This week we were in the boons, literally. We had to take a bus on a bumpy dirt road for five hours in the desert to get to the two pueblos we were in for the week. I’m sure gringos haven’t been there for ages because everyone looked and talked to us as if we were from a different planet. The mountains were incredible and reminded me a lot of the mountains up Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon. One of the FONDESURCO staff members in Omate took us down to her farm one evening and taught us all how to milk her cows. I especially struggled -even when I squeezed harder, nothing came out.
This is how the people here make adobe bricks to build their homes. Adobe makes up the majority of the homes we visit in the colder regions of the Andes. The work this week was especially exhausting. We’re in the middle of conducting a client satisfaction survey for the NGO here, which means traveling many hours on dirt roads to try and find just one or two people at a time. And many times we don’t find the people home- so frustrating! I try to listen to my NBC and NPR News podcasts or the books on my iPod because there is a lot of travel time. Way too much! And I start feeling sick if I read in the car on the bumpy roads. But we have already done 76 out of the 95 surveys that we need and only have one last area, 8 hours away, which we travel to tomorrow. We’re almost done with the traveling part. Hurray! Only a few days left of traveling and then I’ll be back in Lima staying with Olivia and Rolando, the parents of Jose.
The towns we were in this week didn’t even have a single gas station. So this is how you fill up the gas tank when there isn’t a gas station in town. You go to the local store and they give you a pitcher of gas and a funnel.
And the last bit of news this week is that I’m coming home July 31st, 9 days earlier than I had planned. It will give me at least a couple of weeks to have a summer break before I have to start school again at GW on August 20th. Tyson Tidwell invited a bunch of friends up to his cabin in Island Park for a weekend of waterskiing and hanging out. They leave a couple of hours after I get home from Peru. So I’m looking forward to that! I was going to have to spend that last week in Lima all by myself with basically nothing to do because I’m almost done with all my write-ups for the NGOs and for my MPH practicum project.
2 comments:
Considering the fact that the price for milk has gone through the roof, maybe you should just buy your own cow and milk her every morning instead of paying the awful prices as the grocery store...just a thought. Love the pics!
Cam, I think that next time you milk a cow you should focus more on pulling down while you squeeze rather than just squeezing harder. At least that's what I remember from when I milked a cow when I was 7 during a field trip to wheeler farm.
Post a Comment