I AM ALIVE

okay bizzos, i finally made it peru safe and sound. there is seriously sooooooo much to write i don´t even know where to begin. i really realized how TERRIBLE my spanish is (seriously, terrible) so there is a lot of miming that goes on with my host family. but everyone is awesome!!!!!! half of the family (husband and wife) work at a gringo mansion up the street in a private community and the houses are seriously beautiful (that is definitely not where i live). The other half (grandma and grandpa) run a fried chicken stand in the street at night with french fries. it´s aweomse. last night i had fried chicken with french fries for dinner (with rice, of course) which is similar to the rest of my meals (chicken, rice, potatoes). seriously, that is all they eat. i have had chicken cooked for me in more ways here than i ever have in my life (thank god i started eating chicken before i left p.s.). i´m living in a town called chaclacayo which is outside lima on the coast. i´m surrounded by huge sirt mountains because it´s so dry here but i like it. i live in a neighborhood called "tres de octubre" with six other gringos from peace corps. they are awesome. we take the combi (scary pseudo taxi bus that holds around 15 but they manage to squeeze in 25) to class or walk about 3 km. the combis go from 0 to 60 mph in about a second and stop as quickly. i have thus fallen down onto someone. embarrassing.

peace corps itself is cool- we started our official classes today. we arrive at a peace corps compund at 8 in the morning and leave around 5 at night. the place is a diamond in the rough. too bad we actually have to do stuff though- just kidding! however, chaclacyo itself is really dry and smoggy because we´re surrounded by dirt mountains and are on the coast. but parts are definitely pretty, and the sights of the mountains are striking. animals are a big thing here so everyone has dogs, cats, ducks or roosters that crow at the crack of dawn---- i want to end their lives. there are also a lot of stray dogs but so far, they have all been nice.

tonight there is a soccer game that is going on in my neighborhood with the "gringos" and natives. should be interesting. people actually do point out and make a scene about white people or gringos living in their community. it´s hilarious. whiel walking to this internert place i passed a few kids that said "good morning gringa!" I then explained that because it is dark it´s "good evening" but i don´t think they cared. and this weekend there is some massive party for the whole community down the street so i think us peace corps kids are going to go with our host families!!! my family has been really good at accomodating me, everything is so poor here but the people are some of the most genuinely happy people i have met. it really is cool

of course i miss my family and friends but the real materialistic thing i miss here is HOT WATER. oh my god the showers are freezing. like i want to cry when i have to get into it. i´m in for maybe forty five seconds. brrrrr. to all you peeps out there reading this, when you are in your warm shower, think of me. i also have the pleasure of sharing a bathroom with around 7 poeople- and the policy with the toilet is "mellow yellow, brown flush it down." not used to that. i´m also not used to not being able to throw toilet paper in the toilet (it goes in a trash can) but hey, at least i have a toilet (for now....). but hey, i´m with kids and awesome hot moms and the cool house dog named pilli (looks like bella col, but she´s never been washed...) so i´ve got no complaints. i really am happy here, so far so good- no worries everyone! i will write again very soon! love you all. viva peru!

-lindsey