Facebook madness

So I just went to check my stanford email account which I dont check very often (write to fluongo@gmail.com) and I had something like 8 things written on my wall in the past 3 days. I had almost completely forgotten facebook existed. So different my life is when I dont have constant access to a compuer and internet.

Feliz Cumpleanos

Thank you to all who wished me a happy birthday this weekend. It was kind of nice to have my first real legitimate weekend though I ended up working on saturday but I still had Friday and Sunday off. I spent friday downtown with emily, patrick, and james (3 friends from the institute) and we made our way to the plaza de las armas to see President Garcia get inagurated. However, we soon found out that you needed a ticket to get in but as with most things, there are exceptions, and having a blond american with you is one such exception. So we were at the plaza de las armas, living it up with mostly Garcia supporters but all of whom shared a general disidain for peruvian politics. Anyways, it turns out there is no piblic speech and in fact all we really saw him do was walk to his residence, though that turned out to be no easy task. What James called "Organized Chaos" I call a fight between 30 of Garcia´s security personnel. Basically in the rush to make a little passage way lined by rock hard dudes so as to protect the president, they looked as though they were in the mosh pit of a metallica concert. I would later find out that they were actually protecting him from an imminent threat in the form of a scrawny peruvian trying to give Garcia a "Homenaje a Jesus" DVD. I kid you not, that is what he wsa trying to give the president and he chose to run at him during his inaguration to give it to him.

The day ended on a high note with Chifa (peruvian version of chinese food) in chinatown and a soccer game in the park with my new kicks. I really will upload a picture of my new soccer shoes, they are no vapors but nice nonetheless. Later went out to eat with a couple friends and then watched a peruvian movie before going to sleep. I should elaborate that my actually birthday celebration was Thursday night as there was one person leaving that night. It was at this middle eastern place and we feasted on baclawa and shwerma to our hearts content.

Saturday went into work in the morning and then headed out to the Museo de la Nacion in the afternoon. They had a photography exhibit on the Senderoso movement there that was really good and I managed to stay there until it closed at six. I am going to have to go back to that museum because I only managed to see one exhibit and it is actually more well known for its inca exhibit. Then I walked around Barranco for a bit, Barranco is pretty much the equivalent of the Mission in San Francisco kind of an artsy sort of place with lots of displaced artists. This is where this awesome theater is at. That night I saw the movie "sick" which is the story of Bob Flanagan a Cystic Fibrosis survivor who lived until the ager of 45 or so and basically to deal with the pain of the disease became a professional masequist. One of the most graphic movies Ive ever seen, I dont know if Ill ever be able to get out of my head, the image of a nail being hammered into a penis.

Sunday was also rather subdued, went for a run in the morning and went out with Patrick and James to have brunch at Mango´s a local restaurant with a renowned Buffet. Though a bit pricy for peruvian standards (35 soles or 10 bucks), it was worth every penny. We got there at 10:20 and didnt leave until 1:30. The meal was absolutely amazing and even better was the view. They had a patio that overlooked the pacific ocean and it was up on a cliff so you had an amazing view of everything. To top it off, it was a beautiful day and I just sat outside with a T shirt. The buffet was absolutely amazing with all sorts of juices and foods such as torta de papa, Lomo Saltado, Chicharron, and even Tamales. I ended up stealing a few yogurts and tamales on top of the 7 or 8 plates that I ate. It was amazing. Later went to the art museum which yielded one of the worst cultural tours I think Ive ever taken, but then again what can you expect when entry and a tour costs you 30 cents. Topped the day off with a soccer game at CLub deportivo San Borja where I managed to rediscover form and score a few and also stayed and juggled with some dudes who were much better then me. The day wound down with another peruvian movie (Dias de Santiago) and then here I am today, supposedly working. I need to start planning how I am gonna revisit all my houses so they can sign HIPPA (thank you UAB). Warm wishes to all.

