Friends.
Today was a shitty day. Which is weird because this past weekend was spectacular.
I think my emotions are broken. I think Peace Corps has succeeded in breaking my feelings. If my sentiments were palpable, I'm pretty sure they'd be in tiny pieces, scattered all over Peru, like ashes in the wind.
So last weekend was the 16er despedida. I dressed up as a dragon (specifically, Drogon- the super awesome one from Game of Thrones), we drank, we ate, we laughed, we danced, and we swam in a lake for a while too. It was great, but I could feel myself falling into a dark, pensive state. I couldn't help myself from thinking about how soon the 16ers would be leaving, how sad that would make me in the next few months, and how my time in PC is slowly but surely coming to an end.
This kind of thought usually results in me freaking out about my lack of future plans- job? school? which one? am I qualified? deadlines? letter of recs? etc. etc. etc.
Still, I had fun and knowing this was the last hurrah for my lovely la lib 16ers, I was happy. And then the weekend ended and everything went to shit.
My municipality has lost my work plan and solicitude at least 3 times, and every time I go in asking about the progress, I am told that they need another copy. I've been into the office at least 2-3 times a week to figure out what is going on. Just a couple of weeks ago, my alcalde said that he would be giving everything we need to run the escuela de padres in one of the schools. YES. After 2 months of annoying everyone, it was finally going to get moving.
Not.
Last week, my alcalde told me to get the forms and things on Friday. I went to the municipality, the alcalde wasn't there (surprise, surprise) and the secretary told me that he would call him and see what's up. I was told to return on Monday because the alcalde needed to look at the paperwork once more.
I show up on Monday, nothing is ready, I'm told to come back on Tuesday. I show up today and lo and behold, still nothing is ready. They ask me to hand them another copy of the entire work plan, as well as a detailed explanation of what I will be using the funds for. Now, this is a project that my socia has been working on, and she's the one who knows all these details. I give her a call and let her know that there's a problem- the solicitude she turned in does not match the amount she's asking for in her work plan. She tells me she'll go to the muni tomorrow and work that out. I sigh, shake my head, and let her deal with that.
Then I turn in my formal solicitude to use the auditorium, sound system, and projector for a movie night I will be doing with my youth group for the day of halloween. The idea is to offer the youth an activity that is fun and doesn't involve drinking/smoking- which is what they would be doing if they go to the discotecas as many had planned on doing that night. I had talked to my muni last week to ask for this space and got a verbal "oh yes, absolutely, no problem, I'll write you down right now." With that, my kids sold tickets and were super pumped.
Today, the secretary turns to me and says that the space is no longer feasible- there is some activity going on that they forgot about.
What.
I'm seriously getting tired of working with my local government. It's slow and they make promises that they don't keep. They are all liars, is what it comes to in my head.
Sadly, I'm losing it at this point. I start cursing like a sailor, realize that I'm saying all these things out loud, explain to them that I'm going to cry, and walk out of there. I give a few other volunteers a call and literally, no one is answering. I give up after the 5th no answer and lose faith in everyone and everything.
Instead, I ride over to the school and try to get in touch with my youth kids. I'm talking to the vice principal and ask if it's possible if we use their space. I meet with the director who says I can use the auditorium, but I'll have to talk to another person about the sound system. I talk to this person who says I can't have the large system because it's broken, but I can use the smaller one- except I have to go buy a cable because they've lost theirs. Also, the sound system does not connect to my laptop, so it's pointless anyway.
I am losing my mind at this point and about to scream/pull out my hair/burst into tears.
I give the secretary another call and ask that if we can't do it on wednesday, can we hold the event on thursday? I'm given the green light.
So the whole point was to do this activity on Halloween, as a way of encouraging the youth to partake in activities that won't get them drunk, pregnant, riddled with disease. That's not going to happen, but at least it'll still be good practice for my youth group...
Sigh.
By the time I got home, it was noon... and to be honest, I had had my fill of BS for the day.
I am now declaring the rest of the evening a free day. I will be buying a large box of besos de moza, a handful of chocolates and chips, possibly a bottle of wine, some polla a la brasa, and curling up to a night of movies and books.
