This is the volunteer house where we are staying. Right now, it´s just me and Irene (until the rest of the group gets here). Irene is a retired teacher from England who spends 3 months every year here. She volunteers her time at the preschool next door. Veronica, the amazing cook, does not stay here. Bob and Ben live with a host family in downtown Arequipa when they come to Peru... so it´s pretty quiet in the house so far. Home sweet home...
Next door to the volunteer house is one of Father Alex´s churches (he has 2 in Alto Cayma).
Since the rest of the group would not be arriving until Monday, Bob and I decided to head to downtown Arequipa to do a little sightseeing and orientating me to the city and it´s people. In a nutshell, the city of Arequipa is doing surprisingly well, with a strong economy that enables it to expand exponentially. Father Alex has been a catalyst in helping the outer skirts of the city, like the community of Alto Cayma, flourish by providing services (like health care, food programs and employment) to the people who live there. Here is a picture of Arequipa (from downtown) looking out into the mountain communities:
My interpretation of Alto Cayma and similar settlements around Arequipa was that it was a sad, underdeveloped place with not much for opportunity for those that live there. Boy, was I wrong. Bob explained to me that since Father Alex began his mission 17 years ago, more and more people are moving to the community, finding jobs and flourishing. I´ll post more about this particular subject in detail later...
We met Ben for lunch at one of Bob´s favorite restaurants, called Tipika (?). This place was amazing... it had outdoor seating in a kind of like garden setting. We ordered a huge sampler dish of typical Peruvian cuisine. Can´t really remember what it was called, but it was tasty. Of course, we had to have Peruvian beer to go with it :)
We spent the entire day wandering around the city, stopping at all sorts of interesting places. I can already tell you, riding in the back seat of a rickety old tin can on wheels (aka the ¨taxi¨) makes me VERY nervous! To put it simple, traffic is insane and I´m surprised I haven´t witnessed any major accidents yet. We didn´t accomplish much ¨work¨ as far as the mission goes since we didn´t want to dig our hands into any project withouth the rest of the team being here. So, most of what I learned today was from Bob´s own experiences and knowledge of the culture and Arequipa.
Before leaving downtown to head back to Alto Cayma, we made a quick pit stop to wach ¨the bunuelo lady¨make her deep fried pastries. I guess this is a ¨must see¨thing around here.
Later, I went with Irene to Padre Alex´s 7pm service. I didn´t understand a single word that was spoken since my Spanish is extremely limited, but none of that mattered. I could feel the enthusiasm in his sermon and it was amazing to see how many in the community attend his services (he has three every Sunday: 11am, 4:30pm and 7pm). There must have been at least 200 people there crowded into the chaple... young and old.
Finally, by the end of the day I was so pooped my head barely hit the pillow and I was out. Thanks, also, to Irene for making me a cup of something that tasted like hot cocoa, but not as sweet. She said it´d help me sleep... don´t think I need any help in that department... my body was screaming for rest.
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