Ok, a bit more serious than I thought...see the red text at the bottom of the blog...fun, fun!
Yes, Cyclops is my name, except I am not a super-hero with an eye in the middle of my head. No, I have one working eye at present and am managing to scare some of the little children in Cusco with the local population starting at me as I walk (or try to walk without tripping over something) along the pavements here. My head is covered with a huge, white, eye bandage, that conceals over one quarter of the right side of my face.
Further to my latest blog a couple of days ago about me complaining about the altitude affecting my eye I have managed to probably have one of the most expensive weekends in Cusco (in Cusquenañ terms) along with visiting a few clinics and hospitals in the area.
Since last Tuesday in classes my right eye hasn´t been functioning properly so I´d had enough by Friday evening and went into the pharmacy and asked for some cream for my right eye. The lady, who I think was just some sort of assistant, or maybe someone just off the street, saw the shelf for eye cream and lifted the first box she saw. Obviously everything was in Spanish and I was having trouble reading the instructions, so I placed some drops of cream into my eye.
Went to bed early that night, to rest my eye. Never slept a wink, walked the floors as my eye, by this stage was killing me. I was thinking that maybe some flesh eating bug had got into my eye and was eating away at it or had picked up some disease out here (the things you think of late at night when you can´t sleep).
After a couple of hours sleep, the brighness woke me up. Looked in mirror, eye was bulging and swollen. Put some more cream into eye. I went to the local market (as the cleaners were in the house) to get out of the way. It was way too bright and could hardly see 2 ft in front of me. Horti, one of the women who works in the school, who is like a mum to everyone (so sweet) called round and took me to the doctors. The first clinic wasn´t too far from where I lived. It was an eye clinic that looked really dodgy with an old room out the back and a dangerous looking staircase that led to other rooms. Thankfully the doctor wasn´t there until later.
We scarpered and found another clinic. This one was a bit better and more upmarket and they worked alongside the Swiss doctors. Anything Swiss is good - like those Swiss watches and chocolate you can´t beat them - and there´s Roger Federer too. Off I went in the little ´Peruvian/Swiss ambulance´ to the nearest 'eye doctor/clinic'. The ambulance was ok - a bit small, even for me. Had to crouch down in the back, the little bed was about the width of a 40cm ruler and was pretty squashed. On the walls of the ambulance were a few bits of hospital equipment like a mask, some tubes, a test tube of water (?) and some plasters/bandages. No monitors or heart equipment, so God help the unfortunate person that manages to have a heart attack over here - they´re screwed because 1. there´s no room to move and 2. there´s no proper equipment.
Got taken by ambulance to the eye-doctor in another area in Cusco and she was lovely. Checked my eye and saw that there still was a tear on the cornea from the time I injured it in school, which has yet to heal, she pulled something out of my eye with tweezers. It started with a ´P´ in Spanish - I´m guessing it may have been an eyelash and then told me I had a corneal ulcer at the bottom of the existing tear in the eye. Oh yay, that´s great news. She told me I wasn´t to go out and was to keep my eye closed for 24 hours(so I missed the salsa with the others) and proceeded to bandage me. No eye patch here. She spent 5 minutes cutting white tape and finding some gauze and stuck my eye closed shut, whilst covering most of my face. She also told me that the eye cream that the person in the pharmacist gave me earlier, was the wrong type of antibiotic and made my eye worse (I knew she looked dodgy that woman). The ambulance dropped me off home - mortified was not the word.
Now I look like some kind of freak walking the streets here. My friends have acted like my white stick and helped me across the roads etc. Everywhere I go, people stop and stare. I´m in the process of trying to translate into Spanish, 'I have been shot in the eye' so I can maybe wear some sort of billboard around my neck. The experience has been fun to say the least and my treatment is ongoing but I have been able to learn lots of Spanish words about the ´hospital´- always a bonus!
