I have to make this a quick one today before my internet disconnects... I haven't been able to access the internet much lately.
We've had some very RANDOM and funny experiences lately involving volunteering. As you probably know, we've been trying to find random things to do here, and we have been wanting to get involved in some type of volunteering in the community. We only have spanish classes a couple hours a day, and then we have different things at night, but during the day we have a lot of free time.
So we have basically been hopping from one random connection to the next & taking advantage of any opportunity we have where we are invited somewhere. So I'll give you an example of what I'm talking about here ;)
The manager of the school we are taking classes at has invited us a couple different places with her. And we're like 'SURE! We'll go anywhere! Why not?' Mind you, most of the time, we aren't really sure exactly what we are saying 'sure' to because our Spanish isn't that great...lol. So Carmen (the school manager) invited us to 'something' one Friday night. All I could gather was that it was some type of event with her church and there would be food ;) Lol... So, we said, as always, 'SURE! Sounds great!' We went with her and it ended up being a farewell party for the priest who has been at that church for over 15 years. And, to our surprise, it was a very formal event, fully catered, and with entertainment (dancers from Argentina, story tellers from other areas, etc.). Men in tuxes came around and served champaign... the whole nine yards. Paris & I kept glancing at each other and snickering, thinking 'how did we randomly end up at such an elite little event?' We had a really good time.
While we were there though, we met a missionary, Conchita, who is from Spain. She is originally from the Phillipines, so she speaks fluent English also. We chatted with her for a little bit and she told us about this guy, Manuel, who is involved in different volunteer projects with people from many other countries. So she ended up connecting us with him. We went with Manuel & his girlfriend to another district over the weekend and met up with a bunch of people who run this local NGO and work within one of the poorest areas of Lima. All of the volunteers live together in this house and they all travel to the volunteer site together and help with education and health projects for the community. One of the girls there is from, surprise! suprise!, Vermont (and knows a lot of people at SIT). I think in a few weeks Paris and I are going to go and live with them for about 2 or so weeks to help. But anyway, it was really random because we met a woman through the manager of the school, who knew someone, whose sister used to volunteer at this place where we ended up... and in this web of interconnections, we are finding very interesting & surprising opportunities and having unique experiences that we couldn't have planned even if we tried.
Most of the time we end up being pleasantly surprised! Like yesterday, for example, when our spanish teacher told us of a friend of hers who works at the library and might need help there. She asked us if we wanted to go with her there after class and, of course, our answer was 'SURE!' And we ended up going to this small local library that does a lot with the blind community here. So, what do you know? We randomly end up learning braille that day! It was very, very cool. Our braille teacher was in an accident when she was 20 and became blind and had to learn braille from scratch, so she told us that she wanted to teach us. Paris picked up on it right away and luckily was able to help me :) Braille is very, very interesting! And, I must say, learning Braille with someone who is blind and it teaching in Spanish, is also VERY, VERY interesting. We had such a cool experience and we are going to go help there for a couple hours everyday. Another random thing is that they might need help making books on tape, and what do you know? I used to do that my freshman year in college for the disability services... Random, random. I think it's so interesting how different things become interwoven throughout life.
However, like I said, MOST of the time we are pleasantly surprised. SOMETIMES we end up somewhere random doing who knows what! Like the other day when we thought we were going to help volunteer at the municipality building in San Borja (oh, we volunteer there now too!) and we ended up at some type of random dance for teenagers. Hmm, it was us and about 30 kids under 15 years old. LOL. So we learned one choreographed dance with them, and then we bolted outta there because I was starting to feel like I was in highschool again. ;)
Everyday is a little different.
Who knows what we'll end up doing this afternoon at the library? And who knows what we'll end up helping with when we go live at that other volunteer site in a few weeks?
Sometimes it's really annoying, I'm not going to lie and pretend like it's not. Sometimes I think to myself 'what in the world am I doing here?!' but I guess that is just part of the whole process and experience. On the other hand, I'm trying to remain in the positive zone where I can take it all in, and know that this is a once in a lifetime experience. So anything different or out of the ordinary that I can find to be involved in, I'll do it and embrace the process for what it is :)
