On my way to legs of steel

My community lies at the foot of the mountains. To get to the PC training center from here I have to climb up about 8 sets of stairs and walk uphill. It takes me about 20 minutes. I have one of the farthest walks of anyone else in my training group. Especially in the mornings and when I arrive at the training center, I feel like I got delt a bad deal. Many of you probably don`t know this, but I bought a new pair of black plastic frame glasses before I came, and I have worn them every day but once. When I arrive at the center, they are foggy and slide down my nose. I feel like a big dork and think, ¨I hate my walk!¨ (I`m not thinking in Spanish yet, apparently.) However, I will have legs of steel. Considering the fact that it is the only exercise I get besides for the 10 minutes of pushups and side bends I did yesterday, I should consider myself lucky. Plus, my host mom gives me just the right amount of food. Even though I usually buy some chocolate cookies to supplement my diet, I think I`m keeping thin and am super fit right now.

Other reasons why I really like my walk is that our twists and turns on the way to the center take me through very different neighborhoods. Some are nice and some are full of trash and rubble. We cross two bridges, and when we do, we can smell the algae, trash and polluted water below. The amount of trash in the low-volume rivers and along the steep river banks is astounding. Rivers are sometimes seen as an asset to a community for its aesthetic and spiritual purposes. However, these rivers are at the same time a garbage dump and a place to wash clothes for the people who live along the mountains. This happens despite the fact that there are garbage trucks that collect trash throughout the entire community, even up the mountains. There are even government employees who pick up trash along the streets, but not along the river, which would be difficult because of the rocks.

Today, we spent the day learning about various community analysis tools. One included walking around our communities to make observations. My group took this opportunity to see the rest of our community. First, we walked along the streets that we live on. There are very cute houses painted in different bright colors: blues, yellows (like the church), whites, pinks, oranges, greens. My house is a bit darker than lime green. There are sidewalks lined with greenery such as cacti, sparse desert trees and grass. The street outside my house is right next to the train tracks. The train is LOUD. Sometimes I feel like it is going to run over my house. Word has it that there is one conductor who likes to honk the damn horn before, during and after arriving here, non-stop. I can confirm that. He deserves to get fired. The wonderful thing about my street, though, is that along the train tracks the government tends to a little bit of grass, flowers and random trees that gets cut into the shapes of different animals. Some look like alpaca (a very important Peruvian animal like a llama), pigs and an anteater. There are pretty benches everywhere along this nice cement road for people to sit. It`s tranquil until the damn train comes.

So that`s where we live. But of course, there is a WHOLE lot more to our community. I didn`t realize how much more there was until we did our little analysis walk. We went with one girl`s host brother. We caught him playing pool in the middle of the day even though he is in his mid-twenties and is responsible for a child`s existence somewhere out there. Up the mountain we went, up through a narrow pathway lined by high brick walls, up alongside a flock of schoolchildren in their navy blue and white uniforms (skirts for girls, pants for boys, of course), up past a big hole of rubble where there was supposed to be a big supermarket but due to money issues, it`s now a big hole of rubble. And then we realized that this is a bustling town in itself, complete with lots of streets, stores, restaraunts, very nice houses, nice houses, poor houses, half-missing houses, scrap metal shacks, a school, a makeshift church, factories for beds, auto body shops and even a small plaza and a sports rink where they play fùtbol, of course. I used to look up the mountain and see maybe 5 rows of poor houses and no people. What a new world I found right outside my doorstep! As we climbed the loose, unpaved roads, the children stared eagerly, completely confused about who were were and why we were in their little community. Some kept staring shyly at us after we said our ¨Hola,¨ others squealed a little response back, and one courageous boy even stepped in front of me to ask me my name. If I were mayor of that town, the first thing I would work on was to pave the roads. There were many times I thought I was going to slip and then I would fall all the way down the mountain. I`m sure it gets more easy to maneuveur the longer you live there, but if you`re sick or you need to run, forget about it. Also, there are dangerous floods here when it rains called, ¨huaycos,¨ which are like a torrent of lava running down a volcano. The huaycos are a huge stream of viscous muddy water, rocks, big rocks, litter, roofs, kitchens, houses, cars, dogs, and sometimes even people. It has not rained here in 3 years. I guess that is both a blessing and a curse (since their underground water supply is drying up).

In summary, I had a completely exhausting day today. We walked to and from the center 3 times and also walked along a good chunk of my hidden community. I even started off the day doing a skit with a fellow trainee and a discussion with our group. We are the first two to have facilitated anything among the trainees, and I think it went relatively well.

Oh, and I got this insect bite on Thursday 5 inches above my ankle which turned out to be really odd. On Sunday, it looked like Lyme`s disease with the red rings and then yesterday, my ankle swelled up pretty badly. The nurse who was here to give us vaccinations told me it was infected and I should apply topical antibiotics. I called the doctor to confirm because I don´t like taking antibiotics. He told me to wait one day and if it got worse, it was an infection and I should go to Lima to get oral antibiotics. It looked awful before dinner as I was talking to my (real) mom on the phone about how I forgot to bring multi-vitamins, my ankle, gardening, my dog, my family and how I should write a book. After dinner, I took a garlic pill and I wondered if it looked better. After my shower, my host mom came from her sister`s yard with some plants she said would be good for my insect bite. She boiled it into a tea and poured it over my bite. Then she started to wrap the leaves around my bite and my ankle. Then, she broke out the gauze and masking tape and wrapped it around the leaves. That`s when I realized she expected me to sleep with leaves around my ankle. So I did, and it was cool. Either because of time, garlic pills or leaves, I am pretty much all better now. Once again, I am healthy. As a current volunteer told us, when you are in Peace Corps, that is a good definition for success.