Found out today (Monday) when I returned to my lovely eye doctor for a check up that it is actually more serious than originally thought. It´s not technically an ulcer - I´ve got a virus in my eye - the ´zoster keratitis virus´ Basically shingles in my eye, that if not treated quickly can cause blindness. Near shit a brick when she told me. Caused by a lowering of the immune system. Years ago I got shingles (herpes zoster..no not the STD - it´s unrelated!) in my ear as my immune system was rundown, so the virus stays dormant until it decides to reawaken again.
I feel great but maybe all the over-exercise in Thailand had something to do with it and the tuna/peas food that I eat! Glad I went back so am on various anti-virals to treat me and under medical surpervision and have to go back to see her next week, but apart from that I´m still loving it here and still managing to learn my Spanish verbs, which I´m kind of getting the hang of. I also took the stupid cover off my eye...had enough of being the local city freak much to the amusement of my friends/classmates here!
20 May, 2012
18 May, 2012
Hola desde Cusco
Arrived in Cusco after 4 days of travelling from Belfast - London - Madrid - Lima - Cusco. Back in the same house and the same bed. It's like home from home. So much for a nice easy first day back in school. I didn't even get the chance to fail my entrance test again. They had my notes from last October and decided to put me straight back into class. I'm in a class by myself with my teacher, Erwin and started with verbos irregulares. Classes and teachers change each week, so next week a new student could be in with me, depending on the numbers arriving.
My basic Spanish is really rusty. The first day, one of the teachers in the school said to me in Spanish, "Enjoy your lunch" - my reply was "Gracias, tengo hombre" (thanks, I'm men) instead of "Tengo hambre". They all pissed themselves laughing. In class I'm constantly mis-pronouncing words all the time and reading them like they were English words. There are listening, reading, writing and talking skills for the 4 hours of intense lessons. I'd be reading a passage of some really old and hard book, trying to pronounce and understand what it was saying and the next minute the teacher would be in stitches laughing. I look up, ask him why he's laughing so much, he replies.."Oh, you've just said a bad word" (with my mis pronunciation) - one was masturbation and the other was farting.
Just like the last time, the teachers all converse in Spanish for the whole 4 hours, so by the time I leave the school my brain is fried. But today, (Friday) was a good day - bit more relaxed and the student can go on walks around Cusco after breaktime, with their teacher (conversing in Spanish). The student gets to decide where to go, for example: el museo, el mercado etc. I chose the highest Irish bar on the planet - ´Paddy´s´, so we stopped there for one drink and I introduced Erwin to a pint of Guinness. Conversing in different languages always gets better with alcohol as it relaxes people!
The TV in the house has no English channels at all. My favourite programmes are in the morning before I go to school - kids TV, especially 'Bob le Constructor' (Bob the Builder)as I can understand it. I know what it's like for those children from foreign countries who came into my class with no English at all, or those children with special needs who can't read/write/understand properly. When someone speaks to me really quickly in Spanish, I stand there trying to pick up some words I know, look of confusion in my eyes, frozen in a trance like a complete dope. When they speak slowly I can understand them. I've got 120 days stamped on my passport for Peru, so by the end of that hopefully my Spanglish will turn into proper Spanish.
Cusco's weather is weird at the minute. The rainy season has finished, so sometimes it feels like being back in Thailand during the day (ok, not quite as hot but around 28 degrees)and the North Pole at night and in the early mornings. In one day I managed to get sunburnt (blisters on my lips and a peeling red face) and then at night wrapping myself up in hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, hat, extra 'frazadas' and two pairs of socks. It's baltic and there is no such thing as central heating systems in any of the houses/buildings here.
