Hey everyone. Since it’s been a while since I wrote, I hope I can capture everything important that has happened.
So I have had some difficulty in my internship. In the first week of October, I had resolved to be more involved, even if it meant being a nuisance, until I could figure out my niche. I’m still having limited success there, not the kind that my fellow volunteers are having, and I don’t know what to do about it–I’ve talked to my supervisor about it directly, and he just said, “Don’t worry about it. Just share with your fellow volunteers.” But how exactly do I do that? I’m out of ideas.
Something quite frustrating happened that second Friday in October at work. All the kids went to the park, but the two lead teachers held me back because they said the way there was dangerous, and apparently I couldn’t handle it, but the kids, ages six to eleven, could. This was later resolved two weeks later when I went, and people’s minds were changed about me. That’s great, but like I have suggested, that’s only scratching the surface. Maybe I’m not cut out for the classroom. I always excel at teaching English, in a setting that is more organized, which is my favorite hour. That’s great, but if I’m going to be there for three and a half hours, I want to completely occupy those three hours, none of them spent mindlessly. I just don’t know what else to do! And I’m sick of feeling like I exist in a vacuum.
On the plus side, I am finally figuring out how to better interact with people. For a while I really struggled with their being so helpful, but I’m getting the hang of it in a way that has been beneficial to me and hopefully to them. In any case, we both part ways happy. I’ve just let them in. I do specify what help I need or how I need it if necessary, but sometimes I just let things happen, because I no longer have to prove anything to myself or to anyone. I’ve traveled independently around three cities in Peru (more on that in future posts).
I don’t know why I had waited as long as I did to hike Rainbow Mountain, because the mountains are always such a refreshment to me, possibly rivaled only by Lake Titicaca (more on that in the future, too). I found a really good tour through Peru Hop (for anyone going to Peru, I would ten out of ten recommend Peru Hop for everything from price to security to authenticity). They don’t go everywhere in Peru, but I imagine that for the places they don’t go they can help you find the best experience). We left early in the morning and ate at a restaurant. Breakfast in the Peruvian Andes is pretty good, if often basic, consisting of quinoa, bread, sometimes fruit, and a variety of teas or mattes. Afterwards, we hit the road again. At the base of the mountain, one of the guides, Ivan, tried to convince me to ride a horse because this would mitigate the effects of altitude, but I insisted on walking, and I did pretty well. Along the way up, Ivan taught me a few phrases in Quechua, such as those for “good morning,” “let’s go,” “brother,” and “person”. The mountain is a different world. We were one of the first groups on the mountain, so the silence was supreme, divine. At the top, and really only at the top, I could feel the altitude. Before I came to Peru, I could run five kilometers with little effort. Here, even some little things took conscious effort. Running five kilometers–forget it. I also got to touch a llama and an alpaca for the first time.
On the way back down, we stopped and rested as a group, and I bought chicharrón de alpaca and sweet potatoes. Darwin, our lead guide, told us that there are three rainbow mountains: this one, one in Argentina, and one in China. This one is the best because the rainbow, created by all the minerals, is the most visible. Ivan and I finished the mountain, and we all returned to Cuzco. It had been a good weekend. I had hiked sixteen thousand feet, the highest I’ve ever been.
Traveling in Peru 