When the goin' gets tough...

So imagine giving a presentation about sex and STDs to a group of 16 years olds when you realize that they seem to already know everything you came to teach them, nay, they know more than you do on the subject.  Combine that horror with the fact that you have rolled a condom halfway down your finger only to realize that you don't have the proper vocabulary to describe what you are doing or why you are doing it.  To top it all off you look down and realize you aren't wearing any pants!!!

Well, all or part of the scenario above happened to me today during my class on sex education.  At first I was really worried about giving a charla (talk) on sex to a group of catholic students.  I worried that their parents would be furious when they found out I was teaching them about condoms and whatnot but my counter part assured me that there was nothing to worry about.  He also told me that they were well versed in what sex was and I would not have to give them a rudimentary, and frankly embarrassing, description of the mechanics of how sex works - I'm 27 and I still haven't figured it out!

So I showed up with a set of cue cards thinking, "just stick to the cards and all will be fine."  Well I didn't have time to rehears the cards.  I worried about them laughing at the sex parts... but I was wrong.  What they found hilarious was my dismal attempt at pronouncing medical terms and my occasional desperate glance at the teacher for help.  They first uncovered my charade when I asked them if they knew what an STD is - to which they all shouted out in unison the meaning of the letters and a brief but accurate description.
"Wow!" I said, "You guys are really smart!"
"So who can name a few for me?"

The answers came flying back at me as if they were in a game show in a race for time.  I realized I was screwed when I didn't know what almost any of them were.  I had to turn to the professor, hoping he would give me an answer like "that is just the term here for genital herpes."  Instead he started explaining the symptoms and I realized how deep I had gotten myself.  I nodded in agreement as if what he was saying was being understood while really my mind was screaming at me to run, flee, find shelter, or cower in a corner.

Perhaps the most embarrassing part for me was when I was trying to show them how to use a condom (most of them had never even seen one and were not sure what it was really for).  I realized I could explain to check the expiration date, check for air to make sure the package was sealed, how to open it... then I didn't have the vocabulary to finish.  How do you say "make sure there is a reservoir of space at the end for the semen then roll the condom down the penis"?  I had to resort to sort of grunting, pointing, and repeating the words "do it like this" - which is not a very easy task in itself while trying to roll it down your finger....

Eventually I finished my charla and even did an activity to explain how HIV works and what the difference is between it and AIDS.  They seemed to enjoy themselves, and got a lot of giggles in at well. I am sure my foolishness was not as bad as it felt and the exuberant goodbye was more than enough to lift my spirits.

But if you are interested in seeing how it all played out, I saw a couple boys in back filming the whole thing on their cameras - so I may be coming to an internet near you...

I should also point out that I had the opportunity to get my hands dirty during our regional meeting in Chota.  We volunteered to help a health center plant a garden of spinach and then I watched as they gave them a charla on the benefits of growing their own food to meeting nutritional gaps (they lack a lot of nutrients and most children in the campo are malnourished).  Below are some photos of how it went!

The Real Deal

Often I try not to think of the differences between my new home and my old. This is perhaps a survival technique as it allows me to avoid much of the disorientation and home-sickness which accompanies the culture shock of moving to a new environment. I realize that, while protecting myself from these consequences of admitting my new surroundings, it also prevents me from appreciating those new surroundings – and perhaps lessens the very experience of being in Peru. I realize that I have been writing my blogs more in the manner of a visitor than a volunteer living here and I hope to give you all a better visual of what my experience actually is.


I make it sound in my blogs and emails as if becoming integrated here has been an easy task for me. In fact I must constantly pep-talk myself to even work up the motivation to walk out the door of my host home. It is exhausting trying to understand and be understood in a place where I a) barely speak the language, b) must constantly be observant of the local customs so as not to offend, and c) have to explain almost everything about myself to everyone I meet – often repeating the same things to the same people every day. Sometimes, I am very tempted to stay in my room and just watch movies on my laptop to escape the awkwardness of integration.

Luckily for me, I have the amazing fortune of living with a very progressive, loving, and tight-nit host family who have adopted me into their home and lives without even knowing me. My family here has been my rock upon which all work here seems not only possible but inevitably successful. My father Raul is a professor of communication and has chosen to focus his career on traveling between the small rural farming communities to ensure that even the children there receive an education. He is faced with a hard task because the parents in those communities value their children's labor over their education and he must constantly battle with them to provide those children with the best of possible futures. Raul has been invaluable to me as a counterpart here in Cutervo. On several different occasions he has shown me around the community and introduced me to some of the most influential people within the development system (health posts, schools, police, priests, and municipality officials).