Cusco is 11 156 ft above sea level and people can experience a bit of altitude sickness when they arrive. Breathing is normally fine, but there are times when you could be walking up the street/lying sleeping in your bed when suddenly you start to gasp for breath. It's a bit like sticking your head out of a car window and opening your mouth and letting the wind catch your breath. The pollution doesn't help either. Every morning, so far without fail, my right eye (that took a paper cut to it last year in school) constantly weeps and is really sore, so sitting in class is slightly embarrassing as I can't keep it open. Any bottles of cream/anything with a lid expands (in fact, everything seems to expand at high altitude) and when you go to open it, it squirts out liquid. Training at high altitude is apparently the way to go to increase your fitness levels, so am giving myself to the weekend to acclimatise before I start running and spinning again. Have only managed to talk one friend into spin classes next week - the others would rather pull pins out of their toe-nails. Tomorrow is the weekend and a few of us are going to try out some salsa or maybe just watch the Latinos and see how it´s done properly - should be fun.
Cusco hasn't changed that much. Still the same busy place as always with lots of tourists around, either getting ready to go to Machu Picchu or just coming back from it and viewing all the historical sights around the city. Lots of fiestas are still going on every weekend, vendors selling everthing, lots of streets near where I live are being dug up and new paving stones being put down (sometimes you'd think a child paved the streets as some of the re-paving looks like they have just been thrown down in no order at all), people being squashed in combis on their way to work/school; chorlitas (who could do with a good bra fitting - hard to tell if their stomachs are their boobs and vice-versa) smiling with their tooth-less smiles shouting 'Pase, pase' (come in, come in); taxi drivers beeping at you to let you know they are available. The taxis would crumple in an accident - the metal on the doors are so thin you could use a tin-opener to cut through them.
Forgot about the wee security guard that goes around the streets/passages where I live; whistle in his mouth, blowing as hard as he can to let you know he's around. Not good when you're lying in bed sleeping and his whistle goes off at stupid o'clock giving you near heart failure. To enter the main house, there are 3 doors to unbolt and unlock first. In our house, there's a small whistle attached to the inside of the first door. If someone tries to break and enter into the house this little black whistle will apparently save our lives (?) No such thing as: a) defending yourself; b) calling the Police; c) getting the hell out of there. Oh, no - we've to blow this whistle as hard as we can and if we do this, the nice security guard will come and save the day. Only in Cusco. That's why I love it so much here - completely random!
My basic Spanish is really rusty. The first day, one of the teachers in the school said to me in Spanish, "Enjoy your lunch" - my reply was "Gracias, tengo hombre" (thanks, I'm men) instead of "Tengo hambre". They all pissed themselves laughing. In class I'm constantly mis-pronouncing words all the time and reading them like they were English words. There are listening, reading, writing and talking skills for the 4 hours of intense lessons. I'd be reading a passage of some really old and hard book, trying to pronounce and understand what it was saying and the next minute the teacher would be in stitches laughing. I look up, ask him why he's laughing so much, he replies.."Oh, you've just said a bad word" (with my mis pronunciation) - one was masturbation and the other was farting.
Just like the last time, the teachers all converse in Spanish for the whole 4 hours, so by the time I leave the school my brain is fried. But today, (Friday) was a good day - bit more relaxed and the student can go on walks around Cusco after breaktime, with their teacher (conversing in Spanish). The student gets to decide where to go, for example: el museo, el mercado etc. I chose the highest Irish bar on the planet - ´Paddy´s´, so we stopped there for one drink and I introduced Erwin to a pint of Guinness. Conversing in different languages always gets better with alcohol as it relaxes people!
The TV in the house has no English channels at all. My favourite programmes are in the morning before I go to school - kids TV, especially 'Bob le Constructor' (Bob the Builder)as I can understand it. I know what it's like for those children from foreign countries who came into my class with no English at all, or those children with special needs who can't read/write/understand properly. When someone speaks to me really quickly in Spanish, I stand there trying to pick up some words I know, look of confusion in my eyes, frozen in a trance like a complete dope. When they speak slowly I can understand them. I've got 120 days stamped on my passport for Peru, so by the end of that hopefully my Spanglish will turn into proper Spanish.
