camping (long)

Sorry this is super long. I'll have a final goodbye post probably tuesday or wednesday night, so check back.

I found out that the kids were going camping when I went over there at around 10:00. The moms said they were leaving at 1:00 and asked if I was going. I wasn’t sure if I should or not because Avis is gone, and I need to talk to some people about how to run English. I decided to go ahead and go because I wasn’t going to be able to spend a lot of time with the kids if I didn’t because I am leaving Sunday night. I gathered up all my stuff and went over there and helped them pack. The van arrived at 1:00 on the dot, the driver is the only punctual Peruvian I’ve met and even the house moms said that. When it showed up I asked if there was another one coming…there wasn’t. So 16 kids, 3 house moms, Matt and I, and all the camping supplies; food, clothes, tents, blankets etc… all fit into one MINI van. Yes, a mini van, not even a full size. Don’t ask me how we did it because I don’t even know. Two other house moms took another taxi there because there just wasn’t room for 2 more.

The trip there was long and cramped. I was in the front seat with 2 stuffed backpacks and Gerson. It took about 2 hours to get there, but it was probably only about 60 kilometers away. The roads were all dirt and had these massive speed bumps that the bottom of the car dragged on every time we went over. I don’t know why there were speed bumps on a dirt road that already had holes all over the place, not to mention the road was out in the middle of nowhere, if someone was speeding it wouldn’t really matter because there’s nothing there!

We’ll we finally got there and the place was surprisingly nice. It was in a valley at the base of a dam. I don’t know if it was an actual camp ground or not. It was a compound where people lived and studied plants, mainly fruit trees. The sign said ministry of agriculture. So inside there were fruit trees and plants all over the place. Too my surprise there was a giant clean pool as well. The kids had told me there was a pool where we were going but I just couldn’t fathom it on the way there because it was so out in the middle of nowhere. They had been here before I guess. We found a nice place in the grass to set up our tent, and after we got most of the rods in someone told us that there were massive amounts of ants there. So we carried the tent up and put it right next to the pool on some nice dirt ground where there were no ants, but there were plenty of rocks. We got the tent set up and decided to go for a swim. Only Matt and I jumped in the big pool because none of the kids knew how to swim. I think it was the second time in their life they’ve even seen a pool. Luckily there’s also a baby pool where that was about 2 feet deep and actually pretty large. The kids who were big enough to touch the bottom of the big pool got in with Matt and I. That included Gerson, Joel, and Estrella. Gerson was the oldest kid there by about 3 years, now that I think about it I think the moms used him as bait to get me to go with them haha…originally when I heard about it only the first grade kids and under were going, and I told them I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. Anyway, I tried teaching them to swim but they were all pretty scared of going under water, so we worked on that first. After a while in the pool we ate dinner…chicken and rice, I mean what else to you expect on a Peruvian camping trip right?

We kind of just hung around until it was dark and everyone got in the tent to go to sleep. After about 20 minutes of sitting in our compartment of the tent which included Matt, Joel, Gerson and me, I decided I wasn’t the least bit tired, and neither was Gerson, so we decided to take a walk. We went down to where there is this giant model of the dam, including a big reservoir where they put koy in, and there turned out to be about 40 frogs all just sitting on the edge. So we had fun poking them with sticks and throwing pebbles at them for awhile, and Matt and Joel joined us after Joel found his other shoe, which took about 20 minutes. We then walked up to the pool to take a look and found 4 of the 5 house moms sitting up there chatting and eating homemade apple pie. It was delicious. So we sat up there and talked for awhile, ate some pie, and listened to music. We finally decided to head into the tent at about 11:00.

Trying to sleep was horrible. There were rocks all in my back, and Danilo has a bad case of the snores. As soon as I’d fall asleep I’d wake up from someone else waking up and crying or coughing etc…oh… and I think at one point in the night, I don’t even know what time I woke up and heard someone taking a dump right outside our tent, pretty close to my head. Needless to say I think I got about 1 hour of sleep all in 5 minute intervals.

The next day we woke up at about 7:00 and ate breakfast which was Peruvian hot-dogs(yuck) and yogurt . After breakfast we went down to the concrete soccer stadium and kicked around a semi-inflated ball and threw some frizbees. We did that until about 10:30 and then we all went back to the pool. We played in the pool until about 1:00 and then we ate some more chicken and rice for lunch. After that we started to pack stuff up, and take the tent down. We got the tent down and everything packed at around 2:30 or 3:00. So we spread some blankets out on the ground and took a little nap. Some kids played on the swings or just ran around. At around 4:30 3 house moms, Gerson and I took a walk down to the office building where they bought some fruit that was grown right there in the valley. It was really big, fresh, and cheap. We all marveled at how big the limons (limes) were. We walked back and had dinner at 5:30, chicken and rice once more.

The van arrived at 6:00 on the dot and we loaded everything up and headed on our way. The van couldn’t make it up the hill where our campground was from a dead stop so we all had to get out and meet it on the top of the hill. This time I was sharing the front seat with Gerson, Gladis, and Danilo. Only the right side of my behind had anything to touch for 2 hours with Gerson sitting on my lap. It was swollen up by the time we got home. The shenanigans that ensued on the way back were more than enough for me. While being folded up like a lawn chair Gerson threw up half on Gladis and half out the window. Also a water truck that sprays the dirt roads to keep the dust down passed us…oh and ya, our windows where down. So I got a nice little shower, but luckily the driver blocked most of it for me.

Overall I had a good time, and I would do it again. I had a lot of fun with the moms and the kids, and it was the probably the last bit of quality time I am going to be able to spend with them before I have to leave.