People travel for all sorts of reasons. Some might say I travelled to Peru because I received a Fulbright grant. Others might say it was because I've got the travelling bug. What I can tell you though is I didn't come to Chiclayo to see piles of trash, garbage trucks with men hanging onto the back of it and ringing an obnoxious bell, or ritzy multi-story glass hotels. But then, that's the point of travelling, isn't it? To see things you didn't expect to see?
Although I've become accustomed to life here, there are many things that continually take me by surprise. A few of them in the last week or two are as follows:
Unlike the dirty city with trashlined streets that I call "home" for this year, Chachapoyas is a calm and clean city. Free of mototaxis, it is also free of the loud dinging sound of bells calling its residents to place their trash in the streets. Instead, I encountered a smaller truck playing soft, tranquil melodies. "What's that?" I asked myself. The answer: The trash truck :)
Upon seeing the horrors of an accident when a drunk driver of a large car crashed into a mototaxi, rather than trying to help or calling the equivelant of 911, many people came out of their homes even venturing a few blocks to stare.
Walking down one of the main streets in Chiclayo, I saw numerous people gathered round something. When I stepped closer to get a better look, they were fascinated by a furry magnetic toy!
This last week, while returning from a pueblo joven to the city of Chiclayo with my friend Sarah, we had a very awkward ride in a combi. Some men do not know how to flirt. Sarah, who had just purchased natural yogurt from one of the women with whom we work there, had her yogurt in a glass pitcher that she had borrowed. In order to prevent it from spilling or breaking she kept it in her hand. Shortly after entering the vehicle, the cobrador (money collector) took her yogurt from her and put it underneath of the jacket he was wearing and claimed he was going to drink it. Thinking he was funny and would get a rise out of us, he kept up his antics throughout the rest of the ride, while we did our best to ignore him. Finally, grudgingly, he returned the pitcher of yogurt when we alighted from the combi. Flirtatious or creepy? I'm sticking with the latter.
Oh, the crazy things that happen everyday. That's life. Wait! What is going on?
/
Although I've become accustomed to life here, there are many things that continually take me by surprise. A few of them in the last week or two are as follows:
Unlike the dirty city with trashlined streets that I call "home" for this year, Chachapoyas is a calm and clean city. Free of mototaxis, it is also free of the loud dinging sound of bells calling its residents to place their trash in the streets. Instead, I encountered a smaller truck playing soft, tranquil melodies. "What's that?" I asked myself. The answer: The trash truck :)
Upon seeing the horrors of an accident when a drunk driver of a large car crashed into a mototaxi, rather than trying to help or calling the equivelant of 911, many people came out of their homes even venturing a few blocks to stare.
Walking down one of the main streets in Chiclayo, I saw numerous people gathered round something. When I stepped closer to get a better look, they were fascinated by a furry magnetic toy!
This last week, while returning from a pueblo joven to the city of Chiclayo with my friend Sarah, we had a very awkward ride in a combi. Some men do not know how to flirt. Sarah, who had just purchased natural yogurt from one of the women with whom we work there, had her yogurt in a glass pitcher that she had borrowed. In order to prevent it from spilling or breaking she kept it in her hand. Shortly after entering the vehicle, the cobrador (money collector) took her yogurt from her and put it underneath of the jacket he was wearing and claimed he was going to drink it. Thinking he was funny and would get a rise out of us, he kept up his antics throughout the rest of the ride, while we did our best to ignore him. Finally, grudgingly, he returned the pitcher of yogurt when we alighted from the combi. Flirtatious or creepy? I'm sticking with the latter.
Oh, the crazy things that happen everyday. That's life. Wait! What is going on?
/
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