My mother, Lilia, is a professor at a pedagogical college right next to our home. She has taken me in as one of her own and shows a great deal of concern for my safety, integration, and professional success. She is an amazing cook (in fact, the lower level of the house is a restaurant). When she heard that I like to cook she excitedly starting making plans for us to teach each other recipes and I have been a dedicated student ever since. Often times, after dinner, we sit around at the table for a hour or more talking about everything from philosophy and religion to popular culture. These kinds of conversations have gone a long way in keeping me sane and happy here - I know that many volunteers often go a little bit stir crazy when faced with the reality that conversations often don't go in any greater depth than current local gossip.

My uncle, Willy Castro, is – you guessed it – a professor of history and an avid bird watcher. He has been my best professional counterpart by far. He began by setting me up with a slot in his environmental sustainability and eco-tourism conference for youth. I had the opportunity to speak to 150 youth from various colegios (secondary schools) in Cutervo about their habits and attitudes towards trash and how to change those habits. I set up a sign up sheet for anyone interested in being in a youth-leader group focusing on environment issues and got over 80 email addresses. I hope to take this group out to the rural areas and give workshops, skits, and activities to the youth out there. Willy has also set me up with a camping trip every weekend to a different rural area to see the realities of the poverty stricken majority of Peru. It is hard coming to terms with the dichotomy of being in an area so beautiful as to warrant the name of paradise and yet observe the local population literally struggle to survive – often on nothing more than rice and sugar.

As you can guess, mine is not your average Peruvian family. As my host father points out, in Peru there is not a very distinguished middle class, you are either elite and rich or starving without resources. With better-than-average food, access to internet, constant potable running water, 24 hour electricity, and a network of motivated and ambitious counterparts, I do not live the quintessential Peace Corps experience that I imagined I would. And while I often feel guilty that I am living in such a comfortable environment, I must remind myself that I am not here on a personal development mission seeking inner-perspective on the realities of life. I am here to help people less fortunate than I have been, not to share in their suffering. I am lucky to be connected in such an intimate way to the elite of Cutervo because, through them, I have access to the power, influence, and resources necessary to bring about some changes that are so obviously needed.

Right now I am feeling very confident that together with my counterparts, we can provide a catalyst for sustainable positive change in the lives of youth within and around Cutervo. With each meeting we are gathering more interested community leaders into our multi-sectorial group called the “Civic Committee to Favor Cutervian Adolescents and Youth”. We are going to spend the first three months garnering support, carrying out a full community diagnostic, presenting those findings to the community, asking for suggestions of citizens, and waiting for the current election cycle to finish. After that, we will begin planning and implementing projects based on the diagnostic and community ideas. We are hoping to focus on at-risk-youth in the areas of drug/alcohol abuse, prostitution, teen pregnancy, and crime.

As my own personal side project, I would like to set up a group of youth leaders that are trained to start, plan, and lead their own groups (focusing on giving educational workshops to the rural youth). I believe that the important thing here is less about what topic they choose to focus on (ie: life skills, education, job skills, leadership, self-esteem, environment...etc) and more about building social capital. I believe that building those networks of empowered youth and allowing them to find connections with others is what will create a system for sustainable long-term change. Yes I am idealistic – but change always begins with the dreamers. I can only hope the enthusiasm of myself and my counterparts can rub off on enough people to get things started in a big way.

Now all I have to do is learn Spanish!... Just Kidding ;)

Feelin' the Love in Cajamazing

It doesn't get much better than this. I have a host family that is very supportive, a great living environment, community counterparts who are excited and actively working with me, and a city full of youth eager to get started.

I have only been here for a week and a half and I have already done so much. While setting up my room and buying the things I need to make it feel like home, I decided I could better motivate myself to gather and organize my community diagnostic information if I turned my walls into a decorated excel sheet of sorts. Every time I learn something new about my community I write it on a note card and stick it to the wall under its appropriate heading. It helped me decorate my very bare walls. I also bought a portable fabric closet and posted up photos of friends and family to make it feel more like home.

Hanging with the locals.

