Mi casa

Dear all,
I woke up this morning in the bed of my new home. Yesterday I arrived and installed myself in Cusco, a city of 400.000 people squeezed between high mountain peaks, where the air is thin (altitude: 3.400m), where women pas by in bright colored capes, big skirts, high hats and long black braids, where cars beeb noisily to make their way through the chaotic traffic and where little houses seem glued to the surrounding hills, almost as far as the eye can see. Yesterday, climbing the stairs or going shopping for groceries brought me out of air, and I spend almost half of the day stretched out on my bed because I was completely out of energy and oxygen. But today it already seems a bit better, although that might have something to do with the fact that I just got out of bed…
The house is really nice. Right now I have the house for myself, but I have been told that in two weeks two other girls are coming. I live in a street that seems to be one big motorbike shop in the east of Cusco, across the street is a Baptist church to compensate for all the motorbikes! The house has four bedrooms, a living room, dining room, kitchen, bathroom and a terrace, how is that huh?!
Yesterday one of the women working at Inti came to welcome me and we had a very nice talk about my work in Inti, I get to do the artistic program, two afternoons a week, which is quite perfect! One day a week I will be working in another house with smaller children. I have to take the bus to work (30mins) so I guess that is going to be a good way of integrating a bit. Well, as far as I have seen I am the only blond European in this neighborhood so I will have to integrate :) I feel sooo big! And so blond! And such a foreigner, it’s impossible to go by unnoticed here, that’s for sure…The good thing is that I am at walking distance from the center of town, so that is where I am heading today to have a look around and hopefully to put this online somewhere.
I am still fighting my jetlag, being ready for bed at 20.00 and wide awake at 06.00, but I am trying to go to bed later every night (yesterday I managed to stay awake until 21.00) and to stay in bed a bit longer every morning. Furthermore, periods of cold rain and dark grey skies alter with periods of sun although thin clouds are always there, the light is quite bright and I should definitely get some sun block! But it feels good to live between those mountains, to look out over those steep hills and to feel the lightness of the air!

Greetings to you all from the Andes!
Sara



My room


The hall


The living room


The dining room


The kitchen


The terrace


View at the back 1


View at the back 2


View at motorcyclestreet 1 (front)


View at motorcyclestreet 2 (front)

And...she's off again!

My dear all,
Not even five months have gone by...five months full of uni, Utrecht, and people dear to my heart, five months of preparation, of reading, writing, questioning and planning. In those five months I have written a research proposal for my upcoming research and now I sit here, in this empty room with only my backpack standing there waiting, round and bright...
Tomorrow I climb into a plane again, this time not to go east but west, all the way over the Atlantic, all the way over the South American continent to land in Lima, Peru. Saturday I continue from there to Cusco, where I will install myself for eleven weeks and my research can begin!
I will work as a volunteer in an organization and do research among street children. Very specifically I will not write in this open space about my research, this blog will be more to keep you updated about the rest of the stuff I am doing and to post some pictures once in a while!
Peru as a country has always been one of those places where I still wanted to go some time, I don't know where the fascination comes from, but it is there. I decided to combine this fascination with another fascination/question I have: "How is it to grow up outside a family/on the street?" "What does that do to the socialization of people?" "Can people live without a family, or will there always be some attempt to (re-)construct or enact the family?"
So those questions will be the theme keeping me busy for the coming eleven weeks. For now, I am just very excited, curious and also a bit scared!
I'll keep you posted!

Love
Sara