Tuesday is also supposed to be my one free day of the week, but I was asked to teach an english class. Pretty sure I'm going to cancel that and let them know that I'm sick and won't be able to make it.
Let's finish today. Today needs to end now. Ok, that's all.
Hopefully the next post is sooner and happier.
Love you all
peace
k bye.
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Thursday, October 4, 2012
day 483: river raft race continued!
Alright, boys and girls.
So last time, I left y'all with the pre-rafting story. Let's move on.
Day of the raft race and the boys and I are pumped. We will survive! is basically our motto. We get our stuff, head over to the meeting point, and we're off to Nauta to begin the race. Waiting for this bus, we're starting to realize that everyone else seems to have come with a load of stuff to pimp out their boats- plastic chairs, paint, flags, etc.
We brought... ourselves.
After the ceremonies and welcomes and all that, we have a little bit of time to wander around Nauta and we decide to start looking for some things we might want to put on our boat. We settle on some small plastic stools and one plastic chair.
Yea, that'll do.
The big boat comes, we get ourselves on it and off we go, just across the river to where our logs are waiting to be constructed into rafts!
Our initial plan was, do what we can and when we can't figure out what to do, higher a local to help. This didn't exactly workout because some Peruvian youth basically refused to let us do anything on our own and more or less started moving logs with us and constructing our raft. Ah well, we're all youth development volunteers for a reason, I suppose. Our raft turned out pretty boss though and it was dubbed "Duro as F*ck" because that's exactly what it was.
We finally finished our raft, starving and dehydrated. Lunch was provided at around 5pm that evening and when they ran out of water, they gave us beer. Warm beer, mind, but still - awesome. Sadly, I was seriously dehydrated and after informing one of the workers "if I don't get water, I will walk into this water and drown myself in it," I was lead onto the boat and given 4 bottles of water.
LIARS.
But now, I wasn't thirsty anymore. Histrionics really pay off sometimes! We got our raft built, ate our food (btw, the food was catered by people that the iquitos municipality uses to cater their events. Basically, it was seriously delicious. Except breakfast. Breakfast was rather weak considering it was going to be the meal fueling us. They gave us one piece of bread with a little bit of meat (think, a thin piece of deli ham). And juice. Basically, that's less than what I eat for breakfast when I'm NOT working out. Thank the dear lord we were warned about the lack of food and brought enough snacks to keep us mildly well fueled during the rafting!) and went to bed, pumped for the next morning.
The day of the race and oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boooooooooyyyyyy! Like the beautiful volunteers we are, all the PCVs helped each other lift their rafts and get them into the water. Almost brought tears to my eyes how easily we come to the aide of one another. During this time, unfortunately, while we were all trekking back to shore to get the next raft in, I see one of my boys on the sidelines, surrounded by peruvians and looking rattled.
What?
He looks over and is clearly concerned about what has happened- I GOT STUNG BY A STINGRAY, he laments.
WHAT?
We walk over, wondering where the medic is, and he explains that he lost his sandal in the water and was searching for it when he felt something stab him. When he shook his foot, something flew off and went back into the water. We can see that there is a hole in his foot (small, like a needle got jabbed into him) and finally someone comes to check on his foot.
The man smacks his foot a few times, squeezes the area, and asks how that feels. They conclude- it's not a stingray. He got stabbed by some other creature with a barb, but it's not poisonous and he'll be fine.
Sillyness.
So we get back on our raft and float on over to the center of the river. THE RAFT FLOATS! YES! Finally, the whistle is blown and we start paddling. Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle.
So last time, I left y'all with the pre-rafting story. Let's move on.
Day of the raft race and the boys and I are pumped. We will survive! is basically our motto. We get our stuff, head over to the meeting point, and we're off to Nauta to begin the race. Waiting for this bus, we're starting to realize that everyone else seems to have come with a load of stuff to pimp out their boats- plastic chairs, paint, flags, etc.
We brought... ourselves.