Victim of circumstances

So last night I had my cell phone stolen, snatched right out of my fingers as I was using it on a corner in Miraflores, the safest district in Lima. Now one of the things to understand about Lima is that the city is very dangerous and so the answer to this obvious impediment to tourism is to have a safe touristy district which is Miraflores. Even with the presence of police on virtually every corner and patrolling Miraflores Seguridad vehicles it is by no means crime free. My net loss for the night proved to be none as I eventually recovered it but the whole experience has left me a little depressed and ever more aware of the political and social circumstances that define our lives.

At about 8:45 as I was waiting on the corner of Angamos and Arequipa, Sebastian Cristian Fabian (You'll later find out why I know his name) ran by and snatched my phone as I was in the middle of a text message. Sebastian ran by and grabbed my phone proceeding to run into the street, immediately I give chase. He runs into the street and then down the block only to turn around and run back on the other side. Bear in mind I am maybe 15 yards behind him the whole time. He proceeds to turn into a residential neighborhood and run for another 3 blocks or so thinking hes lost me when he finally stops next to a car and takes off his sweater. He then just kind of stands there expecting me to not recognize him as I catch up within 10 seconds. I proceed to offer him 100 soles to give me the phone back and Ill let him go on his way, he already shows some signs of fatigue. He refuses my offer and takes off again, which was his second dumbest move of the night, the first was fucking with me. To make a long story short, I chase him for about 3 more blocks but stay low to make him think hes lost me, though I can tell hes never run a solid mile in his life and is completely out of air. As he turns a corner I follow closely behind and watch as he tries to hide in the front yard of a house. It was a yard with a wall in front that was maybe 3 feet tall and to one side has a giant restaurant. I see him go in there and then about 5 seconds later I turn the corner and see him there sitting down, completely exhausted, and very very scared. Most of you know that I am a pacifist person and it takes alot to get me to the point where I could hurt somebody but I definitely could have kicked his ass right then and there, he would have stood no chance. I approached him, grabbed his collar and demanded my phone, he proceeds to lie to me and tell me he dumped it only that it rang two seconds later and was in his jacket. Now he knows he can see that I am pissed and starts crying. I didnt touch him and he completely broke down crying, I have never felt so confused in my life. I mean, we are talking about a kid, he turned out to be 15 years old. So, I now have my phone back, Esteban is crying his eyes out feeding me some story about how his mom is disabled and he was stealing it for his brother, etc. And you know what? I felt bad for him, I really did and this is where I became so torn. In a country such as Peru, where 50% of the people live in poverty another 15% live in extreme poverty, many of these people have no choice. There are no jobs available as evidenced by the ridiculous number of street vendors, so what choice do they really have?

The main thing that came over me was guilt. To be honest, I felt guilty that I had a privileged upbringing with parents who afforded me opportunities. And here we were, two people form completely different worlds that had at once collided in this whole incident. I mean, whether or not the story about his mother and brother was true, I still felt bad for him. For those of you wondering, the several rent a cops that patrol miraflores had seen me chase this guy since angamos and by the time I had my 3 minute chat with Esteban they had arrived. Under any other circumstance, or hell even under these circumstances I would have gladly helped him out. At first I didnt want to press any charges, I had the phone and I was fine, but then I realized what good would that do? It isnt even an issue of deterrence because I realize that the chances that Esteban will magically clean up his act are slim to none. But at the same time, I cant have it on my conscience that this may be the same kid who knocks over old women for their purses. I dont know Esteban, but in the 3 minutes that I spoke to him I couldnt help but feel bad for him. Because, I really dont think it was all his fault but rather he was a victim of circumstance. That is something that really hit home last night, which is the fact that our lives are too often dictated by circumstances completely beyond our control. Would have a record by the age of 15 had he been born in Palo Alto to college educated parents, absolutely not.

