Mud Wars

I love the rain.

I’m from Oregon, one-year almost born and raised, so I have grown up accustomed to matching a rain jacket to whatever outfit I’m wearing. I love jumping in puddles, and never, ever do I carry an umbrella (we just don’t do that in Oregon.) So coming to Cajamarca wasn’t a far stretch. 

There are two seasons here: rainy and non-rainy. People often ask me if I get tired of the rain, but I tell them how much it resembles my “normal habit,” if you will.

But today I realized something very different from the rainy season in Oregon and in Cajamarca, and that is dirt mixed with water equals lots and lots of mud. It’s everywhere here, and you can’t escape it, where as in the states, you have something called paved roads, so getting muddy is something you choose to do on the weekend with your buddies. Here it is just a fact. 

Today the rain and I stopped being friends.

I was walking home from a meeting I had with my community partner and some mothers, when I came upon a mud field. No big deal because I was wearing my rain boots, something almost as essential to having electricity. My town has been under-going construction because they are putting in a sewage system, which requires for the roads to be completely dug up and tubes to be placed down below. 

I had reached one of those spots, where a huge tube and cement basin had been put. I was talking on my phone thinking nothing of the mud when “SQUUUISSSH,” my rain boot had sunk right into the mud so my whole boot was underneath mud. 

At first I screamed on the phone, then laughed at my situation, then realized my foot was really stuck, and down I went to the ground while still on the phone. My feet were stuck, and I mean stuck. It was as if I was in quick sand and the harder I squirmed, the more I sank. I wiggled some more and tried to pick my foot up, but all that came up was my foot, whereas my boot was still stuck in the mud.

So now I’m in the middle of the road I’m standing on one foot, and my other boot is in the mud. I look around, and amazingly no one is there, but two little girls. I look at them for help, but they just stare at me. I then ask them to help me, again, just stares. I then get more detailed, and ask them to find a stick, where upon one of the little girls tells me there aren’t any sticks around then. And I answer, “Well, look for one!”

At this point, I’m getting pretty mad at my situation. I’m completely stuck and these two little girls, the only people around me, look at me like I’m from outer space, which honestly, is probably what they thought. Not too many white people in my village, but I digress. The girls don’t follow my directions and instead start walking away from me. So then I take matters in my own hands, and start digging the boot out myself.

Carefully balancing on my one boot-covered foot, I try to scrape away at my boot with my hands and grabbing the boot out, but the boot is so covered in mud, it’s just slipping. I keep pulling and pulling, but nothing. 

Then the tears come. Now, as my family and most of my friends know, I’m quite crier, but oddly enough, I haven’t actually cried that many times in Peru, or at least not as much as I thought I would. A Returning Peace Corps Volunteer once told me that you’ll never cry more in your life than in Peace Corps. So yeah, I thought there would be a lot of crying, but surprisingly, I think I’m doing pretty good. That or I just hold everything inside until something stupid happens, like getting your boot stuck in mud, and the floodgates open.

So anyway, now I’m standing on one foot, tears coming down my face, and now I’m covered in mud from digging. Thank goodness a woman comes along and sees my predicament and decides to help me out, but not before telling me “Oh, you should have walked the other way.” You think?! Anyway, thankfully she successfully retrieves my mud-caked boot, and shows me to a faucet to wash off my hands at least, as they are coated in mud as well. I do a once over with the water and put my foot back into my muddy boot and off I go on my muddy walk of shame, as people just stare at me teary eyed, and muddied all over. 

I come home and take off my boots and my muddy clothes, climb into bed and eat some dark chocolate. All will be better again soon or at least when the rainy season is over. 

Right now, I don’t like the rain.