#volunteerlife #buses

What is life like as a volunteer in Peru? It’s crazy. Loco! I’ll tell you about my past week. My alarm goes off at 7:30am and I eat breakfast with the volunteers. My daily breakfast is bread with jelly, cornflakes with yogurt, and a piece of fruit. One of the things I love the most about living in a volunteer house is eating meals with everyone. I wake up every morning excited to see my friends and we always have the most random conversations. Also, due to the fact that a few of us have had parasites…our topics often include the progress of our bowel movements.  What can I say? When you live, work, and play together you tend to get very close, very fast.

After breakfast I catch a bus to wherever I’m working. The buses are so fun, loud, and at first scary. I’ll do my best to describe what it’s like. While standing on the curb you’ll see buses fly by while a man hangs out the side of the bus screaming where it’s going. It feels like they are demanding that you get onto their bus. Most of the buses are just crappy white vans—sometimes there are holes in the floor. Once you’re on the bus you hope to find a seat but most of the time you’ll end up standing. When there is an empty window seat next to a person they do not slide in. They remain sitting on the outside seat. I think it’s because it’s easier to get off if you stay in this seat because you don’t have to crawl over people. The seat in front of the bus is reserved for pregnant women, old people, and people with kids.

The first time I got on one of these buses I could barely breathe it was so crowded. It has the same feel as standing in the front row of a general admission concert…when you feel like you could get lifted up by those around you because you’re so close. The majority of the buses cost 1 sole which is about $0.30. Often they will try to overcharge us because we’re gringos but we just give them what it’s supposed to be. On the van type buses there is always the driver and the man that hangs out the window calling where the bus is going. The man that hangs out the window also collects the money (I’m not sure what he’s actually called). Even though so many people are getting on and off the man somehow NEVER misses a person. You hand him your sole and then say where you are going and he gives you a ticket. Sometimes a person gets on the bus and checks all the tickets to make sure they are real. When you’re ready to get off you yell “Baja!” which means down.

These are the times you want to watch your pockets!

There is one other type of bus which is much bigger than the vans. They look public buses in the U.S. These are interesting because you have to pay as soon as you step on which means you need to have your money ready. The bus driver operates the bus, takes your money and gives you your ticket. I am always incredibly impressed by their multitasking skills.

The nice type of bus!

You have to be careful on the buses because it’s easy to get pick-pocketed. A few of my friends have had their things stolen. I would never bring large amounts of money or credit cards on a bus in Lima. I’ve been in one bus accident so far and that was pretty scary. Luckily I was sitting towards the front of the bus but a few of my friends were sitting in the back when we got rear-ended. The traffic here is so crazy and the drivers are nuts. Our accident ended up including four buses…ours was in the front. My friends in the back got hit pretty hard and saw the glass shatter. I just felt us get hit. However, everyone was okay besides a few bloody noses. They had everyone get off once we were hit and they gave us our money back. Considering how absolutely nuts the driving is here I would expect to see car accidents everywhere. However, mine is the only accident I’ve seen yet. I always wonder what their insurance policy is…or if insurance exists around here.

Gotta love Lima traffic! A bit different than NH....

Type of buses we take every am 

Okay, three more things about the buses and then I’ll talk about volunteering…I promise! First: the music. Peru feels like it’s stuck in the 90’s. The Backstreet Boys are always playing on the buses. Also, sometimes there is amazing live music. The artists hop on for about 5 minutes and rock out. Sometimes there is even a trio. Because they stay on the bus for such a short amount of time they do not have to pay. They do a little sample of their music and then walk down the aisle (if it’s a bus with an aisle) and collect money. My favorite so far has been a guy playing a flute, guitar, and singing all at the same time. I also really liked a trio of men that were singing and playing the drums. These musicians are incredible…I would buy their music off iTunes if it was available.

 Second: I’ve had a gun pointed at me on a bus for twenty minutes. One day when we were coming back from teaching a man got onto the bus and there was a lot of commotion. He stumbled into the seat across from me and I noticed he had a gun in his hand. He had it directly pointed at me and at random times would raise it and do a fake shooting motion. I started profusely sweating and was frozen. However, the Peruvians told us that it was a fake gun and that the man just had mental problems.

Third: they sell food on the buses. Since its spring now, they’ve started selling ice cream on the bus. Similar to the musicians, the vendor gets onto the bus, walks down the aisle and collects money and hands out ice cream. People also sell candies and gum. Also while you’re stopped in traffic people walk in between cars and sell sweets. People also do acrobatic tricks like back hand springs and juggling in front of cars to get money. It’s a crazy place. I would NEVER drive here.

