Pleasantly Confused

January 21, 2019 by Cassandra Johnson 

Since it has been a while since I landed in Lima, I plan on being a little confused, but not as nervously confused as I was when I got off the plane initially. I won’t be as turned around as I was when I got to my one overnight stay in the capital and affection alone will replace the pleasing confusion of everything I saw in the volunteer organization yard my first Friday night.

Prior to my arrival, I took care to take notes from my guide book on what to expect when traveling around Peru. I smiled through sections on the lovely cuisines, read about animal diversity, history and culture. I pictured myself there while looking up additional online resources and altogether I paired this with tips from my organization on how I should prepare for living in Pisco and helping with earthquake recovery.

Volunteering and philanthropy have captured my attention for a while. As a little girl, I was intrigued by the sound bite Literacy Volunteer commercials. I lent some assistance to a similar organization in college. I decided to also become one of my school’s conversation language partners. The program helped international college students adjust to English and US culture. I moved to DC and taught English one day a week after work, although I didn’t know I would be comfortable leading a classroom. (Truly, some days were much better than others.)

In the various forms of connection, I realized, as it is true with everyone, it’s difficult for anyone to live their goals when faced with a lack of necessities. We all need help. Moving forward, I have been excited to be in a number of places but admittedly, I was uncertain about navigating a four-hour bus ride from the major Peruvian city. With a friend’s crafty suggestion, I went to my new organization’s Facebook page to ask if anyone would be traveling from Lima to Pisco on my dates. It was right away that my friend-to-be from Spain responded, but unfortunately ended up having to postpone his arrival a bit. A second response followed soon after and another future friend and I soon synchronized our schedules. She would be traveling from Rhode Island and it seemed now that my preplanning at home (vaccinations, discussions, readings, etc.) were falling into place with my plans abroad.

Hiccups would still come, and they are not to be unexpected, but I think the planning efforts and mental preparation are helpful when it comes to powering through and you actually already get a sense during those not-so-smooth moments that you are going to look back on them and laugh. You find yourself even laughing a little at the time, as in “Is this for real?” and “You gotta be kidding me right now.” Powering through comes to serve you as you become more confident about your ability to figure things out. The more you start down that road, the more you get into the thick of things and the further you move away from the start line, you kinda already know you most likely are going to cross it. No matter that it’s not a photo finish.

I had begun with one travel inconvenience at DC’s National Airport. My luggage had been over the weight restrictions. I was shifting things around and this could have been pretty standard save for the fact that it was a little intimidating trying to sift through what was regulation appropriate to carry on in a limited amount of time. I was additionally internalizing the serious look on the airline agent’s face. She had read my future return date in a tone and it was as though I felt she held my security checkpoint fate in her hands. This could have proved all too much for a newbie international volunteer.

Amazingly, however, a gentleman offered to buy me an extra airline bag as he simultaneously made the purchase. Such unexpected generosity from a stranger! Now that I had another spacious piece of luggage to play around in, I thanked him profusely. He smiled and said, “Maybe she will pay it forward.” The airline agent smiled at me for what I’m fairly certain was the first time. She echoed how nice it was and said that I was already paying it forward. Since I had previously shared my travel purposes, she shared them with him. I was still on my wow, thank you and seeing that starting out all twisted at the ticket counter wasn’t an omen after all.

My flight and layover were smooth. Customs through Lima’s airport took what I expected to be a considerable but standard amount of time. When I reached the customs official in Lima, I readily answered the length of stay question for the maximum number of days. He looked up from what I guessed was usually a pretty mundane question. He seemed intrigued but somehow still robotic. I had chosen the 183 days that I was permitted to stay continuously. I knew I would actually stay longer. I would just need to extend my stay by leaving Peru and returning within the time limit and Bolivia would be my destination for this. Coincidentally, some wonderful friends ended up being there during that time as well. I had looked forward to traveling to Bolivia in general and additionally relaying my experience to my ex back home who also happened to be from there. Having some volunteer friends (my second family) there made it that much sweeter.

The customs official final response that day? A 183-day passport stamp and the prediction, “You’ll fall in love.” I was wondering if he meant with a person or the country. It could have been both.

continues next week