow her the next couple of times. The ProWorld office in Cusco is quite nice, and a lovely shade of purple! On the first floor is a bathroom, a common area with some couches, a table with fruit, coffee, and tea, and a kitchen. On the second floor are three offices. One belongs to Nico and Lalo, two Peruvian employees, the former our "tech guy" and the latter a coordinator of many of our on-site projects. Another belongs to Milagros, called Mila, a very sweet lady who's the Peru Country Director. She's a pretty big deal, but also super nice and friendly. And the third office belongs to...drumroll, please...Laura and me! We have a cute little space with two tables and lots of outlets for our various electrical items. I'm glad that I like Laura so much, because it looks like we're going to be spending quite a bit of time together! On the third floor are three more rooms, one of which is an office shared by Eliza and Lauren. I'm not sure what the other rooms are for, but I'm sure I'll find out sometime soon.

When we first arrived at the office a little before 10 AM, we all sat down and had a meeting regarding the groups arriving in May. There are a LOT of groups coming to Cusco this "summer," so we really have to stay on top of things. One of the ways that we're doing this is by having certain people serve as "point persons" for certain groups. Tomorrow, a group of engineering students arrives from the University of Pittsburgh, and Lauren and I will be heading up most of their activities while they're here. Our first job is a 7:50 AM airport pick-up. Woot!

Amusingly, a lot of my responsibilities also involve taking students out to restaurants for group lunches and dinners. I can't complain too much about that. I'm hoping that I'll come across a few places that will become favorites. Outside of the lunch and dinner excursions, I'll be helping to lead, and eventually leading myself, arrival orientation sessions, in which students get the lowdown on what's okay and not okay to do in Cusco. Eliza and Lauren both kept unconsciously referring to the session as "don't drink the water, don't flush the toilet paper," which was pretty funny, but those are actually two very important pieces of advice! I've managed to go all the way until today without flushing any toilet paper, but this afternoon I forgot and flushed a tiny bit of it. I'm hoping I didn't ruin Peru's sewage filtration system or anything. :-) I'll also be going with student groups on their project excursions. For the Pittsburgh students, this will involve traveling to an indigenous community and helping to build a reservoir that will provide better water filtration for the people. For my next big group, PT and OT students from The College of St. Scholastica, I'll be working at a school for children with special needs. I'm especially excited for the education-oriented project, but I think the reservoirs will be cool too. I'm also really excited about meeting the students and getting to know them and find out what brought them to Cusco!

After our meeting and the dispersal of various responsibilities, we separated and got to work. My tasks for today were mostly administrative. I had to use our company sales software to compile student flight information, homestay lists, and such. Since I travel so often for work, I actually appreciate an easy day of doing computer tasks with my music playing and a cup of tea by my side. THANK GOD that I found Global Pandora. Such a lifesaver! I made a radio station based on the music of Ginny Owens, and I am pretty much blissful! Poor Laura got the rather unfortunate job of making 100+ copies of the handouts we'll be giving out for the summer students. As you might guess, things sometimes move a little slower in Peru, so Laura ended up spending almost the entire afternoon waiting for the copies to finish! She's a positive little bugger, though, and she kept a smile on her face!

