Hola!
The days are going by as fast as cars on the German Autobahn: No speedlimit!
It is Tuesday today, already. The second tuesday for us in PSF, we left Germany 14 days ago. For most people, who go on vacation somewhere, two thirds of their vacation would be over now, well, we have some more time, but you could definitely not say, that we are on vacation!
There was a football game, Peruvians against Europeans, last thursday. One week before, it had been Peru against US, the Peruvians won 6:2, thus they were all self-assured and making jokes. We all went to the field. Football here is not what the US call "Football", no, it is soccer, as it should be. The US are the only ones who screw it up, Football, as the name
says it, is being played with the foot, not with hands and shoulders and microfones from the sides and... let´s stick to the story!
As being a fan and not a player, it is nice to have a
drink at the side, talking to the people around you, shouting at the players: "Get serious, you lazy bastards, shoot goals!" I had a beer, maybe two. The liquid is working in the body and by halftime talking to me: "Please let me out!" I take a look around, but there is no toilet in sight. As I am a man, I enjoy the privileg of not needing a toilet, I can just find a quiet place and do my business. So I thought I could! Went down the street to where we had come from, a deserted area, some bushes, houses are about twenty to thirty meters to the side, it is dark. "Perfect!" is what I am thinking!
For the dogs, I was the intruder in their area...
Just when I had pulled out, they came running at me, a whole pack in high speed, barking and fleshing their teeth. My reactions must have been a little slowly, and, I must admit, I did not imagine they would really go at me, I ignored them a little, I had other business. But the dogs didn´t care about what I was up to. Thus, faster than I could react, one jumped at me and bit me in the leg. The left leg, to be precise, just above the knee! I was surprised and surely angry, so I yelled at them, well, maybe screamed in surprise and fear, although the scream of fear instantly turned into a scream of anger. And the dogs understood my point. They took off. I had won! And now I followed the business I had come for in the first place.
On the way back, to the footballfield, I felt a funny tickling on the leg, and the food in my sandal started to swim like in some kind of liquid. I arrived at the field, and thus in light, and was quiet surprised to see a little rinse of blood flowing down the knee. Had that bastard gotten me worse than I tought.
How did the story go on? "Rabies!" You might instantly think. Yes, that´s what we thought too. So Nadège and I went to the Cuban doctors the next day. They treat people for free. Remember, in communist Cuba, the health-system is very good! The doctor said, that the risk of rabies is very, very low, but we should treat the wound against infection. We got pills and ointment to put on the wound, and now, six days later, it is healing really well, there has not been an infection.
What I learned? Don´t go in deserted places alone, yell at attacking dogs, it works, but, that´s what the Peruvians told me afterwords: Bend down to pick up a rock. The dogs are afraid, just of this movement and will back up. Well, I should have known that before!
By the way, we won the game 8:1, the Peruvians were in a bad, bad mood, "let´s not talk about the game...!"
So, that was last weeks thirsday.
Friday: Doctor
Saturday: Normally is a half day, but we were at a demolition site. It had to be finished by the
weekend, because on monday, a company would come in to start building a new house. So we stayed until five o´clock.
Something else took place on Saturday: The first annual Pisco Palooza. "What on earth is a Palooza?" you ask? Well, I don´t know, I only know what THIS Palooza was. It was a party-evening par excellence! But that´s not it. The Pisco Palooza is a talent show, a fund raising event and a salsa-evening, all together.
Some days before Saturday, the girls, the organizers of the Palooza, have been asking people if they wanted to perform, and what they wanted to do. I said, I could play percussions, and Nadège proposed to perform with her french song from Camille: Ta douleur. In the following days, I asked people if they had a drum, but noone had any. But they promised to get me a cajon (google, if you don´t know what a cajon is!)
