6/28/2012

It's been a week since i arrived in Quito, Ecuador.
It surprises be (btw) that not many people in Cuzco knew where Quito was. I remember my host mom commenting "you are going to Columbia?" haha Oh well, i would just assume that all the people in South America know where all the countries in S.A. are but now i think of it, it's not like i knew many of the countries in the vicinity of my country, Korea.
Anyways, I was excited to come to Quito, but my heart was still in Cuzco. My flight was at around 7 in the morning and i didn't sleep until 4 am.. (Of course i didn't see why i should pack earlier than the day before or even the day i leave lol). Even though i knew i had to pack, i still wanted to spend time with my wonderful friends and my host family's daughter, Katherine. I talked to Katherine until 2am and started packing then. I woke up for my flight and my host mom prepared breakfast for me with fresh fruits... and when she and the daughter hugged me to say good-bye... i started balling my eyes out. Sometimes, you don't really need to know why you are crying and let your emotions be.

Now i am in Quito, and i STILL miss Cuzco. It's not the nice places i have gone to, but it's people that i miss. I thank God for such precious memories these people created for me. I really hope and pray that someday i will meet some of these people. SOON!
It was hard for me at first to be joyful in Quito, because i still missed people in Cuzco. However, thanks to my friend (with whom i am staying in Quito), i was able to cheer up as he took me to places such as beach and shopping malls. He is such a good friend of mine who was an exchange student in my freshman year. We lived in the same dorm and took the same class together. We took the same philosophy class which he very enjoyed while i didn't. It's funny though because he is studying computer science and i psychology and this course was just something we took it for fun, not related at all to our majors. He still enjoys philosophy and continues to take some courses (well, he just graduated) here in Quito. Anyways, i am very grateful to have him as a friend because he really cares for me as a friend.

If it wasn't for my friends here in a remote land, i think i might have felt really lonely, even though i don't want to admit that. My friend's family is wonderful and i really feel a genuine love from this family. I am happy and glad to be here in Quito, Ecuador and i hope that i would continue to be open-minded and challenge myself.

Just received emails about updates of how my friends in the U.S. are doing and feels happy to know they are doing great! Even though we are all far apart, we are walking side by side, encouraging each other in our journey.

6/11/2012

There are two other students from the U.S. living with us and I already like them so much! One is from California wanting to become a veterinarian and the other girl from Minnesota who is already an elementary school teacher. I guess I kind of missed speaking English and actually conversing because I have been trying very hard each day (before I met these girls) trying to even get my message across with the locals. I know that I intentionally chose to live with a host family so that I can learn Spanish faster (vs. living with other volunteers) but there were times I felt a bit tired because my message wouldn’t get across as I intended to. Well, duh, I should have expected this but I didn’t know how emotionally tiring this could be. Anyways for the past two day I hung out with these two girls, and not only do they speak English but also their personalities are very chill and fun. I once thought I could live anywhere else even without knowing the language and I am so wrong. I don’t think I can live in places where they don’t speak the languages that I speak.

There is one time I felt sad because I felt like I wasn’t being understood. Last Friday, I asked the girls who are also interns at the hospital to hang out. They were very nice because they bought me dinner. Anyways, they speak very little English and I speak very little Spanish and so at times it was very difficult to make conversations. There were many things I wanted to say to these girls (and of course I spoke Spanish to the best of my abilities). Sometimes I feel bad because I see in their face that they are also trying very hard to understand me haha.

But, because of these Peruvian friends I have here, I have more motivation to learn Spanish.

I thank both for Peruvian and American friends here… J

5/31/2012

We took all of our patients to Sacsayhuamán for a walk. It took quite a long time to get them prepared to go out (some weren’t just listening..). Sacsayhuamán is one of the beautiful places to visit in Cuzco and I was lucky to go there without transportation fee and entrance fee. More than that, I was excited that we were taking patients for a fresh air and for a beautiful scenery. Also, I was happy that there were five interns who came with us and later we got to know each other well.

It was a beautiful day and on the bus we all tried to get the patients excited for the trip. Though we couldn’t really get much response from them, I knew that they were happy.

