I like to think that good friendships make themselves. My best and favorite relationships have surprised me. Such is the case with one of my dear Peru 17 BFF's, the one and only, Amanda Slack. Slack gets her own blog post because she is mentioned frequently in my little corner of the interweb here and it is about time I share with you why she comes up so much. Partly it's because we spend a lot of time together; but mostly, it's because she is the perfect combination of awesome and strange. Strange things happen to strange people, and the same can be said for awesome. So here you have it, the ballad of Amandita.
June 9th: Staging: An awkward and emotionally draining day. After making it through the paperwork, I landed at a table of people I didn't know with the very enthusiastic staging lady pushing an activity form at me telling me to go around and get to know people with this lame 'get to know you' game. She walked away and I said, to no one in particular, "What if I don't want to get to know people right now?" In the 3 seconds between saying this and grabbing my phone to take advantage of my last day of ATT service to text Joe, I noticed out of the corner of my eye this girl across the table cracking up and smiling at me. Hmm. Is she laughing at me? I think so. I put her on the list of friend potentials and kept an eye on her for the next few days.
Jump to host family match ups in the lawn of the Santa Eulalia training center. Names were called and we were matched up with our training host families. While patiently and anxiously waiting to get my family, I remember noticing an interesting event. There are 3 Amandas in Peru 17. The training staff member who was reading off our names and giving us our living assignments was only reading first names. When 'Amanda' was called, the girl from staging that had sparked my curiosity took the assignment without hesitation and I didn't recall a last name being specified. I thought this was a little weird, and had a flash of a thought to ask what last name they meant, but hey, I'm not an Amanda. This was none of my business. Little did I know, I was letting a miracle happen right there. What had happened is that Amanda Slack went home with the family that was meant for Amanda McCullough... in a neighborhood for more advanced Spanish speakers, which, at the time, Amanda Slack was not.
So there we are in Yanacoto, Amanda Slack, myself, and 5 others. Night one of our Yanacoto life and we were all at the soccer court getting to know the locals. At this point, Amanda's Spanish was a series of nods, "Siii!" and "¿Cuantos años tienes?" So on that first night, when a strapping young chap approached her and (unbeknownst to us) fell in love at first sight, Slack simply nodded and agreed with everything he had to say. This deep and intimate conversation led to what Brice Corts so appropriately described as Love in Yanacoto. What does that entail? See photo here:
If a giant mural in itself hadn't raised her to celeb status in Yanacoto, her charm and charisma would have. You see, Amanda has the ability to make any Peruvian she talks to fall in love with her immediately. I think it's a mix of her humility and awkwardly lovable persona. The mural wasn't her only Yanacoto legacy. She also left that place with a godchild and a host family ready to make the 8 hour trip to visit her as soon as they can.
Anyway, it took just a few days for us to realize the Amanda mix up in Yanacoto, and when we did, there was no way we were going to give our Amanda up to another neighborhood. In less than a week from meeting her, she had gone from friend potential to the top of the friends list. During training, we shared many combi rides (some good, some not so good), daily walks up/ down the beast of a hill that is Yanacoto, random nights, random days, lots of chisme, awkward Spanish mix ups, and plenty of Snacks. In the days leading up to site assignments, it was sad to think that we might not end up in the same place, so I tried not to think about it.
But then by another Peace Corps miracle, on site assignment day, we found ourselves in the same group headed to La Libertad. I couldn't have been happier. What does it mean to have one of your favorite Peace Corps cohorts from training in your department? It means random texts like, "Um, I just got invited to a naked beach. Like seriously, what is going on?" or delightful facebook messages, like, "my fams gone and im alone and i tried to do laundry and it exploded everywhere. so freaked out. like i dunno. i went outside and was hanging up my clothes and i came back to a lake. i don't know and don't wanna know but cant hide it. the whole town probs knows cuz neighbor saw. like freak out more. but call me tonight. love you. cracking up." or phone calls like, "sooo... my host fam just came in the bathroom while I was showering... and they asked about my earrings while i was standing there naked. Oh and by the way, they call security every time I leave the house, no wonder why all the security guards are always saying "Hola Amandita" like, seriously?" or late night cab rides when she asks the driver for a bedtime story... "¿sabes Goodnight Moon?" I could go on forever. This also means that she has to put up with texts and calls from me like, "Uh... I think I am getting kidnapped tomorrow." or "Damn it. I wish I had explosive diarrhea right now." She always knows what to say and these things are not weird at all. I love it.
Living just a few hours from Slack is one of the best parts of my Peace Corps life so far. Not only am I constantly entertained by her adventures and hilarious story telling abilities, but I am also inspired by the way she just jumps in and talks to anyone, anytime, in any variety of Spanish possible. I clam up so often when speaking Spanish that I admire her fearless attitude and confidence. The improvement in her Spanish from that first night in Yanacoto to now is so immense and impressive that I can't even explain it.
So here's to you Amandita. Thanks for being an inspiration, a constant source of entertainment, and the best wingman I could have asked for. Stay awesome.
Yanacoto: The Early Days
Style.
Grace.
Peruvians love this girl.
...I mean, LOVE this girl.
