Destiny, bricheros and medicinal plants

As Maricarmen and I sat at the Irish pub the other night, she looked at me and said, "You know, it was destiny that you'd end up here". "I know--I said--I absolutely wanted to stay in London and I spent 3 months looking for jobs tehre. The first job I applied for in Latin America was this one".

This is the story of how I got this job: Lauren, the previous volunteer coordinator, went back to Canada to do her master's, so she posted ads on a few websites advertising the vacancy. They recevied lots of applications, and had no time to look at all of them, especially since Maria's English isn't that good. Finally she told Lauren to pick the 5 or 6 best ones and send them to her. Maricarmen liked my cover letter because she could understand most of it, and she emailed 4 people (amongh which myself) whom she wanted to interview. All 3 emails except for mine came back to her as incorrect address.

I've been here a week and I'm learning about all sorts of herbal remedies: when I was sick Maria gave me a mate of oregano, peppermint, celery and yerba buena. I think celery is also used to cure menstrual pain. And if you eat a piece of garlic with salt with every meal for one month during the summer you won't get sick all winter. Scared you'll smell of garlic? Just eat one spoonful of yougurt and the smell is gone! You can cure virtually everything with herbs, in Lima there is a hospital in which doctors (=people with a degree in medicine) cure everything, including HIV using only plants.

And a warning to all foreigners coming to Peru: watch out for bricheros/as. I'm sure they exist in all of Latin America, or probably all of the developing world, they just don't have a name. Bricheros/as are men or women who will seduce foreigners, making up all sorts of elaborate and believable stories about their life, with the goal of getting the foreigner to support them, eventually marry them, and hopefully bring them to their country.

Oh, and watch out for aliens as well, they have made contact with people in Cusco repeatedly! I guess if I were an alien I'd pick Cusco too: it's high enough to be visible from outer space, and quite nice :)