Correr las olas...

OK, this is the big entry...and the title is Spanish for surfing, but it literally translates to ¨running the waves¨! So Saturday morning was my first ever surfing lesson, and I have to say it went really well. My instructor and another volunteer and myself headed to Los Organos, a town about 15 minutes south of Màncora, with surfboards piled high on top and me saying a prayer as I slipped my second skin or rash guard (a thick Spandex-type long sleeve t-shirt that protects your upper body from fiberglass splinters from the board as you paddle) over my head. I was also just hoping I would have enough energy for today, as I had been sick all week (see below for further info on that). Now I was also a little apprehensive about having this huge board starting out, as everyone begins surfing by using a long board. Then it was explained to me using the analogy that a long board makes it much easier to stand up on in the water, sort of like a door floating in the water. Anything smaller would be like trying to balance on a cabinet door. The more board you have, the more surface area on the water to spread your weight out over, and thus the easier it is to stand up. Who knew this surfing business was so technical?! So now about my surf teacher...he is a former pro-surfer, and answered with a yeh! when I asked if he had surfed with Kelly Slater, Jack Johnson, and he mentioned a few others. He was born in California, but his father was Peruvian, so after pulling out of the pro scene, he landed in Máncora and now has his own surf shop and only does advertising by word of mouth. When he found out I was volunteering here, he knocked down the price he quoted me by a significant amount, so booyah for me! As I said in an earlier entry, he put me completely at ease and was very reassuring, so I was very relieved of my previously mentioned anxieties! After arriving at the beach and finding no one around--yes!!--except a few fishermen, my instructor had me do some warm-up exercises and stretches, then drew a surfboard in the sand and demonstrated the proper sequence for standing up on the board, then had me practice. I soon discovered that I needed a modified sequence as my upper body is not strong enough to do a jump to standing from laying flat on my stomach, so after practicing another method, we headed out into the water. Average wave size was about 3 feet, and as we entered the water, he went over proper technique for carrying the board, walking past breaking waves with it, getting onto the board, and then paddling. Now when I say paddling, I mean that your arms are stroking away, the only energy source for propelling both you and your board through the water. Well, let me also just say that it`s a good thing you type with your arms down at your sides, because it`s a little difficult to even raise my arms to put a shirt on right now! I also have to interject that my instructor was sans surfboard and instead had on a pair of flippers, hanging onto the back of my board and kicking as I paddled, so it was a whole lot easier this first time out. The fins were also crucial once we turned and were trying to catch a wave, as again, I needed the extra power to keep ahead of the wave until I got into its momentum as my arms were not enough (mental note to self...push-ups are being added to the regimen as soon as my arms don`t shake anymore when I lift them up). As I got into good position relative to the break of the first approaching wave, my instructor started kicking, I started paddling like crazy, the wave caught us up in it`s powerful surge towards the beach ahead, he counted to 3, then told me to stand up...I pushed up onto my knees as he held the board to stabilize it, I turned slightly, and then promptly fell off as I tried to bring my right foot forward and stand up! After making sure I was ok and hadn`t swallowed too much water, we headed back out, got ready, then as the second wave approached, we caught the momentum again, one-two-three, and I was up! I was up!! My instructor let go of the board, and I was off!! Then after what felt like an entire minute, but was probably only 2 seconds, I jumped off as I neared the beach...what a rush!! After high-fiving on that one since I had just surfed on only my second wave, I spent the next hour practicing standing up as we caught the wave and rode it in...however, I must say that it felt like I stood up on most of the waves, even if I only stayed standing for a few seconds before loosing my balance and bailing. We even headed out into the bigger waves (only by a foot or so) halfway through the lesson, since my instructor said it looked like I was ready. Tough work, and I was exhausted as we walked out of the water, carrying my surfboard that had lost a back fin somewhere along the way and the second fin hanging on by a few pieces of tape, me bleeding from several cuts on my feet from some falls onto rocks and a few good bruises already forming, but what an incredible feeling, and I`m already signed up for my second lesson!! Now I just have to work on the upper body strength to be able to paddle myself to catch the wave and be able to read the waves to know when to start paddling and when to stand up, as it was quite easy with someone right behind me in the water doing those things for me! I have attached some pictures that my fellow volunteer took while providing moral support from the beach. Some of them are pretty far away, but if you are able to zoom in on your computer, it`s a better picture. Enjoy!