I ended up filing a report against him but not before trying to talk to find out his story. It was weird, by the time the whole ordeal was over I wasnt mad, I didnt really feel inconvenienced, I didnt feel anything except pity and guilt. Pity that through circumstances beyond his control he was being booked at 15 and guilty that it wasnt me who was being booked at the age of 15. So thats why Ive been kind of depressed today and that is why I feel a need to express my feelings on the matter. Ths most tragic thing is when a person is capable of making a difference but choose not to. I hope to not be that person.

Lets go to the movies

Ok, so this weekend I was super productive. Now considering when I say weekend I only mean sunday that makes the feat somewhat less impressive but still amazing nonetheless. On Saturday I was so exhausted from work that I fell asleep a few hours after getting home and was out by 8 o clock. I woke up at 7 the next day and went for a run along the beach. It really is nice to be up early on the weekends because teh streets are still somewhat empty. Instead of my run being like a lifesize game of frogger, I was able to focus on my pace as opposed to staying alive. Walked around Miraflores for a bit and saw a Fiestas Patrias (independence day) parade that was HORRIBLY managed. They somehow forgot that some people need to cross the damn street and so I had to walk down like two miles just to cross the stupid parade. Anyway, I went to this really awesome theater in Barranco for a movie that night (www.elcinematografo.com) which is a great theater. It costs about 2 bucks and it has maybe 30-40 seats and is basically just a projector. They show all sorts of old movies from around the world and last night they showed this movie Il Sorpasso (http://imdb.com/title/tt0056512/) which was pretty funny though it had one of the wierdest endings I think Ive ever seen, email me if you want to know the ending because I dont want to spoil it for all. The other good movie that I saw was a movie called Paradise now (http://imdb.com/title/tt0445620/) which is the story of two guys recruited for palestinian suicide bombings. I was impressed with the movie and even more happy about the fact that I own the dvd for about 90 cents. I am seeing alot of movies here and its fun because I can see all these movies ive never heard of and it also really helps my spanish (since some movies only have spanish subtitles or are in spanish). If you would like some more good movie suggestions, especially for those of you that want to improve spanish skills, let me know and I can recommend some good ones. Ciao.

Good News

Well, after trying well over half a dozen internet cafes, I have finally managed to find one that doesnt have an idiot for a network administrator. What this means is that I now have internet access on my own computer and thus have just signed on to skype with 10 dollars of credit. This means that for those of you in the states, I may be making some calls from now on. So stay on your toes people. Today was one of my most productive days here mainly because I went to sleep at 8 o clock last night. I got up this morning at 7 and then went for a run, came back and had breakfast while I watched a movie (Paradise now or something like that). It was a movie about 24 hours in the life of two palestinian suicide bombers. A very good movie and especially great considering that the DVD cost me about 90 cents. Oh and last thing is my skype name is fluongo20, so be on the lookout for me, though to be honest I wont be on that often since my computer isnt often online.

Puerto Bermudez

That is where I have decided I want to go. Granted it is about a 15 hr bus ride outside of lima, but frankly it looks amazing and its pretty damn cheap. I would love to go their with a whole week of time so I could just trek around the jungle the whole time. The place I want to go to has a website www.geocities.com/puerto_bermudez . I still have nobody to go with but I figure Ill just go on my own and surely I can find some people to go hiking with so I dont get left for dead when my legs give out.

I have joined this gym on the corner of the street I am staying on. It is quie possibly one of the shadiest gyms I have ever seen and I am convinced its a known hangout for juice dealers. I always see the same 3 guys in there, of course they are all completely jacked. The gym itself is one room thats maybe 10 meters by 10 meters that has just weights in it. Not to mention that the whole thing is lit by 2 halogen lights which givs it a very dark and musty feel. But whatever, its a gym and it gets the job done.

