High Fives All Around

Yesterday we did something that we thought would be impossible. 

We went into and out of Cajamarca ALL BY OURSELVES! 

We caught the bus in, found our stop, found our way through the city and found the spot to get back on the bus and head home. After that, I felt like I could do anything. Here’s a few snippits of what we did yesterday:

First we went to the Aldea (orphanage) and played with the children for about 2 hours. I’ve never been to an orphanage before and it was a lot like playing with our kids here at El Bichito, but just knowing that these were orphans with no family and no home of their own… wow, it completely breaks my heart. But I fell in love with them just as quickly as I fell in love with my Bichito ninos.  I sat and played (and lost) four games of chess with a 16 year old boy named Jose Luis and all the while, the younger kids (whom I haven’t even met) would come and crawl up in my lap and just want to be held and loved. They all called me “Senorita” but that made me feel old, so I tried to get them to call me Elia.  Also, while we were there, we got burnt to a crisp. I remember being warned that Cajamarca is super close to the sun or something so you get a lot of sun really fast, but we didn’t have time to put on sunscreen before we left and I have never been this red in my life! Luckily mine is already starting to turn into a nice tan.

After that we took ourselves around the city and tried to get a feel for it. We spent a good 30+ minutes searching for a certain pizza parlor that we’d been told about and when we finally found it, we discovered that it didn’t open until six, which is too late for us to be in Cajamarca alone. Here are some other things we learned/saw/heard:

A boy our age, who was Mormon, from the States AND spoke English. Meet Elder Parker Seitz from Vernal, Utah. MADE OUR DAY!

Don't mind how tired, dirty and au natural we look, but do notice the cute coats we fell in love with whilst shopping at the mall!

 We walked by a man on a cell phone, after he passed us we heard him tell the person on the other line that he saw a bunch of gringas.

I am much more apt to ask directions or help from a Peruvain man with glasses. They just seem nicer and more approachable.

Pelt the gringas with water balloons as hard as you can is a popular game all throughout the city. Next time, we’ll fight back. 

There was an adorable man our age on the bus who gave us his seat. He was clean and therefore, so cute!

We saw a cage of dead guinea pigs on our way home.

When you order fried chicken…it’s not like KFC. It’s more like normal chicken that has just sat in a pool of oil for an allotted amount of time. 

Old ladies with no teeth follow us around and beg us to by their weird candies.

We made it in and out and around all by ourselves. We are alive! Over all it was tons of fun!

We Made It!

January 14, 2012

Can you say CULTURE SHOCK? I can… but only in English.

We got to the Cajamarca bus stop at about 8:20 am. A wonderful Peruvian woman named Lady who teaches English in a school helped us to  collect all our bags. We were supposed to be greeted there by a man named Herman Sandro, but he was nowhere to be found. There were tons of Peruvian men wanting to give us a Taxi ride and I think they were frustrated that we wouldn’t go with them. They were probably thinking, “Stupid Americans.” But we were told to wait for Hermano Sandro, so we did.

Pretty soon we were the only ones left in the bus station. Three American white girls with 12 huge pieces of luggage. We had no idea what to do so we said a prayer and sure enough within 3 or 4 minutes of our prayer Hermano Sandro showed up and helped us take our luggage out to the street where we waited for a bus or a taxi to take us to our new home.

Also, keep in mind that at this point, we three white girls are the ONLY English speakers in our town. Ever since Lady left us at the bus stop, we’ve done nothing but communicate with others in Spanish. Hermano Sandro tried to explain how things worked to us the best he could, but he only knows a handful of English words.

We caught a taxi, loaded it up with our belongings and squished in the back seat and began our 10-15 minute ride from Cajamarca to Puyallcana. The taxi dropped us off at what looked like a run down shack made of cardboard and old tin. Hermano Sandro pointed to it and said, “El Bichito”, meaning  that that run down shack would be our home for the next three months. I was seriously shocked. It was not what I was expecting AT ALL.  To be honest, from the moment we left America there has been NOTHING even close to what I was expecting. My mind is consistently blown.

