On May 22, 2010 I said goodbye to my daughter in Nashville, Tennessee and got ready to head for Cusco, Peru where I was enrolled in a month long intensive TEFL certificate program. It finally dawned on me that I was headed to a foreign country, where I didn't know another single person and I didn't even speak the same language! What was I doing??? All of a sudden I was petrified by the fear of the unknown but I didn't want to show my daughter my feelings! I couldn't control the tears that had swelled up in my eyes though...I gave my daughter a big hug, not knowing if I would ever see her again...! She told me that I would be fine and indeed that was the way it would be! My flights took me to Miami, Lima, and finally Cusco. I was met at the airport by Juan,a representative of the school I would be attending for the next month. We got into a "taxi" that was the smallest car I've ever seen! It reminded me of the last time I rode in a bumper car at the fair! And they come literally inches away from the next little car! Lanes are non existent; it's just GO and hope they stop in time! For the next month, I lived in a Family Home that consisted of 6-7 bedrooms ranging in size to small private 1 bedrooms to rooms that slept 3 people. There were 4 shared bathrooms. We had 2 cooks(who were flattered if you asked them to help you by practicing your Spanish with them) and 2 housekeepers. The home was nice, comfortable and the food was very good, although I wasn't used to eating so many carbs at one time! There was an unlimited amount of bread, lots of rice, pasta, and of course potatoes! Some meals were pasta and potatoes with very few vegetables or meat...
The plumbing and the showers were very challenging! Hot water was more of a miracle than a norm. You never knew if you would get 1 minute of hot water, 5 minutes of it, or sometimes, none! If I had to wash my hair, I would put my head under the water first, lather my hair, then rinse it off so as to not waste any hot water on my head; had to save it for the rest of me! And the septic systems could not handle any paper, so all used TP had to be put in receptacles kept in the bathrooms...! Some had lids on them and some not. Gross!
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| House location was through door on the left and down a steep flight of stairs |
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| School=Maximo Nivel | | | |
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| Family Home dining room seats 6 people at both tables |
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| Kitchen with 2 cooks |
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| Big living room |
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| My single private bedroom |
The first few days I was in Cusco, I explored parts of the city that were within walking distance of the home. But even with a map, I got lost! The street names were painted on the walls of the bldgs and some were non existent. I had to ask for directions wherever I went. It was comforting to learn that many people spoke English and there were always lots of tourists around. Cusco, being one of the highest elevation cities in the world at 11,000 ft., took a few days to get used to! I felt pretty normal after about 10 days but going uphill still left me breathless even after being there for months. The following pictures are of some of the plazas that were close to my home:
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| Plaza de Armas |
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| 1 of the churches at the Plaza |
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| Quoricancha=Inca ruin with a church built on top of it |
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| Plaza San Francisco |