At around 1:30, I went to lunch with Eliza, Lauren, and Eliza's roommate Jenny, who's super sweet. Jenny is originally from Chinchero, in the Sacred Valley, but has been in Cusco for a while now. Her first language is Quechua, but she also speaks excellent Spanish and pretty high quality English too! I'm pretty super impressed with her for that! We went to a restaurant that had the menu del dia for 5 soles. For those of you who find large portions for small prices impressive (cough*Paul Whitman*cough), 5 soles is about $2.00. So for $2.00, I got a three course meal consisting of an appetizer, a choice of two entrees, and a dessert. It's sort of frustrating to only have one option for most menu del dia options, but I guess for the price, they have to limit things somewhere. (Things could get crazy!) At this particular place, the first course was a sopa de semola, basically a soup made of semolina, the tiny grain often made into a flour and used in Italian cooking. The soup was topped with french fries, which was a weirdly yummy garnish, and I very much enjoyed it. For the second course, Eliza and Lauren bravely went for the albondigas (basically a meatball dish served with some kind of puree...potatoes maybe?), and Jenny and I went for the safer option of arroz con pollo (rice with chicken). The arroz con pollo was very good, and very flavorful, though unfortunately a tad bit cold. It was flavored with cilantro and peas and probably some other spices that I can't identify individually. The dessert looked like jello that had yet to set, and Lauren was the only person brave enough to try it. Her reaction was enough to keep the rest of us from even a bite! On our walk back to the office, I was feeling super full, even though I hadn't finished my soup or my arroz con pollo, but the other girls decided to get ice creams. It's very strange how much my appetite has diminished since I've arrived here, and I'm interested to see if it will last considering the amount of walking that I'm doing. I feel like I ought to be much hungrier than I am! For about half an hour after eating, I felt pretty nauseous and uncomfortable, but I just sat and did some work and slowly started to feel better. I'm hoping that I won't feel that way every time I eat Peruvian food, but at least the feeling passed. Maybe I should count that as another victory...?

After lunch, I finished my tasks, and headed out to the street. San Borja, the neighborhood where the office is located, isn't exactly the picture of safety, so I was a little nervous walking around, especially because it was pretty isolated. But I headed to the nearest busy street, where I hailed a cab to the grocery store on the Avenida del Sol. There, I bought some bleach (to decontaminate fruits and vegetables from the market), some cereal, some toilet paper, and a bottle of shampoo and conditioner. It's interesting to see what items are expensive and inexpensive here in Peru. Shampoo and conditioner are definitely on the expensive list. I think they cost upwards of $6 a bottle for standard-sized Pantene Pro-V! Other things, though, like laundry detergent and beans and cab rides and nuts, are quite cheap. Go figure!

After my trip through the grocery store, I headed home, where I proceeded to cook (and partially burn) some popcorn. I also decided to risk using the laundry machine, which was giving Laura some issues a few days ago. Thankfully, I think that having watched her suffer made me something of an expert, and I've had no troubles so far (knock on wood!). I have to hang the clothes to dry, as dryers are very uncommon here, which is no problem except that I'm not sure if our little patio has a light or if I'll be hanging my clothes in darkness. I shall find out shortly! :-)

The highlight of my day came at 8 PM, when I got to Skype with my parents! I'd been avoiding it a little bit for the past few days because I knew that I would likely break down in tears if I spoke to them, but I'm feeling better each day and our conversation was so nice. It was wonderful to hear their voices, and Gram's voice too! They also spoke briefly to Laura, and the parties all became quite enthralled with each other, as is to be expected when two lovely groups of people meet!

Currently, I'm half-watching "Titanic" en espanol, and preparing to hang my laundry and enjoy a nice cup of tea before an early day tomorrow. I'm hoping to find some time tomorrow to get to a cafe called The Meeting Place. I actually came across it by chance on the internet, while looking for high altitude baking recipes. One of the results came from the blog of a missionary here in Cusco! It turns out that she works for a missionary group that runs a cafe providing American fare for people who might be a tad bit tired of the local cuisine. Their website also boasts an extensive tea collection, and I'm most drawn to it for that and for the chance to meet some of the missionaries who live and work in Cusco. In a country that considers itself 90% Catholic, I'm interested to know about the sort of outreach in which they engage and what their particular goals are. Judging by my conversation with the pedicurist of a few days ago, many (most?) Peruvians don't go to church regularly, but still consider themselves very religious because of their regular reading of the Bible and their attempts to live moral lives. While I wouldn't call this ideal, I also wouldn't call it horrific, so Cusco seems to present an interesting environment for a missionary. Anyway, I'm excited to get there and see what's up!

It's going to be a busy week with the Pittsburgh students, and I'm excited to share my adventures with all of you!

Sleep well!