Like all good stories, mine starts at the beginning. It´s been quite the adventure so far (Yes, this warrants the word adventure, because I put riding in a combi through Arequipa right up there with a riding through the Safari in Africa. There´s nothing like it.) So, my story begins with two uncomfortable plane rides, and one surprisingly comfortable plane ride.
On my way to Peru while I was still in America, I managed to find a group of adults that were going to Peru for mission work, and pretty much stuck close to them when I was in the George Bush International Airport in Houston. It was a pretty big airport, but I had plenty of time to go between terminals contrary to my original thoughts/worries. I think I walked about a mile in that airport. The Orlando Airport had a tram. That was slightly more intimidating, but I made it without a problem.
The problems came when I got to Lima. While we were on the plane, we had to fill out a form about the Swine Flu detailing our physical state and if we had any symptoms of the Swine Flu: cough, headache, fever, etc. Naturally, I thought this was a normal procedure that all countries did whenever there was an ¨epidemic.¨ Well, when I got off the plane I was greeted by hazmat suits. It was great!! (Extreme sarcasm) On top of feeling extremely uncomfortable, no one, and I mean no one, spoke English at the airport. By that I mean, they couldn´t speak English well enough for me to clearly understand them. Plus, all of the airline attendants were wearing masks. Apparently, the Swine Flu is a huge deal here. They actually call it the North American Flu. Anyways, everyone in the airport looked like an official to me. So, I basically had no idea who I needed to ask for assistance once I got off the plane. Seriously, every person looked like an offical, and only about a fourth of them were officials.
As soon as I picked up my luggage, I had ladies offering me cellphones. After that, there were about twenty men, yelling, ¨Your taxi is waiting.¨ These men acted like they knew who I was, and that they had a taxi actually waiting to take me somewhere. They were ridiculously convincing. A few months ago, one of the GVI volunteers accidentally took one of the taxis, and the taxi driver drove him to an ATM and told him to take out all his money. Afterwards, he returned him to the airport and let him go. (I know it makes no since.) I doubt I could make it through a taxinapping. Anwyays, I had a lot of trouble in Lima. No one spoke English and those who did wore masks, making it impossible to hear them. I had never felt so alone in my life. I literally had no one. I finally got to Arequipa at about 5AM, and found out that it´s actually freezing here. :) The kids who picked me up from GVI were... sketchy, to say the least. We road in a combi back to Casa de Avila, the hostel where I have my spanish lessons. It was cold in my room, and I went to sleep almost as soon as I got put down my bags.
Finally, I´d just like to say that apparently I have it pretty good here. At least that´s what the man beside me just told me. haha.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment