Some random stories from Peru...

1. The food at NPH Peru for the most part was pretty good. Breakfast was usually a couple rolls - sometimes it would have a slice of ham inside, or stuffed with grapes or olives. Lunch typically was rice, occasionally some type of meat, lettuce and tomato salad, potatoes, and some type of fruit juice. I found it interesting that they don't eat tortillas there, but potatoes instead, as that is one of the most abundant crops of the country, or so I was told. Dinners were always soup or something similar (breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday were also some type of soup). One typical desert of Peru, which is what we had my first night there as dinner, is called "mazamorra", and is made of purple corn. The easiest way of describing the consistency is the following. When I worked at ChildServe (an intermediate care facility for mentally retarded children) during college, there were several children that couldn't have normal liquids, since they didn't have a proper swallow reflex. So, we would add thickener to their drinks so they could swallow it easier. This dinner reminded me of drinking thickened juice - not really a pleasant experience.
   
2. At lunch one of my first days at the home, a kid comes up to me with a bowl of of something that looked like squished tomatoes and some other various things, and asked if I wanted any. I asked what it was, and I could have sworn he said something like "we call this Ecuador". I asked him what he said, but he had already turned his back and was on his way to the next table. I called him back to ask again, and sure enough he said "This is Ecuador. We're sick of talking about chile." That's what they call hot sauce. Haha, funny kid!
3. Another day during lunch, a herd of unknown men wandered into the dining room carrying huge sacks of shrimp. I asked the kids I was eating with what was going on, and they told me that every week these men come to donate shrimp. The next time I looked up, a man snuck around the corner, video camera in hand, and began documenting the event. He was the most animated cameraman I think I've ever seen in my life. Since the kids told me this happens there every week, I started to just ignore what was going on, and concentrated on finishing my lunch. I had just stuffed my mouth with rice, I look up, and sure enough, there's the camera. Just inches from my face. Due to the lack of filming etiquete and obvious lack of asking permission to video somebody, the man immediately started drilling me with questions - where am I from, what am I doing at NPH, asked me about the kids, asked if I liked shrimp, my full name, etc. He's lucky I didn't spit my rice on the camera while trying to answer his questions. We later heard that this actually aired on the tv. I'm pretty sure though that the only thing anybody saw was my nose, since he was filming SO close to my face. The kids I was eating with thought it was absolutely hilarious. Come to find out, this does NOT happen every week, and apparently it was a big deal that this crew came to the house.
4. Related to #2 - when we were eating our "dish of marinated raw fish" after visiting the construction site for the new home, I noticed a sign that said there was a ban on eating shrimp from the month of January to the end of April, in order to allow the shrimp to reproduce. I then asked the director how it was that we were eating shrimp in the home, if it was supposedly banned. He told me that the authorities go to restaurants to "bust" those that are not obeying this law. If somebody is caught with shrimp, it is taken away, and this is how the shrimp arrived to our home and into our bellies the following day. Nothing better than eating "illegal" shrimp.
5. There is a 14-yr-old boy in the home that has three chicken he raises on his own. They call him "pollito" - little chicken. He doesn't appreciate it too much when everybody is constantly asking him when they get to eat his chicken.
   
6. The watering process in the home amazed me. Since the coastal region of Peru where the home is located, gets little rain, huge efforts must be made to keep the grass green. The way they "watered their lawn" was opening the water valve, and just letting it completely flood the lawn. The first night they did it while I was there, we had just come out of dinner, and I asked one of the caregivers what was happening with the water. It looked as though a water pipe had broken. She didn't seem concerned, and just told me they were watering. After the water rose a bit, all of the kids and caregivers went out with their buckets, and scooped water, and threw it into areas the water was unable to reach. It was really quite the experience.
7. And speaking of experiences - I went white water rafting down the Rio Lunahuana my first weekend there as well. It was absolutely amazing - the water was a bit more rough than we were expecting, but I only nearly fell out maybe once or twice. So, I was successful and really wanted to do it again before leaving, however never found the time. Hmm, next time!
8. Some of my favorite words they use in Peru - buenazo (really good), feazo (really ugly or really not cool), aquicito (right here), allacito (right there), etc. In general, they just add "azo" to anything to exagerate the word, which isn't done in Central America, but I really love it. There they would use "isimo" or "ote" at the end of the word.
9. I felt the earth shake for the first time in my life while I was in Peru. One day I was standing outside with the nurse talking, and we heard some rumbling in the distance. I immediately thought it was thunder of course, and then just a few seconds later the earth was trembling, and all the kids ran from their rooms. Turned out it was just a small earthquake and everything was fine.
10. In all of my travels, never once have I missed a connection, until my trip home from Peru. We left an hour and a half or so late from Lima, making me miss my connection in Miami. My flight out of Miami was again delayed by 2 hours, making me arrive at my gate in Chicago just after they closed the doors. I woke up at 3am that day. This was just after 10pm, therefore I got stranded in Chicago overnight, and flew first thing in the morning to Des Moines. I was then mis-directed by the agent as to where I needed to catch the shuttle to the hotel. Something like half an hour later, I finally figured out where I needed to be and was happily asleep by 11:30ish. I guess it was finally my turn to have some bad luck during my travels...and that wraps up my Peruvian experience.