field work, day 5

Woke up = 5:30 am
Arrived at my destination early = yes, by 40 minutes
Number of buses taken today = 6
Number of mototaxis taken = 1
Interviews done = 3
Drunk guys who made scenes = 2. One on a combi who kept almost falling over, then asked the driver to stop, then said not to stop because it wasn't his stop, then got annoyed when the cobrador said he was drunk. The other was at the restaurant we ate lunch at: I thought he was just dozing after eating (as I had just been dozing on the bus, sleep was on my mind), until a bottle of beer fell out of his bag and crashed onto the floor. He didn't flinch. The waiter asked if we could move to the other side of the restaurant.
Impressed by the words and hearts of the community health workers and nurses who we interviewed = "no hay palabras"...these women are bad ass, filled with compassion, and intense stories.
Arrived home = 6:00 pm

my combi

I think the bus I take to work has an attitude. For real. It's called "Nueva America" (at least by the girls at my office, not really sure why) and it's a lot bigger than most buses. It is a sleek color of grey with orange stripes that seem to symbolize speed and modernity. It has these flashy red lights that state it´s destination, unlike other cars that have them painted on. Nueva America is a rare one--it comes less frequently than the other combis out there. I feel like I see most past by almost every 5 minutes, but you can wait 15 minutes for a Nueva America. And it's worth it. Just when you are about to give up and hop on cualquier combi, the big grey and orange bus comes barreling through. And if you're lucky, it'll stop for you. Those flashy red lights come in handy--because it means you can see it from afar and prepare to flag it down. Most cobradores, as I mentioned in my combi post, lean out the door or window of the bus yelling various destinations to get people to get on the bus. The cobradores on Nueva America, on the other hand, lean back and just collect money from folks--there's no yelling out the door. The drivers are also a different breed--and not necessarily in the best way. They drive like they own the streets, even though they are actually sharing them with like 8 or 9 million other people. They definitely come close to hitting people. Yesterday morning this cab literally pulled in front of us when we were stopped, so we couldn't move. He got out of his car and came over to the bus driver's window and started asking if he had a licence, etc, and what made him think he could drive like that. Whoa. These bus drivers, too, they don't stop always when people are at a bus stop flagging them down! When I am already on the bus, headed to my destination, I don't mind that part of the "Bad Attitude" bus. Flying past bus stops acting like we don't need passengers. But when I am waiting for my bus to take me to work, I feel very differently. Come on, Nueva America, let me hop on your bad attitude, but just don't hurt anyone. I like your speed, but not your style to scare folks. Just get me to work in under an hour and a half and I'll be happy.
P.S. I think I spoke to soon about there just being one flea. I should know better. There is never just one flea.

honest to blog

True to the namesake of the blog, fleas have been a big part of my life in, well, a few different countries. And recently at least one flea has come back to me. I am living now in a nicer part of Lima, so it's ironic that I'm getting flea bites in my bed here rather than when I was living in the poor/really dusty part of town where sometimes it looked like there were more dogs on the streets than people. It started with one bite on my ankle. Then another. Now 2 on my waist-line, which in my mind is the tell-tale sign of fleas. So I went to the grocery store to get this powder that Dan used to put in his sleeping bag in Urubamba. I asked the guy at the fancy grocery store if they had "bolfo" and he was like "oh, for dogs?" To which I could've just said, "Um, yes." But instead I said, "Um, no, for, you know, where fleas are." Anyhow, I pulled back the covers to sprinkle the sheets with the toxic powder and saw a flea just meandering across the sheets. For those who have flea experience, you know it's not that common to actually see the little guys. They're also pretty quick. So I was super surprised when I just reached over and grabbed the dude. Makes me think maybe there really was just one flea in the bed, and by now he was so filled with my blood that he couldn't jump anymore. I still sprinkled my sheets before I got into bed. No new bites this morning. Good sign.