The Day I Dropped the "F Bomb" In Iquitos and Other Linguistic Disasters

     So, in the last 5 blog posts I tried to give you just a taste of what our time here in Iquitos has consisted of. I hope that as you have read a long you have begun to conjure images of the landscape and to understand the personalities of the people with whom we work. But, I think you know where this particular blog post is going.

Flaca, Flaca, Eat!

Hey there! I know a couple of days ago I promised to improve on the frequency of my writing, but what can I say, I apparently can't keep a promise. I really had intended on blogging the other day but we lost internet for a hot second, but not to worry, because we are back on and ready to go. Now that we are approaching our last week and a half of our time in Iquitos, I am almost all caught up on giving you the background information. So maybe, if you are lucky, before I leave you will get a post that is slightly more descriptive as far as telling you the happenings of our day. However, before we get to excited you have to hear about the bet part of our trip thus far, the community of El Porvenir

Paletas Fresas-Only 50 cents

Why Hello Again!

   Once again I have to apologize for the lack of postings. The last couple days have been kind of loco if you know what I mean, filled with gator-leg lunches and yucca chip munches. But even though there has been much excitement, we have been here for almost a week and we are still anxiously awaiting an opportunity to see a pygmy marmoset. We have comfortably settled into our new house where we are spoiled with internet access, a garden filled with hammocks, and we are only a few steps away from a grocery store. Better yet, we each have our own rooms and we have the company of some international friends. Despite not being able to unlock the front doors, and our fingers red and blistered from trying and failing to turn the key, if you couldn't tell, we are really enjoying our nice place. While we have adjusted relatively well, the locals are constantly startled by our presence. While the responses being a white female in Iquitos might at first boost your confidence, after a couple days the cat call and whistles are starting to get a little old.
    But enough about that. A I previously noted, there is quite a bit to catch up on, and as I promised earlier, I am going to try and fill you in. Since you are hopefully slowly starting to get a clearer picture of what Iquitos and El Porvenir is like, in t - 20 seconds (or however long it takes you to read this next sentence) you will be introduced to the wonderful people at Kallpa Iquitos.

Internet at Last...And its Raining in the House

Sorry about the long wait. I know you are sitting on the edge of you chairs, or beach towels, or poolsides (or wherever it is that you are) waiting to hear about the adventures of "las dos Sara(h)s"... But where to begin? Let's see.. we have been here in Iquitos for approximately one week now. In that time we have met amazing people with whom have started to form wonderful relationships, gone swimming in the Nanay river, eaten fish brains, and had our fair share of stomach aches, but are yet to see a pygmy marmoset. As you can see we have had quite a few unforgettable experiences (minus the lack of marmoset spottings) so pardon my word vomit and bear with me, at least until we get caught up on the happenings of the last few days.

And Here Our Story Begins

        It is hard to believe that it was just twenty hours ago that I stumbled out of the car and groggily pulled my suitcase out of the back seat, past the ugly she/man statue in downtown Baltimore and through Penn station, where my train to Newark International awaited me. Between then and now, I have been on four different planes, in three different countries, in three different time zones and travelled over 3000 miles. More importantly, however, in the last twenty hours I have learned how to distill industrial grade alcohol, been growled at by a "seeing eye" dog named Hermoine, and said Gracias (and just Gracias) about 450 times. But before I continue to enlighten you with stories of my travels I am going to back track a little bit, and fill in some details so you can better understand the the ridiculousness described above.

        As some of you know, for the next 3.5 weeks I will be staying in Iquitos (a city near the rainforest) in Peru to meet the El Porvenir community. For the past year, University of Rochester's Globemed chapter has been partnering with a grassroots organization known as Kallpa Iquitos to help furnish a center that can serve as a cultural spaces for the youth in El Porvenir to continue to work together and empower those around them to work together to improve their community. (I realize that it is 2:30 in the morning, I don't have my glasses, and I am really not doing this partnership justice, so you should check out the globemed website and U of R blog to catch yourselves up on what we have done this far.) As of a couple of weeks ago the U of R GlobeMed chapter met and exceeded the fundraising goal of $3500. Now after a year of fundraising, educating, and enjoying each other's company (way too much), some of us at U of R GlobeMed will finally have an opportunity to meet Zully (our correspondent at Kallpa) and the rest of the members of the community. As you can imagine, we are jumping out of our skin and cannot wait for what this trip has awaiting us. 

          In approximately t-4 hours we will be leaving the Lima airport to take our last flight (at least for a little while) to Iquitos where Zully will meet us. Hold on though, because despite sitting in Starbucks and being surrounded by the sweet aroma of fair trade Starbucks coffee (doubtful) I can't keep my eyes open. So don't move, and ill be right back. But...before I go I will share some travel tips.

Travel Tip #1- Get some sleep before your trip. Even though it might seem like a good idea at the time, staying  up talking to your best friend on the phone the night before a 24 hour trip, might be detrimental to your health (but don't worry Eva, I think it was still totally worth it) 

Travel Tip #2- If you plan a trip on Orbitz and try to find the  cheapest trip be prepared to feel utterly unproductive. For every 300 miles you get closer to your destination, on the next leg of your trip you will travel 500 miles in the opposite direction. (Baltimore-->Newark-->Miami-->Panama City-->Lima-->Iquitos-->case in point)

Travel Tip #3- Try not to sit in front of a guy who mildly resembles Mr. Bailey from Hey Arnold! and gets up ever 5 minutes and in doing so pulls your chair back and releases it so that you feel like a human slingshot

Travel Tip #4- If you plan to travel to Miami make sure you know how to speak Spanish (this is critical). Also be prepared to for people to be frustrated with you if you don't

Travel Tip #5- If you happen to find yourself in an emergency exit row on an international flight, don't automatically nod and pretend you understand what the flight attendant is telling you, but consider giving up the extra leg room (It makes it hard to communicate with the flight attendant the rest of the trip, because you're trying not to make it obvious that all you can say is Gracias)

Okay! Thanks for reading. I will try to improve my blogging skills, and I'll catch you in Iquitos.

Get ready for the land of pink dolphins, pygmy marmosets, mototaxis, and most importantly Kallpa and the El Porvenir community.