So, Jen's last blog left us spending our last of the 90 tourist-visa-permitted days of Argentina in the capital. We tried to cram in everything that we possibly could to make the most of only a few days in Buenos Aires: hands-down thee most beautiful city I have ever visited. (I know I say that a lot, but I'm dead serious this time!) Let's just say I completely fell in love with the city. It only added to the immense list of things I adored about that country. All of which made it harder to leave. And though it was bittersweet, last Thursday morning we packed up our bags, and lugged them (and 3 days worth of food) down to the street to grab a taxi to the bus terminal. We would be busing from Buenos Aires, over 70 hours, to Lima, Peru. I don't think it fully hit us until we were in the cab: "Wait...... 3 straight days on a bus!? The bathrooms on those things are disgusting after, like, one day! Are they even gonna feed us!? Did we bring enough food!? Do they ever let you off at all?!"... After a minor freak out, we decided it couldn't be that bad. Plus, we already bought the tickets, so our fate was sealed. "This may or may not be the biggest mental test we've come across so far..."
And, at first, it was. Every other time we had bused in Argentina, we got these nice, double-decker buses, with big cushy seats that fully reclined, breakfast service, and decent tvs. (These people have their cross-country traveling down). This time though, after already waiting 2 extra hours, we climbed up the bus steps to a brutal reality. Small, plastic-covered seats which kind of halfway reclined. The air-conditioning BLASTING. A tv which cut in and out and had no sound... Yea, they definitely wouldn't be serving us breakfast either. Our home for the next 3 days could not have been any worse. Since Jenna and I know how our luck usually falls, it was pretty much already expected that we would end up on the scrubbiest thing possible to trek across the continent. How could it not be?
So, for 3 days, we sat on this bus. We were let out (I feel like I'm talking about puppies) at least once a day, to eat dinner, use the rest-stops (where people showered up... Do you think we thought of bringing shampoo? No.), and to cross the borders. We passed the Argentina-Chile border on Friday night, and the Chile-Peru border Saturday morning. During my final hours in Buenos Aires I had to go to the US Embassy to get an emergency passport to leave the country since mine was in the backpack I lost in Mendoza. They had handed me a flimsy passport book with a sticker printed with my information. So besides for some suspicion about that, we passed inspection and were let into Peru. It went by way faster than I thought actually, and the views on the drive were amazing. (And, by the grace of God, we switched buses half-way as well, upgrading to fabric chairs and fully-functioning tvs. Nice.)
Sunday morning, we rolled up to the bus terminal in Lima. We had finally made it!!! "Okay, God, it was hard to leave Argentina, but I know you have more plans for us here in Peru, more lessons to teach, and more people out there for us to help. We said we would do anything you put in front of us, so we are ready for the next thing, whatever it is." He's funny that guy...
LICE. That is what the next adventure has been. For the last 4 days, Jenna and I have been getting to know the back of each other's heads better than we ever wanted to. Nancy, the principal of Monterrico Christian School, where we will be volunteering the next 4-6 weeks, picked us up from the terminal on Sunday. She drove us to the school's neighborhood, and dropped us off at the house that we are staying in during our time here. The place is beautiful, equipped with a living room, dining room, kitchen, enough rooms for everyone to have their own (for the first time in 6 months!), and thee most adorable roommate: Natalie, the 5th grade teacher at MCS. Jenna and I would get to know the house VERY well, considering the fact that we would be cooped-up, de-licing it and all the items we own. I came to the breakfast table Monday morning and told Jen, "I have bad news. I have lice. And since we just sat a foot away from each other for 3 days, you probably do too. I don't know where we got them (probably the bus itself), but we have to tell the school...". Great. Natalie and Nancy were so accommodating in collecting us and making us feel at home, which is why it sucked to send an email explaining that their new volunteers were "unable to come in... because we have lice". Kill me. We felt terrible that on our first week we would be unable to start, and very embarrassed for the extreme level of scrubbiness we had reached... They only laughed though (as well as our moms back home) when we told them. "At least you noticed it before you came into the school! Maybe God is telling you to relax a little bit. You can come in as soon as all your 'friends' are gone."
Picking lice out of Jenna's hair isn't exactly under the heading: My Go-To Ways to Relax, but it hasn't been that bad actually. The quarantine has let us catch up on some non-bus sleep and take a few breaths after all the insane moving around at the end of Argentina. So other than the 5 hours a day we spend searching, and getting searched, for little lice eggs, life's good as usual. Needless to say, we haven't exactly experienced Peru yet, so no cool cultural stories, but Jen will have to fill you in on that next week (assuming we're able to rejoin society at some point soon). We did eat cow heart last night though, which was so delish.
And just to paint a picture for you...
The Combined Lice Count:
Monday: Over 100, for sure (Yea, 3 days on a bus without a shower... it was bad.)
Tuesday: 16
Wednesday (today): 8, Definitely making some progress
Oh yea, and the tsunami didn't hit Lima. We're still alive.
Wondering how many other 23-yr-olds have lice right now,
Nae
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