I have a host uncle names Willy Castro... how cool of a name is that? He is a historian/biologist/professor here in Cutervo and is well known in and around town. While talking over dinner one night he learned about how much I love camping, hiking, and the outdoors and asked me to join him on a camping trip out to a small farming community in the mountains named San Pedro. I jumped at the opportunity and was not disappointed. I saw some amazingly gorgeous views, met some really generous and friendly people, and drank a good portion of the local rum (called ayunque). It is always an eye opener to see the difference between how people in the cities live from those in the surrounding country side.

 

These very nice people may not have much, but what they
do have, they are more than happy (insist even) in sharing.

While out on that trip, I was telling Willy about an idea I had to start an environmental sustainability youth group that we can train as promotors to go around education others. In this group we can do workshops, movie and discussion nights, camping trips, and trips to the countryside to give classes on the environment. He sounded interested in the idea and then invited me to fill a 30 minute spot in his upcoming environment and eco-tourism conference later in the week. I was a little (read a lot) nervous after hearing that over 150 youth would be in attendance and experts from England, New Zealand, and Spain would also be giving talks on their areas of interest.

San Pedro

Never-the-less, I put together a segment about the need for changing attitudes and behavior about trash in Cutervo. The mountains around the city are literally covered in trash and it is very depressing – especially given the abundance of natural beauty being ruined in the area. The kids seemed to like my presentation and lined up afterwards to ask some very insightful questions and give some ingenious solutions. They also filled my sign up list for starting a youth group! I will be asking the municipality for space and materials and then begin the process of planning and contacting all of the youth. (Photos of the conference). I also plan on doing every step with at least two counterparts from the community in the hope that the group is sustainable after I leave.

One rarely gets to tell 150 kids what to do all at once.
PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR AND SMILE FOR THE CAMERA!

I was put in contact with a professor who also helps run one of the local radio stations, Radio Cutervo. He interviewed me about my experience, motivations for volunteering, what Cuerpo de Paz is, and what my goals are for my two years here. I am psyched about that interview because now people are beginning to recognize me and approach me with ideas for projects. One young man, Christian, came up to me and asked me if I would be interested in working with an already existing youth group at his school! Also, I have begun working with a Catholic youth group focusing on capacity building for young people in Cutervo. I gave a charla (small informal workshop) on self-esteem and we played a few games along that theme. I love my job.

Needless to say, I have been keeping busy. This week I will be meeting with as many city and organization leaders as possible and then we will plan that televised conference I keep telling you all about. I am almost done with the presentation for that as well.

Kicking butt in Cutervo, Cajamarca, Peru,

This is Chris Huey (Cris Way as they pronounce it here) signing off.

So it's official

as of Friday, August 20th, 2010 I am now a Peace Corps Volunteer (as opposed to my previous status of 'trainee'). We all had to pack up and be at the center by 8am to go over some logistics and pick up our mosquito nets (no joke – they made us all grab one). We were given an hour lunch to spend with our families but since it takes 20 mins to get to and from my house I said my goodbyes the night before – and made them dinner as a thank you.

My sad last night with the Chacrasana family.

We all packed into two big buses and headed to the U.S. Embassy in central Lima for a swearing in ceremony. The whole thing started with us singing the national anthems of both Peru and the US. I have to admit it was a little awkward when neither group could properly sing the other's anthem – not that we did our own any justice. The ceremony was short and sweet with five minute speeches from a trainee, host family father, business representative of the Embassy, and our program directors. We were called up to the stage to take an oath of allegiance to the US government (some people were a bit put off by the whole “defend against all enemies foreign and domestic bit” and I can't blame them we are called the Peace Corps for goodness sake). We finished by taking a group photo and gorging ourselves on the awesome snacks provided.

Swearing in Ceremony at the Embassy.  I am with two of our doctors here.. very cool people.

That was it. We headed back to the hostel in Lima and were left to our own devices at that point. Most of us went and had US style meals. I went with a huge group to TGI Fridays and had Fajitas and a Margarita – and paid the same amount as I would in the US for it. I won't be doing that again. Sure the food was good but when you were making only 8 Soles a day (about $2.50) it is hard to justify spending that much. I am making a little bit more now (about 11 bucks a day) but I also have to pay rent, food, transportation...etc. Since I live in a larger city where the cost of living is more, that leaves me with little breathing room as far as spending money goes. I expect to learn and grow a lot for it. Here is the only scary thing – my school debt will be growing rapidly while I am here.

