This week, aside from the pachamanca, a plate of lomo saltado (a kind of beef stir fry) with rice, fries and passion fruit juice in the jungle was another highlight.
This week I started The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, which is a popular psychology book that explores how trauma reshapes our brain chemistry and bodily functions. It had been on my book list for years, but it wasn’t until another fellow volunteer who is a psychologist gave a lecture to us about trauma-informed care in schools that I bumped up the title to the top of my list. By reading the book, I am hoping to better understand how trauma can manifest behaviorally in my students so I can approach their challenges with greater compassion.
Though none of my friends or family would describe me as “athletic,” I go to the gym here in my site. It’s a pretty simple setup, with a few machines and only one rack of weights, but it is absolutely enough to de-stress. I’ve come to see it as a valuable third space as well, which is especially important in a small town where there are limited spots to pass the time.
In other news, I've had a mild cold due to the drop in temperature coming from Lima, and I learned a Peruvian remedy to illness from my host mom. She had me down a shot of caña, a type of liquor infused with herbs, followed by a spoonful of raw ginger, carrots and honey. After the coughing and sputtering subsided, I did notice the concotion cleared my sinuses.
