Slow Start in Ayacucho

This is going to sound crazy but I am currently staying with a Peruvian family living in Ayacucho in exchange for English lessons. I was sitting at the bus stop (a fly-ridden, litter-covered, smelly bench next to the road) and after waiting an hour I decided to address my brave fellow bencher. Carlos had been in Pisco on business (he works for the Red Cross...not sure doing what...my grasping of Spanish translations for those sorts of occupations are minimal at best) and was with his wife, Mery. We got to talking and he was distantly related to Rudy, one of the program managers at CCS where I volunteered in Ayacucho last summer, and his wife was very sweet. About five minutes in, she flat-out asked me if I wanted to stay in their house in Ayacucho. She taunted me with talk of two computers with internet and a great location blocks away from both CCS houses (where I was expecting to be fed for the next week of course). Since I already had a hostel booked for that night I gently declined and told her I´d call the next day.
Well, how fortunate is it for me that there happens to be a goddang strike for the next two days. My hostel is a 15-minute walk from the CCS house and when I talk to Marisol (my other program manager from CCS last year), she tells me that gringos probably should just stay inside for the next two days. I am getting so sick of hearing that... I came all this way and for the past two days it´s as if Ayacucho is closed, and c´mon I am half-Colombian... why did I have to turn out so ... WHITE? No stores are open and neither are Wawa-wasi´s, and cars are banned from the roads. This means no shopping for the kids, no wandering around the markets, no internet cafe´s and no mid-day lattes with a book. I am trapped and I do not like it one bit. I walked past the familiar Plaza de Armas last night (where an American flag was burned earlier) with day-mares of being stoned to death. In reality it´s really not very dangerous, but being here the second time around without the safety blanket of the CCS walls (or my posse -- Tanya, Julie, Anna, that´s you -- to protect me from things like boredom, loneliness, foolish fears) is turning out to be much much harder.
Anyway, so back to my current living situation. One full day and night without transit and engulfing loneliness and I called Mery and Carlos. They warned me to leave my hotel by 7:30 a.m. tommorow (today) to start walking across town to their house. Otherwise, you know, the protesters start lighting fires and what not. I cannot convey to you how bizarre it is to walk through a dusty city which is in every way the opposite of what you know, in the morning light that only 7 a.m. can offer, with a giant pack on your back and a smaller one in front, on a street with no cars, only staring locals. I was wary of every man. Does he look politically invested? Will he start chasing me for the cause (what cause? I have no clue)? Maybe my yellow moccasins are too obnoxious... I just wish I had a buddy. Any buddy would do. I´m not picky at this point. The CCS house is packed with volunteers, but they are all strongly invested in their cliques at this stage. I have done this. I should know. I have chatted around the same lunch tables as I did a year ago, where they still serve fruit for dessert and I still lunge for the kiwi´s (Tanya I thought you´d appreciate that), but I have not yet found a worthy discoteca-hopping partner. Otherwise, I am focused on my plan for the kids. To either get plans for a playground underway or to buy them all new clothes and take them on day trips. I am writing up a proposal for the playground tonight and having Marisol translate it and hand it to the appropriate person. But, still I am doubtful of the probability of success even with more money. CCS has many interns very invested in a new school with dangerous hygiene, and if it will prove more effective, I may just piggy-back onto that project for the next few days.
With Pancho´s help I began charting the rest of my travels today (I´m leaning towards Arequipa and then Trujillo, and yes these are world´s apart) and today I helped Mery with her English homework. I have clean clothes (which I washed for free at the CCS house) and tomorrow there will be maniacal taxi drivers all over the roads once again and I will be with my kids and Bertha by 8:30 a.m... Apparently they have been asking about me (which of course I secretly love). They know I am coming soon and they are excited and I cannot wait to see them. I´ve got a giant bag of animal crackers and some psychadelic stickers ready to go for my first day back. Mery´s friend is coming over soon and we are just going to chat in English for a while. How funny to have stumbled upon an exchange program here in Ayacucho at a time when I needed it the most. Family equals stability to me. Stability equals sanity. But still, I feel a twinge of homesickness, for my family, my friends, Kevin, a cheeseburger, a different pair of jeans, an endless supply of clean socks, my own bed (which is actually now David´s so...that´s just silly of me).