Found some colorado license plates in a karaoke bar...
yes, we made our signs backwards...

After three days of travel and shopping for things I will need I have finally arrived back in Cutervo. My family picked me up at the corner I was dropped off on and showed me to my room. They did a lot of work while I was gone by adding another light, fixing outlets, giving me some more furniture, and moving their daughter's personal items out (yes I am the jerk that took her room and I feel awful about it). Then we sat and joked around about Peruvian transportation for a while before bed.

While I have heard a lot of volunteers say they arrived at site and said “now what?” I woke up this morning feeling inundated with things to do. I need to buy items for my room (like a dresser and lamps), finish editing my Human Trafficking paper (A.K.A. the never ending paper), write blogs and emails, unpack and set up my room, finish my power point for our televised conference coming up soon, and begin the long process of gathering, organizing, and recording the information for our three month community diagnostic. This is good, I like to stay busy and would not be comfortable if I were just sitting around – of course even then I have spanish to study, guitar to practice, books to read, exercise to do, and people to meet.

If you are still with me here is the boring logistical part of the blog. I have a cell phone that anyone can contact me on. It is free for me to receive calls but I assume that means you will be paying quite a bit. Here is the formula for calling me:

011 + 51 + 76 + 970913716

We are discussing getting internet in the house, but until that happens I will have to go to a local internet cafe to check emails and skype with people. This means we will have to decide by email or phone when to skype. I am one hour ahead of those of you in Colorado.
Also, here is my new address so I can receive mail and packages. The original address you all have for Lima will make it so I have to either wait two more weeks or, if it is a larger package, physically go down to Lima to pick it up... which will only happen about 3 times in my two years.

Chris Huey
Pasaje Yoyo Flores 180
Cutervo, Cajamarca, Peru

I am excited to get started with my work here. And I am lucky that my community partners seem excited as well. I am still not sure exactly what I will be doing but I know that the community diagnostic combined with just meeting and talking with people will turn up quite a few opportunities for me to stay busy and, with a little luck, help someone.

As always, I miss you all. I expect to go through a hump by month two, when I realize what I got myself into ;) Please send me your photos and emails about your lives.


PS - I will edit with pictures when I get a better internet connection...

My New Home: Cutervo, Cajamarca, Perú

Hello everyone!

First of all, I want to thank all of you that sent me those wonderful birthday wishes. I also received calls from all of my training buddies and my host family opened up a nice bottle of wine for me during lunch to celebrate. Because of all that I was able to avoid the home-sickness that inevitably accompanies a birthday abroad.

Also, many of you may have already read this post in an email I sent but I got a lot of errors because your email addresses would not receive such a large file.  I am still trying to work out the kinks of how to best communicate with everyone.

I am just now finishing up my site visit to Cutervo, Cajamarca, Peru... they call it Cajamazing for a reason. There are rolling green hills for miles punctuated by high jagged mountains. Honestly, none of my photos come near doing it justice so I guess you will have to make a trip out to visit me to see what I mean.

Cutervo, Cajamarca, Perú

Incan ruins on the mountain overlooking Cutervo

Cutervo is a provincial capital with a population of  36,000 people. I asked for a larger site so I could work on a project for my masters degree (I would like to focus on the exploited child labor problem in the cities of Cajamarca). I will be spending the first three months doing a community diagnostic which will cover everything from religion and politics to food and annual festivals. Together with my local counterparts, we will be focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of current youth development efforts in the city and surrounding countryside.

It looks like I have my work cut out for me because when I met my first counterpart (called a socio comunitario) she informed me that the city has planned a conference for me and my socios to attend which will be covered by the local reporters, tv station, and radio station. I need to get up to speed on my spanish and present a powerpoint about my purpose, goals, and resume. No pressure there! I was able to sit down with that socio, a professor at a women's pedagogical college and also my new host mom, and we hammered out a solid plan for the first three months. We will be holding community meetings to examine the strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities of Cutervo. We will also have several meetings with the leaders of the community to plan a large scale youth program, using the space provided by the catholic church, and spanning the city limits and surrounding 81 farming communities. They have made it clear that they are serious about doing it, with or without me, as a multi-sectorial effort (police, municipality, schools, church, peace corps, and health centers). I am definitely in over my head but I am excited to get started.

