Adventure to the Boonies

The big adventure!  So on Tuesday I went to this clinic that I will write about later.  It was a potential volunteer placement, but besides being a clinic in the city they also make excursions out to the surrounding countryside.  So we had made an arrangement on Tuesday that I would go out to the countryside today, i THOUGHT to tour the clinics that they go to, or work at one.

Instead, first we stopped in front of this church.  The lady I was with, Hermana (Sister) Paula, told me that we were going to pick up “El Padre” (Priest), so I thought that’s why we were there.  Instead, she tells me to get out, and instead of going to the main doors, we go through this tiny little one on the side, where there is like a day care or something set up.  But it is empty.  She says that I can send volunteers there to teach little kids how to count and stuff like that.

Then we got back in the car and drove some more and ended up in this town where El Padre was supposed to live, and we knocked on his door for a while but got no answer.  So we tried the nunnery across the street and they said that he wasn’t there.

So we drove on way out into the boonies, at one point we actually crossed a dried river bed and onto what I am positive was not a road, and then we showed up at some farm.  Randomly.  Hermana Paula told me to get out and she showed me around, like “oh, this is the kitchen, that’s the dormitory, that’s the classroom.”  And I had no idea why she was showing me these things.  Then she asked this guy to show me around, and he shows me all the animals and asks me what I am doing here.  And I tell him honestly that I was supposed to be going to a medical post and I didn’t know why I was there.  Then this woman from Holland came out and started asking what I could offer here.  It was very surprising, let me tell you.

Then we left and went to a medical post, like I was expecting.  What I was not expecting was for it to be completely empty and for the doctors I was with to not see patients.  Oh well, apparently I was supposed to take pictures of it.

Then we went to a nearby high school where apparently Hermana Paula has been teaching first aid classes, and she introduces me to the entire school.  It was kinda cute, actually, the principal of the school starts getting the kids to teach me Quechua, none of which I could remember 30 seconds after I was taught it.  I taught them some English and French, mostly words for “hello” and “good morning” and “how are you.”

Across the street was an elementary school where I was shown their solar water heater that they were very proud of, but when the kids decided a camera they started making funny faces and asking me to take their picture.  Then we went back to Cusco.  Totally random day!