After the ceremonies and welcomes and all that, we have a little bit of time to wander around Nauta and we decide to start looking for some things we might want to put on our boat. We settle on some small plastic stools and one plastic chair.
Yea, that'll do.
The big boat comes, we get ourselves on it and off we go, just across the river to where our logs are waiting to be constructed into rafts!
 |
| On the boat, heading to the other side of the amazon river! |
They use a lotto name drawing to assign us some logs that have already been pre-divided into 8 a piece. Of course, there are actually a couple of Peruvian teams who had shown up earlier that day and had already begun constructing their rafts. There is a mild uproar about it, stating how unfair that is, but nothing is done to solve the issue. We get issued our logs and start constructing.
 |
| Moving our balsa logs to start constructing. |
 |
| We were given a machete, an axe, a hammer, nails, and a rope. Prior to this, the founder of the raft asked us gringos to please not use the machetes, and to hire locals to do this part for us. Psh. We showed him. |
We finally finished our raft, starving and dehydrated. Lunch was provided at around 5pm that evening and when they ran out of water, they gave us beer. Warm beer, mind, but still - awesome. Sadly, I was seriously dehydrated and after informing one of the workers "if I don't get water, I will walk into this water and drown myself in it," I was lead onto the boat and given 4 bottles of water.
LIARS.
But now, I wasn't thirsty anymore. Histrionics really pay off sometimes! We got our raft built, ate our food (btw, the food was catered by people that the iquitos municipality uses to cater their events. Basically, it was seriously delicious. Except breakfast. Breakfast was rather weak considering it was going to be the meal fueling us. They gave us one piece of bread with a little bit of meat (think, a thin piece of deli ham). And juice. Basically, that's less than what I eat for breakfast when I'm NOT working out. Thank the dear lord we were warned about the lack of food and brought enough snacks to keep us mildly well fueled during the rafting!) and went to bed, pumped for the next morning.
The day of the race and oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boooooooooyyyyyy! Like the beautiful volunteers we are, all the PCVs helped each other lift their rafts and get them into the water. Almost brought tears to my eyes how easily we come to the aide of one another. During this time, unfortunately, while we were all trekking back to shore to get the next raft in, I see one of my boys on the sidelines, surrounded by peruvians and looking rattled.
What?
He looks over and is clearly concerned about what has happened- I GOT STUNG BY A STINGRAY, he laments.
WHAT?
We walk over, wondering where the medic is, and he explains that he lost his sandal in the water and was searching for it when he felt something stab him. When he shook his foot, something flew off and went back into the water. We can see that there is a hole in his foot (small, like a needle got jabbed into him) and finally someone comes to check on his foot.
The man smacks his foot a few times, squeezes the area, and asks how that feels. They conclude- it's not a stingray. He got stabbed by some other creature with a barb, but it's not poisonous and he'll be fine.
Sillyness.
So we get back on our raft and float on over to the center of the river. THE RAFT FLOATS! YES! Finally, the whistle is blown and we start paddling. Paddle, paddle, paddle, paddle.
 |
| Photo courtesy of Sarabeth B |
Clouds above are starting to look a bit ominous when flash! Lightning! Thunderstorm! Woo! The water is amazing bliss and the choppyness of the waves is actually a relief- anything that isn't still water is welcome. But wow, I'm losing it. We're so close, I can see the boat. We'd been playing catch up and pass with a number of other rafts and feeling the urge to stay ahead (turns out, all of us are kind of secretly really competitive people), we paddle. I feel like I'm going to cry. I'm exhausted, hungry, and I just want this stupid race to be over. I scream obscenities at the water, and curse the race. "Woah, look at that." We look behind us and see the wind from the storm has kicked up a giant cloud of sand that's whipping around behind us. Wow. Glad we missed that. Finally, we make it to the end and grab some food.
You're the second international team to make it! Katoo is there, apparently we were right on his tail. Woah, nice! There are cameras immediately in your face and you're not even off the raft yet. They ask for words of advice, and Z responds "just keep paddling."
Lol.
