Hello Blog Readers! My name is Patrick Wilson and I am a Junior at Umich who had the privilege of joining 19 other EGLs on this volunteer abroad trip to Peru. Im getting charged a wopping 1.5 soles/hour to use this internet (about 60 cents) so I will try to be brief.
This trip was the first time that I had left the country so I was feeling pretty nervous prior to departure. Upon arriving at the Detroit airport I was happy to see some of my EGL friends for the first time all summer. About 12 of us flew from DTW to MIA before catching our final leg to Lima. We filled the down time with several rousing games of Euchre (This has become the house card game). I was super excited for the flight to Lima since I had heard that international flights came with these mythical personal movie screens where you could pick any movie that you wanted to watch. But alas, this was not so. The people on our flight were fairly diverse with all the flight instructions being rattled off in both english and spanish.
Upon arriving in Lima and rendezvousing at the McDonalds (classic americanos) it began to hit me that I was no longer in the great US of A. I was starving so I trundled over to the local Dunkin Donuts and had my first Spanish language interaction. It went fairly well except for some guy yelling at me to go behind him in line even though I was there a good 5 minutes before he was (Joe McCormick can testify). From Lima we all hitched a flight to Cusco and thats where the first Peru Blog post picks up. I will just talk about a few brief fun things about our trip.
1. I was chased by a gallivanting Lama
Our living quarters (a beautiful house with a fantastic staff) is connected to some sort of animal pen. One day, we were tossing the Frisbee and I figured I would try my hand at the hallowed backhanded toss that I saw several lads doing. The attempt went horribly awry and the disk sailed into this unknown land. I scampered back into the pen to retrieve the toss and found myself face to face with the most majestic creature I have had the privilege of laying eyes on up to this point in life. Standing proud as a brilliant white sentinel, I gazed upon a powerful yet friendly looking white lama (click here for a look). For several seconds, we stared intently into each others eyes and for a brief moment, I felt truly free. Then the Lama, which we shall call Brunhilda for the sake of this story, began to approach. Slowly at first and then breaking into a brisk trot. By the time he had reached a full blown gallop, I had turned and was fleeing to the pen door. Brunhilda was breathing down my neck and had reached a speed I can only compare to a Seabiscuit or comparable racehorse. Fortunately, I survived, but continue to suffer lama related nicknames and jokes from the group to this day.
2. I acquired a fun debilitation known as altitude sickness
This one is pretty straight forward. Our first day on sight, I was going HAM on moving adobe mud bricks until I began to feel sick around the lunch hour. Next thing you know, I found myself in a van home where I proceeded to the sleep for the next 8ish hours, took a 1 hour bread chewing session, and then slept the remainder of the night. I felt like a dweeb for having to leave the camp on the first day as it felt like I was skipping out on work but it had to be done and I am glad it is all over. Several other kids have been having sicknesses throughout the trip including one of my roommates but everyone seems to be able to recover in due time. Also, as of today we are done with all of the lower level of our greenhouse, we only need to add support and the roof blocks / roof.
3. It is VERY HARD TO BREATH AT 11000-12000 feet of elevation
Seriously, I am sitting in an internet cafe right now dreading the 10 min uphill walk home. I am not sure if this is something that you get used to over time but it is brutal. All of our guides have allowed us to take breaks when needed which is much appreciated.
Although the tone of this post has been primarily comedic in nature, this trip has already made a big impact on my life. From the way I view the world, to what things are truly important, my experiences here have opened my eyes on several fronts. The fact that we are doing this work for such a worthy cause (helping Maria´s family after everything they have been through) makes the work so enjoyable. I have always thought that I want to make a positive difference in this world and I am thrilled that I have been able to do that thus far through this volunteer abroad experience. I have made a bunch of new great friends and look forward to every remaining day of this trip.
Thanks for reading! See you all soon in A2!
#gaspedal
And here is a picture of our greenhouse so far!
This trip was the first time that I had left the country so I was feeling pretty nervous prior to departure. Upon arriving at the Detroit airport I was happy to see some of my EGL friends for the first time all summer. About 12 of us flew from DTW to MIA before catching our final leg to Lima. We filled the down time with several rousing games of Euchre (This has become the house card game). I was super excited for the flight to Lima since I had heard that international flights came with these mythical personal movie screens where you could pick any movie that you wanted to watch. But alas, this was not so. The people on our flight were fairly diverse with all the flight instructions being rattled off in both english and spanish.
Upon arriving in Lima and rendezvousing at the McDonalds (classic americanos) it began to hit me that I was no longer in the great US of A. I was starving so I trundled over to the local Dunkin Donuts and had my first Spanish language interaction. It went fairly well except for some guy yelling at me to go behind him in line even though I was there a good 5 minutes before he was (Joe McCormick can testify). From Lima we all hitched a flight to Cusco and thats where the first Peru Blog post picks up. I will just talk about a few brief fun things about our trip.
1. I was chased by a gallivanting Lama
Our living quarters (a beautiful house with a fantastic staff) is connected to some sort of animal pen. One day, we were tossing the Frisbee and I figured I would try my hand at the hallowed backhanded toss that I saw several lads doing. The attempt went horribly awry and the disk sailed into this unknown land. I scampered back into the pen to retrieve the toss and found myself face to face with the most majestic creature I have had the privilege of laying eyes on up to this point in life. Standing proud as a brilliant white sentinel, I gazed upon a powerful yet friendly looking white lama (click here for a look). For several seconds, we stared intently into each others eyes and for a brief moment, I felt truly free. Then the Lama, which we shall call Brunhilda for the sake of this story, began to approach. Slowly at first and then breaking into a brisk trot. By the time he had reached a full blown gallop, I had turned and was fleeing to the pen door. Brunhilda was breathing down my neck and had reached a speed I can only compare to a Seabiscuit or comparable racehorse. Fortunately, I survived, but continue to suffer lama related nicknames and jokes from the group to this day.
2. I acquired a fun debilitation known as altitude sickness
This one is pretty straight forward. Our first day on sight, I was going HAM on moving adobe mud bricks until I began to feel sick around the lunch hour. Next thing you know, I found myself in a van home where I proceeded to the sleep for the next 8ish hours, took a 1 hour bread chewing session, and then slept the remainder of the night. I felt like a dweeb for having to leave the camp on the first day as it felt like I was skipping out on work but it had to be done and I am glad it is all over. Several other kids have been having sicknesses throughout the trip including one of my roommates but everyone seems to be able to recover in due time. Also, as of today we are done with all of the lower level of our greenhouse, we only need to add support and the roof blocks / roof.
3. It is VERY HARD TO BREATH AT 11000-12000 feet of elevation
Seriously, I am sitting in an internet cafe right now dreading the 10 min uphill walk home. I am not sure if this is something that you get used to over time but it is brutal. All of our guides have allowed us to take breaks when needed which is much appreciated.
Although the tone of this post has been primarily comedic in nature, this trip has already made a big impact on my life. From the way I view the world, to what things are truly important, my experiences here have opened my eyes on several fronts. The fact that we are doing this work for such a worthy cause (helping Maria´s family after everything they have been through) makes the work so enjoyable. I have always thought that I want to make a positive difference in this world and I am thrilled that I have been able to do that thus far through this volunteer abroad experience. I have made a bunch of new great friends and look forward to every remaining day of this trip.
Thanks for reading! See you all soon in A2!
#gaspedal
And here is a picture of our greenhouse so far!
No comments:
Post a Comment