Saturday night arrived, and it was a blast! Alan, "Dr. Who" who normally drives the truck - which is a miracle, knowing that the truck really is a piece of junk, it is literary falling apart - was the showmaster. The stage was the turned around truck in the backyard of PSF, where we usually have breakfast and dinner. And then one after the other presented his talent on stage. There was quite a lot of singing - we all sang "Haleluja" together for example, and I had tears in my eyes, but "the preacher" did standup-comedy, and the New-Yorker read out his latest poem. This one is talking about life in Pisco, and the reaction of the Peruvians to us, the Gringos, which means foreigners. "Gringos, they grin as they go!", what a lovely description of us, the feeling and the empathie with which we do our work, may it be as hard as never before or after!
At the end of the show-programm, tables quickly shoved aside and dancing-shoes on. I grabbed the Peruvian percussion player, he even knows some German, he had been together with a German girl for while. "Du hast so schöne Augen" (Your eyes are beautiful) or "Danke, Bitte, Guten Tag, Auf Wiedersehen" (Thanks, Please, Hello, Good Bye). He showed me the first Peruvian rhythm on the cajon, we liked each other from the first moment, as I have always said, "Music is communication and the way to another person´s heart!" We didn´t need many words.
This Saturday, we even ended up in the Pisco-Disco, but I don´t think, that it will become one of my favorite places. Ten Soles for a male, five for a female, five fifty for beer and only latin music, it is a little too expensive and a little too one sided. Well, I will give it another chance!
Sunday: Relaxation! We need it! A hard week and a hard saturday-evening!
Monday:
Almost ten people said "good-bye", from 60 volunteers, we are now down to 40. It makes a
difference, and it is said to see the people leave, who you have become friends with. Nadège and I wanted to work together on the french bathrooms, but only I got on the job.
On the way out there, on the Panamericana, all of a sudden, the truck stops. No more fuel! They had problems getting off the cap of the gastank, so nobody put fuel in. It was all gone! The crew took taxis to the destination, Dragonfly, a person who has been working here in PSF for more than two years, stayed with the truck. He didn´t want to be all alone, so I stayed with him. He took a Tuk-Tuk to go to the next gasstation, one kilometer up the hill.
Just some seconds after he had taken off, I was just looking at the broken gas-tank-cap, I heard a sharp sound, tires rubbing on pavement and a really loud BANG!! at the end. A Pickup-Truck had hit a small car, that has been turning on the highway from a sidestreet. Both cars were badly damaged. I think no person got hurt, though. A lot of people came running in, I started also, but thought, of what use I could be with my little knowledge of spanish, and none in medicine, and I had a clear job: to stay with our PSF-truck.
Dragonfly came back with fuel. We pushed the car down the hill, the ignition has not been working for months now, to start it up. Turned around and went to the gasstation. Filled it up with diesel. Dragonfly - I think noone knows his real name, god knows why some people are here in Pisco, Peru, at the end of the world... - took me to the working site, the french bathrooms.
We finished the job, yehaaaa!
What had to be done was to mix and pour cement in five columns, that have been prepared before. We have been trying to do this already last tuesday, but the cement-mixer has not been working properly. One of the fund-raising-actions at the Pisco-Palooza had been to raise money to buy a new mixer. So this time, Richard, the multi-talented mechanic has come to the site to keep the machine running. Two people are mixing the cement, five girls are filling it up into buckets, reaching it up to Simon who stands on a ladder half way up, and me and one more person stand on top of the building to pour the cement into the columns. Good job! Heavy work, but whenever the machine is running, we all work hand in hand, and it is fun! Every once in a while, the cement mixer goes off, and Richard has to take the engine out, clean it, and put it back in. He has been doing this so often, that he can do the job in no more than ten minutes!
Tuesday, 29. September, today...
Nadège and I had to go to the doctor again to get a checkup on the dogbite and to tell him where it happened, so they will have an eye on the dogs there. After that we take a cup of coffee and walk around the market. The market will be story by itself, you should only know this: It is crrrrrraaaaaaazzy! ;). I got a new pair of shoes. So, I am thinking, "How am I going to spend my afternoon?" Work on your blog! Here you are!
All the best from now,
Stefan