Coming home

My last day in Cusco I woke up late after a night of fiestas. I drank the fresh, fresh juice Maria had made for me and tried to drink in every moment the way I savoured that juice. Our final meal as a group of student volunteers was shared at the same restaurant where we tasted our first. My Spanish professor came with her big-eyed little boy with an Italian name: Fabriccio. When we left she hugged me and thanked me for my support. I learned so much more from her than I ever have in any other Spanish class thus far. I said goodbye to the group and began my last meanderings through my beautiful city of stone and history and shaggy stray dogs. I met Denis at our spot at the bench at Limac Pampa. We ran some of my last errands and ate ahuaymanto (a fruit which only grows in the department of Cusco) and sauco ice cream at the place across from the Qoricancha or the Incan temple of gold that was replaced by the church when the Spanish came and stripped away all its beauty. I listened to the last vendors as they implored me to buy their finger puppets or their watercolors for 1 sol. Then I went to Denis' house for the first time in my entire three months and some odd days in Cusco. She lives high above San Blas up where you can see the entire city of Cusco. If you jumped off the cliffed you could soar over the orange tile roofs and land lightly on top of one of the cathedrals in the Plaza de Armas. Travelling to her house, we took a combi and I experienced for the last time the life of a sardine hispanohablante. I was greeted by her mother, who kissed me on the cheek, hugged me, and wished me a safe journey while she held my hands and smiled. We had come to retrieve the monstrosity of a suitcase Denis was giving me to tote home my many gifts for my loved ones back home. In the car I laughed and sang along to "I'm never gonna dance again... guilty feet have got no rhythm..." but at the same time I was crying because I would be saying goodbye to the dear friend with whom I shared it all. What emotions one feels when torn between two worlds and two families she holds dear.

We said goodbye, or "see you later" as she insisted over an over again through tear-clouded eyes. I will never forget her laughter, or her hugs which hold nothing back, or the way we could switch between languages without blinking. I know I will see her again. So now I am smiling.

That night Edson, Evelyn, and Maria took me out for my favorite Hawaiiana pizza with extra durazno and sin jamon. We laughed over the slow service at a place called "pronta pizza" while we sipped our chicha morada and they asked me again and again when I would be coming back to visit them. I said that I didn't know, but I thought, "as soon as possible." They are a part of my family now, a part of my story. They have taught me more than every teacher combined thus far. Maria wondered why I had to leave, and a few times I wondered myself. If only I could find a way to keep them close at hand along with all of you. Along with all of my friends from Swaziland and all of the dear, dear friends who (despite all my idealism) will inevitably slip away.

Afterwards we exchanged gifts. I was amazed by how much they gave me, and once I touched the alpaca teddy bear I didn't want to let it go. I gave them a picture frame filled with a picture of the four of us. I had glued huayruro seeds for good luck all around the frame. It surrounded our picture like a halo of happiness. I know they won't forget the time we've shared.

Then I had to say goodbye to Evelyn and Edson. I cannot imagine more special people to have as friends, as family. They are so much to me. And the tears came like they always do. I held onto those hugs because I didn't want them to end. I will forever have an older brother now! How lucky can one girl be?

The next day was really the last. I said goodbye to the girls in my group who I had spent so many hours with dreaming about foods we missed instead of studying, sharing stories, jokes, and three months of our lives together. More ice cream. More laughter. I cried as Pepe and Andrea ushered me into my cab home and felt cheated when the taxista wanted me to pay an extra 50 centimos for a ride I had paid the same rate for every time. But I paid it. Maybe it will help him. Maybe the next crying girl that hops in his cab will not be charged the gringa rate. Or maybe like me, she will no longer care. He doesn't make much money as it is.

Maria made me ceviche but I could barely eat it for all the butterflies in my stomach about leaving. She smiled and said she understood. Esmeralda arrived and we went to the airport with one overweight bag and one backpack that needed to be wrapped in plastic, or so said the attendant. The plastic came with a password so I would know it was my bag. Maria, in the way she has of doing things just when I need to be somewhere, wrote my family a note and a small one for me that said in one corner "saludos a Yessi" just when I should have been going to my gate. Or maybe she was only trying to put off my leaving. As I stared at the expensive leather jackets in the boutique in front of us, my eyes began to tear and Esmeralda hugged me and took a picture with her camera phone. We will miss you, oh how we will miss you, she kept saying. And then it was time. I hugged my Maria hard. My dear Maria. My Peruvian mother, who smiled more than anyone I've ever met, who would fall asleep on the couch every night, who actually enjoyed watching BBC news with me even though it was in English, who knew so much about food, who made sure I had everything and took care of me as though we really were blood related. She embodies the word amazing.