We get off the raft and head straight for food. I apologize for my freakout and my lovely lovely teammates assure me that it wasn't as bad as I thought I was (I'm sure they were lying to me, but I love them for it anyway). Then we get out of our nasty river clothes, grab some beers, and chill out on this super chill spot that one of my guys randomly discovers. Brilliant.
At this point, I realize I am ridiculously burnt and my face hurts. But not so bad that a cold beer doesn't solve it. We watch as night falls and rafts slowly make their way in. Many rafts are towed that day, and some have to abandon ship and cannot complete the race. No one seems really bummed though, and dinner is delicious. There's another presentation, and the dances are seriously awesome. It's obvious that these kids have practiced hard to coordinate their moves, but sadly the storms hits and it hits hard. Rain POURS and we move from the tents to random classrooms and spaces indoors. By the morning, though, the rain has cleared but clouds remain.
Day 3. Competitive spirit kicks in. We realize we've done well these past two days, and today is the final day. We can continue this. International teams are sent off first, with national teams to follow afterwards. This does level the playing field a bit, as we realize that all of us are now clustered close enough to each other that we'll be rafting in view of one another for the most part. We had stocked up on more snacks the previous night, but snacks were more or less forgotten (except when Z would shove cookies into J's mouth). We kept paddling, trying to distance ourselves from the rest but finding that our pace was more or less the same. "We'll pass em through endurance" says Z, and he's right. When teams pause to drink water and stretch, we keep going- stopping only long enough to swap sides and reapply sunscreen. But the sun is hidden behind clouds and it's actually rather chilly. Captain's log: Peruvian teams started after us but are flying by already. One kind team (a family) notices us and gives us a lighter, smaller paddle for me to use. How sweet of them! Balls, as reported by crew, are at an all time high.
Finally, the river bends and we're in this rather open area. We can see a few teams are on the left, but we stick to the middle of the river. Finally, all of us slow down. We can't tell where to go- the river seems to turn right, but the ms word paint map given to us shows nothing of the kind. Everyone slows and gets confused. I look over and see our support boat. Is that our support boat? "No, that's a bus" says J. Ah, so it is. It's on the sand. It's a sand bus. Suddenly, rafts are disappearing into this sand.
I think we all went kind of insane at this point.
Turns out, there's a very small channel that goes upstream and can only be seen if you're on the left side, looking for it. We passed it. FRACK. We start paddling like maniacs, against a strong current, trying to get into this little inlet of a stream. We get grounded on the sand and I jump out and just push our raft. We finally get to where we're supposed to be and the entire battle is upstream.
Remember that sand bus? Yea. It really is our support boat. It seems we're at the end when we see a boat waving a green flag and a red flag in circles. I don't think that means anything, in flag talk. What is going on. We see another raft ahead and realize, the support boat does not signify an end. There's still more to paddle. Exhausted, we keep getting caught on sand banks. I get frustrated. Captain's log: I hate everyone on this raft. Everyone on this raft hates me. I don't want to paddle anymore. Spirits are shattered and I want to strangle the person waving those flags... with those flags.
A storm hits. Waves get super choppy, wind blows sheets of rain into our face. Locals stare and do nothing to help us. We reach a point where the river splits and we have to decide to go left or right. What? So many people are going to get lost at this point, why is there nothing here to indicate that you must go left or right? We stare in each direction and notice that there is a small, bright pink and green dot in the distance on the left. That must be another raft, we decide, and go left.
It looks so close but it takes us nearly another hour to cross this small stretch of water, battling rain and wind and current. We finally get there and shivering in the cold, crawl out. They tell us to head over to this giant building made of columns. It's freezing. Captain's log: No, this time balls are at an all time high. The boys agree.
We get to the columns and are greeted with cold beer and girls in tight clothes advertising said beer. We down one, and grab a second before heading up the stairs. We find out that the support raft was grounded by the same sand banks we were getting caught on, but the bigger problem was that some mechanic bit was destroyed. All of our stuff (aka dry clothes) are on this boat.