As for my family and living arrangements, I definitely got the cream of the crop. I am living in a very modern house with hot running water, gas, electricity, washing machine, cable, and internet (coming soon). My family owns a restaurant, which takes up half of the first floor and has a cool bull fighting theme (my host brother is a matador – how cool is that!?) Cutervo is all about the bull fighting. I can't stress enough how fat I will probably get living here. The food is amazing and the afternoon meal is huge! I am sure all the walking I will be doing between the farming communities will help though.

I will be living with my two younger host siblings (13 and 15 year old girls) and the mom named Lilia (also my socio). The father, who is very excited about me being here, works as a professor in the farming communities and will be here on the weekends. The other two siblings (19 year old boy and 20 year old girl) live in the big city 10 hours away to attend university. I have already been introduced to a lot of the extended family and they seems to hold a pretty high place of esteem here in Cutervo – the uncle is a scholar who literally wrote the book on Cutervo (should be useful while writing my community diagnostic). They are all amazing and extremely welcoming. It is easy for me to see myself living with them for the next two years.

Plaza de Armas, Cutervo

Campesinos waiting for monthly government stipend

Mi Familia Anfitriona - left to right: Ximena, Raul, Madoli, Kike

I have been told that Cutervo is a very safe city and although I attract a lot of attention being the only gringo in town I should be perfectly safe traveling around alone. Also, my spanish has improved to a point where I can communicate easily with strangers – which makes traveling in a new country much safer.

After a bunch of meetings and tours of the town I had the opportunity to climb the largest mountain with my host brother. It took us two hours to get the top and it was quite a trek but it was completely worth it. On our way up I saw white sand pits (made me forget I was on a mountain far from the ocean for a second) and we came across this funny looking rock where my brother started throwing rocks and yelling at it. He explained that the rock is believed to be a witch (called la vieja) and you need to throw a rock at her for each thing you are lacking in your household – because its her fault. I yelled at her for taking my reeses peanut butter cups...

Apparently it used to look a lot more like an old woman and a lot less like a random boulder... And you would see the photos if the internet connection was better.... *sigh*

So that is what I have been up to. I have to start my return trip to Lima today (26 hours in total) and then I will be officially sworn in as a volunteer. Then I have to head back! I wish I could just stay here since everything is ready to go. The plus side is that I will get to see my friends from training one last time. I am sure we will end up spending most of our time looking at photos and swapping stories. I wish I could share everything that has happened here but I just don't have the space or time. However, I will have access to the internet every night when I get back and will keep my skype up and running!

I miss you all so much. Even though everything here is going great it doesn't make it any easier that I am away from the ones I love. I definitely have moments where I realize what I am about to do and freak out a little bit... a lotta bit. I love hearing from all of you so please write emails and send photos of what is going on back in the States.

I hope all is well in your lives.

Chris

Contacting me – I have a cell phone now! I can receive calls from you all for free (its on your dime) but I cannot call out cheaply. My current number is going to change because it was programmed for Lima but I will be sure to give it out to all of you when it does.

Sending packages – I will not be at the address you currently have for Lima. I will send you all my new contact information after I get back here to Cutervo.

Field Based Training: Cajamarca

Im Back!  I haven't posted in a while because there is not much to say about training other than "I get up at 7, attend technical and language classes, and go to bed around 10."

The monotony finally broke when we headed to our Field Based Training.  My group headed to Cajamarca - the northern mountains of Peru.  There we travelled to various sites to see where current volunteers live and what kind of work they are doing.  We went everywhere from a huge district capital (Cajamarca City), to medium provincial capitals (Cajabamba and San Marcos), and a couple of small towns (La Grama and Cauday).

In each we had the opportunity to plan and teach classes to all kinds of different schools with lots of different ages and mixes of kids.  We taught classes on healthy lifestyles, leadership, community involvement, and job skills.  We also watched current volunteers give classes to students.  One of my favorites was a business class on entrepreneurial endeavors where the volunteers gave an inspiring and active talk about how to be creative and start your own business.  At one point the volunteer asked the class what would happen if they didn't show up for all the classes - in which he then ripped up a certificate of completion and threw it out at them... the class loved it.

