Today I was back in Los Alamos to begin a new session of English classes. Serena joined me.

Apparently I’ve become so used to animals in the classroom that I don’t even notice them anymore. At one point Serena came up to me quietly and whispered, “Um, is it okay that there are roosters in here?”

What? Roosters? Oh. Yeah, the neighbor’s roosters. No biggie, as long as they don’t get in the way of the dogs.

I deeply appreciated Serena’s wide-eyed wonder because I know that I was exactly the same way my first few classes. I say this as though I’ve now been here for ages, as if nothing could possibly take me by surprise. This is totally and completely absurd, because I’m pretty much surprised by something new every day. Yet I was really grateful that she reminded me to actually look, and see, and actively observe this culture that is so different from my own.

Serena, by the way, must be one of the bravest people I know. She just turned 18 in February and decided that instead of taking random electives for her final few months of high school, she’d go to Peru to do volunteer work. “If I wanted to vacation, I would’ve gone to Europe or something,” she told me. I know she means it–Huaycan is definitely not a vacation town.

Up until this point Serena had never been outside Canada except to go to the States, which doesn’t count, she tells me. She doesn’t know anyone who has ever been to Peru, she didn’t know any Spanish at all when she arrived, and she found LLI quite by accident. She’s young, she doesn’t know any other volunteers, and she doesn’t know Spanish… I can’t imagine how hugely challenging and overwhelming this experience must be for her. But so far she’s been a trooper, and I give her loads of credit for being here.