Shivering, we're immediately swarmed by people with cameras and microphones. Someone puts a mike in my face and asks, "do you plan on doing this again?" my immediate response is "no. absolutely not." I get food, get water, and I can tell that the team feels kind of bad- we could have won had we not missed that left turn. Argh. But still, we finished! WE JUST FINISHED THIS MOTHER EFFING AMAZON RAFT RACE.
#WINNERS
We continue to watch as people start coming in. The water is coming down so hard, now, you can barely see the river. We were right about that right/left split- teams who managed to get all the way to the end, missed the left and went right. They were literally within site of the end but due to a lack of visibility and directions from the raft race group, missed it. Obviously, they were disappointed at having to abandon ship in the last stretch so hopefully in future years, the race will do something to fix that.
Everyone is cold and wet, hoping our stuff makes it back to us at some point. But before then, the winners are called up. First, the national teams- the family that lent me the oar won in the mixed category! Then they started calling the international teams.
As each first place and second place winners of the all male team, the all female team, the mixed teams are called up, my mates and I are looking at each other. We definitely made it in before some of these teams, or at least were right on the tails of some of the first place winners. I'm thinking, naw, we're not gonna win... but there's a part of me that refuses to leave and stays while they call the mixed team winners.
In second place, "Oar We There Yet?"
Eyes. Huge. We just look at each other for a second and then with giant smiles, make our way up to the stage. I can hear PCVs shouting and I just can't believe it. We won? This is insane. Absolutely insane.
But insane as it is, turns out it's true! We came in second! I look out at the crowd of cameras and videos, and the man standing next to me asks where we're from. I tell him, all over the USA but oh! Peace Corps! He calls out "Cuerpo de Paz" and all the PCVs in the crowd start cheering. So Awesome. We're to collect our prize money the day after. On top of all that, we're allowed to keep our oars as a token!
Actually, we ended up taking the money and eventually leaving the oars. I wanted mine, but in terms of luggage space, it just didn't make the cut :c
 |
| The boys < 3 |
 |
| Captain Song getting paid cash money (S/3000 for the team!) |
 |
| WHAT UPPPPPP! |
Sadly, all this money was spent in an instant, paying for this jungle trip. Pretty sure I should have saved some of it, considering my general state of broke... but I had a fantastic trip!
Tell you more about that later, though.
ALRIGHT forgot to end my last post with my usual so here, times two, I leave you with peace and love!
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
day 482: oh boy, do i have a story to tell you!
SUP AMIGITOS
Jeez, it's been super forever since I last logged on here to tell you what's up. Well, let's be honest, there really wasn't much happening. September has come and gone (wake me up, when September eeenndds~), it was full of ups and downs and the usual roller coaster ride...
Oh, and I participated in the world's longest river rafting race down the Amazon River, for 3 days, on a raft constructed out of 8 balsa logs, a machete, a saw, some nails, a hammer, and a rope. Came in second place in the international mixed category too.
Say WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATT?
Yea, that's right, I am now officially a RAFTER baby! Woo! So let's get you some details.
The 14th annual Great Amazon Raft Race was held on September 20th and my team, "Oar We There Yet?" was composed of me and 3 other PCVs whom I love and adore. Those three boys of mine are musicians. No one on this raft had much rafting experience. We were excited at the prospect of surviving through all of this. We knew it was going to be tough, but just how tough?
Well, let's just say getting to the day itself was an adventure. First, we had to get our vacation request forms in. I sent mine months ahead of time, so I was set. Of course, 2 of my boys waited until the last minute and one of them didn't make the cut (max 45 volunteers for any given holiday event and he was number 46- on the waiting list). Thankfully, a few people ended up dropping out and he made it!
Next, we had to figure out how we were going to pay the entrance fee ($600 per team of 4 people). Individually? In dollars? We ended up paying one person who happened to be in Iquitos anyway and paid the fee for all of us. That wasn't so bad. Except the director of the race then contacted me a month later and asked me for a copy of the receipt of our deposit. Now, that's just silly. Who's going to hold on to a piece of paper for that long? Plus, the only thing the paper had printed on it was the date and the operation number, which I had already sent them. The director lady insisted, so I said we'd see what we could do.
