Greetings from everyday routine

It is amazing how quickly you can settle into a completely foreign place. Yesterday, new roommates arrived for me (Julia) and after only three weeks in Trujillo, I felt like a local to them.

The weeks here in the program in Trujillo are similar, in the morning I go to the hospital and in the afternoon to language school. So on Thursday, a change of pace was just right. I had the opportunity to go to a different hospital on the other side of the city and accompany a doctor on home visits. These visits are for people over 80 years old or people with disabilities who need 24-hour care. Because there are no homes where these people are cared for. They live with their families. We went to the poorest neighborhoods, but only visited the slightly wealthier families there, as this doctor works for the ESSALUD workers' insurance. It was extremely exciting to see people's houses. A lot, such as cooking, is done outdoors and floors are not always present, sometimes they are simply made of compacted sand and dirt.

Carole has also become accustomed to her life in Pimentel. Both the surf course and the Spanish lessons are paying off. Her Spanish is already quite good and she not only understands a lot, but can also express herself much better. Obviously, she is doing so well that she was promptly used as an interpreter... and here is the story: an Austrian couple who also teaches English to children started a project to renovate a dilapidated classroom. But they don't speak Spanish and hardly any English. That's why they took Carole and her Italian roommate with them to buy building materials. This would have been a real challenge in German alone, but in a mix of Spanish, German, and English it became really exciting. Of course, there are no construction plans or any written documentation. So they tried to explain to the seller and two other Peruvians who are also involved in the renovation that they only wanted to repaint the walls and not build new ones, so they didn't need cement. At the same time, the Peruvians discussed among themselves which cement would be best for the new walls. After about three attempts to explain, they finally understood and the appropriate paint and rollers were selected. There were similar discussions for the floor and the bookshelf. In the end, everyone was satisfied and the work could start over the weekend. Now they are curious to see when everything will be finished and what it will look like.

On the weekend, we wanted to participate in a trip organized by Carole's surf school. Unfortunately, there were not enough participants and it did not take place. So we decided to make the trip on our own. We decided to meet in Pacasmayo. I asked my host father for the best bus and he recommended LINEA. So on Saturday morning, I walked to their terminal. When I arrived there, the lady explained to me that they didn't have a bus to Pacasmayo and she didn't know exactly who could go there. She told me to ask Crus del Sur. So I got in a taxi to go to their terminal. Since I informed the taxi driver about my plans, he radioed his headquarters and received the response that Crus del Sur also did not go to Pacasmayo. So he took me to a house with the sign Pacasmayo. I was completely confused and extremely nervous. I was instructed to get on a small 10-seater bus that was almost full and started driving after about two minutes. After about two hours, I was in Pacasmayo and almost forgot to get off, as no one else wanted to get off there.

Carole and I spent a few hours in the town and at the beach and decided to continue traveling to Puerto Chicama/Malabrigo. That was also an adventure because in Peru you simply have to know which bus goes where and when, because you can't look it up. After about 40 minutes of waiting in Paijan, almost the entire village knew where we wanted to go and they showed us the right bus. We reached the sea just in time for sunset. About two minutes later, it was gone. Thanks to a fisherman's tip, we found a cozy hostel.

On Sunday, we actually wanted to surf the 'longest wave in the world,' but unfortunately, it is low season at this time of year and the waves were long but very small. So we walked along the coast for a while, ran down a sand dune, went swimming in the sea, and enjoyed the sun. Then we set out on a long but uneventful journey back home. The trip made us really excited and we can hardly wait to really get started.