Disclaimer:The following is in no way meant be negative…I just find it almost surreal that this is actually how I’m living every day here in Peru. 🙂
I woke up this morning to Talia yelling, “Oh my gosh, there
are maggots!” Kari and Jon run out to see what’s going on and find that the
mountain of trash we have built in the kitchen is
crawling with them. Trash day
was on Tuesday, but we forgot to take it out. (Tuesday was our day off, and who
wants to take out trash on their day off?!) So the hill has slowly evolved into
a mountain that was nearly as high as the counter. We accumulate garbage like
no body’s business around here with 20 people, especially considering we throw
away toilet paper instead of flushing it. Which also means we go through about
2-3 rolls a day. So back to the maggot crawling trash heap. Out walks Amalia,
our fearless translator. She is a force to be reckoned with and will never be
found in the background of any situation. She’s obviously disgusted and doesn’t
let the problem go one minute longer. She, Jon, and Kari start taking the bags
of trash outside where they planned to pay 1 Sol ($.35) for someone to burn it
for us. Surprisingly there was a garbage truck that had just pulled up the
street and was yelling for everyone to bring out their trash…definitely
God
timing on this one! So now the trash is gone, but there are still maggots
crawling throughout our kitchen and down the halls towards our bedrooms. Talia
started stepping on them, and Kari chased them with a broom and dustpan. Once
that situation is somewhat under control, Talia decides to take a shower…just
kidding…we have no water! It often happens that our water shuts off for hours
at a time without warning…you get used to it after awhile.
So I decide to get up and check out what’s going on. I find
Amalia in the kitchen cleaning, and Jon cutting up a cantaloupe. The trash heap
is gone, but it still looks like a bomb went off at baggage claim. I guess you
could say that about every room in this house, I just find it more unus
ual in
the kitchen. I look around for breakfast…I know Jon bought fruit and cereal for
our team a couple days ago, but it easily gets lost among the other 3 team’s
food, coffee corner, and all the other random stuff that ends up in the
kitchen. I decide on a few pieces of Jon’s cantaloupe and a handful of Froot
Loops. I wander into the living room, hear a faint “quack/chirp”, and am
quickly reminded of our newest housemate. Yes, that’s right, Amanda bought a
duck last night. He doesn’t have a name yet, but we’ve been assured that she’s
going to take such great care of him that we won’t even know he’s here. I
highly doubt that’s possible, but hey, at least he’s cute!
I walk back into our room, and I’m just about to sit down on
my “bed” when I realize that my feet are of course covered in sand…why does
this not surprise me. I hear Talia scramble for the bathroom, beating Jon by
about ½ a second…you gotta be quick around here. I wonder if she
remembers we
ran out of toilet paper last night…and there’s still no water. I can’t help but
laugh to myself at the things that have become “normal” in my life now. It’s
quite comical actually. I decide that it’s my duty to share our adventures with
the world, so I sit down in my personal little sandbox, also knows as my
sleeping bag, to write this blog. Welcome to my life. Much love!