I slept in this morning (7:30) and then headed out but only went to one house. I was looking for one house for about an hour and a half before I finally gave up. People kept pointing me in all different directions whenever I asked them where Manzana B was. This was made worse by the fact that I was on a cerro with no stairs and literally climbed to the top 3 times before I finally gave up. The way the houses are numbered and organized in San Juan de Lurigancho is pretty idiotic. I also almost got killed by a dog on two seperate occasions. There are so many dogs running around and they are usually peaceful but today was particularly bad. I also saw one a fight between two groups of teenagers which was so stupid because the shit resorted to them throwing rocks at each other. So ya, not the best of days but hopefully it will get better.

San Juan de Lurigancho

Here are some pictures from my field site. Sorry I have been kind of slow to get these but its kind of a process to get them from my computer to the USB to the work computer to the internet. I know it sounds alot easier when I say it, but its hard. Today is my break day as I dont go out and do field work so I casually rolled in here (On the 2 bus.. not a navigator truck) about 10:30 or so. Last night a bolivian friend of mine, Higenio, turned in his thesis and so we went out to celebrate. We ended up at this shady Karaoke bar and he sang his heart out to all these songs I had never heard of. I had never been to a karaoke bar before but people that go really love their karaoke. And yes, I did partake in the activities with my rendition of R Kelly´s "I believe I can fly". It was kind of intimidating, everybody knew their songs inside out. Anyway, on to the pictures and so I guess the next set of pictures will be of where I am living.

Allow me to preface these pictures a bit to explain where it is I am working and also for you new readers what my project. First off, Lima is seperated into 13 municipal "districts" each of which has their own mayor. I am working in the largest district called San Juan de Lurigancho with a population of about 900,000. Aside from being the largest district, it is also the district with the highest incidence of TB in all of Peru and one of the highest in the world. My work is to go around and track down patients that underwent treatment for Multi Drug Resistant (MDR) TB in 2003 an do a contact study, that is to say see how many of their contacts have since developed the disease and then identify factors that lend themselves to infection. One last thing to understand about San Juan de Lurigancho, Lima is a very hilly city and as you will see, houses are often built on these "cerros" and some of them have stairs that you can climb up to the top while others dont. Now on to the pictures...

This is a view from on one of the cerros in San Juan de Lurigancho. Nothing really interesting except that you may notice how foggy the day is and well, most days are like that. It seems to work in the two extremes, either the day is really gray or the day can be really nice. In the background you can see just how many houses they fit onto the cerros. Most houses on cerros do not have running water or electricity.

This is what one of the cerros looks like as you climb up. I would say about half of them have nice stairs that go all the way up, but the other half dont yet have stairs. I say not yet because that is one of the initiatives they are undertaking right now because this makes for pretty grueling conditions if you are an 80 yr old woman. Needless to say mudslides are somewhat common and many people die when those happen. Also, Lima is on a fault line so it is prone to earthquakes but hasnt had a major one since 1970. If an earthquake were to hit, most of these houses would most surely collapse.

I really like this picture. I think it is well framed and the lighting gives it a very mystic feel. There are soccer fields like this one all over San Juan de Lurigancho. People here dont really play with full fields but rather play futbolito which is just football on a basketball court with goals.

Ill get some more pictures of stuff up very soon. Hope everyone is enjoying their northern hemisphere summer. Until next time.

AP article

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/15055869.htm

The above is a link to an AP article about traffic cops in Lima. Lima is known for its horrible drivers and I guess their solution to this problem is to use female traffic cops. Needless to say this one of many peruvian mistakes. Its kind of amusing actually, at major intersections during rush hour, they dont use stoplights and instead have these Inka Cola booths where a traffic cop stands and literally directs all of the traffic. Of course taxi drivers usually dont pay any attention whatsoever and thus at manyplaces there is no control. I have never been in a country with a more aggressive driving situation. Lanes are completely nonexistent and this is made even more interesting by that fact that the roads are in such horrible condition that everyone has to weave through sometimes foot deep potholes. Combine ths with the fact that 1 in 7 cars is a taxi and buses are independent so there are tons of those too, and you get the worlds most chaotic driving situation. Its amusing at times but I swear I just dont hear honking anymore. I probably heard more honks in my first two days in Lima than I did in my entire life. Conclusion: Lima is not the most peaceful of cities.

