certification

Friday 22.7.2016

I am sick again.  Unbelievable.  I will never travel out of the country without taking probiotics.  I will never travel out of the country without taking probiotics.  I will never travel out of the country without taking probiotics.

In between fever-assisted naps on our bus ride, the landscape of southern Peru haunts us.  When I was younger I was obsessed with post-apocalyptic literature.  If the end of the world looks like the arid landscape south of Cusco, that romanticization has shattered.

There is so much sand and so little vegetation.  Brush is a surprise.  Mountains have brown craggy outcroppings which look older than the Appalachian foothills, the oldest entity aside from the sea I have ever seen.  Lighting is harsh and unwelcome, but my irises are painfully opened at every bump in the road, which in itself is a misnomer because the expanses of paved road are more surprising than the regular potholes.  

I’m not sure if this transit is a dream or not.  There are so many children without shoes and with inches of dust on their faces.  A family from Seattle is traveling on our bus and the youngest girl was crying at some point.

Molly is the only beautiful thing I see here.

Sleep is needed.