We could do nothing. I contact the lady and explain that she needs to go to the bank and look up the operation number. She responds back that she is no longer working there for personal reasons (something about a baby? I don't know. It was seriously personal. I was really surprised she shared that info with me.) and tells me to contact someone else. I contact someone else and repeat my story and get a really quick response that boiled down to, "Oh, ok, don't worry about it, we got this."
Awesome.
So that got figured out alright, after a week or two of worry and stress. And then it came time to buy plane tickets. Well, when I went to first purchase them, tickets were at about $110. I thought, maybe it'll go down? I was right! A week and a half or so later, it goes down to $95. I whip out my credit card, all ready to pay, and BOOM- REJECTION. They won't let me pay online with an international card. I have no money in my national bank at this point, so I can't pay with my national card. DAMN!
I run into the capital city the following weekend, and head to the airline office. They are closed randomly this weekend do to maintenance. BOOM-REJECTION part deux. So, I pull cash out of my american account, deposit it into my peruvian account, and try to buy the tickets again. BOOM-REJECTION take 3. Now what?! Turns out, I have to have my national card set up so that I can pay for things online or some ridiculousness. ARGH.
After another few days of trying to sort things out, I finally get the card to go through and buy my tickets, now marked up to $140. Whaddyagonnado. As I'm setting this all up though, I notice that the website maintenance has finished. The day I buy my tickets, they allow me to reserve a seat and buy my ticket (with my american card, if I so desire) the next time I'm in the regional capital. HEAD. DESK. REPEAT.
Whatever. Tickets are bought, I'm badgering my team to get their tickets. One of my boys is having issues buying things online so a few days before we're set to leave, he heads into the airline office to buy tickets and gets stuck with a lady who refuses to accept his card which states that we are legally peruvian residents and demands that he pay the non-resident price (which is seriously jacked up- a gringo tax? that's b.s.). He refuses and we can't figure out why this lady doesn't understand that the card attached to our passports clearly indicates that we are living in peru. He gets understandably annoyed, leaves, and gets another plane ticket.
Shiny.
So finally the day comes, I am scrambling to get all my last minute work done so that things still happen while I'm away from site for the next few days. Eventually I find myself some time to pack and I'm throwing things into a bag like I'm going to be away for months, not just a week. Get myself on a bus where 2 of my boys are and off we go to Lima!
We get off in Lima and head to a Korean restaurant.
SIDE STORY: So, during training (like more than a year ago), my mom met a priest who was going to be serving in Peru. She sent him something and asked him to please take it to Peru and send it to me while he was here. He agreed, but never sent it to me. I tried to contact him a number of times, but not understanding how to dial phone numbers since I didn't get a cellphone until the end of training, never managed to. He magically calls me one day and explains to me that he's been holding on to this electronic device for the past year and a half now, and needs to give it to me because he's heading back to the states. I explain that I do not live near Lima, but will be heading there someday. He tells me that he's going to leave it with some mysterious Korean man who attends his church, and that I should look for him the next time I'm in Lima. I thank him, jot down a phone number and address, and shrug my shoulders- no idea what my mom was trying to send me. Then, a week later, I realize that HEY! I'm going to Lima! Not for very long (a few hours), but enough time to stop by and find this man. I confer with my teammates and they agree that sure, we should go, and then eat at a Korean restaurant nearby since they have never had Korean food before.
Ridiculous. Korean food is amazing. I insist we must go at least to eat.
So I call this mysterious man, explain that I'm the girl who the priest left something for, and he recognizes me and tells me that he'll see me at his shop (Korean food specialty store). We make our way there, find the man, and he hands me this tiny little lego.
Wait. What? A Lego? Yea. I bought these little speakers for my ipod and it looks like a lego piece. THIS IS WHAT MY MOTHER HAS BEEN TRYING TO SEND ME FOR THE LAST YEAR. I seriously lol'ed in the shop. And then we ate Korean food, and it was super rico because I haven't had Korean food in FOREVER and the boys liked it, but it's obvy not the best I've had (which would be, ya know, my mom's food... but still)
Anyway, back to the story. Sorry for the randoms.
