I keep hearing the voice from the announcer on the Amazing Race say.... "They were racing through the busy streets of Lima, Peru..."

Well, I’m not really racing and I think that’s a very good thing since I have no concept of time or my location. I guess in my case the announcer would be saying... "She wandered through the streets of Lima, Peru..."

I have done a ton of stuff since I got in! There is just no way to relay everything without you actually being here! Everything is different.

Getting off of the plane, I was just hoping my friend Joel was there to pick me up because I hadn’t anticipated the hour-long wait at customs. I walked all of the way through the airport looking for our ´meet spot´ near the pay phone and the escalators and didn’t see it.

I wandered through the entire airport and when it looked as if I was going to leave the airport there was just a huge mass of people that looked like protester because they were holding signs... but then I looked at the signs and written on them were names of the people they were waiting to get off of the plane. It looked like if I walked through the crowd of people I would be outside the airport and be completely alone at 1 in the morning.

I walked through the mass of people and spotted the escalators, the payphones and my friend! We walked outside and he led me down the road outside of the airport to catch a taxi to take us to his house.

We drove to a neighborhood with dogs running around dirt roads and buildings that looked either fairly run down or not quite built up. He led me to the second floor to a room only containing a bed, an extra mat, a TV and a few belongings. Right outside his room was the community’s sink where everyone brushed their teeth, washed their clothes and did their dishes under the open sky. The bathroom was separate with a toilet and a shower. The shower had water running to it sometimes but it was never hot water. Ok. so that was the only really not fun part so far. I think I will be a very smelly girl in five weeks.

I fell asleep to dogs barking and I think some kind of fiesta downstairs. I woke up to a hammering sound, tropical sounding birds chirping, and the dogs barking... I left the room to see what had transpired during the night and they were pounding the pavement with a hammer (apparently for the water lines). I think I slept through a lot of it though. I skipped my shower and put on a cap to go. We walked all over until my legs hurt and talked until my head spun...He speaks “not so good English” ... and I can’t find word in my dictionary fast enough.... and I’m not really sure how to form a question.