Oh man, I have been so busy and just don’t have time to write about all the JAS awesomeness!! It’s been over a week since it happened and I’m sure I’ve already forgotten things.
Saturday morning we did a service project in downtown Cajamarca. At first we were all four split into different groups and then as they created some new groups Noelle and Brittany got in one group and Aleksi and I were in another together. I didn’t catch exactly what the service was so I just followed everyone else and banked on the fact that I could learn fast and pick up on what was going on. Turns out our job was to take down the posters and propaganda on the light poles as well as the sides of buildings. Our first light post was right near one of the markets and so as I tore down papers I also got to watch a woman carry a huge bag of live guinea pigs around trying to sell them, a man sell his bag of ducks and countless women walking around holding their live chickens by their feet. It was almost humorous but it’s just life these days!
We all got yellow or white “Mormon Helping Hands” jerseys which were awesome to wear! I’ve always wanted to do something where I got to wear one…who would have guessed I needed to go to Peru to do it!?
Jhonny, Feliciana’s husband, drove by in his taxi and stopped to say hello to me. I was surprised that 1) he remembered my name and 2) he could spot me in between all the Peruvians and 3) He actually slowed his taxi down to say hi! It made my day a little bit brighter.
I’m not much of a talker sometimes but after a while of not talking I realized this was the perfect time to practice Spanish so I’d better start talking. I’m always super hesitant at first but the more I talk, the more I realize I do know words in Spanish and can form sentences and thoughts! I even made some friends I kept for the rest of the convention.
While we were working a Peruvian man walked by and said “very good job. Thank you” in English but with a Spanish accent. For some reason it was just so sweet and I really felt like the people appreciated what we were doing.
The work was fun. One or two people would get the pole wet with big paint rollers and then another one or two people with scrapers would start peeling and scraping the posters off. Then the others who had garbage bags would collect them. At first, I was a trash bag holder and it was super boring so I started peeling papers off the poles just with my hands. It wasn’t pretty work but it gave me something useful to do. Later, I worked on the same pole as Aleksi and I stole his paint scraper and started doing that. At first, I think the group was a little taken aback since until then it was only the boys doing that and all the girls were holding trash bags. Stick it, status quo!
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| My whole group |
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