Sunday and some more pictures

Well, sorry I havent updated in a while. I promise these are the last pictures of my trip to cusco and pretty soon Ill start getting some cool pictures up of Lima. My field site where I work at is pretty dirty and Im sure I can get some good shots in every few days and load them up for all to see. Anyway, even if nobody is reading this, its nonetheless a good release and a great way to practice my english.

Yesterday I finally got to play some futbolito which is just soccer on a blacktop with goals. I was a lot of fun, you play a6v6 game and its pretty technical which I like. They dont really do the full field thing here. I also bought a pair of cheap indoor shoes. I couldnt get any of the fake sambas that everybody has since those only come in small sizes. Instead I bought a pair of these kappas that were like 20 bucks. I had to get them a little small due to availability but they look cool and feel comfortable. Ill have to start playing regularly in them to see if they work. If not, I can always go to Polvos Azules and by some indoor vapors.

On another note, my study is off to a good start, I have thus far enrolled 17 patients which is a good number though still short of my goal of 120 (no way!). My birthday is coming up (July 28) so all of you should at least send your regards (hint hint) then. It is actually a very important day as it coincides with Peruvian independence day which basically means I dont work on my birthday. This also means another long weekend and a trip to somewhere cool. I really want to go into the jungle, Peru is actually 90% jungle so there are plenty of options. The only problem is that any cool hike into the jungle would require more time than I have. The only bad thing is that for parts of the counry this is curently the rainy season which means that I will get soaked. Though this doesnt matter that much because its supposed to be pretty warm even though we are in the middle of winter. The other options are Paracas where I can swim with a bunch of seals in freezing cold water (think Lake Washington) or Ica and the Nazca lines which are these lines that are carved into the crust underneath the sand and look like cartoon figures. They were created by the incas and you can only see them from the air since they are so massive. It is pretty amazing to see some of the stuff the Incas managed to do. Ica is just north of there and has a bunch of sand dunes which makes it a hotspot for sandboarding and riding around in dunebuggies.

Some Pictures:

Some more low light action from macchu picchu. If you ever get the chance to go, I highly suggest not going for the day from cusco and instead staying in aguas calientes. If you go from cusco the earliest you can possibly get there is 10am and thats just no fun because you bring about 500 people with you.

Here it is, the stereotypical tourist shot of the ruins. I had to take it or else my mom would probably kill me. Hell, if it were up to me I wouldnt show up in any of these pictures, the scenery is nice enough.

If you guys have any suggestions for what I should do with my long weekend please drop me a line. I will do my best to get on skype in the next few days and hopefully talk to some of you people who I havent spoken to in a while. Also, I know this is a serious long shot, but if any of you happen to know anybody who is headed down to Lima in the near future, please let me know as I need a new pair of legit running shoes.

Sacred Valley (the rest of the trip)

So, the much anticipated day two entry of my trip to the sacred valley. I have been pretty busy this week working on my project so this is kind of the first real free time that I have to spare. Now back to the story...

Getting some low light action in on my camera. As many of you can tell, I am completely excited to be awake at the hour of the day when the bakery produces its best work. I am well aware that you can see shit, but this is living proof that I was up.

