Sunday Morning in Arequipa

The blares of police sirens cause pigeons to flap wildly and fly. Between the sirens, a man speaks over a microphone. It is Sunday morning in Arequipa and there is a demonstration on the street below our hotel. I am sitting on the rooftop and it is the first time in days I've been able to sit outside without a sweater or many sweaters. The iconic Volcan Misti is prominent in my view, and to my left I can see the beautiful colors of the city against the mountain range. The air is not fresh, but it is not rancid either. The city is anything but peaceful this Sunday morning.

Waking up to Spanish with Rocio and Nataly this morning seemed a little more normal, and yesterday I started feeling a touch more confident with my Spanish. Only a touch though. During the tour to the Colca Valley, I was one of three non-Peruvians. The other two were Chilean, and for this reason, I garnered attention simply by being there. There was fascination over my hair and questions about where I was from, followed by questions about the United States. The answer to all of this was that I was from the great corn state, Ohio. The conversations were simple, but I still felt a sense of accomplishment.

Yesterday evening while out to dinner with Rocio and Nataly, I felt a bit more comfortable to ask questions. We had a great time teaching each other different idiomatic expression. You can imagine the laughs over "party pooper"- aguafiestas in Spanish.

The journey thus far has been nothing like I imagined. I always imagined the night of restless sleep before the flight and a feeling of uncontainable excitement. How many times I've dreampt of my departure, always to Uganda in years of past dreams, I cannot count! Instead, most of the time I felt calm and with little emotion. Emotions came in punches, terribly excited and shouting to the sky, scared, and cacophonous mixtures of both. Now that I've been here a week, I still feel there has not been time to process everything. Things are becoming more normal though. The thought that home is three months away scares me a bit, and sometimes I find myself thinking fondly of the reunion I will have with Kerri, Becca, Ellen, Dylan, and IAAS friends from Sweden when we unite for IAAS world conference in Chile. But now my life for the next eight weeks... Vive el presente.