Catching up

Disclaimer – I am a procrastinator. While this may come as a surprise to you (doubtful), it is the sad truth. As such, I have not updated my blog in over a month (do I get points for having started three separate drafts?). Since you have been (blissfully) unaware of the happenings of my life as of late, this will serve as a catch-up blog. I will try to be brief.

It’s funny how your perspective changes after you’ve lived for an extended period of time in another country. First it’s the little things, like the definition of a hot shower or punctuality. Then the bigger things, like what it means to be patient or to belong to a community. And finally, the mac-daddies of perspective changes: health, wealth, and power.

Let me start with health, mainly because I feel I won’t be able to truly reflect on the much more complicated issues of wealth or power until this experience has come to a close.

The saying “you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone” has some truth (and a catchy tune) to it. In the United States and other first-world countries, being healthy is a given for the general population. We are only aware of our health when we don’t have it. While my family is possibly more aware of this than some given my brother’s life-threatening encounter with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, we still, without a doubt, take our health for granted.

Living in Peru has taught me, among other things, to appreciate the healthy days. To appreciate normal-bowel-movement days (ask me again about our YAV bowel-movement identification system) or days without some type of general malaise. After leaving Huancavelica for Moyobamba, most health problems disappeared for me, save one that I couldn’t have anticipated – Dengue Fever.

Yes, a few weeks ago, I caught the dreaded Dengue Fever. When I first heard the words “Dengue Fever,” I immediately pictured some terrible Amazonian epidemic that Indiana Jones must avoid while recovering some priceless artifact and saving the woman he loves (obviously Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark). I imagined this terrible disease wiping out entire villages, leaving writhing victims and cold bodies in its wake. I basically imagined some kind of hybrid between leprosy and the Black Plague. Yes, this was all without knowing a thing about it and yes, I have an overly active (and morbid) imagination.

You’ll be happy to know that I discovered (when I contracted Dengue Fever in early May and subsequently began freaking out) that none of this is true – except for the occasional writhing victim (it is nicknamed the “bonebreaking disease,” after all). I was lucky. I had a very mild form of Dengue that only left me bed-ridden for five days, gave me an occasional but mild fever, and a few aches and pains. Not once did my bones feel like they were breaking. The most persistent symptom of mine was the inclination to sleep all day, which isn’t all that out of the ordinary anyway. All in all, it was worth it to solidify my status as a badass.

Altitude sickness, check. Parasites, check. Dengue Fever, check. Now all I need is Typhoid to finish the year with a bang.

Terpstra family reunited in Central Plaza of Lima

Shortly after recovering from my bout with Dengue, I flew back to Lima to meet up with my family (the original Terpstra clan reunited, sadly sans brother-in-law Jake) for my May vacation. For the benefit of all, I will summarize this best of all vacations in a reader-(and writer-)friendly manner.

Friday, May 21

• Sarah arrives in Lima and has to wait impatiently until her family arrives the next day.
• Sarah spends the evening with fellow YAVs Sarah Baja, Anna, Alissa, and Ginna (plus Ginna’s wonderful family) before they fly out the next morning to hike the Inca Trail. Pizza is eaten and beer is drunk. And sangria. And wine.

Saturday, May 22

• Sarah whiles away the hours nervously checking flight information and arrives at the airport two and a half hours early to wait for her family.
• She regrets this decision after her 3^rd Starbucks coffee and 4^th trip to the bathroom.
• Terpstra family arrives(!) and all are transported to Hotel España, the best little hostel there is. Sarah does not stop talking for an unknown number of hours.

Sunday, May 23

• Family goes for a stroll around the Central Plaza of Lima. Sarah accidentally buys four (really cute) hats she doesn’t need.
• Family is introduced to Peruvian Menu – a lunch tradition that includes three courses (you can choose from a list for each one) and a drink. They are appropriately impressed by how delicious Peruvian food is and how much Inca Cola tastes like cream soda. Sarah does not stop talking for an unknown number of hours.
• After more walking and a lovely siesta, family reunites for an epic battle of Hearts. Insults are thrown, tears are shed, and Dad wins, surprise, surprise.

Monday, May 24

• Family flies to Cuzco.
• Missing: one bag of luggage. Contents: Mom and Dad’s warm clothes for cold Cuzco. Location: unknown.
• After a lovely city tour of Cuzco during which Mom and Dad buy 100% alpaca sweaters to replace their lost clothing, Family has the most delicious meal of the trip and agrees that lomo saltado is the best Peruvian dish. Well, and ceviche. And stuffed avocado.

Sacred Valley of the Incas

Tuesday, May 25

• Family goes on tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Wednesday, May 26

• Family leaves at 5am for Machu Picchu. After a bus and train transport, Family arrives in Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu.
• 9:30am, Family walks into Machu Picchu! Llamas abound.
• Ben and Katie disappear down the side of a mountain “trying to find the bottom.”
• Sarah reunites with the other YAVs (plus some) who have just arrived after their four-day hike of the Inca Trail. She is the only non-smelly one.

Thursday, May 27

Is this the photo?

• Family buys extra tickets and returns to Machu Picchu. Sarah searches for the Machu Picchu picture and takes 350 photos in the process.
• Family takes train back to Ollantaytambo that night, hops on bus transport and narrowly escapes a 3 hour hold up along the road thanks to Spanish, light-up nalgenes, and our tour agency, Peru For Less. Ask me about it and I’ll tell you how we nearly died.

Lost City of the Incas

Friday, May 28

• Returned: one bag of lost luggage, just in time for our flight back to Lima. (Apparently it had fallen off the transport, was confiscated as a bomb threat, and emptied of all its exlposive trail mix. Threat diffused.)
• Family returns to Lima, this time staying in MiraFlores.
• Another epic Hearts battle, the outcome of which was so ridiculous and impossibly unbelievable that I can’t repeat it here. (Katie won.)

Saturday, May 29

• Happy Birthday Sarah and Mom!
• After museum-visiting, a celebratory birthday dinner is had in Barranco with the other YAVs and Harry, wonderful husband of our site coordinator Debbie.
• Sarah accidentally has 5 free pisco sours, but it’s okay because it’s her birthday.

Sunday, May 30

• Family attends mass (we’re not Catholic, 80% of us don’t speak Spanish, and 20% of us don’t pay attention anyway).
• Dad meets with a Living Waters for the World group before Family prepares to fly back to the States.
• Family says goodbye in the airport over Cusqueña beers.
• Sarah, sad and alone, goes back to Debbie’s and prepares for her flight back to Moyobamba the next day.

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