My group of four gave several presentations (charlas) to lots of different classes.  I felt most of them were very successful.  One of the greatest things we learned was that things will rarely turn out how they were described to us or planned.  At one point we were told we would have 15 older students to do a leadership charla with.  It turned out to be 30 much younger kids and we had to change almost everything on the fly to make it work.  It was a bit of an adrenaline rush and gave me a lot of confidence in our abilities.

Playing the Human Knot in San Marcos

Teaching English in Cajamarca

Popularity Abounds

Some of these communities have never seen so many gringos in one spot and they get a bit crazy.  At one site they literally would not let us leave until we had put our autograph in all their notebooks.  At lots of other sites I found myself posing in a lot of photos with complete strangers.  And the kids love my arm hair oddly enough.  One time I was trying to talk to one of the teachers and looked down to find two kids, one on each arm, mesmerized by petting me.  I have been asked by a couple of adults if they can touch it too... wild.  At least I know I can make a quick buck if things get tough.

I sincerely hope my site ends up being in the mountains.  I am just a mountain kinda guy and I love cold weather... that and anyone who has ever seen a picture of Machu Picchu can understand my wish to live there.  Here are some photos of Cajamarca:

Cajamarca City is Gorgeous

Awesome right?

Who wouldn't want to live here?

One of our last activities while out in a small town called La Grama was a "mission impossible" where we had to run around the town and complete tasks for points.  Whoever gained the most points won.  The tasks were silly - like ride a donkey, wear a traditional outfit, or play soccer with kids - and led to one of the best days of my life.  My buddy Curtis (in the photo below) and I teamed up with some local kids who quickly invested themselves in our cause and led us all around town knocking on doors, talking to people, and taking photos of us completing tasks.  We ended up forgoing most of the other tasks to find a burro because Curtis wanted to ride one.  We finally found one! We were even gifted three huge pieces of sugar cane by the guy who let us ride it.  At the end of the day I really felt confident about going around and just meeting and talking with people - an invaluable skill for when I go to site.

We shared some refreshing beverages with our guides!

This was the culmination of our efforts...

A little bit of this, a little bit of that, and a lotta laundry

Sorry for the long period of time in between posts.  I have been focusing all of my attention on my Human Trafficking paper so I can finally go out with my training teammates, spend time with my family, learn spanish... basically, be a Peace Corps volunteer.  As of tonight I have finally finished that paper!  If anyone would like to read and edit it for me, I will be forever in your debt.  I have one month to perfect it.

As for training, it has been dragging on a bit long.  I hear everyone has the same complaint around this time.  We sit through a lot of presentations, do a team building activity every 10 minutes, and find little time to ourselves.  Most of the material is over theoretical methodology.  For example, we did one of those long surveys to find out what kind of teaching style you prefer (what I deem as equivalent to astrology for the social sciences).  Most of my frustration is just my wish to get to site as soon as possible and get started doing some work.

Of course, it is not all frustrating.  I have been working with a couple of other volunteers to do some youth activities with some young children here in my town of Chacrasana.  Our first week we made bracelets with string and played some names games.  Last week we taught the kids how to make sorbet using bags, ice, salt, and fruit juice.  It didn't work as planned (too much juice and not enough ice) but we all had fun dancing to pop music while shaking the bags.  This week we intend to do a movie night, hopefully with the movie Pay It Forward if I can find it in spanish, and then discuss it afterwards.  The group practically doubled between week one and two so I hope, and expect, for more this week.  It feel great working with them.  Some of the children live in really sparse conditions in a makeshift town above Chacrasana - living in fiberboard housing without running water, electricity, or gas.

Last weekend we had the opportunity to head to Lima and check out the sites and sounds... We had fun and the best part was watching a world cup game while we had some pizza.  This weekend we visited a shelter close to Chosica and I had the opportunity to play soccer and tag with a bunch of kids.  I was having so much fun I actually missed meeting up with my group for another presentation.

Besides training and small group excursions, I have been spending an unusual amount of time doing laundry.  I think I will probably miss two things the most while here. 1) cold showers and 2) washers.  It is a ridiculously complicated process to wash your clothing by hand.  You have to make sure you don't wash socks in the same water as a towel (so you don't put your foor crud on your face) and you have to rinse everything twice, which involves draining and refilling the sink a million times.  My hands were raw and hurt the whole next day but I have clean clothes... I can say this... I am now wearing my clothes a lot lot longer than before!

 Until next time! Nos Vemos!