A Day to Myself in Trujillo

This morning’s wake up call was severely unexpected. I was half awake, listening to my bunkmate Alex get ready, when I opened my eyes for a split second. I see him in mid air, jumping on top of me. I curl up to protect myself as he yells, “Good morning, Elder! It’s baptism day!” He is a strange fellow, but he is pretty easy to get along with.

We got ready and had breakfast a little later than I had planned because we were planning on going out in the morning. We had a pre-trip meeting with Doug, who is one of two SEED interns out here currently. He informed us that he couldn’t go with us until later, so we planned on an early afternoon trip. Then we spoke with Alena, who is the main director of the program in Dan Per, and she said the best time to go would be the morning, so we planned on tomorrow going out and paying a visit. Suddenly, we had an open day with not much to do.

We brainstormed some ideas to make something out of our meeting, and then I took a small nap. It was short, and even though it was still morning, it was awesome. We went to lunch at this sandwich place, and it was very delicious. They had small sandwiches for 2 or 3 soles a piece with pollo (chicken), pavo (turkey), chicharron (pork), huevos (eggs), everything. They were on a delicious bun, and we put our own mayo and aji on it. I coupled it with a bottle of Coke, which is a million times sweeter than the Coke in the States. It was a very satisfying meal.

Upon returning to the hotel, we decided to go swimming, so we all changed and met at the freezing pool. Brennon was the first to take the plunge, and he challenged us all to a cannon ball contest, which got us all to jump in. The water was so cold; you got used to it after a while, but it was always cold. When you got out, the air was immensely warmer than the water, and it was not warmer when you jumped back in the pool. We all ran up to the steam room after the short stay in the pool to warm up. The steam boiled up over a bundle of coca leaves, which made the steam room warm and aromatic. We tried to get the sauna working, but it was never warm enough.

After a shower, I went to the girl’s room next door to watch a movie. We put on The Italian Job, but I fell asleep before the first job was even finished. I slept through the movie until somebody knocked on the door. I don’t remember who it was, but they gave me a funny look when I answered the girls’ door with bedhead. We went to dinner at the Italian place where we had been recommended to go, but I didn’t like my meal that much. Susana and I split a small four-cheese pizza because we weren’t very hungry, but I think they put bleu cheese on it, so it tasted a bit like vomit. And it was way over-priced. But that’s ok I guess; you won’t really remember the food, but the conversation and the experience.

When we got back to the hotel, Susana and I ended up having a great talk. I was ready for bed, but we just started talking. It is fun to be so close with everybody here. We all have a cool bond with each other, and I hope that we will all still be friends after the trip, even though I won’t be around for a while.