In other news, it was bound to happen sooner or later, working with kids, and it being winter here so the warmth of the day quickly evaporates into chillier nights, but I was hit with some sort of bug and have been in bed most of my 5th week here. Which makes another reason I´m glad I´m staying, as I would have hated to miss my last week being in this condition! The past week I had a persistent cough that I thought I was over. And I felt fine Monday morning as I met the new i-to-i volunteer at the bus stop, who was arriving to teach English at the school for the next 3 months. But by Monday night my throat started feeling sore and rather thick, and I woke up Tuesday morning feeling like I had been hit by a truck I was so achy. I went on my assigned home visits, not getting back til 3 in the afternoon as there were 2 new cases for me, which thankfully I was accompanied by the woman that runs the center and was the one who did most of the therapy. I literally crashed when I got back to the hostel, sleeping for over an hour, and dug down deep to make it to the center later in the afternoon. They took one look at me, and asked what was wrong, and fighting back tears because 1) I felt absolutely wretched as at this point was going back and forth between chills and feeling like my face was going to burn off my head followed by the rest of my body, and 2) I always seem to break down at the first, if even slightest, expression of sympathy. To which the kids started swarming around me asking if I was ok, making fighting back the tears even harder. So I just handed off the afternoon´s activity I had planned and came right back to the hostel. My host family, along with a few others, were very sweet, feeling my forehead, then quickly withdrawing like they had touched a hot stove, and basically told me to go to the 24-hour clinic. Now as some of you know, I have a very strong aversion to taking medicine, especially antibiotics, so this was the last thing I wanted to do. But after taking my temperature for about the hundredth time, and realizing it was at its highest of 102 even after taking Tylenol, I realized I couldn´t fight this one off on my own and another volunteer offered to accompany me to the clinic. I was examined, and after hearing the equivalent of ¨Oh my goodness!¨ in Spanish from the doctor as he looked in my throat, he announced I had a throat infection that was severly inflamed and prescribed me, you guessed it, an antibiotic. I no sooner got back to the hostel, and I was met at the door by the woman that runs the center, who had made me some soup and loaded me in her car to go get my prescriptions filled. After stopping at 4 or 5 different pharmacies, who were either closed or didn´t have the right medicine, she brought me home and told me to take as many days off as I needed. The next morning I dragged myself out to go get my prescriptions changed and get them filled. My host mom and her daughters have been very concerned, checking and rechecking my forehead, and zipping up my fleece when I would come down with it half-opened, even checking the temperature of my glass to make sure I wasn´t drinking anything too cold. I have heard, ¨No hielo!¨ (no ice!) more times than I can count on both hands from everyone, as it is an old wives´ tale here that drinking cold beverages makes the illness worse. In the past few days as I was coming close to going out of my mind with boredom ¨resting¨as the doctor prescribed, I realized there have been some positives that come with being sick, as I feel a little closer to my family both here at the hostel and at the center...I am so blessed to be surrounded by such great people that have been looking out for me here! I was able to go in to the center on Friday afternoon, and even though most of the kids weren`t there as it was a meeting on domestic violence for all the mothers, I did get to see some of them that had come with their moms, and as I thought it would be, the kids have been the best medicine so far!!

I felt that since this week marked the 6th year since September 11th, I had to put in this entry my thoughts about this anniversary. It was interesting to me that on Monday the 10th, I was sitting around talking with the other teachers at the center and we realized it was the 11th the next day. They asked me what my reaction had been, to which I explained that my generation now has something that they remember exactly where they were and what they were doing at the time, sort of like JFK´s assassination for the previous generation. I was a senior in college, and I had just gotten off the phone with the person who would be my supervisor for my upcoming fieldwork placement, came downstairs where one of my roommates was watching TV, and initially thinking she was watching a movie at first glance given the screen was filled with buildings exploding and thick clouds of black smoke, but then I saw the look on her face and realized it was actually happening. This explanation made the group quite somber, and for these people that watched the events of that day and the events that followed as mere bystanders, even though they were citizens of another country, the feeling was the same. As I said before, I was already quite miserable by the time Tuesday the 11th actually rolled around, since I was not feeling so well, but I took comfort in a simple verse from Proverbs, chapter 10, verse 30, for those that want to look it up, hopefully it will bring the same reassurance it did for me.

So some of you are probably reading this entry and wondering why I´m not writing about saying goodbye to everyone and packing my bags to head to Lima for my next project, as I was only originally scheduled to be in Máncora for 5 weeks. Unfortunately, this is the low season for volunteers here it seems, and the volunteer that was arriving this month for the center has cancelled, the next volunteer that has signed up to work at the center is not arriving until mid-October. The project in Lima that I was to work on also is without a volunteer until mid-October. So in thinking it over and discussing it with my in-country coordinator, I have decided to extend my stay here in Máncora for the entire 11 weeks that I´m here for my first leg in Perú. It basically came down to either leaving the center without a volunteer, or leaving the project in Lima without a volunteer, and having built up a rapport already with the center and the home visits, I decided I would be more effective here, and really couldn´t possibly leave these kids yet! I also didn´t want the new volunteer arriving without someone familiar with the center here for orientation, especially with the home visits and all the projects going on at the center. And besides, I do have to admit this was a factor, although I´d like to say it was down near the bottom of the list, but closer to the middle in reality, that it also came down to staying for 6 more weeks at the beach, or moving on to cold, dreary, big city Lima. That wasn´t so tough a decision!!