Cusco's weather is weird at the minute. The rainy season has finished, so sometimes it feels like being back in Thailand during the day (ok, not quite as hot but around 28 degrees)and the North Pole at night and in the early mornings. In one day I managed to get sunburnt (blisters on my lips and a peeling red face) and then at night wrapping myself up in hoodies, tracksuit bottoms, hat, extra 'frazadas' and two pairs of socks. It's baltic and there is no such thing as central heating systems in any of the houses/buildings here.
Cusco is 11 156 ft above sea level and people can experience a bit of altitude sickness when they arrive. Breathing is normally fine, but there are times when you could be walking up the street/lying sleeping in your bed when suddenly you start to gasp for breath. It's a bit like sticking your head out of a car window and opening your mouth and letting the wind catch your breath. The pollution doesn't help either. Every morning, so far without fail, my right eye (that took a paper cut to it last year in school) constantly weeps and is really sore, so sitting in class is slightly embarrassing as I can't keep it open. Any bottles of cream/anything with a lid expands (in fact, everything seems to expand at high altitude) and when you go to open it, it squirts out liquid. Training at high altitude is apparently the way to go to increase your fitness levels, so am giving myself to the weekend to acclimatise before I start running and spinning again. Have only managed to talk one friend into spin classes next week - the others would rather pull pins out of their toe-nails. Tomorrow is the weekend and a few of us are going to try out some salsa or maybe just watch the Latinos and see how it´s done properly - should be fun.
Cusco hasn't changed that much. Still the same busy place as always with lots of tourists around, either getting ready to go to Machu Picchu or just coming back from it and viewing all the historical sights around the city. Lots of fiestas are still going on every weekend, vendors selling everthing, lots of streets near where I live are being dug up and new paving stones being put down (sometimes you'd think a child paved the streets as some of the re-paving looks like they have just been thrown down in no order at all), people being squashed in combis on their way to work/school; chorlitas (who could do with a good bra fitting - hard to tell if their stomachs are their boobs and vice-versa) smiling with their tooth-less smiles shouting 'Pase, pase' (come in, come in); taxi drivers beeping at you to let you know they are available. The taxis would crumple in an accident - the metal on the doors are so thin you could use a tin-opener to cut through them.
Forgot about the wee security guard that goes around the streets/passages where I live; whistle in his mouth, blowing as hard as he can to let you know he's around. Not good when you're lying in bed sleeping and his whistle goes off at stupid o'clock giving you near heart failure. To enter the main house, there are 3 doors to unbolt and unlock first. In our house, there's a small whistle attached to the inside of the first door. If someone tries to break and enter into the house this little black whistle will apparently save our lives (?) No such thing as: a) defending yourself; b) calling the Police; c) getting the hell out of there. Oh, no - we've to blow this whistle as hard as we can and if we do this, the nice security guard will come and save the day. Only in Cusco. That's why I love it so much here - completely random!
07 May, 2012
Ding-dong...Round 2
The last paragraph of my previous blog was a little white lie. Most of you now know that I didn't actually go to Laos. I did, infact go back to Downpatrick for a surprise visit home. The only person who knew about this was my sister, Donna.
I'd had it planned since I booked my return trip to South America as my flight leaves from Heathrow. My RTW flight ended in London, so I thought it would be a good idea to call home for a while. One of the main reasons to go home was to stand as a God-parent for my lovely niece Grace, who was 2 weeks old the last time I saw her. Now she is 10 months old and is just adorable. Mind you, she nearly missed out on her big day. I jumped into my sister's car and advised them of a short-cut to get to the church (which is in the arse hole of nowhere here in a place called Ballycruttle) as I drove past the road everyday to get to work. We got lost and just about made it in time (speed restrictions were broken, as were several near accidents on windy, county roads). I could've sworn I knew the direction of the place. Now, I'm getting all sorts of abuse from my sister and her partner and various family members that go like: "Here's the girl that travels all over the world and doesn't get lost; then she comes home and can't find a place 5 miles away from her own house" - new nickname 'Sat-Nav' (cheers Gary)
The last 2 weeks have been so busy seeing friends, family, relations, colleagues and the school children again. It has been great seeing everyone and catching up. It feels like the last 10 months of travelling didn't actually happen - like a dream within a dream. After a few sleepless nights deliberating over what I should do, I decided to take an extension to my career break from teaching for another year. The school has been very supportive, so hopefully my job will be there when I return next year.
