Yesterday was my first day of my internship with La Casa de Panchita. They work with domestic workers to help ensure that their rights are being protected, etc. They also are working to fight child labor in the domestic sector. So I am helping out four days a week at Mi espacio para crecer, where we help kids with their homework and give them a space to play. It is in San Juan de Miraflores, which is really far away from me.
I emailed my contact on Saturday about where how to get to Mi espacio para crecer. She said she would meet me at Ricardo Palma University and we could go together. Great. I replied right away that it was far away, but I would be there.
Yesterday, my coworker and I got on a bus on Salaverry and were supposed to get off in Miraflores at the Wong, which is a grocery store, and then get on another bus that went all along Benevides avenue. We didn't see the Wong so we got off in Barranco and took a taxi. We were 15 minutes late and there was no one at the university to meet us. We thought we had messed up. So I called the ISA office and Kelly and Cedric got things straightened out. Lady was going to come meet us at the university in 10 minutes. It turns out my contact didn't have Internet the night before and didn't know we were coming. From the University we had to take two more buses. So we were about 40 minutes late.
Anyways, the actual tutoring was fun. Some of the kids just wanted us to do the homework for them, which I'm sure will get really annoying. One girl had to draw 4 different landscapes. She literally had the pictures in front of her and knew which one went in each spot, but she wanted me to draw them. I was like, "No, you can definitely do that."
We met another worker who is from France. She is really nice, and likes to try to break the French stereotype while she is abroad. You know, the one where they are rude and think only French things are the best. We rode the bus with her back down the hill and she got us on a bus that goes all the way down Arequipa. Now I will give you a map.
I have underlined Arequipa in blue. This is what we are dealing with here, people. It is not easy to know where you are at any given moment. Add to that the fact that the road names change with each new government, and you have a very complicated system. My friends were going to a different part of Lima, so they left me to figure out my way home on my own. So I was going to get off at Javier Prado. I ended up getting off at Canevaro (underlined in green). I'm pretty sure I was going North. I didn't know that Canevaro was an awesome place to get off. I thought I was totally wrong. So I asked a really nice lady how to get to the Universidad del Pacifico (my university, circled in purple). She told me to take a bus down Canvero and it would cross with Salaverry (underlined in red) and I could get off there. I thought she meant Salaverry would cross with Arequipa. So I got back on a bus on Arequipa and ended up downtown. Luckily I have been there enough to know how to get home from there. I was waiting for my purple bus to take me down Salaverry, and thought I would ask one of the other buses if they were going all the way down Salaverry. He said no, but a girl then decided to help me out. She put me on a combi and told the guy where to let me off. It was nice, but it made me want to cry a little. This combi dropped me off a few blocks from the University (at the red dot). Then I walked the rest of the way.
This whole ordeal took an hour and a half. I have studied Google maps most of the night, so I think I'm ready for today. But I'm still nervous.
I think everyone needs to have an experience like this. It's terrifying, sure. But it forces you to learn. And ask people for help. It reminded me that there are people in the US feeling the same way I did last night. I have to be one of the nice people who help out when I get home. Because it is really stressful to be the new kid on the block who has no idea how things work or where she is. Everyone should know how that feels, just to know. To be aware. And I guess, to be ready to help out.
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