Random Things We've Learned While Living in Peru

Hello, friends! We thought it would be fun to share some differences from life in the US and facts that we've learned while living in Trujillo for the past 3 weeks. A lot of these may resonate with people who have traveled to other countries, and some might be completely unique to Peru. It's funny how we (as Americans) can think that our way of doing things is "normal" when in reality the United States might be one of the only countries to do it that way! It also makes you realize what all we may take for granted on a daily basis. Read on to find out what we've learned so far!

1. Most buildings here do not have air conditioning so it can get pretty toasty, especially during the middle of the day. During a salsa class that our group took last weekend, we were all dripping with sweat and then noticed a huge fan in the corner that wasn't even turned on! After it was on, we all stood around it for a few minutes while probably being laughed at :)
2. Dryers do not exist here. You can either hang your clothes on a clothesline on the rooftop, or in your apartment on a drying rack, hangers, the kitchen chairs, etc.
   

   

   Daniel's genius sock-drying invention!
3. Drinking bottled water is a must. Even the locals don't drink the tap water (some hardly drink any water at all!). We also have to use bottled water to boil pasta and wash fruit and veggies. But luckily we can wash our dishes and brush our teeth with the tap water. 
4. All used toilet paper goes in the trash can. No further explanation needed...
5. The currency here is the Peruvian sol. The exchange rate is about 0.3 US dollars to 1 Sol, so everything that we buy here we feel like we are getting a huge discount! :)
   

   

   Peruvian Soles

6. Most restaurants have a “menu del dia” (menu of the day) that consists of different variations of rice, yucca root (similar to a potato) and meat/fish. These meals also come with a salad or chicken soup and juice. And the best part – it only costs around 7-12 soles, or 3-4 US dollars!
7. It is not common to tip at restaurants. If it's a nicer restaurant, 10% is an acceptable amount to tip, but 20% is not customary.
8. Most restaurants close for a siesta in the afternoon, any time from 1:00-7:00pm. Also, there are hardly any restaurants open on Sunday evenings. We learned this the hard way!
   

   

   Fried trout and chica morada, a Peruvian drink made from purple corn

9. There are NO rules when driving. The lines on the road don't matter, cars on the inside lanes turn right and cut across traffic, and people honk all the time. But we have yet to see an accident! Also, we haven't seen anyone get pulled over by the police in Trujillo.
10. You don't wave taxis down, they honk you down. They will even honk at people when driving on the opposite side of the road.
11. Adding onto #10, we are pretty convinced that the back-up beeper for taxis is a rendition of Jennifer Lopez's "On The Floor". We will gladly obtain video footage as proof.
12. There are no bus stops. Each bus just has a route that it follows and passengers get on and off wherever they want. So if a bus route passes by your house, that's where you can get on! And whenever you need to get off you tell the driver to "stop" the bus. Convenient? Yes! Efficient? Sure!
    

    

    We somehow were able to fit 22 people into a combi, pictured above

13. Speaking of efficiency, Peruvians will cram as many people into a bus as physically possible. Basically, take the maximum number of people that you think you would be able to fit onto a bus, and then double it. 
14. Getting your coffee “to go” is not normal here in Peru. We have not seen one person carrying around a coffee cup for the 3 weeks that we’ve been here. Also, iced coffee basically doesn’t exist (cue Kayla crying). Which leads us to #15... 
15. It is not common for Peruvians to drink cold beverages. Most of them like their water/juice/basically anything but beer to be room temperature. This is because they believe that the cold causes sickness, therefore drinking cold water would increase your likelihood to get sick. 
16. During our first grocery shopping trip, we spent the longest time looking in the refrigerated section for milk. Little did we know, milk comes in boxes, unrefrigerated! Also, yogurt comes in milk jugs and has a liquid consistency, and Peruvians drink oatmeal and quinoa out of a cup.
    

    

    Yogurt, bottled water, and milk

17. Loud (and we mean LOUD) music is completely appropriate 24/7. Would you like to host a party in your apartment with a live band from 2:00pm-12:00am on a Tuesday night? Or would you like to celebrate getting into work at 6:30am on Monday with Pitbull on full blast? These are all acceptable, and were written in detail for a reason.
18. The typical Peruvian greeting/goodbye between friends and acquaintances is a kiss on one cheek, although men greet other men with a handshake.