On Friday of that weekend, my day got off to a VERY early start at about 4 o clock when I woke up got myself packed and got into some warm clothes because it was probably about 30 degrees outside. Yes, I am well aware that as Jefferson and Charles have pointed out to me on several occasions, I am a huge wuss when it comes to the cold weather. So at 4 30, with two flashlights for the group of 5 (Christina slept in) we headed out. We very soon split into two groups because there was a clear difference in pace; Group 1 comprised myself, patrick, and James, Group 2 was Kara and Nina. Now let me say that I am not a mountain man, I jog every once in a while but not in consistent fashion and I most certainly do not hike up thousands of feet on a regular basis. James and Patrick on the other hand, are true mountain men and both of whom do endurance sports (Patrick ran cross country in college and James bikes)., They were going at a pretty fast pace and we ended up making it to the top at 5:50, 10 minutes before the ruins opened. Got up there and walked around the ruins for an hour with very few people there (by few people I mean maybe 75 as opposed to the Hundreds that generally arrive by mid morning). I got some great pictures in of the ridgeline and the ruins and also got a nice video clip of this Alpaca (llama) chewing. There is another hike that you can do once you are up at macchu picchu and its called Waina Picchu (sp?), the hike opens at 7 and its about an hour up from Macchu Picchu and provides an absolutely amazing view of the ruins. We made it up to Waina Picchu at about 7 45 (Which is also blisteringly fast), and just sat and had some breakfast there with the most amazing view. It was really an amazing experience as we were the first ones up there and you can sit on these rocks where you are literally on the very peak of the mountain. The whole experience has made me want to do more hikes. Anyway, took some pictures flaunted my Argentina Jersey and started to head back down and made it back down to Macchu Picchu making it back at about 9, by which time 150 people had already signed in for the hike up to Waina Picchu (First in, First out, the way to do it).

Made it back down and stuck around the ruins for another hour or so and then headed down at about a quarter to 11 and made it back to watch the Argentina game (We wont talk about that). Caught the train for cusco at 3 and fell asleep for most of the 4 hour train ride that was rather erratic snice everytime the conductor missed a turn off, he would stop, go in reverse, and then start going again. This actually ended up happening much more often than you would think. Made it to Cusco and found a place to stay, this hostel where me, james, and patrick stayed cost us each 3 bucks a night and was right off the Plaza de las Armas which is the main square. That night I had Alpaca for dinner which was surprisingly really good and then called it a night as I was exhausted.

The Next day I woke up at about 7 and went to this awesome food market had everything. The funniest thing about this market was the juice aisle. One of the important things to understand about peru, there is TONS of fruit and so people love to make juices. ANyway, the aisle consisted of dozens of tiny women standing on pedastals beckoning you to their juicer so youll buy juice. There are all sorts from organe to guava to papaya to watermelon, etc.. the list goes on and on and its all fresh. After that went and had some breakfast and then settled into this place to watch the England portugal game. I then went to la Catedral and toured in there, it was really interesting to see the way in which the catholic church in Peru has heavy Inca and Spanish influence. Luckily, James, Patrick, and I got our own tour guide since we spoke spanish and its the english speaking ones that are in high demand. After La Catedral and some more strolls around cusco we settled in to eat lunch and watch the secon half of Brazil France with Zidane playing at his finest. Zidane really did play a great world cup and he was really the reason they beat brazil.

After the game I walked around cusco with the guys looking for this bus station as they were contniuing to lake titicaca the next day. This was actually the most genuine experience I had in cusco since we got completely lost and saw what the city was actually like. I am very much tempted to go back down south because there are so many places you can go for cheap. From cusco you can go to BOlivia for about 10 bucks in a "Bus Cama" the trip takes about 10 hours. To pUno (lake titicaca) is about 5 dollars for an 8 hour ride.

The day kind fo wound down from there and the rest of my stay was basically pent wandering around Cusco as I was leaving the next morning. I went to a mueseum of Peruvian History and folkloric dance show which was interesting. The dance show especially was really entertaining but all in all I was completely exhausted by saturday night.

I will put up the pictures that go along with the story very soon. But until then, in other news I just recieved my copy of the Alphabet of Manliness which I will start reading tonight. Other than that, I will probably put thepictures up at some point today or tomorrow, sorry about the length of this entry. Also, I know people are reading so leave some comments.