Particularly now that I have found my oasis...down the beach further south, about a 5-minute mototaxi ride, in the residential section of Máncora, sits paradise! The i-to-i contact here in Máncora is a wonderful woman who owns this hotel/resort with her husband, who moved to Máncora from Lima after returning from Miami where they lived for 17 years. They take all i-to-i volunteers under their wing, making themselves available at a moment´s notice if there is ever a problem, but best of all, offering the hotel´s pool, private beach, and restaurant to the volunteers at no charge, not including what is ordered from the restaurant of course. It´s absolute serenity as soon as I step through the gate, and it´s very easy for me to spend an entire weekend day there...perfect after a hard workout the day before!

Can it be a month?...

Wow, time is surely flying by, and I can´t quite believe I´ve been here 4 weeks already! I know that I have not posted recently, so be prepared for a lot of news...aka, allow yourself a few extra minutes at your computer for this one...

So I have been getting settled in here in Máncora and am feeling like one of the natives almost...have also made big strides with my host family as well, as the social culture here is something I had to get used to quite a bit. And it´s all thanks to fútbol (aka soccer for those North Americans reading this), given the fact that I watched the Peru v. Colombia game last night with my host dad, and when I´m finished typing this up, I will headed in to watch the Estados Unidos v. Brasil game (U.S. vs. Brazil). Saturday night I went with my host mom to a community Bingo game, along with 2 of the staff here at the hostel...which was my first latin Bingo game and I have to say I did quite well keeping up, even though I didn´t win any prizes. Bingo is quite popular here, attracting hopeful winners of all ages, from the little kids running around in their pajamas to the school-aged repeating both the number and letter called several times to make sure they got it right, to the couples out on dates, to the grandmas that have to get their grandchildren to help them find and tick off the numbers called. Prizes ranged from a coffee maker to a hand mixer to the grand prize of 600 Soles, or 200 USD!! 3 people got their whole cards full for the grand prize though, so I think it had to be split, but still, quite a good amount of money down here! So needless to say, I think I´m warming up to the family and the community, which is a good feeling. One other story I will share...as I was walking back to my hostel along the main road from working with the little ones at the center this past Thursday morning, who range from 3-7 years old, I heard my name, ¨Estephania, Estephania¨ which is how my name is pronounced down here, being shouted from a passing mototaxi, and I looked up just in time to see 3 of my little guys waving to me from the backseat as they zoomed by...my arm practically fell off waving back at them, with the biggest smile on my face!! This past weekend I was also invited to 2 birthday parties, the first was the mother of one of the kids at the center on Saturday, and the second was the husband of one of the local volunteers at the center on Sunday. I don´t think I´ve ever eaten so much cake consecutively, as we also had a birthday party at the center on this past Friday! It was nice getting to see some of the homes that these kids come from and meet their families, who are just lovely...I even got to watch as the grandmother tended to the family´s herd of sheep! Our walk through the field had us arrive just in time to see the newest addition to the herd, umbilical cord and all, taking his first steps! So cute...but I was cringing in pain for it as the matriarch of the family took her rusty old, rather huge, shears and cut into its ears for a tattoo, then lanced the cuts with dirt that she picked up from the ground at her feet. That´s how they do it in Perú!

OK, so speaking of the center, these past 2 weeks we have been busy travelling! I picked the theme for my activities in the afternoons with the older kids as ¨Around The World¨ but realized after the first week that I couldn´t fit all the places I´ve been into just one week, so I extended it to this past week as well!! Besides, the week before was shortened...there were no classes one day due to it being el día de Santa Rosa de Lima, who from what I have been able to gather, was South America´s Mother Theresa. So the places we´ve gone...first was Machu Picchu and we made original Incan headresses, complete with feathers (see picture of one that I´m modeling). Next was Antarctica to learn all about the animals there, after which we hit India and I had them make paper dolls, saris for the girls and salwar kameezes for the boys...big hit! I also had pictures left on my camera´s memory card, so there were a lot of oohs and aahs particularly over the Taj Mahal! Had to devote 2 days to Africa, one day going to Maasai lands and the kids did beaded jewelry, and then the other day was spent learning about all the animals they would see on a Serengeti safari. Ireland was a stop in there too...the kids and teachers were incredulous over the legend of the leprechaun and how they would get a big pot of gold if they ever got to the end of a rainbow (probably the hardest lesson for me these past 2 weeks, having to explain all of that in Spanish!!) We also hopped over to Hawaii, and made leis of tissue paper flowers, the custom I demonstrated of ´Aloha´with a kiss on each cheek to say hello and goodbye got a lot of chuckles and a very red face of the boy I had volunteer (see photo)! And last but not least, I took them to New Jersey, and we learned all about the fruits and veggies of my home state!! So that has been my whirlwind world tour with the kids...all in under 2 weeks!!

