“Watch that guy over there!”
“The one in front of the cars?”
“Sick dance moves.”
“What are the odds you dance at an intersection?”
“Oh shoot no, that would be too awkward… 50.”
“3, 2, 1-“
“SEVENTEEN!”
“HOW DID YOU GUESS THE SAME NUMBER OUT OF FIFTY NUMBERS WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?”
Pro-tip #1: Never say a number with a 7 in it while playing ‘What are the Odds.’ The odds will NOT be in your favor. I’ve figured this out the hard way. And no, I haven’t had to dance in the middle of an intersection in Lima- yet. It’s bound to happen, though, because we have 7 more days here and my teammates aren’t likely to let that one go.
Week 7 of my 8-week adventure in Peru is coming to a close, and I’m?already feeling nostalgic. Those moments -the crazy ones where you’re shouting numbers at each other on the bus ride back from Machu Picchu- those are the ones we travel for. I would argue that, when it comes down to it, we travel across the world so we can laugh somewhere we’ve never laughed before.?And without humor, travel would just a?long, exhausting, expensive pastime.
My team consists of 12 students from the U.S., Germany, Russia, and Singapore. Humor has kept me sane in during some of the hardest moments?of this trip, and it would be a shame to forget them.
Here in Lima, I work for a wonderful organization called Ruwasunchis. A lot of our work is done in Spanish, which I love because of the challenge it presents. Unfortunately, it has made connecting with the staff on a deeper level difficult at times because jokes and ideas are lost in translation. Last week, I started giving the founder a hard time about his obsession with adding long?hashtags to all his social media posts, and that set the ball rolling (no, seriously- #Ruwasunchisamorcomunidadarteporqueestamosescribiendotodav?a).
We couldn’t stop laughing, and for the rest of the day and our lunch break we were poking fun at each other and the mood of the whole team felt lighter.
In life and in travel,?mistakes will be made and disasters are unavoidable. In my case this week, the disaster looked like Monday-night homemade crepes. Okay, “crepes” is a generous description… I didn’t exactly?measure how much milk or sugar I was supposed to add, and my weird bright orange eggs did something crazy to the texture. Pro-tip #2: if your “crepe” batter is just wrong, don’t just add a bunch of olive oil to try to fry it. It will just be even more sad-looking, and you will waste a lot of oil. Instead of taking it seriously and feeling really sad that you have to pour a bunch of batter down the drain, I recommend laughing it off. Cooking is hard, and measuring still isn’t worth it in my book…
Disastrous crepes aren’t the only the only experiences that call for a little laughter to lighten the mood. Hiking down from Machu Picchu was no joke, even though it only took 45 minutes and we were protected from the sun by the trees along the path.?I had a bad headache by the time we had explored Machu Picchu, hiked for an hour to a view?called Sungate, and prepared to head back to the city below. The steps were steep, and 10 minutes felt like an hour with a pounding headache and shaking legs. I decided to start telling my?walking buddies a story to?pass the time, so I chose a?favorite of mine from last summer: My best friend got married last August in New York, and I had the responsibility of handing her the wedding band during the service. Naturally, I forgot the ring upstairs in the church and was forced to hand her an invisible ring instead… It all worked out in the end, and will forever?be one of our favorite memories of that day. By the time I finished the story, we were close to the bottom and I was finally able to rest.
One of my favorite things about humor is that it reminds me of the character of Christ. He turned water into wine at a wedding,?told beautiful stories, and welcomed little kids into His arms. Sometimes when I laugh at a friend’s joke or giggle at something weird a stranger does in the airport, I think about Jesus, because He gets to see and hear it all. He is the reason we can be creative, funny, and kind.
Connecting traveling with the importance of humor, laughter, and not taking myself too seriously has changed the way I approach?every day here in Peru. Now, I look for more opportunities to laugh, smile, and appreciate what’s going on around me. Accounting test or Machu Picchu hike, humor makes life so much sweeter.
One last thing:?A travel pun.
Gig ’em.