i saw my first llama

late last night we arrived in chaclacayo, peru. about 30 minutes outside of lima. we´re staying at a ¨retreat¨center for two nights while we have an in country orientation. staying in what they call bungalows I had my first of many cold showers. Supposedly we have hot water but we can´t get it to work in ours.

Today we met all the PC staff and they all seem really nice. Especially the two doctors which is very comforting. Durring lunch the other 5 or 6 vegetarians and I learned how difficult is is going to be to explain that we don´t eat meat. First they tried serving us salad with ham on it and explained that it wasn´t meat. For a veggie meal we has rice with a omlette. For dinner we were served chicken noodle soup and of course ¨there is no meat¨in it. I don´t know what the heck they consider meat but it sure was in there. I ate it all but the bits of chicken even though the taste of the broth made me grossed out. Then for our main couse..... rice with an omlette. Ahhh, how original. I wonder if this is going to be all I eat for the next two years.

Between lunch and dinnder we met one on one with one of the doctors to go over our personal health and any medications or concerns we have. Next we met with a lady that only spoke Spanish and attempted to tell her about ourselves so she could place us with a host family. All of the PC trainees and volunteers have to live with a host family in Peru. As if that conversation wasn´t stressful enough, I had a 30 minute Spanish skills interview right afterwards. Wow, at this point, my Spanish is at about a kindergarden level. I´m seriously going to need some practice. To get me started I went to ¨survival spanish¨class after my interview. Some of the things I learned to say was ¨Hola me llamo Bron. Tengo diarreas.¨ This translates to Hello, my name is Bron. I have diarreah.