Last week was a very stressful week. One of the hotels that supplies us with quite a bit of used vegetable oil was too busy to give us oil (twice!), and we skipped a week of going to the steel factory that also gives us a lot of oil. We were using more oil than we were producing and my stores were getting low. Then the one Peace Corps worker here in Pisco came by to see how much biodiesel he could get for the fishermen here, who get the fuel as a loan which they will pay back in a few months when their catch comes in. I couldn't actually give him any, and he was bugging me about getting more in a week...but I didn't even have enough raw oil to make more biodiesel! Luckily, the week turned out great because a new Burner girl named Page showed up who is interested in the project and also is fluent in Spanish! She called many places for me and has been running around town with me trying to find more. She even found a new culinary school just down the road and we're working on getting them as a supplier (will find out tomorrow - fingers are crossed!). All in all though, the week turned out okay. I got enough oil from places to turn out one batch that is washing at the moment, and tomorrow I'll start another. If they are good, I'll be all set.
On top of that good luck, today Page and I were walking around the main plaza trying to find more sources of oil, when this Peruvian man started talking to us. He asked first if we were PSF volunteers, then mentioned he is friends with Harold and Carolina (Harold is the PSF president and his sister, Carolina, is the house manager). He then said that he used to drive around with the old biodiesel volunteers to restaurants to get oil, and that he would do that for us for free! He said he's a volunteer too. How nice! So we got into his tuk-tuk and we stopped by a couple of places and talked to people. How awesome is that!?
In other news, my roommate Karine and I have become the new PSF barbers. I've probably done 5 or 6 men's haircuts/trims so far, and I have a bit of a waiting list now! I think though that from now on, a haircut is going to cost 10 soles (about $3.50) and maybe a beer. The beer for me to drink during the cut, and the 10 soles for the new jackhammer fund that PSF has started since our jackhammer broke and we desperately need a new one. I think I've been getting pretty good at cutting hair...but I really wouldn't want to do it for a living! I'd rather be a colorist, ha!
I like it here, but it really depends on the day and time of day you ask me. Some people here suck, and some are amazingly awesome. Sometimes I get stressed out driving the truck around all day, trying to get groups to their jobs, finding the places, and trying to get their quickly without smashing into a tuk-tuk or hitting a pedestrian that just walks out in front of traffic without looking. Sometimes I don't sleep well because it's hot and all night I can hear honking, huge trucks roaring by, and damned loud roosters crowing, so I get up in the morning tired and uninspired. And some days you talk to a local and have an amazing experience trying to sort through your broken Spanish and their broken English, but in the end you all just laugh a lot. Some days I forget I'm in Peru.