We finally got to the place… and it was SO SO gorgeous! I wish I brought a camera with me, but clumsy me, I was in a rush this morning and I forgot to bring it L

I am not sure, but whenever I see aged people I feel so close to them. There was a patient who is very aged (I think between 80 and 90 yrs old) and he was very short and with a hat he was wearing he was very cute (I know ‘cute’ isn’t really the right word to describe an old man but… I think those who are fond of old people should know what I mean) and I just wanted to stand beside him all the time. He was constantly saying things to himself (or to me) and I had no idea what he was saying. But anyways, after taking a good view of Sacsayhuamán, we had lunch together. After that, we played some sports… well we didn’t really play ‘play sports’ but get some patients kick some balls around. Aw, the old man I was with throughout the whole trip was just standing on the grass as if his feet were glued to the grass and when the ball came to him he kicked as hard as he could. It was the first time I would see him look  very energized because the ball would fly really far away. I would see a big grin on his face as if he just won a trophy. Haha. Aw…. Grandpa. I actually saw a lot of smiles and heard bountiful of laughs among the patients and then I thought maybe they need to get out more and kick some balls.

 

Cute grandpapito, Vicent! 

5/29/2012

After finally getting over with my high altitude sickness, I got a stomach problem (great). I feel like having a stomach issue is sometimes worse than having a headache. Or I am right now being biased because I am having a stomachache right now. I feel bad the most when I can’t enjoy what my host family prepared for me for lunch. They always want me to eat a lot and their food is very delicious! But, mann… when you have a stomachache…. you really have a hard time swallowing food. It’s almost like forcing food through your throat. My family noticed that I wasn’t feeling well and kept asking me if I was doing okay. I said I am fine because I thought my stomach problem will go away within a few days. My eyes started to feel heavy because they were genuinely worrying about me and I felt like I was making them worry. I felt sad because as much as I wanted to enjoy their company, my body wasn’t just allowing me to.

 I was very surprised at myself or at my body for how slowly it was being adapted to the environment here. I have been to Philippines in areas where you see people living in absolute poverty and I was there for 2 weeks and I was fine! What’s wrong with me here in Cuzco??!  As my body got weak, I just lost appetite and especially today I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I just wanted to get it over with my work and go into my room and rest.

But, instead of going into my room and getting some rest, I went outside to use the internet. I wanted to use time as productively as I can. This Friday, I am inviting my friends (the interns I met at the hospital) over to my house to have some desserts and play some games. I have gotten to know these girls fairly well and they are so sweet! Love to get to know them. So I went to an internet room to search for some recipes. After that, I came back home and watched some movies. Still not feeling well.

Then at 7pm I went to my friend’s place for a small group. He is actually the one whom I went to church with. There I got to meet some wonderful people and also two people from Colorado. Anyways, we had a good worship time (even though I had to pay very very careful attention to understand the message in Spanish) and when it was time for prayer, my friend (who was a group leader) asked if any of us needs a prayer for healing. I didn’t want to ask but my friend was looking at me (I don’t know why) and I said “why not?”. I didn’t want to ask for a prayer because I was too prideful. I thought I could control the health of my body as long as I take a very good care of it. But I don’t know why, the next moment I was on my two feet with my friends praying over me.  I don’t know why but tears started falling down on my cheeks. I have been in a physical discomfort for a long time. I didn’t know why I was crying but… sometimes you don’t need to know.

God spoke to me through these friends (after prayer) and things that these friends were saying were just caught me off guard… and after I went home I spent hours pondering over these questions.

God answered our prayer and today I am feeling completely fine (God, sorry that I relied on my own strength) I  have no stomachache and now I am full of energy. My goodness….. I thanked God for my health as I was having breakfast. It was a pleasant surprise. How happy I felt today! I even walked to my worksite as my body was allowing me to do (It takes about 30 minute walk to get to the hospital).

3/28/2012

One of the things that is so great about living with my host family is that you meet other local people through connection. Because I was searching for a church to go to on Sunday, my host mom introduced me to her godson who now is a protestant. He is of my age (what a bonus!) and he speaks very good English; he studied in Australia for a year.  I took a taxi to his place and he and I took a combi to a church together, which I never took it alone before because it always looked crowded and I didn’t know how to take it; it was a fun experience. I was about to sweat inside the combi coz it was cramped inside.

After the church service, he showed me around the center of Cuzco. He was explaining to me all the best places in the area and we stopped by a couple of places. Not surprisingly, though, the nice places looked very much like European style because they attracting the tourists. The first place we went inside was an ice cream place. It looked very cute! I ordered mango ice cream in a cupcake shape and it tasted so fresh! And then I also ordered a traditional Peruvian dessert called el pie de limón and it had an interesting texture to it. The top part of the pie was made out of an egg white and it was fluffy and the bottom part key lime. I realized desserts in Cuzco are much less sweet than the ones in America, which is nice. I have had some interesting desserts in Cuzco such as a baked apple, caramel flan and some kind of fruit salad which are all so yummy!