Now on to the extracurricular activities...if you were to pick up the Lonely Planet travel book on Perú, and look up Máncora inside, you would read about the mud baths located about 11 km east of the town, and how the silica mud is thought to have both curative and restorative properties. Well, I just had to go check this out for myself. So arriving after a very long and bumpy mototaxi ride through the arid countryside and along a very dusty road, I climbed down into the 8 foot by 8 foot pit that was the mud baths, along with a dozen other Peruvians. As I accustomed to the warm water and silky mud between my toes, a woman next to me reached over with a huge handful of the magic dark gray substance known as mud, and motioned for me to rub it on my face and neck. I looked around as I smoothed the sulfury smelling silica over my cheeks and forehead, at the very pregnant woman with the mud covering her very round belly, and at the gentleman to my right that was dark grayish green from the waist up...the whites of his eyes were even more pronounced since that was about the only thing that wasn´t covered! I waited til my mask dried, or basically until I found it extremely hard to pronounce words as my face felt frozen in place underneath it. The sun had gone behind the thick clouds at this point, a very unusual day in Máncora as it´s almost always pure sunshine, so I quickly rinsed off, climbed out, and ran to dry off, as being in the warm water had made the air feel quite a bit cooler than it really was. I don´t know if it was all psychological, but I couldn´t help feel more relaxed on the mototaxi ride home as I ran my fingers over my baby-smooth skin.

OK, so I have also started taking salsa lessons...no, not on how to make salsa, but rather, on the dance known as salsa. I have reluctantly attached a picture of my ¨grace¨in action...hopefully the instructor´s toes aren´t too bruised! So once a week, I have been learning the steps and the rhythm of the music, finding the turns particularly hard, and having a lot of fun! I continue to work on completely dissociating my hips from the ligaments that hold them in their sockets, as I have been told that the salsa is all in the hips more than one time...think Shakira. I have found it´s also good to be a volunteer, as I have gotten a discount with one instructor, and with the other instructor, I´m giving English lessons in return for dancing lessons! Both are very patient and easy to laugh at myself with!

Now, my other goal in coming to Máncora was to learn how to surf. This past weekend, I was having major issues with this surfing business...I was going to take my first ever lesson, got to the beach and saw that the waves were absolutely ginormous (see attached photo of said waves)!! The surfing crowd here was buzzing, and there was also a lot of wind, which the kite surfers were very happy about as well! I had visions of me tumbling in the surf and breaking my neck if I so much as even attempted to paddle out there in them, let alone try to stand up on a 2-foot wide piece of fiberglass, with rocks the size of boulders waiting to crack my skull open or cut my legs up when I most definitely wipe out. So I was thinking of changing my goal from learning to surf to coming to a new appreciation for those that can surf...and I sent out a survey to a selected council asking if they would per chance think any less of me if I took such a course of action? I also asked for any thoughts/opinions/encouragement/you`re absolutely right for not wanting to die messages. So this weekend I was sitting on my bed praying and psyching myself up for taking a lesson, when I remembered a business card of a surf instructor one of my salsa teachers had given me. I wandered up the street and managed to find his surf shop somewhere up the road off the main drag...and in talking to him for the 15-20 minutes that I did...I was put completely at ease and my fears relieved, and my first surfing lesson is scheduled for next Saturday at 9:30 in the morning!! So the prayer that I said before I set out this morning led me to the right place I´m sure of it!! And to my select council of individuals, thank you for all the supportive emails and words of encouragement/kicks in the pants that I´ve been receiving...I´ll be sure to keep you all updated!!

I have continued to try new foods as well...this weekend I was also invited to a pub crawl that was to benefit the earthquake relief efforts, and on the invitation were coupons for free drinks...the only catch was that you had to be wearing red and white, the colors of the Peruvian flag. Thankfully, I had a pair of red and white shorts that I packed, so my attire was all set. The highlight of the night was definitely getting to try ¨anticuchos,¨ which is...drumroll please...grilled slices of cow heart speared on a skewer, which I was at first very dead set against going anywhere near, and felt like I would have been on one of those reality shows where they make you eat goodness knows what. I was finally convinced to try it, and kept telling myself, mind over matter! My expected initial reaction was to spew it out of my mouth...see attached picture, but it was surprisingly good and I would eat it again if I had the chance. It was actually the best meat I´ve had here so far! So there you have it, continuing to expand my horizons!