The Apartment

Apparently, our supervisor had some problems placing the last Duke intern in a suitable location. Really, the problem was just that Duke sent her down her by herself and being here alone would really suck. But the mixup proved to be to Stephanie’s and my benefit, as everyone seems to be super-concerned about making sure we are comfortable.

Thus: the apartment. It’s pretty big, actually, especially for what we were expecting to have. It has a concrete floor that is always cold and turns your socks red, white walls, and a single window out over the street.


Our favorite part of the apartment is the little Cocina, where we have (so far) learned to make broccoli-pasta and tea. We’re working our way up to torilla, but we think we might save that for a Sunday when there’s nothing else to do. Huancayo is struggling with a water shortage, so all water is turned off city-wide at 5 pm. Thus all evening cooking/cleaning is done with water from the water buckets you see pictured.

Which also means, all showering must be done before 5 pm. This is usually not a problem, unless the hot-water is feeling finicky, which it is several times a week. After a week, we have finally managed to come to a truce with Shower: if we follow the following steps in order, Shower will usually decide to give us at least a measure of warmish water. If you don’t follow these steps, you might end up bathing with water that actually causes your heart to stop. No kidding: in my first cold shower I actually had trouble breathing.


The Steps:
1) Turn water on.
2) Turn water-heater on.
3) Wait.
4) If you’re lucky, you’ll soon being to hear a whirring sound that signifies that the water-heater is doing something.
a. If you’re unlucky, consider using more deodorant that day.
5) At this point, bathe as quickly as possible.
a. If you hear the water-heater stop, deftly step out of the stream of water and wait.
b. If it starts again, continue to bathe rapidly.
c. If it doesn’t, hold your breath and try to bathe allowing as little water to touch your body as possible.
6) Sometimes Shower will respond to a change in water pressure. For example, turning the water pressure down may lead to warmer water.
a. HOWEVER, be advised that touching either the shower knob or head will lead to mild electric shock. This is (hopefully) not dangerous, but does leave a painfully tingly sensation in the fingers or whatever appendage happened to touch aforementioned objects.
7) Turn off the shower, put on as much fleece as you own, and curl up under the covers until you can feel your fingers again.

Which brings us to the final part: the Beds. Originally, Cesar gave us the cot-type beds with thin mattresses that some people use for camping. They are actually quite comfortable at first, but after about two nights one becomes painfully aware that there is a bar right across the small of one’s back. However, as the beds were only used for watching Arrested Development and sleeping, we didn’t care much. Besides, if you fold up your fleece pants across the bar, you almost can’t feel it.

Much to our surprise, our duena knocked on our door a few days ago and asked if we wanted a bed. “Um, ok.” Isn’t Peru great? People just come up to your door and offer you things like beds! (And one time a random cardboard box with styrofoam peanuts still inside.)

Apparently, they had been feeling somewhat guilty about giving us camping cots, and had been actively looking for other beds since our arrival. So we brought in the new, bar-less bed, put the extra mattress on top of Stephanie’s bed (she’s like 4 feet off the ground now), and slept about 10 hours that night.