At the lovely hour of 1 am, all of the exchange students who were invited met in San Borja to board our buses and begin the journey to Oxapampa. After a taxi ride with my host mother (she didn't want me in the city alone at night), I was able to board the bus and see all my friends. We were all very excited but of course tired as well, so as soon as the bus started going, we all fell asleep pretty quickly (or attempted to, I don't think anyone really slept that well).
When we awoke the next morning, we were in the jungle. The bus was definitely hotter than the night before and the scenery was longer a city landscape. The majority of the towns or civilizations we were passing were not only smaller but blatantly poor. We were supposed to arrive around 10, but we didn't actually arrive until around noon, meaning the majority of the exchange students went back to sleep.
Upon our arrival, the other exchange students and I were fairly surprised with our accommodations. Before coming I had thought we would be staying in something similar to a hostel, boy was I wrong. We ended up staying in an awesome little cabins. In my cabin was Elsbeth (Netherlands), Gracie (USA), Arianna (Italy), Appoline (France), and Emily (USA). In my opinion, we got the coolest cabin. Not only was it very large, but it had a jacuzzi (we couldn't use it) and it was where the Prima Dama de Perú stays when she visits Oxapampa.
After we got settled in our rooms, we headed out to explore the grounds of the hotel (they were pretty large). Before long, we all went to go eat lunch. For lunch, we were eating the classic foods of the area (cheese and sausages/meats that weren't chicken). We also got a taste of the strong German influence on the area, with some traditional Bavarian dances going on as we ate. Of course, some of the exchange students had to join in.
After we finished lunch, we brought out the things of food we had all collected to donate along with the wheelchairs to everyone. After packing up all the bags, we set them aside to rehearse our number that we would also be performing for the event. Afterwards, we all loaded the buses with our bags and set off to the city center to the event.
Once we arrived we stared assembling all of the wheelchairs. Within a little time, all of wheelchairs were assembled and we were ready to go. We ended up getting all lined up with our flags and having our names announced. We all received medals in gratitude along with a certificate. Afterwards, we all went back to the wheelchairs so we could begin giving them out. Once everyone had received their wheelchairs, we performed our dance (a success). On our way back up to the stage, we received some more gifts from the lovely people of Oxapampa, a cowboy hat and a wall decoration.
After everyone had a wheelchair, we set off in a parade around the town to celebrate with the town. We carried our flags and waved at the people as we went. The most memorable part of parade for me was the joy on a 10-year olds face as him and his dad played around with the boy's wheelchair.
After the parade, we all rejoined the stage. Sara (Italy) gave a speech on the behalf of the exchange students and Madelaine (France) read a poem. We then watched some more traditional German dances, before we were all invited to join them down below. Me being me, I got a an ambitious partner, who chose to drag me into the middle twice to dance. This wasn't booty shaking dancing, this was dancing that involved my feet leaving the air because my partner and another boy from a different couple linked arms and twirled us into the air for a solid 15 seconds. I won't forget the look of panic I sent Tiia before my feet left the ground. And of course, I went a second time, although it was a different technique. After I was done being thrown into the air, we continued the dancing until the party ended. We then took pictures with the dancers before we all went to the hotel and called it a night.
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