El Bosque

Last Sunday I was invited to the annual Bingo day at El Bosque, a private club right near my pueblo. It was quite an amazing and at the same time hilarious experience, due to the fact that I got to swim in a gigantic (more than Olympic size) pool while my family continues to run out of water on a weekly basis. Sadly Yanacoto residents

 only receive water 2 times per week while the country club, El Bosque, has enough water to maintain a lake, two gigantic swimming pools and a forest. While spending time at the pool, I could not help laughing at the situation I was in…Here I was swimming in this private pool in Peru next to barren hillsides which are home to not only my host family but also hundreds more. I felt like an oil tycoon living the high life in some foreign country while the country inhab

itants scrap for food and water…Basically the exact opposite thing I want to achieve while I am in Peru…

            Following my graceful swim in the pool, my buddy Patrick and I went to the main event area where we enjoyed the oddest game I have ever seen in my life. The game consisted of 50 or more boxes surrounding a disoriented cuye (guinea pig). I know…you are saying cruel maybe even inhumane… but I know that you are also saying dam that sounds interesting tell me more. So I will…So the cuye gets put in a designated box right in the middle of 50 other boxes which form a circle around him. After people set their bets on numbers like it’s a roulette table the game master sets down the cuye and the game begins. Following 30 seconds of disorientation, the cuye finally figures out that 40 people, plus the game master are watching him, so it scrambles to the closest box in order to evade the terror that has overcome him…Let’s just say this will only be seen in Peru! I hope!

            After spending time watching the guinea pig run around we participated in a giant game of bingo and then headed off to the cafeteria in order to get some “American” food. While eating my hamburger I had this weird feeling that I was eating an uncooked burger and that I would be paying for this lapse in culinary skills at some point in the near future. Boy could I have been more right…About 2 hours after eating my burger I had Hiroshima rumbles in my stomach, which basically notified me that if you don’t find yourself a bathroom in the next few minutes your bowel system will be surprising you with a good ol’ poo in your pants (Supposedly 70% of Peru volunteers poop their pants at one time during their 2 year service- we have already had two kids join this club due to incidents like this one). Thankfully I arrived just in time to pee out of my butt (sorry about the graphic imagery). Talk about blowing fire from your anus…I felt like I was going to get a second-degree burn it came out so hot. ¡NO BUENO! Following my incident I spent the next two days with major chaffing and an upset stomach, which made me fearful that my upcoming trip in Ancash would be disastrous/unforgettably disastrous.