Hermano Sandro showed us around the center and then we caught a bus into Banos del Inca to get money and groceries. He showed where we go to church and he showed us the hot springs that we could bathe in. Will we remember where any of that is when we try to go by ourselves? Not a chance :) We bought a palta (avocado), mango, a few nectarines, bananas and some Clorox.  We also bought a big thing of bottled water, some Clorox wipes, soap and toilet paper.

We came back to the center and met Feliciana and  Merchola. They are the two ladies who come to the center at 10 am and begin preparing a meal for the children who eat at 1. Neither of them speak a lick of English…naturally. I asked her what I could do to help with the meal, so she put me to work on pealing potatoes…with a knife. As soon as she handed me the knife, the lights completely went out. There is contruction going on around our house and apparently they have to turn our electricity off quite often. (it was off until about 10pm).

So Feliciana and I sat there and pealed potatoes in the dark. In silence. Just kidding! I can’t stand awkward silences, so I went to town with this woman and chatted up a storm. I became really confident in my Spanish speaking abilities and we were able to communicate just fine! In a little bit Brittany and Abigail came down and joined us with some flash lights. We each pealed 2-3 potatoes in the time that Feliciana pealed oh…. 30 or so. We were so slow! Next came rice sorting.  There is just a big pile of rice on the table and it has insects, grass and rocks mixed in with it. So we sit there and pick out what we don’t want to eat in our rice. All five of us were doing this and at one point one of us Gringas said something and Feliciana and Merchola just busted up laughing. So of course we started laughing and we all spent a good minute laughing sooo hard. At what? We have no idea.

The Journey

Thursday Janary 12, 2012

We have been on the bus heading towards Cajamarca for the past 6 hours. Only 10 more hours to go! Hopefully we’ll be able to sleep for eight of those.  It’s been a great day! We got into Lima at about 11:00pm and Zara came and collected us at about 12:30. She has been so wonderful. She speaks quite a bit of English and has been helping us with our Spanish. She is an LDS travel agent and has even served a mission in the Lima North Mission.  Her family was so kind too. She had a maid named Dora who made us delicious food! For breakfast we had tortilla de juevos y jamon. It was like a flat omelet cut like a pizza. We also had Milo or chocolate milk and galletas or saltine crackers too. 

We then showered and got our belongings cleaned up. Before we knew it, it was time for lunch! It was delicious! We had chicken and rice on a potato with a salad of cooked carrots and beats. There was also fresh cheese, avocado and corn with awesome huge kernals! We also tried Inka Cola! We didn’t’ really like it, but we did like el jugo de mango!

After lunch we went to help Sebastian (Zara’s 16 year old nephew) in the garden. He is so nice and speaks great English. He plans on attending BYU next year! We loved him!  We gathered our things and Zara took us to the bus station at a little after four to catch our four thirty bus to Cajamarca. Each passenger is only allowed 50 lbs of baggage. I alone had well over 150 pounds of baggage. The other girls had quite a bit as well.  The whole time we were there I was praying that all would be well and that we’d make our bus and that we’d get to take all our luggage. Zara talked to the administrator and explained that our bags were full of things for poor children. He let us take all of it with us and only pay an extra $20!! I couldn’t believe it. It was so kind! I was so grateful! 

Our bus is super nice with padded reclining seats. A pillow and blanket. A movie in Spanish with English subtitles and we even played Bingo!  Las Tres de nos made bracelets of embroidery floss and Abigail and I read Mosiah 22 in Spanish and translated it with the English BOM. Our Spanish really is improving as we speak! We’ll get to Cajamarca at around 8 am and from there Brother Sandro will take us to El Bichito. We can’t wait!!

Estoy Contenta :)

We are here (Well in Lima) We are safe. We are happy. We are stinky, sweaty and dirty.
10+ hours on an airplane and several hours in an airport will do that to you.