So, yeah, I've got another year and lots of people are asking what I will do. Last year, I was very organised and knew when and where I would be at certain points of the year. Now, I don't have a clue. Well, technically, the first 6 weeks are planned. I know I'll definitely be learning Spanish back in Cusco. This time next week, I will have no doubt, failed my Spanish 'induction' test again (like I did the last time) as I've forgotten most of the stuff I learnt back in October of last year and will be back in the dopey beginners class again. Hopefully this time, I'll understand a little bit more than being able to write my name and the date on the exam paper.
In fact, I'm so disorganised, I haven't been able to sort out how exactly I'm getting from Lima to Cusco (which takes 22 hours on a bus). Flights are way too expensive, as most internal flights are in South America, so that is out the window completely. Some famous person once quoted that: 'A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving' - I'll agree to that for now (?)
I really want to learn Spanish properly and I want to be able to work with the children over there and actually converse with them by stringing a few sentences together. I have been in contact with a volunteer organisation that is based 30kms outside Cusco, high in the mountains of the stunning Sacred Valley, in a place called Huambutio.
Unlike other 'volunteering', this place doesn't charge you hundreds of pounds to actually help them, or where the money you give them tends to line the pockets of the fat-cat directors. All they ask for is 20 Soles a day (£4). This will house and feed myelf and will also help towards the running costs of the scheme/workshops. They need volunteers and teachers for remedial education programmes. Obviously, I hope to teach but also help with environmental awareness, reforestation and improve houses by re-building them (that should be fun as the only house I've ever built was with Lego blocks as a child). The area is very poor. Children and families have a poor quality of life. Some residents live in areas of social unrest where services have been neglected by the local municipality.
One of my friends who I met travelling the last time I was in Peru, (Grainne - the one who had the hair disaster with me) is also travelling over to South America. She'll be working in Arequipa for 4 weeks and will make her way up to Cusco when I finish my Spanish lessons. I'm looking forward to catching up with her and she's up for volunteering and joining me travelling for a couple of months around South America, which will be great.
She did, however, say that she has a contact near Lima that could give us some work teaching there. Get this: it's a priest who says that we can help teach/volunteer with the children - sounds great. Our accommodation?? - a convent. Seriously, what is it with me gettting stuck in convents in South America (this will be the third time if it occurs, the last 2 occasions I managed to get locked in with another girl on some random tour of a city). Sister Grainne and Sister Mary - has a nice ring to it...not. Not sure if we'll deifinitely do this, but stranger things have happened.
I am looking forward to my round 2 of travelling, especially going back to Cusco and Peru. When will I be back home?? The answer to that will be: when my money runs out/when I've had enough of moving around and living out of a bag. I can't see myself lasting a full year with my budget (unless I find paid work somewhere) as I won't be getting my teaching job back until September 2013. But, for now I'm quite happy to continue on with my little adventures.
However, I will be up for ALL offers of employment of doing absolutely anything when I return home.
