Orientation Week

Orientation began bright and early the next morning, when Irma knocked on the door of my room.  After I had her repeat whatever she was trying to tell my in Spanish about five times, I finally understood that Julio was waiting for us outside. What?! Despite everyone's talk about "Peruvian  time," I had made a point of being on time on the first day, just in case people were more punctual in the city.  But not only was Julio on time, he was 15 minutes early! That, I was not expecting. Emily and I finished getting ready in about 5 minutes, and the guys weren't far behind.


We made our way slowly through the insane rush hour traffic and arrived safely at the SUM Canada office in Miraflores.  This is where we started each day during orientation week: in a lovely meeting room, where we listened to presentations on everything from safety to government structure, while snacking on cookies and delicious pear juice.  Then after a huge lunch of chicken, seafood, or Chinese-Peruvian food (chifa) we would do some sightseeing around the city.  The municipal building, the presidential palace,the national library, art galleries, Larcomar, Larco streeet, Plaza Mayor, Plaza San Martin, cathedrals and more cathedrals--we saw the best of Miraflores, the tourist district, and El Centro de Lima, the historical district.  We also ran countless errands, diving in and out of taxis at currency exchange houses, the lawyer's office, the cell phone stand at Supermercado Wong, and on and on. 

Needless to say, by the time we got home in the evenings, we were exhausted.  I was so grateful that I didn't have to cook for myself, and I enjoyed the meals that Sonia prepared, although they had a lot more meat than I was used to.  Unlike most Westerners, I had hoped for more rice and beans!  They do love rice and beans here, but it's just one of thousands of national dishes.  I mean, there are almost 4000 varieties of potatoes alone! (and I'm sure that about half of the national dishes are some variation on chicken and rice and/or potatoes).  Needless to say, KFC is popular here. But thankfully we've avoided KFC so far, and had had some incredible food experiences.  First among them was Mistura.