We will write about a couple of weekend trips and an update on our volunteering soon! We hope you enjoyed this post! :)

Volunteering

Before we get into our volunteering experiences, we thought we'd talk a little bit more about Venture with Impact - the whole reason that we are in Peru - since we didn't do any further explaining in our first post.

Venture with Impact is an organization that allows you to live, work (if you can), and volunteer abroad. Daniel and I are participating in the pilot program, which began on January 5th and ends on February 28th. Daniel is currently in between jobs and I took a leave of absence from Children's Mercy. (I am beyond grateful for my amazing boss and co-workers who allowed me to do this. I know you're reading this, so thank you again!)

Some of the Venture with Impact pilot program participants

Venture with Impact sets up your living situation, coordinates with the volunteer organizations to find a fit for your skills and interests, and also organizes weekend trips and fun things to do around town. It has been a great experience and we definitely could not have done this on our own! We also have met some amazing people through the program and are thankful to get to know people from a variety of backgrounds and who are here for the same reason as us.

And now, here is a glimpse into our first week volunteering with the organizations:

Kayla

On Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I volunteer with Espaanglisch to teach English to kids in a nearby community. The Trujillo Espaanglisch organization has partnered with 3 different schools in the area, and volunteers are currently helping with the summer school program that just started last week. Each class has two teachers (one who speaks Spanish) and about 25 kids who range from 7 to 13 years old. During the regular school year, the kids are only exposed to about 1 hour of English per week, but during the summer school program they have an English class 4 days of the week, so it's a great opportunity to teach them as much as possible!

My first class :)

So far, they have learned phrases like "My name is", "How are you", and various animals and classroom objects. It is absolutely adorable (and hilarious) watching them learn how to pronounce new words in English. Partly because the Spanish-speaking teachers/volunteers are from all over the world, so the kids are saying English words with a German or British accent. Peruvian children are very well-behaved and love to follow rules, ask for permission, and like to receive affirmation once they have completed an assignment. They are also very curious about the volunteers, and ask where I'm from, what I'm doing in Peru, and they are all very excited that I have a husband (and will get to meet him next week!).

Having fun drawing their animals!

Every day they have an English class for an hour and a half and then switch off between art and games for the other hour and a half. For their art classes, we were told to let them be as creative as possible because they are all perfectionists and struggle with creativity. So when the boys were all dipping their hands into the paint instead of using the sponges - we let them! For games, the point is to have them work together because they seem to rely on the teachers to tell them what to do all the time instead of figuring it out amongst themselves. Also, any game that involves standing next to someone or holding hands the kids CLING to me (as well as the other volunteers). I am used to teaching high schoolers, who basically want nothing to do with their teachers, so this makes my day! Another favorite part of my day is getting lots of little kisses on my cheek before and after class, as this is a typical greeting here :) It can't get any cuter than that!

The aftermath of the human knot game

I will start volunteering with another organization, Vive Peru, next week and will be organizing and teaching public health workshops. This was originally supposed to be the only organization that I was going to work with, but since Vive Peru didn't start until the end of January I had some free weeks and found out that I was able to help out with Espaanglisch as well. I am so thankful that it all worked out like that!

Daniel

I will be spending most of my volunteer time with an organization called Moche, which was founded by archeologists. Moche has formed partnerships with communities in the Moche Valley and carries out projects that the community identifies as their biggest need - clean water, roads, sanitary systems, etc. In turn the community respects the boundaries of the surrounding archeological sites and does not damage or build on them. A win-win!

Exploring one of the many archeological sites located throughout the Moche Valley

Myself and another Venture With Impact participant (Ali, a mechanical engineer) will be working the the community "Jesus Maria" to help change the source of where they obtain their drinking water: from an open stream that has unclean, sandy, muddy water, to an underground well located higher up in the Andes Mountains that will provide them with naturally filtered drinking water.

The view from the community of Jesus Maria 

During my time here, myself and Ali will be surveying the area with equipment that was donated to Moche, and we will draft a set of plans for the leaders of Jesus Maria to take to the Peruvian municipalities so that they can get approval to build the water system, and hopefully some funding.