Okay, that was a total diversion. Sorry! I just absolutely love the buses.  I’m going to miss it so much when I’m driving alone in my car on the empty streets to work. On Mondays and Fridays I work at a special needs orphanage for younger children.  My mornings start by playing with the children and then we do physical therapy with them. PT always starts with taking off the children’s shoes, pants, and socks and massaging their legs with lotion. Some really like massages while others squirm around like crazy. Most of their legs are really skinny and freezing. We also massage their backs and stomachs. When massaging their stomachs we make x and heart shapes with our hands. After the massages we stretch their legs and do a bicycle type movement with them. Some of the children have feeding tubes, severe deformities, or cannot stay still which makes PT difficult. Today I had a little boy whose head is cone shaped. We introduce different textures, play in a plastic ball pool, do different exercises and moments, show them different taste, make music, and take them through different obstacle courses. The physical therapist is an incredible lady. She has so much patience and treats ever child as if it were her own.  

Dana! My favorite :x

My lovely roommate

 After we have finished PT with all the children we usually play more with them until lunch. Today it was just me working with the therapist so it took us longer and we didn't get any extra playing time. I honestly dislike feeding time at all the orphanages. It usually results in having to force feed the kids because a.) they hate the food b.) the portions are way too big c.) they’re too young to be eating that type of food d.) it hurts them to eat. Also, it’s super messy. The always throw it up, spit it out at you, cry, and try to knock the bowl out of your hand.  The only thing that really bothers me still is having food spit back out at me and it landing on my face. However, since I stared changing the diapers of 14 yr old girls I quickly got over being grossed out at things. You just have to completely step out of your comfort zone and try to displace your discomforts for the sake of others. It’s a lot easier said than done though! Today I sat with a boy for an hour feeding him mash. Almost every bite came back up and I had to put it back into his mouth. It shows how good of an appetite I have…right after I went and ate food myself after seeing it spit up for an hour. He was so sweet and I learned some message techniques to help him swallow! Also, the Beatles started playing and he smiled because he likes the music…made my day.

Most ticklish boy in the world...also loves the Beatles

On Monday afternoon I also went to the women’s shelter. We did an English lesson on manners and acted out a skit to demonstrated saying thank you, please, excuse me, etc. Afterwards we made bracelets and ate popcorn. I love the girls at the shelter. On Tuesday I went to work at another orphanage. Right as I grabbed my favorite baby a lady came in and asked me to accompany her to the hospital.

This was my second time going to the hospital. It is the craziest place I’ve ever seen…well it’s probably the same as that awful Juliaca town. First we get all the kids together to go to the hospital. On Monday it was two other ladies, me, and four children. Two had downs, one had Autism, and one had leg deformities.  We load everyone up into a van. The kids sit on our laps without seat belts of course. The trips to and from the hospital are always when I’m the most scared because I do not want to get hit with kids in the car! The hospital is so crowded and it’s hard to get through the halls. It’s dirty and unorganized. I’ve seen a lot of weird deformities and very sick looking children there. I’ve seen a woman break down crying when she’s gotten some type of news and one lady the other day started freaking out and banging a door and screaming. I also had to wait outside a dentist’s office and listen to kids get their teeth pulled out. It was a horrible noise.  

The first time I went to the hospital I helped the children get xrays. I had to hold them up and/or down while they screamed. One of the times I didn’t get to wear a protective coat. Also, that day people kept thinking I was a nurse so I ended up helping a girl with severe scoliosis get x-rayed.  On Wednesday I was asked to go to the hospital again. This time I was in charge of two children. One had downs and the other has Autism I believe. At one point they both ran off in different directions and I found the girl in a room where they were pulling out teeth. I ended up having to wrap my legs around them to keep them from running off. It’s really easy to lose people in the hospital!

One of the highlights of my week was getting to go to speech therapy with one of the children. I told the therapist that I’m going to school for SP and he let me do half of the therapy. He explained everything to me as he did it. That day we took different textures and rubbed them on the boys’ skin and told him what they’re called. The therapist told me that before the boy would cry and run off every time he did it but now he’s improving and is fine with it! I was so happy to get to see Peruvian speech therapy! I also had Spanish lessons on Wednesday.

On Thursday I went back to the orphanage again but actually got to stay there. I work with children 2 months to 1 ½ years old. I give them their bottles, take them outside, feed them lunch and help clean. Each day there are different “mamas” in the room and some of them are really nice and some don’t let you do anything with the children. If you know me, you know I love babies. The baby room is probably my favorite place on earth. It’s exactly what I wanted to be doing when I signed up for volunteering. On Wednesdays I had mamas I really like and was wicked busy all morning. Btw…everyone makes fun of me for saying wicked!
So, that was my week so far! I’ve stopped teaching English at the school because since the high school is too dangerous for me to go to there’s no need for me at the primary school. However, I still get to help teach at the women’s shelter so I feel fine about it!  I also started running again so hopefully I can get back into shape before I go home! All this rice is killing me…but it tastes so good. Thanks again for taking the time to read this! It’s time to watch from Netflix and take a nap J It’s been a long (but great) week. 

Notes:
-the pictures of the buses/traffic above were taken from google because I do not bring my camera out
-I do not have pictures from the baby orphanage because we are not supposed to take pictures of the children...aka I haven't snuck any good ones yet