A Hora...

Life here in Ayacucho is going pretty much the same every day, but not in that bad same sort of way. I am really enjoying being here. I love getting to know a community- to know when and were to catch a bus, how to navigate the maze of marcados, how to scare the peros (dogs) that rule all the streets up by where I live... it is great. And the great thing about this city, is although I know the center really well and from my house to there, there is always more to explore and more to see.
I think I have mentioned the dogs here in almost every post that I have written. Only reciently has it actually become an issue... 3 of the volunteers have been attacked by them! Not brutally, just nipped at, Casey had her pants torn and Tony had a small bite on his ankle. ....And I don´t have my rabies shots. Haha.... I remember sitting at the doctors office, reading over the list of shots, mentally calculating how much this was going to cost me and deciding that rabies shots weren´t really worth it. So much money for such a slim chance of contact. I didn´t think it would be an issue. And, don´t worry, it isn´t. The doctors and police here say that there have been no recorded rabies outbreaks here. There are just a lot of dogs!

Today I worked in the morning with the Lupes again, taking them to therapy across town with a few of the other señoritas and Papa Gil, the founder of this place. Nothing all that exciting happened at the therapy place, but I had a great conversation with Gil about life here and how this work is his life. He is a quiet, rather reserved man, but when he startes to talk about this place, he gets incredibly impassioned and you can tell that it is not just work for him- it is his life. It was wonderful to talk to him about why he is here and how he considers this his home.
It was very encouraging to me to hear all of that. One of the biggest reasons why I am down here is to see how I handle it all and if I think that living overseas is something that I can see myself doing long term. So far, I have been incredibly happy with life down here. I am finding it easy to feel at home where ever I am and am enjoying the people. I know that the culture shock will set in soon and I will wish that I was home, but for now, while I miss people and home a lot, it is more a dull ache sort of miss than anything else. I´m sure I will when Thanksgiving comes, and then Christmas.... New Years.... my birthday... but I am confident that the life that I am getting to experience here will counterballence all of that in a way that makes it possible for me to continue to thrive here. So here at the 2 month mark (in 3 days) I am happy with life and glad to be here experienceing a true peruvian life style. I know that if I can handle life here, where I have to step around pigs and dogs, where I am constantly struggling to make myself understood (and doing much better at it!) and where I know that I will forever be viewed as an outsider--a Gringa-- then I am happy and excited about the future and what it is going to bring.