We get to Lima and then head to the airport to fly into Iquitos (max, 2 hours). Fun fact, they give you beer on LAN. Auspicious beginnings, my friend, auspicious beginnings.
While waiting for the one who took a different flight, the rest of us sat around in the hot jungle climate and sang (remember how all three of them are musicians? well fear not, a guitar and cajón were most def present during the trip.)
It was tons of fun and had me super ready for this race! We are all reunited, get swamped by guys trying to more or less drag us into their motos and taxis, and finally figure out that rather than spending a lot of money, we can get to our hostel for like S/1 if we take a combi right outside of the airport. Nice.
The hostel (Green Track Hostel) is fantastic. The room is air conditioned and brilliant, and I sleep on and off until the day comes! RAFT TIME!
I'm going to go to bed now and leave you with this. Promise to continue my story tomorrow~
edit: wanted to leave you with a new and original song made up on the spot by zack and jbibb at the airport (super catchy... and about the girl working at the snack shop on the other side of the window) but my video's won't load for some reason... meh. i'll try to upload it when my internet isn't so poopy.
Jeez, it's been super forever since I last logged on here to tell you what's up. Well, let's be honest, there really wasn't much happening. September has come and gone (wake me up, when September eeenndds~), it was full of ups and downs and the usual roller coaster ride...
Oh, and I participated in the world's longest river rafting race down the Amazon River, for 3 days, on a raft constructed out of 8 balsa logs, a machete, a saw, some nails, a hammer, and a rope. Came in second place in the international mixed category too.
Say WHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAATT?
Yea, that's right, I am now officially a RAFTER baby! Woo! So let's get you some details.
The 14th annual Great Amazon Raft Race was held on September 20th and my team, "Oar We There Yet?" was composed of me and 3 other PCVs whom I love and adore. Those three boys of mine are musicians. No one on this raft had much rafting experience. We were excited at the prospect of surviving through all of this. We knew it was going to be tough, but just how tough?
Well, let's just say getting to the day itself was an adventure. First, we had to get our vacation request forms in. I sent mine months ahead of time, so I was set. Of course, 2 of my boys waited until the last minute and one of them didn't make the cut (max 45 volunteers for any given holiday event and he was number 46- on the waiting list). Thankfully, a few people ended up dropping out and he made it!
Next, we had to figure out how we were going to pay the entrance fee ($600 per team of 4 people). Individually? In dollars? We ended up paying one person who happened to be in Iquitos anyway and paid the fee for all of us. That wasn't so bad. Except the director of the race then contacted me a month later and asked me for a copy of the receipt of our deposit. Now, that's just silly. Who's going to hold on to a piece of paper for that long? Plus, the only thing the paper had printed on it was the date and the operation number, which I had already sent them. The director lady insisted, so I said we'd see what we could do.
We could do nothing. I contact the lady and explain that she needs to go to the bank and look up the operation number. She responds back that she is no longer working there for personal reasons (something about a baby? I don't know. It was seriously personal. I was really surprised she shared that info with me.) and tells me to contact someone else. I contact someone else and repeat my story and get a really quick response that boiled down to, "Oh, ok, don't worry about it, we got this."
Awesome.
So that got figured out alright, after a week or two of worry and stress. And then it came time to buy plane tickets. Well, when I went to first purchase them, tickets were at about $110. I thought, maybe it'll go down? I was right! A week and a half or so later, it goes down to $95. I whip out my credit card, all ready to pay, and BOOM- REJECTION. They won't let me pay online with an international card. I have no money in my national bank at this point, so I can't pay with my national card. DAMN!
I run into the capital city the following weekend, and head to the airline office. They are closed randomly this weekend do to maintenance. BOOM-REJECTION part deux. So, I pull cash out of my american account, deposit it into my peruvian account, and try to buy the tickets again. BOOM-REJECTION take 3. Now what?! Turns out, I have to have my national card set up so that I can pay for things online or some ridiculousness. ARGH.