Sacred Valley Day 1

Ok, so I finally got around to loading my pictures onto the USB drive and can now post some of the ones from my trip to the Sacred Valley. Just to preface this entry a bit for those that do not know, 2 weeks ago there was no work on thursday so I decided to go on a little trip with some friends I met here. I spent thursday through sunday wandering through the sacred valley and observing amazing inca ruins as well as some cool plants and animals. I went with a group of 6 people; Two girls that rent rooms at the same house I am at (Nina and Kara), Two UVA Med Students that work at the same hospital (James and Patrick), and one of Nina´s friends from the states who was a royal pain in the ass, but thats another entry in itself. Here is an itinerary of the first day of the trip, (Ill do the whole trip in installments):

Thursday 6:50 am - Arrive in Cusco and make my way to the local bus station to catch a bus to Pisac, a town about an hour away that has some nice ruins

A view from the back of the taxi that took us up to the ruins at Pisac. I was sitting in the trunk of the stationwagon taxi because we convinced the driver that he could take all 6 of us in one ride.

This woman was selling belts up at the ruins, I ended up buying one because I was grateful that she let me take a picture of her. However, to be honest the belt is really useless (it was about a dollar) and I still need to get a good leather belt which I am hoping to do sometime soon.
8:00 - 12:00 - Stroll around Pisac a bit, tour some of the ruins, visit the famous Pisac market and eat some bomb ass empanadas for lunch before departing for a town called Urubamba
1:00 Arrive in Urubamba (sp?) and board a comvi (basically dave´s car but as public transportation) headed to Olayantambo (sp?) where there is this wierd sort of game going on at one of the ruins. It basically entailed a bunch of people dressed in different colors waving flags at each other. Hell, I dont even know that it was a game, but for now we can just make that asusmption.

These are two brothers that we met on the comvi on the way to Olayantambo (sp?). They were basically surprised to see all the gringos since no gringos ever take the public transportation and instead just take tour buses staright to aguas calientes. Anyway, they practiced their english with us and then got off somewhere before Olayantambo.

Note: You cant really tell from this picture but there were probably about 13 or so people in this Comvi (i.e. it was SO packed)

3:00 - board this train to Aguas Calientes which is the nearest town to Macchu Picchu. Its basically a backpacker town that has tons of hostels and dudes with dreads. Its really wierd, the closer you get to macchu picchu the more people with dreads you see. There are so many people with dreads in aguas calientes and I really have no idea why. Someone pointed out that there were just flat out alot of hippies there, but I think theres something else going on.
6:00 - Arrive in aguas calientes and find a hostel, we ended up staying in this really nice hostel that was priced at $10 per night (I found this to be expensive and you would too after living in Peru for a few weeks). It was a nice place and to be honest I would probably stay there again as it was owned by a Spaniard who had moved there a few years back and just opened a hostel.

Note: There really isnt much to do in aguas Calientes since it is basically just a pit stop for macchu picchu. You might be thinking to yourself, oh so surely there must be all sorts of nice hotels there and stuff.... Not true. Those people that travel in those arranged tours or whatever stay at this hotel that is at macchu picchu which is also something like $400 dollars a night.Aguas Calientes is as Checkmate would put it, Grimy.

Rest of the Night: For the rest of the night Myself, James, and Patrick went on a short hike up the mountain just to figure out kind of where we would be going the next morning since at 4:30 it would surely be pitch black. Had a Menu dinner and called it a night at around 10 after walking around aguas calientes and getting our tickets to macchu picchu (yes, you need a ticket). The plan was to get up the next morning and hike up to macchu picchu at 4:30. Next installment to come soon... Please leave comments..

Forza Azzurri!!

As most should definately know, the world cup came to a close yesterday with Italy coming out victorious. The game was very enjoyable to watch as it showcased some good play and vapors in several different colors. At the end of the day I was happy to see Italy win since I feel they really deserved it. It is also very fotunate that they won because Italians are going to need alot of good news following the events that should unfold next week which could see Juventus demoted to Serie C and Milan, Fiorentina, and/or lazio demoted to Serie B. I will be very interested to see how that whole thing works out.

