Wow, what a day!

Today began the official start of my P90X workout regime. Luckily I have rounded up a few game volunteers to try this out with me. We met this morning at Jess's house to pop in our first video. It was just Kaitlyn, Jess and I, but we had a good time. Jess has this area up on their roof that we used. The only issue was that we couldn't hear the video due to the river rushing by us right next door. We also had problems seeing the video because every time the exercise was something on the floor, we would have to move the computer screen so we could see. All in all though, I think we did amazingly well considering we didn't have yoga mats, weights or a big screen tv! Tomorrow is Cardio X. I think we may have a few more people. We have also decided to try to move it indoors in Jess's living room so we can actually hear the instructions. My host sister says she is going to join us, but when the alarm went off at 6:10am this morning, she chose to stay in bed. We will see about tomorrow. I have had to change up my routine from morning hikes to morning P90x and afternoon hikes. I told the girls that if we really do go through with the full program, I am going to take some photos of our surroundings and send them into the P90x people. I doubt they have ever had anyone do their program at almost 10,000 feet altitude in the Andes on a roof!

I ran home and showered and ate some breakfast before meeting Sunny at the combi stand at 9am. We were going to a small town nearby called Piri to do some physical therapy exercises with a man named Mario who has polio. We hopped in a combi and off we went. Mario is 55 years old and got polio when he was 5. His right side is affected. His right hand is curled inward and is very hard to keep straightened. His right leg is extremely weak and his right foot curls downward. So we just did some stretching and then some strength exercises for his arms, hands, legs and core.

After that I went home to play with Fabricio and all the people who were at the house at the time. At 1pm, I met up with Sunny and another volunteer named Susan to do a home visit for a 19 year old (who actually just lives right down the road from me) with cerebral palsy. Jose is a happy guy whose family is very devoted to his care. We just did more exercises with him to work on his dexterity and to try to stretch out his legs. He spends all day in a wheel chair so his legs are tight and in a knees-up position at all times.

A quick lunch and family time and then it was back out to meet up with Leya and Susan to go to a mountain community across the river -- I don't know how to spell the name so I won't even try to butcher it. We waited in the combi for about 20min but since no other passengers were showing up, the combi won't leave with just 3 of us. We decided to walk. We headed down to the train tracks and walked along them until we came upon the bridge over the river and up to the town. We were looking for a blind woman named Albertina. She became blind about 6 years ago and our role is to help her walk better with her walking stick, help her learn braille, and also try to find her a job. She used to be a cook, but can't do that now. Unfortunately, we didn't head up there until 3pm and by that time, the town was in "Chicha Time". We went to Albertina's house but no one was there. So we went to a neighboring relative's house. There we found 3 drunk men and 2 drunk women. Of course they wouldn't let us just leave once they told us where Albertina was. We had to sit and listen to their drunken talk. One of the men was going on an on about the villages that he is President of up high in the mountains. How they were so poor and the children were malnourished and needed education assistance. Throughout his whole speech, which he made multiple times, he would apologize for his drunkenness. Then the mom started speaking directly at me, calling me "mamacita linda" (pretty woman)and asking me to help her youngest son who had been studying tourism in Cusco at the university but recently had a fall and is now unable to finish his schooling. In the midst of her pleas, she starting crying and I was just staring at her like a deer in headlights. This poor woman is crying to me and I can't really do a thing to help her. Luckily her other sons stepped in and came to my rescue. It was just sad. Too many people think that because we are foreigners, we have tons of money to give and can just solve all of their problems.

We finally were able to make it out of that little family reunion with only drinking a tiny amount of beer. They pointed us in the direction of the house where Albertina supposedly was. We had to make our way down the mountainside, jumping over little creeks, all the while thinking, "How in the heck did a blind woman get down here?". We found Albertina with a group of drunk people. She, too was quite drunk. Of course the children were all around as well. We got Albertina out to talk to her and she proceeds to start crying and telling us how her husband has been treating her horribly (we have heard that he beats her). That made us worried about her safety and her small girls. She gets herself together enough to tell us to come back on Thursday morning and how we can all go "camping" and she will make choclo con queso (big ears of corn with cheese). I tell you, the whole town -- which only has about 30 people in it -- gets drunk in the afternoons. You wonder why there is such poverty and domestic violence and the kids run around dirty as all get out.

We made our way out of town and back down to the river and the train tracks. I think we were all a little shell-shocked. The question really is, what do we have the ability to do about the domestic abuse situation? We had just heard one of the earlier drunk men railing about this man in his village who is a known abuser yet nothing is done about it. It is the ethical dilemas that make you really sit and think about what we can do as an outside organization. There is a boy here with cerebral palsy whose family does not care for him well. He lays in his bed all day and his mom only changes his diaper once a day. He lays there in his urine and feces. When Awamaki organized his consultation at a local NGO clinic, they found horrible bed sores all over his backside. The doctors said that if these bed sores get worse, he could get such a bad infection that it could lead to death. His family has said they would like to institutionalize him. There are actually some really great institutions in Cusco, but one of our volunteers who works with him, is staunchly against institutionalization. Ultimately, whose decision is this? What does Awamaki do in this situation? We don't want to be known as the group that takes kids from families, but at the same time, it is a bad situation.

Anyway, as you can see, it was quite a day. Tomorrow, the health volunteers are getting together to make some physical therapy toys to use in the home visits. We really need quite a few things, so I will put together a wish list and try to get some items organized.

Tonight is the pub quiz at Porfi's. Tomorrow morning is day 2 of P90x. I am already exhausted from today, but a little socializing would do me good. We have quite a bit on the social calendar this week, so it should be a fun week.