First Week in Moyobamba, Peru

My first week in Moyobama was very interesting.  For the first 4 full days I had a fever.  Two of those days I pretty much just slept.  I didn't start checking my fever until the third day.  And I am really glad I didn't check it before because I would have probably gone to the doctor.  Since, I was resting a lot I wasn't really interacting with my family.  I couldn't.  It is also really hard to try and learn spanish when you can't focus on anything.  My host family thought I didn't like to talk or eat, which is true when I have a fever over 100.

However, my host family is great.  My host mom Magda is great and everyone is very friendly.  I live with 2 host sisters and 2 host brothers.  There are two other brothers that moved out of the house but always stop by to visit.  There are also 6 other girls here: 3 girls from Spain, one from Holland and one from Florida.  I have a very hard time understanding the girls from Spain.  I couldn't even understand them when they said gracias.  There accent is so strange and they say or ask different questions than what I am use to from Costa Rica.  Although I have a hard time understanding the distinct accents of Spain and Moyobamba, everyone is very friendly and nice.  I have gone to the hot springs a couple of times with everyone from the house.  There are a few natural hot springs within this inclosed area.  Each spring has a different temperature but they all are warm.  One is exceptionally hot which feels great at night.

My job at Paz y Esperanza is suppose to get going this week.  This week we will traveling to two different smaller towns about an hour outside Moyobama.  Around Moyobama they have a lot of commercial deforestation which causes a lot of water problems.  So we will be talking to different members of the community about what needs to be done ect.  Work Hours are from 8-1 (2 hour lunch break) 3-6.  I am not a huge fan of the big break.  I'd rather have a 30 minute break and get off earlier.  There is a lot I can't do right now because my lack of spanish.  My main goal right now is to really improve on my spanish.  I am hoping in the next month that I will be where I need to be.

Things I miss and things that I am not use to:

The first thing I miss is good coffee.  It is a tease down here.  They have a lot of instant coffee here.  I have never had instant coffee until I came here.  Its awful.  I have to put sugar in it to make it taste decently.  Last week I went out to breakfast with 3 people from my work and we all ordered coffee.  They just gave me a cup of hot water.  Than with the coffee, they brought a little creamer container like a restaurant but it wasn't cream it was our coffee and we all had to share it.  This coffee that was in this little creamer container was very concentrated (which I love) and we poured only a little amount like you would pour cream into your coffee.  That tasted worse than the instant.  My first goal this year is to find a place that serves good coffee.

The other thing that I have to get use to is the toilet seats at my house and at my work don't exist.  And the water in the entire city is shut off during the day.  So we have to use buckets of water if we ever have to go.  Cold showers are not fun to take in the morning and my hair is getting really long for me.  Because I have to take more showers than I want to because my hair get really messy really easy.  So trying to grow out my hair this year has not been fun yet.

Other than that I am grateful for all the chance that God has given me down here (besides the 3 hour + church service).  My host family is great.  The people at work seem to enjoy their work and they are glad to do it.

I appreciate all your support,
James