At the location where Jesus Maria currently gets their drinking water 

The people of Jesus Maria are extremely welcoming to volunteers. The director told me that sometimes she leaves with a huge crate of fruit after a long day of work, and the community members invited us to "sodas" on our first day! Getting invited to sodas is a sign of gratitude that consists of being invited to a house or nearby restaurant to partake in drinking Coca Cola, Inca Cola or the preferred soda of choice. Even though the people of Jesus Maria have way less than I can fathom and are lacking basic needs, they are so giving and loving, and I can't wait to be around them more. I will definitely learn a lot from them in my time here :)

Trekking our way through the sugar cane fields

So that is what I will be doing for the next 2 months! Our goal is to at least have the set of plans ready for Jesus Maria by the time we leave in late February, and hopefully I can be there to present the plans with Moche to the government. If things go absolutely perfect and the project gets approved, I really hope that we can help the community build the water system! Check out their website at www.savethemoche.org.

Besides Moche, I will also be starting a little volunteer work with Vive Peru at the end of January, and I will be heading a soccer camp once or twice a week for 6-9 year olds, and 10-12 year olds. Definitely looking forward to that!

Hola de Trujillo!

We are wrapping up our first week here in Trujillo! The past week has been dedicated to getting to know the city, other Venture With Impact participants, and the directors of the many volunteer organizations we will be working with during our two month stay. Volunteering started today and we will write a post soon on each of our experiences so far!

The view on our flight to Lima

Arriving in Peru was a little bit different than we had originally planned. Our flight from Houston to Lima was delayed, so once we arrived at the Lima airport we had less than 6 hours until we needed to be checked in for our flight to Trujillo. We decided to forego our Airbnb and spend the night in the Lima airport. Thankfully there were a couple of hallways near the food court where other travelers were camped out for the night as well. We didn't end up getting too much sleep but at least it was a positive experience!

Our sleeping arrangements in the Lima airport

We arrived in Trujillo safely the next morning and were able to catch up on some much-needed sleep and get settled into our apartment. We are very fortunate to live in a safe area with our own washer, a nice bathroom and shower, and a full kitchen. We keep all of the windows open to create a breeze in our apartment and let in all of the sunlight!

Our apartment in Las Hortencias de California

Our apartment complex is about a 15-minute bus ride from downtown Trujillo and is within walking distance from a lot of really great restaurants, grocery stores, and even a fancy mall! We walk just about everywhere and also get stared at a lot. Our heights may be considered average in the United States, but in Peru 5'4" is pretty tall!

Summer in Peru runs from December through March, so the temperatures during the day have been around the mid-80's, but it drops down to the low-70's in the morning and at night. The sun is very powerful so sunscreen is a must.

Here are some things that we've gotten do so far in Trujillo!

Three Kings Day (or the 12th day of Christmas) is when Peruvian children often receive their Christmas presents, and we happened upon the festival at Plaza de Armas in "downtown" Peru. There was dancing, music, and reenactments of the three wise men giving gifts.

Three Kings Day Festival at Plaza de Armas

On Saturday, our group took a day trip to go sandboarding in Conache, a village near Trujillo. We piled into several taxis, and then all squeezed into a combi (a very common mode of transportation that is essentially a minibus) and finally made it to the dunes! The walk up to the top was killer, the view was gorgeous, and we all had a fun and "crunchy" time. Thankfully there was a pond that we were able to rinse off in afterwards.

Sandboarding in Dunas de Conache

"Crunchy"

On Sunday, we all visited Huanchaco - a popular beach town about 20 minutes away from Trujillo. Most of the group tried ceviche for lunch and then we just hung out on the beach and watched all of the kids (and dogs!) play. The sky was overcast and the water was cold, so only a few brave people got into the water. We are going back on Friday to take a Spanish lesson and are hoping for nice, sunny beach weather! 

Huanchaco

Daniel's ceviche mixto with crab, squid, octopus, shrimp, and more!

We really appreciate everyone checking in on us (and pestering us to write a blog post)! We miss you all and look forward to sharing a lot more of our adventure with you!

Hasta la proxima!

Daniel & Kayla