After another few days of trying to sort things out, I finally get the card to go through and buy my tickets, now marked up to $140. Whaddyagonnado. As I'm setting this all up though, I notice that the website maintenance has finished. The day I buy my tickets, they allow me to reserve a seat and buy my ticket (with my american card, if I so desire) the next time I'm in the regional capital. HEAD. DESK. REPEAT.
Whatever. Tickets are bought, I'm badgering my team to get their tickets. One of my boys is having issues buying things online so a few days before we're set to leave, he heads into the airline office to buy tickets and gets stuck with a lady who refuses to accept his card which states that we are legally peruvian residents and demands that he pay the non-resident price (which is seriously jacked up- a gringo tax? that's b.s.). He refuses and we can't figure out why this lady doesn't understand that the card attached to our passports clearly indicates that we are living in peru. He gets understandably annoyed, leaves, and gets another plane ticket.
Shiny.
So finally the day comes, I am scrambling to get all my last minute work done so that things still happen while I'm away from site for the next few days. Eventually I find myself some time to pack and I'm throwing things into a bag like I'm going to be away for months, not just a week. Get myself on a bus where 2 of my boys are and off we go to Lima!
We get off in Lima and head to a Korean restaurant.
SIDE STORY: So, during training (like more than a year ago), my mom met a priest who was going to be serving in Peru. She sent him something and asked him to please take it to Peru and send it to me while he was here. He agreed, but never sent it to me. I tried to contact him a number of times, but not understanding how to dial phone numbers since I didn't get a cellphone until the end of training, never managed to. He magically calls me one day and explains to me that he's been holding on to this electronic device for the past year and a half now, and needs to give it to me because he's heading back to the states. I explain that I do not live near Lima, but will be heading there someday. He tells me that he's going to leave it with some mysterious Korean man who attends his church, and that I should look for him the next time I'm in Lima. I thank him, jot down a phone number and address, and shrug my shoulders- no idea what my mom was trying to send me. Then, a week later, I realize that HEY! I'm going to Lima! Not for very long (a few hours), but enough time to stop by and find this man. I confer with my teammates and they agree that sure, we should go, and then eat at a Korean restaurant nearby since they have never had Korean food before.
Ridiculous. Korean food is amazing. I insist we must go at least to eat.
So I call this mysterious man, explain that I'm the girl who the priest left something for, and he recognizes me and tells me that he'll see me at his shop (Korean food specialty store). We make our way there, find the man, and he hands me this tiny little lego.
Wait. What? A Lego? Yea. I bought these little speakers for my ipod and it looks like a lego piece. THIS IS WHAT MY MOTHER HAS BEEN TRYING TO SEND ME FOR THE LAST YEAR. I seriously lol'ed in the shop. And then we ate Korean food, and it was super rico because I haven't had Korean food in FOREVER and the boys liked it, but it's obvy not the best I've had (which would be, ya know, my mom's food... but still)
Anyway, back to the story. Sorry for the randoms.
We get to Lima and then head to the airport to fly into Iquitos (max, 2 hours). Fun fact, they give you beer on LAN. Auspicious beginnings, my friend, auspicious beginnings.
While waiting for the one who took a different flight, the rest of us sat around in the hot jungle climate and sang (remember how all three of them are musicians? well fear not, a guitar and cajón were most def present during the trip.)
It was tons of fun and had me super ready for this race! We are all reunited, get swamped by guys trying to more or less drag us into their motos and taxis, and finally figure out that rather than spending a lot of money, we can get to our hostel for like S/1 if we take a combi right outside of the airport. Nice.
The hostel (Green Track Hostel) is fantastic. The room is air conditioned and brilliant, and I sleep on and off until the day comes! RAFT TIME!
I'm going to go to bed now and leave you with this. Promise to continue my story tomorrow~
edit: wanted to leave you with a new and original song made up on the spot by zack and jbibb at the airport (super catchy... and about the girl working at the snack shop on the other side of the window) but my video's won't load for some reason... meh. i'll try to upload it when my internet isn't so poopy.
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