Just another day in the campo…

At 8:00 o’clock sharp this morning, I wasn’t woken up by my alarm clock, but rather people shouting 10 feet away in our living room.  Having not awoken yet and still in dream state, I only heard snippets of the conversation from “I’m telling the truth” to “the truth isn’t being told.” Finally after 15 minutes of un-restful sleeping, I woke up but not with the intention of leaving my room. Obviously, there was a bunch of strangers right outside my door having a very serious heated debate, so I didn’t exactly want to invite myself into that situation. So instead, I watched episodes of “The Office” to pass the time. 

Finally an hour or so later, my host mom knocks on my door and tells me its breakfast time basically giving me the okay to leave my room.  I was thinking everything was okay now and it was safe to come out of my cave. What I found was practically half my town sitting on my lawn, my host dad in serious talks with the rest of the authorities and my nurse, taking advantage of the opportunity, giving shots to the kids. Good morning Annie.

Now, the reason for all of this? In very basic terms, there was a fight. The reason why this was all happening at my house is that my host dad is the president of the Ronda, the vigilante group of my community, and he and the other authorities are in charge with handing these kinds of disputes. What I come to find out by asking various admirers was that a man, who may or may not have a mental illness, went bonkers in the morning and stabbed a lady many times. The lady was rushed to the hospital in Cajamarca, and the man who was accused of stabbing the lady was sitting in my living room. 

Normally in cases like these, the Ronda finds their own way of handing things (See Blog: Partying like it's 1499), but since this was a serious offense, they were handling over the man to the police in Bambamarca. The problem was, they had to figure out a way to get him there. The reason why that was a problem was that the people on my lawn wanted him dead. So as they took the man away, they went a back way to avoid the mob. And as my host mom described to me as the car pulled away, people just started running down the hill to see if they could catch it in the cross roads. What they would do if they caught it? I’m not sure I want to know. 

So there you have it folks, my Monday morning to start off the week. Can’t wait to see what happens tomorrow.