The other evening a man had been hosting a breathing workshop at the house and left his phone in the studio. He came back a few hours later and it thankfully had not been stolen. I went back into the kitchen after that and asked everyone who the patron saint of lost things was and Sylvia told me it was Saint Anthony. A lot of people had been losing their phones or wallets that live int he house and kept finding them, so I thought Saint Anthony was watching over us especially. This shocked Sylvia that I was even aware of things like that. I often get put into stereotypes, like many other people, but Sylvia didn't know where to put me anymore. I feel like a lot of people expect me to be pompous, not aware of my surroundings, or intelligent because of the way I look, the fact that I am in a sorority, and because of my financial standings. One of my goals in life, other than being completely true to who I am, is to shatter expectations. It made me really happy to have Sylvia say that I was shattering the expectations she had for me when we met before our departures at FSU. She didn't know I was a Reiki Master, that I had been raised Catholic but left the church, that I graduated in the top 5% of my class, and so on. I attribute a lot of who I am to my parents and those who support me, because I was in fact a judgy, pompous, and not so confident child growing up. It took a lot to get to where I am today and I learned the hard way how to be confident and to love myself even when others do not. I encourage each of you to find something you love within yourselves or about yourselves and honor that, even if others do not.
Monday I had a Reiki sit in again and we were able to do the meeting outside because of the slightly better weather. We were working with the symbols of Reiki, mantras, and trying to read auras. It was also Aurora's 22nd birthday so we had some banana bread with chocolate and a passion fruit bread for her as a cake! When you are traveling it is nice to get an actual birthday celebration and to feel loved. During Reiki so many firecrackers were going off and they are random so it makes me think of the Hunger Games; a canon is set off every time someone perishes. That is literally what it sounds like and makes me laugh every time. After Reiki we went to Lila's for a menu for 5 Soles. The meal included a vegetarian barley soup, white rice, lentils and potatoes, a very small salad, and a fried vegetable patty, which was all delicious but I could not finish it. Then I went back to the house to take a full shower!!! Again, the water would be hot for five seconds then go stone cold, so I asked Don David for his expertise and he came to the conclusion that the gas heater we use would turn off after being turned on, so he manually turned it on so I could have a warm shower. It was so satisfying to wash my hair completely. There is very little humidity in the air here so my hair has been moisture deprived, but continues to get blonder if I have it in a bun with the high UV levels.
That night I had been in the kitchen with some of the girls and saw a book and a bunch of copies on the table that were apparently for the book club we were hosting at the house in coming days. I read the title to be The Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield, a book my mom and my Ayurvedic doctor back home had recommended me to get before I left for Peru, but I couldn't get ahold of a copy. I was so overcome with this feeling of happiness that the Universe was working in my favor. Think of how awesome it is to have things fall together like that. So I got a copy of the book for book club and have started reading it. By the way, here in Cusco they will make copies of any book or reading material, despite copyright, for about 11 Soles, $4. I had become friendly with two girls that had just come back to the house from Machu Picchu, who were leaving in two days. Hannah and Katherine have been traveling South America since the fall with their mother and have been homeschooling for high school. Monday nights are free salsa lessons at Mama Africa's in la Plaza de Armas so I joined them, thinking it would be nice to go out dancing and experiencing Cusco with other people closer to my age. We got there and as the tall blond I am instantly singled out because that is rare in Peru, but I was trying to keep a low profile. After learning the steps with everyone else I realized I was not half bad, I just had no previous experience. So after everyone else danced in partners for a while the instructor asked me to dance and I told him no, because I was nervous, about one foot taller than him, and because I didn't want to make a fool of myself. Seizing the moment I began to dance with him and it is true that when you have a good partner, you also look good. Eventually he had to step onto a platform to twirl me, but then came down, got our arms crossed, and tried to go underneath mine but instead got his face stuck in my cleavage. This is an actual salsa move but the fact that I was so tall, it worked out in his favor and we got free mojitos... But I was working early in the morning giving treatment in the city so I declined the drink.
