From the Ghetto

Oh the friends we will meet

This weekend marked my passage into the working world of Cusco. Or rather, the paying to be in the working world in Cusco. I moved into my new digs on Saturday, and much to my horror I was living in a small bedroom with a girl I had never met, and I shared a bathroom and kitchen with the whole apartment complex. Also, the front door (located in a not very nice area) had two locks that you have to click your heels together, spin around, push in all the right places at all the right times, and say the alphabet backwards to unlock it. It took me 20 minutes to get it unlocked, and that was with some tutoring from one of the neighbors. This was not the 'shared flat with private room' I had paid for.

Fortunately, Spanish women are like most women anywhere. All I had to do was complain to one girl at the apartment, and by the next morning at least 4 women at the school heard, and by noon on Sunday I moved into my Real Place. Now I live in a gorgeous, 3-story house with a big open kitchen, a dining room, vaulted ceiling living room with adobe fireplace, cable tv, a DVD player, three bathrooms, a marble spiral staircase, a big sunroom-patio, and a big garden full of roses, mint, chrysanthemums, apple trees, raspberries, and also three functioning compost bins. I have 4 roommates (mostly they haven't been around much), and the guy who lives on the third floor plays.... drums. And what he lacks in skill he certainly makes up for with enthusiasm. Think Real World (the show) and you will understand my house. My house is about 4 blocks from the Plaza de Armas, and I have two ways to get downtown - one is a meandering, longer downhill trek through two parks. The other is straight down hill and then, while you may think you are looking at a 300´stone wall, you are actually facing an old stone staircase that drops me off about 30' from my school. Who needs a Stairmaster?!

Yesterday I was leaving my house with my bag of laundry to go to the laundromat on the corner, when an old lady (Carmela) stopped me and asked if I had laundry. Umm. Yes...? Turns out she owns a laundromat downtown but actually does the wash at her house. She led me down a deep, dark tunnel of a staircase into a courtyard with dogs and chickens and probably some of the poorest people I have had contact with since I have been here. But she truly did have washers and (!) dryers (rare here), and by that afternoon my laundry was fresh and folded.

Today was my second day working at the clinic. I was actually able to do therapy with some of the kids today (physical therapy, but technically that's therapy) instead of just play on the playground and shovel food into their mouths. Well... hmm. Yesterday I made a comment to my fellow volunteers, 'Did you see the way that nurse shoveled food into Benjamin's mouth??' I envisioned lawsuits in the U.S., but guess who ended up with Benjamin at lunchtime today.... mmmhmmm yours truly. Within two minutes I was shoveling soup spoons full of food down his throat because I got to discover that he is merely obstinant, and when it was dessert time, he had no problem opening his mouth and eating. Ahh children, they are the same everywhere, truly.

Time to go cook dinner! I went shopping in the 'market' and came away with a whole big bag of veggies and fresh bread and the biggest ripest mangoes ever for about 5 soles, which is about $1. Ahh Peru.