Day 3

So now it begins. Orientation is officially over, 15 of the volunteers have left for Urumbamba, and I am all set up with my home stay family. The family is warm and affectionate. The mother, Glenys, greeted me with a huge hug and the comfortable familiarity that only Latin Americans have. I have my own room and have already unpacked all my belongings. The condo actually feels much warmer than the perpetual ice box that the hostal was.

Casa ProPeru is very close to my apartment and all of the volunteers get keys. It’s pretty much a house where the employees have set up office. There’s a comfy living room and wireless internet which I will take FULL advantage of. It will be a nice common place where I’ll be able to meet up with the other volunteers and just chill out. They also have water, fruit, books, and helpful city info. It’s a pretty neat set-up.

Throughout the day I’ve been talking to Lindsey (my project coordinator) about my internship. It looks like I’ll literally be traveling all over the city, and even outside of the city. My travel stipend is going to be way bigger than everyone else because I’ll be 30 minutes to two hours outside of the city depending on the day. So far my schedule looks like this:
Monday & Wednesday, 7:50am-1:30pm. Go to the women’s artesian workshops (ceramic, weaving, and sewing) to help with tourist English and product creation.
Tuesday, 7:15am-1:30pm. Go to the children’s ceramic workshop and coordinate activities for half the group, then switch.
Thursday, 7:15am-1:30pm. Go to the actual marketplace to help the women communicate to tourists, look for more effective ways to advertise, ask tourists what other products they would like to buy, etc.
Friday, 5:00am-12:00am. Help with health care and health education for women in rural areas.

I’m pretty sure that I start earlier and end later than every other intern so…sweet. I’m excited about everything but can only imagine how exhausting this is going to be. I also have Spanish classes Monday thru Friday for 2 hours in the afternoon. In the night I’ll have to do additional work for this proposal. So far I have some good ideas for interviews and it looks like I’ll have access to a lot of resources.

It’s 10:30pm now and I’m going to go to sleep because I have to wake up early tomorrow and I want to be fresh for the day. Wish me luck! Or better yet, just pray.