Tuesday morning I was ready by 8 am to go to the Mantay Shelter in San Jeronimo to give Reiki treatments and massage to the women that live there. The shelter is a wonderful place for girls who have been raped and had children as a result, to live until the age of 18 with their kids. The girls are victims of rape and incest, so it is a really sad situation but I was glad to help make them feel a bit better. Kaki, a girl my age from Chicago, Tara, a mother herself from Canada, and I took a taxi into the city for about 30 minutes for 10 Soles to get to the shelter. The actual city is much different from the tourist area of Cusco, with business people and workers trying to get around. I got to see the Engineering University, a kids public school, a boys private school, and the prison. Once we got to Mantay we realized non of the girls had signed up for treatment, so we just found girls around the house. The first girl I worked with wanted Reiki so I did my treatment and she fell asleep, but I felt like she had a lot of angels with her, so I told her afterwards and she told me I had beautiful hair. The next girl I worked with was much more talkative and quite sassy. She didn't want Reiki, but a massage so I did that for her. Within a few minutes her friend was on the table next to us getting a massage as well and they held hands, chattering away. After her treatment was over I asked her how old she was and she said 15. A girl at the age of 15 had stretch marks and a small child. She and her friend were quite chiste (funny) and were talking to Kaki and I about a girls day. The girls get Saturdays completely off and other people watch their kids, so they wanted us to come on Saturdays instead of Tuesdays to paint their nails, listen to new music, and just relax. I am definitely doing this and have found me niche, I also want to play with their adorable babies. Not all of the girls are so happy though, the girl Tara was working with didn't even want to show her face or talk at all. The reality they face is so beyond me, I am just happy to give them thirty minutes of relaxation.
On our way back to the house I had to pass out flyers to the locals for the free clinic we host every Tuesday, offering Reiki, massage, acupuncture, etc. Then I came home to get my computer because I had door duty at the main house from 3-8pm at the peak of the clinic. Let's just say I never used my computer because I was giving treatment for the clinic almost the whole time. At one point a very old man came in with his four daughters for Reiki because he has Alzheimer's Disease. His dementia was so bad that he would walk in and out of the house not knowing who he was. So because Reiki is the laying on of hands to heal, three of us tried to get him to sit down for a while so we could give him and two of his daughters treatment. He would not sit so I had the idea of playing music and dancing with him so I could give him Reiki. It worked for a while and then he became impatient and I had another woman who wanted Reiki so I did a 30 minute session on her. I cam back to see that the old man and his family were still there so I had to babysit him almost until they were done. By 7pm he had spit on me twice and shook my hand 7 times to introduce himself. It had been such a long day and I was drained of energy as well as patience. After the large family had left we had a meeting about the children's program we host every Saturday and tried to get a music/art/theme plan together for this coming Saturday to be more organized. I almost fell asleep but was so hungry and didn't want to go out for dinner to Giancarlo and I went out for groceries and came back to make a pasta feast.
Giancarlo plays the guitar and is also a Reiki practitioner so we had been working close together all day and were both tired and hungry. We got the ingredients for dinner at a small tienda and started cooking back at the house. Giancarlo didn't want to boil water normally so he used the electric water heater to boil water and cook the pasta (too much) and it turned out to be spashitti because it had been overcooked and began to clump together. We weren't expecting to cook for four but we did anyways and didn't make or buy enough sauce. Giancarlo also lost half of his diced onions on the floor, we forgot to put the garlic in, and the mushrooms were canned. But everyone appreciated the gesture and were somewhat satisfied by the edible food. While I did the dishes Giancarlo played the guitar and sang with Sylvia a ton of Beatles songs, some Train, and songs I had never heard of. The atmosphere was great and it really made me love those moments of music and good people coming together. Around 11 I got tired and went to bed but apparently they kept playing until 1:30 in the morning.
Today my only obligation is to work the door from 2-8 pm so I got to sleep in for the first time in a week. Surprise, I have been here for a week! One down, eleven to go. But I woke up at 8:30, went back to sleep and woke again at 10:45 to the beautiful live music of some Cusqueños that were practicing at the house. It does not suck to wake up to sunshine and Hound Dog by Elvis Presley. There are some really great things about Cusco and one of them is the love and continuous practice of all kinds of music. Now I think I am going to make myself some scrambled eggs and kiwi and make a edit a music video for one of the ladies here. Life is good and I'm staying in the here and now! Remember to be compassionate and loving every day.
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