Heya!
So, you might already know, but we’re in Perú! After just over a month in Ecuador, we left it via a very early taxi ride and plane trip last weekend. Arequipa, our Peruvian city for the past and next week, has been kind to us. For the most part. The pickpocketing warnings that we had been given before our arrival were given for good reason. Two of our group members are proof of that. Heh.
Speaking about the group, I can’t actually tell you a lot of what half of them have been doing for the past week. We have split up, half and half, with six of us in Spanish classes and the other six volunteering in a home for girls. Next week the groups will take one another’s place. Although I don’t have specific stories to share about the volunteering projects, I have been told that the girls are incredibly affectionate, there was some painting, and chocolate making! The chocolates were made to be sold for profits, but our volunteers were generously allowed to eat the broken pieces.
My place was at Llama Education from 9AM-1PM everyday for Spanish classes! Learning a language is a confusing and difficult process, but everyone is doing so well and making so much progress it’s incredible.
Taking this post in a slightly more personal direction, I just wanted to share the amazing night I had at my homestay a few days ago. Our homestay (where Rachel, Brianna, Mary, and I are living) has a staircase up to it’s giant flat roof. A few nights ago, I decided I would like to sleep up there in my sleeping bag for the second time that week. Rachel decided to join me. There’s something so special about falling asleep beneath a full moon and so many Southern Hemisphere stars. I’ve never slept better. Waking up at five thirty the next morning, I stood on a low wall observing the light slowly creep over the volcanoes and mountains that surround the city, until finally, at six eleven, the sunlight finally hit my face. Being without my computer has made me realize how much of life I have been missing. My morning ritual at home was to immediately open my laptop up and spend a good hour reviewing things I already knew. There was no new information coming into my brain, no new thoughts springing into existence, and to be honest, I barely knew who I was without the internet. I’m grateful for all the time I’ve been allowed here to discover life and to learn how to interact with the world around me.
Sorry, that went a bit longer than expected. Hope everyone is well, and if there are any future SAM students reading this blog like I was before I left, be excited! This trip is going to be special in ways you can’t even imagine yet.
Talk to you later!
-Casey
(This photo isn’t mine, but Google`s, but the mountains looked just like this when the sun was rising. I’ll upload my own photos when I can find a computer that reads my memory card.)