A Weekend of Hopes and Dreams

            Last Friday I proclaimed the weekend to be ‘Maddy’s weekend’. In my head I developed to perfect plan of going into to town and spending an extra penny for a private room and with a hot shower. I got myself all excited over the prospect of having time to myself, with all the luxuries of a modern hotel, and for whatever reason I decided I deserved this. I would buy some granola and coffee, and make it so I barely had to leave my oasis for the whole weekend. Unfortunately my normal ride down the hill from Orlando was all booked up so I had to go searching for another car. This put me on edge a bit, for every time I heard the sound of a motor I went running out of my room to see who it was, only to be disappointed by motorcycles, and local work trucks. Finally after feeling exhausted of running down my steps too many times, the green truck appeared in the plaza. I ran out the door, and by the time I reached the plaza I was not the only one flagging it down. Our parade delighted in the news that he would be going down in an hour and there was space for all! So back up the hill I went to pack up my things and eat lunch. My cousin was preparing lunch that day as my host mom was out at the farm. It’s a bit awkward being called into lunch that was prepared by a 16 year old, as if I can’t feed my own mouth but so it goes. However just as I was putting some french-fries, avocado and cucumber into my mouth the blaring of a horn disrupted our quiet lunch. Turned out an hour really meant 30 minutes and the truck was there waiting for me. We dumped my lunch into a Tupperware to take with me down the hill, and I leapt into the car starting off ‘Maddy’s weekend’ with a bang.

            The ride down the hill was fairly uneventful just me sneaking some bites of french-fries here and there as we stopped to pick more people up or dropped them off.  I got dropped off at the main plaza and determinedly headed to the hotel with the best showers in town, as well as they offer a great deal for a single room. Nope this weekend I would not stand for sharing a room in the cheap hostel with dirty white travelers that always have extremely stinky hiking boots, and some advice to give me about where I should travel.  So it was I climbed the stairs to the hotel, just picturing the steam pouring out of the shower, and the soft voluptuous pillows. However this all came crashing down with it became apparent that they were all booked up for the weekend and I was sore out of luck.  Fear not I was not to be deterred by this slight set back. I picked up my bag, swung it determinedly over my shoulder and headed back out into the streets, leaving my oasis behind.

            There is a another hostel on the plaza that some other volunteers have stayed at and proclaimed that they also have hot steaming showers. So I headed over there and was greeted enthusiastically with a room available and a promise to lower the price to be the same as what the previous hotel was offering. The kind lady showed me upstairs to the room and I agreed to take it before stepping foot in the door ever so eager to get my weekend started. Well it was true this room did have a bed, and uneven wood floors, a huge closet space and a balcony overlooking the plaza. However a quick glance a the shower proved it was an electric heater (the worse!) and as I dramatically swung the balcony doors open to take in the view, there to my disbelief are the construction workers putting up two towers of fireworks, that are famous here in Peru for any good celebration includes an incredibly fantastic and dangerous fireworks show. I did not realize national police day demanded such a grand party but clearly I was mistaken, and judging by the stage they were constructing in the corner of the plaza the celebration was to include a band and go on quite late. I sunk into the bed a little disheartened at the reality that it would be a sleepless night.

            Well Friday afternoon played out like most Friday afternoons. A bit of Internet fix, a meeting about a project to teach English teachers English, serenaded by a Mariachi band (Which I thought was a Mexican thing but is apparently is also a Peruvian thing?) and celebrating a fellow volunteer’s birthday with free hamburgers. However when the moment came between dancing the night away or going back to my room to watch a movie and go to sleep Maddy’s weekend took control and I headed back to the hotel. I was rudely reminded that the Plaza was taken over by a party scene as the fireworks lit up the sky and the bass shook the floorboards, I curled up in my bed and closed my eyes hoping against all odds that maybe I would fall asleep.  At 2:00am the band finally stopped playing, at 2:30 guests of the hotel banged on the outside door to be let in, and at 3:00am I dozed off into dreams of another world. My internal clock woke me up at 6:00am to which I walked the three steps to the bathroom, and this little improvement of bathroom access put a skip in my step.  While the early morning run did not seem as appealing as it did in my mind when I was planning Maddy’s weekend, the sitting in my bed part drinking a cup of coffee with a book was perfect. Ok Maddy’s weekend was looking to be back on track. I watched the children procession walk around the plaza from my balcony while eating a delicious bowl of cereal.

            Around 10:00am I ran out of things to do in my private room and decided it was time to venture out to the street. After a mere hour out on the town on my own glory I started to get a bit lonely, it seemed it was a bit boring spending the whole day with myself, and I wasn’t doing anything different than any other weekend in town except for the fact that I was doing it alone. So I went to find some other volunteers in the classic volunteer hang out places and sure enough there they were, and boy did it feel good to share my Maddy’s morning experience with others, a pretty riveting tale! But also the knowledge that I could at anytime of my pleasing decide to go back to my solitude, with a private bathroom, and naked dancing in my room as an option comforted me.

At 5:00 that evening I went with my host family to a baptism of the nurse’s daughter, it is a rare event for my host family to come into town so it seemed important that I go. I should have known that all baptisms in Peru are way more than just the church service, but somehow I had it in my mind that I would go to the church service for a hot second, and then be able to sneak out and go enjoy the lasagna dinner that I had been looking forward to. Well that clearly did not play out and I found myself sitting amongst many strangers passing around a bottle of beer, and dancing the night away. While the dancing was fun, the dream of lasagna never disappeared, but I gave in to the fact that Maddy’s weekend was not going to be determined by what Maddy wanted to do. At 11:30pm they finally cut the many cakes, and by 12:30am I finally found a way to sneak out and gleefully head by to my private room.

            That night and next morning I was able to live it up, taking a semi-hot shower, walking around naked, and sleeping in past 6:30am. These luxuries felt like what true American freedom is. All too soon it was time to pack up my bag, pick my laundry up from the cleaners and head back up the mountain. Back to a life that has me in bed by 9:00pm every day, and brain freezing showers that are a good outside walk away from my room.  But I sure do miss a clean private dancing floor!