We are stayed the night at a woman name Zara 's house. She is so wonderful and we absolutely love her and her son!

We slept like babies last night, Abigail and I in one bed, Brittany on the top bunk. We woke up to Bruno Mars and Zara's son proclaiming, "Mujeres, DESAYUNO!!!!"

Zara showed us her garden which consists of an apricot tree, a lemon tree, a fig tree and a tree with a spiky fruit that I've never heard of! It's beautiful and sunny outside, but us Rexburg rats are not used to this humidity!

Our bus to Cajamarca doesn't leave til later today, so we will play volleyball in the park, eat lunch and maybe go to the temple before then!

We are in awe that we actually made it to Peru. And guess what. We didn't have a single problem! Our baggae is safe and sound, everything was a breeze in customs and we made a new friend on the flight over (Cristian). Zara gives us Spanish lessons whenever we get the chance and we're helping her with her English.
Brittany, Abigail and I even had our first family prayer in Spanish last night and I only had to use one English word. Note to self: Look up "energy" in Spanish :)

She's making us shower (although we are more than happy to oblige) because we are quite the sight to see and have a 16 hour bus ride ahead of us! We each have about 150 pounds of luggage, but the bus has a strict 50 pounds of luggage only policy... so that will be our next adventure to hurtle.

We are SO happy and can't wait to finally reach our destination.
Thanks so much for your prayers, I promise you that we can feel them and they have helped!

Con Amor, Noelle

Demasiado Dinero??

Who doesn't dream of traveling the world during at least one point in their lives?

Spring 2011 BYU-I Culture Night

It was actually never really a passion or desire of mine until I attended a free event at BYU-Idaho called culture night. It gave me a glimpse at the different cultures all around the world and I knew at that moment that I wanted the opportunity to experience a different culture at least once in my life.

Another factor that increased my desire to travel was when my roommate and dear friend Keri Rich went and toured through Europe. She came back knowing all sorts of neat things. I was in awe of how cultured she had become. So I can definitely see why people dream of traveling. After making the preparations for it, I can also definitely see why people never get around to it. Traveling can get pretty pricey!

Just because I'm curious about how much I've spent on this adventure thus far (and in case you are ever planning on doing something like this) I want to compile all the expenses here and get a guesstimate of about how much I've spent so far.

• $600- Living Expenses 
• The organization I am going through requires $200 a month to cover living expenses and one meal. I will be there for three months

• $145-Passport

• $1,286- Flight
•  Round Trip: Las Vegas->Miami->Lima, Peru... and back

• $279- Shots 
• Yellow Fever, Typhoid and Dr.'s visit for Malaria prescription
• $30- Baggage 
• We get one checked bag and a carry-on free, but I have all sorts of Humanitarian supplies that I'm stuffing into a second check-in bag! 

Grand Total:  Drum Roll Please.....                                                                   
$2340

Those are just some of the basic/necessary expenses thus far. There are lots of little things that you don't really think about, not to mention the money that will actually be spent during my time in Peru.

Just to name a few of the optional expenses I purchased for Peru (and just because I needed them):

$8 Set of Small Scriptures
(I'd had my old ones for the past 13 years and they were falling apart, I'm sooo happy with my new quad, only $8 at the Lost and Found Sale!)

The new ones are on the right. I've always wanted a set of small snap ones1

 $50 Chaco's
Regularly $100, but stinking amazing Abigail got them for me 1/2 at 5am on a Black Friday sale!

For the rugged Peruvian terrain... and sweet Chaco tan lines

$165 Brand New Mini-Lap Top
My other computer broke, so I was in need of a new one, and my 10.1 inch Acer is perfect for travel...and blogging!

Mine is the red one in the front.

Now, seeing the expense, am I regretting my decision?

Not one bit!

$2500ish for complete culture immersion in a brand new city, country and continent for 3 months while doing Humanitarian work and learning Spanish??
Priceless.

One more week and we'll be in Peru! I can't wait!

Con Amor, Noelle