I'd had it planned since I booked my return trip to South America as my flight leaves from Heathrow. My RTW flight ended in London, so I thought it would be a good idea to call home for a while. One of the main reasons to go home was to stand as a God-parent for my lovely niece Grace, who was 2 weeks old the last time I saw her. Now she is 10 months old and is just adorable. Mind you, she nearly missed out on her big day. I jumped into my sister's car and advised them of a short-cut to get to the church (which is in the arse hole of nowhere here in a place called Ballycruttle) as I drove past the road everyday to get to work. We got lost and just about made it in time (speed restrictions were broken, as were several near accidents on windy, county roads). I could've sworn I knew the direction of the place. Now, I'm getting all sorts of abuse from my sister and her partner and various family members that go like: "Here's the girl that travels all over the world and doesn't get lost; then she comes home and can't find a place 5 miles away from her own house" - new nickname 'Sat-Nav' (cheers Gary)
The last 2 weeks have been so busy seeing friends, family, relations, colleagues and the school children again. It has been great seeing everyone and catching up. It feels like the last 10 months of travelling didn't actually happen - like a dream within a dream. After a few sleepless nights deliberating over what I should do, I decided to take an extension to my career break from teaching for another year. The school has been very supportive, so hopefully my job will be there when I return next year.
So, yeah, I've got another year and lots of people are asking what I will do. Last year, I was very organised and knew when and where I would be at certain points of the year. Now, I don't have a clue. Well, technically, the first 6 weeks are planned. I know I'll definitely be learning Spanish back in Cusco. This time next week, I will have no doubt, failed my Spanish 'induction' test again (like I did the last time) as I've forgotten most of the stuff I learnt back in October of last year and will be back in the dopey beginners class again. Hopefully this time, I'll understand a little bit more than being able to write my name and the date on the exam paper.
In fact, I'm so disorganised, I haven't been able to sort out how exactly I'm getting from Lima to Cusco (which takes 22 hours on a bus). Flights are way too expensive, as most internal flights are in South America, so that is out the window completely. Some famous person once quoted that: 'A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving' - I'll agree to that for now (?)
I really want to learn Spanish properly and I want to be able to work with the children over there and actually converse with them by stringing a few sentences together. I have been in contact with a volunteer organisation that is based 30kms outside Cusco, high in the mountains of the stunning Sacred Valley, in a place called Huambutio.
Unlike other 'volunteering', this place doesn't charge you hundreds of pounds to actually help them, or where the money you give them tends to line the pockets of the fat-cat directors. All they ask for is 20 Soles a day (£4). This will house and feed myelf and will also help towards the running costs of the scheme/workshops. They need volunteers and teachers for remedial education programmes. Obviously, I hope to teach but also help with environmental awareness, reforestation and improve houses by re-building them (that should be fun as the only house I've ever built was with Lego blocks as a child). The area is very poor. Children and families have a poor quality of life. Some residents live in areas of social unrest where services have been neglected by the local municipality.
One of my friends who I met travelling the last time I was in Peru, (Grainne - the one who had the hair disaster with me) is also travelling over to South America. She'll be working in Arequipa for 4 weeks and will make her way up to Cusco when I finish my Spanish lessons. I'm looking forward to catching up with her and she's up for volunteering and joining me travelling for a couple of months around South America, which will be great.
She did, however, say that she has a contact near Lima that could give us some work teaching there. Get this: it's a priest who says that we can help teach/volunteer with the children - sounds great. Our accommodation?? - a convent. Seriously, what is it with me gettting stuck in convents in South America (this will be the third time if it occurs, the last 2 occasions I managed to get locked in with another girl on some random tour of a city). Sister Grainne and Sister Mary - has a nice ring to it...not. Not sure if we'll deifinitely do this, but stranger things have happened.
I am looking forward to my round 2 of travelling, especially going back to Cusco and Peru. When will I be back home?? The answer to that will be: when my money runs out/when I've had enough of moving around and living out of a bag. I can't see myself lasting a full year with my budget (unless I find paid work somewhere) as I won't be getting my teaching job back until September 2013. But, for now I'm quite happy to continue on with my little adventures.
However, I will be up for ALL offers of employment of doing absolutely anything when I return home.
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| Grace on her big day |
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| Godmother and Godfather Decky |
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| Grace, Carla, Niamh, Daniel & Stephen |
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| Jammin session with Leona |
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| with Regina, on one of my many nights out |
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