Water, Water Everywhere

I haven't written in awhile, and I'm finding it difficult to pick which stories to share. I thought I'd string this entry together with a theme.

Last Saturday Ruth invited me for lunch and to use their hot water. She insited I take a relaxing bubble bath in their jacuzzi tub. It didn't take much to convince me. So once the water fills up past the jets, I turn the whirlpool on, ready to relax. I was unprepared for this. With a ton of force the water shot out and hit the back of the tub and sprayed the whole bathroom and my backpack! The bubbles foamed up and sprayed everywhere. And the water was spilling out of the bathroom door. I threw my towel at the puddle and tried to turn the jets off. But the button wouldn't work. So I covered the jet which was responsible for soaking the bathroom with my foot, and attempted to wash myself off all the while trying to turn off the jets. I let the water out of the tub, hoping they would stop once there was no water to cycle through. But they didn't, they were just making this terrible noise and spurting a bit of bubbles out now and then. Ruth told me later that Andrew, her 14 year old son, asked her if I knew how to use a bathtub. Aparently, I do not.

Sunday night I, along with team Lima, took the 8 hour bus ride to Huanuco. We were meeting with the whole yav group to reflect on the past five weeks and hang out, see Emily's work and trek into the jungle. On the trip there our cabin door was broken and kept banging open and shut, simply to annoy Jason. I attempted a trip to the bathroom at about midnight. The bathroom is just outside our cabin, also with a faulty door. I really had to yank it open, and when leaving I was having a difficult time with the lock and had to push with much force to get out. At the same time we must have been on one of the many hairpin turns our bus navigated, and I fell out of the bathroom. I had to grab onto the handles in the entryway to pull myself back up. Wishing I had a video tape of the past few minutes, I go back to my seat with a warning to Jason and then Jamie who were attempting next. But, remember our cabin door was also broken, and at the same time I was making my dramatic exit from the bathroom, it swung open! Fortunately, Jamie and Jason were the only ones awake and we had a good laugh about it.




We took a touristy day and hiked through the jungle of Tingo Maria, which is about a 3 hour drive from Huanuco. It was beautiful and we swam in this waterfall. It was cold and clear, and felt great, especially on my legs that were covered in misquito bites. After returning to Huanuco we decided to get pizza and make our way back to La Granja, a camp owned by Paz y Esperanza where we were staying. It was pretty dark by this time and we had to yell(because none of us have a loud wistle) to the boat man who was off duty by this time to pull us across the river on a boat attached to a rope and pulley system. We had two flashlights one in front and one taking up the rear. I was walking 3 back, and couldn't really see the light beams from either flashlight. Distracted by a converstion about West Side Story, I stepped into a hole, dropped the pizza and fell on my face! It of course was filled with water and my right pant leg and shoe got soaked. By this time I didn't really feel like laughing. It was late and we had been up since 6am, I wasn't hurt, simply frustrated with myself for falling.

Saturday morning I did my laundry at the house. It was well needed because I had cramed my still wet pants and swim suit into my backpack for the bus trip back. I have to do laundry in the morning because the clothes usually take all day to dry, and sometimes longer for my hand-washed items. And it is not recommened to keep the laundry hanging on the roof over night. Because either the dogs will get it or people will take it(I'm not sure which because I recieved this warning pretty early on when I didn't understand much-I merely got that I needed to take my clothes down before night). So anyway, I ran out of water while I was rinseing my clothes. I was told this happens because all the world washes their laundry on Saturday mornings and we just ran out. For my neighborhood its not really a big deal, apparently they have only had running water here since the mid 90´s. Before then, they had to carry it in from across the Panamerican. This was also before the Puente(pedestrian overpass) had been built, so they had to run across the highway with water!

Oh and my showers are still cold, but I have perfected the hokey-pokey type process, you know put your right arm in, take your right arm out.