After an ice cream place, we were keep walking and he was explaining. I think he felt comfortable with me because he started joking around… A LOT! He is such a funny guy. We laughed a lot as we were walking. Then he invited me to his home to have lunch because he said we can cook together. His house is pretty big (later, I heard from my host family that his family is very rich) and has a lot of fun stuff all around the world. Anyways, he looked so confident that I thought he was going to cook himself but he told me he has never cooked before. Haha.  We cooked some simple pasta (well, sort of…because we didn’t have any pasta sauce) with some sort of Peruvian seasonings. But, anyways, we had so much fun cooking together because he was keep making jokes and telling all these fun stories. I also got to hear his testimony -how he was changed by God and it was sweat to hear how he was in the past and since been growing.

Then later at around dinner time, Cataline joined us to hang out. Cataline and he were childhood friends and when they are together they are like ‘hermanos’ He crakes more jokes on Cataline and he was like a mischievous boy (in a funny, good way J) Cataline made pizza for us and she is a very good cook. But since he and I had lunch very late (we finished our lunch at 5pm!) we couldn’t finish our pizza. After dinner, we went to the living room and watched some TV and played some game.

I had a very good time with them and I am glad I met him. He is very sweet and lots of fun. 

I am not sure if it’s a cultural thing… but these people know how to have fun. He barely knows me! I was out my house at 10:30 am and got back home almost at around 12am haha. I was tired but had a great time J

I needed this.

5/27/2012

There are two other girls from California living with us in the same house. Because it was their last day staying in Cuzco, we all (with Cataline, too) went out to a bar to hang out. They said they ran across two band members in the plaza and were invited to this bar where the performance is going to be held. Anyways, I had so much fun with these girls. One girl got really drunk and made a scene and of course because we were foreigners we were quite a spotlight.

The next day, I got sick. I think I got a cold or something. I started having fevers and a headache. I haven’t gotten sick in a very long time so it must be the combination of a cold weather,  dirt and high altitude that finally got me. Today I am feeling a little bit better as I am writing my journal but yesterday I’ve never felt that sick in a very long time. I think when you are sick, you start to miss home the most and that’s how I felt. Because I didn’t want to bother my host family with my sickness I just went to my room to sleep, hoping that I would feel better the next day. But, wow it was really cold in my room and sometimes wearing leg warmers, a sweater and a hat do not suffice to ward off the cold in Cuzco. L

It’s been a week since I arrived in Cuzco. I have been volunteering at a mental hospital and there I got to meet other wonderful interns . What I’ve been doing after the first day of working as sort of like a receptionist was visiting patients with schizophrenia, epilepsy, autism and just help them engage in work that psychologists want them to do such as drawing, doing puzzle and so on. They all live in the hospital but in an isolated area (you need a key to open the door to visit them). The place they live in, I feel like, is sort of like a prison because I peeked at their rooms and it’s dark and the bed doesn’t look that cozy. But, the patients are wonderful; they are happy to see me and one patient, for example, who cannot speak was showing me the paintings that previous volunteers drew. Of course, I couldn’t understand a single word of what he was saying but I was happy that he was happy to show me around. Also, there was one girl (women and men stay in two separate places) who was very good at speaking English. Whenever I pass by her she would talk to me in very fluent English. I thought she was working for the hospital but when she started talking to me- how she hates being in this confined area with other patients- then I knew she had a story. She was telling me how her parents put her in the hospital because they thought she was schizophrenic, even though she doesn’t believe that she is. I think this is tragic because I wonder how i would feel if my parents told me that I have some kind of mental illness when I think I am okay? I later shared this with my host parents and they said probably the parents know about  their child. Then I asked her how she learned her English and she said she lived in New Jersey before (no wonder). At first, I was thinking how come when I tried speaking in Spanish to her she never replied back in Spanish, and now I think I know but then again i could be wrong so I would rather not write here.  She is one of the patients that stood out to me the most because she was very friendly to me. I hope that we get to know her more.

I was thinking.. how gloomy the patients would feel living in the condition that they are in. Even though they are labeled as whatever mental illness that they have, their emotions aren’t dead. They know how to appreciate when for example I show a simple act of saying hi to them. They aren’t different than I am. They want to be recognized as fully, dignified human beings  just as much as everyone does. We have a capacity to love and I think it is continuous love and care from the psychologists, interns and whoever is working there that make a difference in patients’ lives.  What am I taking away from these experiences? I have been recently thinking about going to a grad school right after my undergrad.. just a thought.