On another note, I can proudly say that this victory only further adds to my footballing pedigree. I now have 6 world titles between my various countries and when I saw Italy win I did feel a sense of national pride for the azzurri. Some other interesting non-football notes:

• I see tons of wierd animals at my field site everyday and added to the list today was a monkey (it was just hanging on this window) and a goat (just chilling in this dudes house).
• I also inerviewed the sweetest 85 year old couple who were both shorter than 5 feet and so deaf that I spent the whole time yelling. I am still not even sure if they spoke spanish.

I apologize for the whole pictures situation, I know they are more fun to look at and I promise I will get around to it very very soon.

Hashing...

Ok, So I had actually already written another entry but then the stupid browser erased it and so now I have to write it all over again, which really sucks.

Anyway, my study started up for real this week and I have been pretty busy with that, I average about 3 households a day and I just go to the houses and ask questions about the close contacts of MultiDrug resistant TB patients. In other words, I am looking to see what is the incidence of TB among close contacts of MDR TB patients. I really enoy the work that I am doing because I get to see a part of Lima that nobody ever really visits and the people I talk to all have really interesting stories. At times it is very tiring simply because it is hard to get information out of people. Case in point an exchange I had with a man the other day (I translated to english for everyones sake..)

Me: When was your nephew born?
Man: Sometime in the summer.
Me: How old is he?
Man: 12 years old.

2 minutes later in conversation after I ask him who was living with him in 1999...

Me: So your nephew was not living with you in 1999?
Man: no, he wasnt born yet.
Me: So your nephew is not 10 years old, how old is he?
Man: I dont know.

The man was very nice, but needless to say these exchanges are all too common and get to be very frustrating. I also interviewed a 16 year old girl who is currently on her 2nd TB treatment and shes only 16! She first got it at 12, did a 2 year treatment and was fine by 14, then she relapsed at 15 and now shes is back on treatment. TB is a very serious issue here in Peru and they have a nationalized system for dealing with it that actually works pretty well, but nonetheless there are just too many cases to deal with. Its frustrating to hear about people who die from TB when the disease is almost always not fatal. Case in point, I spoke to a woman whose son has just died a month before and that interview took a while because there was so much drama before he died. But, in his case, his case worker lapsed a few days in the medication and that gave him a chance to develop resistance and then he died (thats my theory, but well take it as fact for the time being).

Sorry that I have been really slow with the pictures, Im gonna do my best to organize that stuff tomorrow when I have time and hopefully post a few pictures up. On sunday I may go play some futbolito down by the beach with one of my peruvian friends and his cousins, it is kind of an interfamily game i.e. two sets of cousins facing off in a futbolito match. This means that I need to get some fake vapors ASAP or some other sort of indoor shoe for that matter. It should be fun to play some soccer since I havent played in such a long time.

Also, today at 2 I am going to a hash run which is this run where you try to deduce a trail using pace setters that lead another group. It should be alot of fun and its a really great mix of people. It is mostly peruvians, but there are also a fair number of foreigners such as a suprising amount of british ex pats. They also split the run in half with a beer stop and then feed you at the end. The meal today is going to be pacha which is food cooked in the ground. I am really looking forward to it. Anyway, I updated the comments so anybody can leave comments now and please do so. I dont know how many of you will read this, but I promise to update frequently for those regular readers. Until next time, Adios.

Welcome

Hello all,

So this will be my medium for recording any and all experiences that I may have in Lima over the next few months. I have already been here for 3 weeks, but it wasnt until now that I decided to get on the ball and get a blog to write on. This is not to say that I want people to stop emailing me, in fact I enjoy reading the emails and will happily respond to all emails I may get.

I will do my best to keep this as up to date as possible with not only experiences but also some photos and maybe some random thoughts. My study started earlier this week and I have been gathering data and today will be my day to work on the access database, which is why I have some time to set this whole thing up. I look forward to hearing from all of you, and please feel free to post comments and spread the web adress. Also, if you have a better title, please make suggestions, I am well aware that this title is lacking.