I cried what seemed like as much as the Amazon river, and when the airport workers tried to comfort me, I cried more. Are you leaving your boyfriend here? they asked. They spoke to me in English but I replied in Spanish. It comforted me somehow. I told them I was going to my boyfriend, and they said I should be happy. I was happy. Happy-sad.

In Lima, my Peruvian brother Orlando picked me up and took me on combi after combi through the big city of 9 million. I drank my last cusqueña with him and his friend, a math teacher of thirteen year olds. He told me to hold my bag close by and he held my teddy bear, who I named Mohammed. He enjoyed playing with it more than he would let on. Later we said goodbye when the airport attendant wouldn't let him go further. He's a city slicker, but he's got a heart as big as Edson's.

And in this way I left Peru. I left behind my gifts for the family, some shampoo and lotion for the next ProPeru volunteers, my luggage (but that is another story), and as Vuyo in Swaziland would say, a big chunk of my heart. Pretty soon you'll find pieces of my heart floating all over this earth. But it was worth every heart-wrenching moment to have the experience I've had and to have met such extroardinary people. If you ever go to Cusco, you will find poverty and men urinating in the streets and hundreds of people hungry to feed on unsuspecting tourists, but you will find a people full of life and love and culture begging you not to cry and filling your time there with joy and dancing and color. If you ever go to Cusco, you will need to go back.

Free Trade Agreement?

http://www.worldpress.org/Americas/2993.cfm

You may or may not remember that a few years ago there was a free trade agreement in the works between the United States and the group of Andean countries. Now it's just Peru! It's been a topic of conversation several times in our political science class, so I thought you might want to read up on it. In the opinion of the man who came to speak to us about globalization, this agreement would do great things for Peru's economy and not much for the U.S. other than give us an in in Latin America to try to shove out the influence of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. It may also be difficult for Peruvian farmers to compete with farmers in the U.S. who are receiving subsidies. Corn, for example, is a major crop here.

I thought it was important for me to inform you as your representative from Peru about what is going on of importance politically/economically in these parts. In the most recent democratic debate (with I watched half in Spanish so Edson could watch with me) this was a talking point. So now you know! What do you think?

Me voy por avión

I’m sad to say that the end of my time here in Peru will soon come to an end. Can you believe how quickly the months have passed? At times it felt like it would never end but now that it is the time is slipping through my fingers and I will be leaving in less than a week. Tears will be spilled for sure when I leave my family and Denis and everyone else that I’ve met here. But I’ll also be thrilled to come home. So I’m stuck here in the middle, torn between two worlds I love…

Things I Won’t Miss About Cusco

• the number of stray dogs on the street that could decide to be rabid at any moment (I have a pretty irrational fear built up and I still avoid the mean dog down the street)
• the lack of toilet paper in every bathroom
• cab drivers that get a little too personal and/or try to give you the gringa price
• the forever uneven sidewalks that create impassable puddles of muddy water
• the cloud of black smog that follows every bus
• the river lleno de garbage
• the fact that in the touristy areas my white face says dollar signs to every vendor within a three mile radius
• the amount of gas I have at this altitude and not being able to control it at key moments… haha…

Things I Will Miss TERRIBLY About Cusco

• Being able to communicate in SPANISH all day every day
• My family and our little house with the white picket fence
• When Edson decides to sing a song while wearing a shawl over his head like a widow
• Greeting every single person with a kiss on the cheek when I walk in a room
• Being called “Laurita”
• Hearing a song I like on the radio and telling the cab driver to turn it up!
• The orange roofs and the blue, blue sky
• Hearing the doormen on the combis speak like auctioneers as they fly by
• Watching the ladies from the campo with their mantas and realizing just when I am right behind them that they have a little baby wrapped up in those blankets on their backs
• Buying Princesa bars at a grocery store called La Canasta (the basket)
• Listening to my sobrinos (nieces and nephews) play and hearing Estrella say funny things like ‘aña instead of España and saying “mío” all the time
• Meeting Denis and speaking our own mixture of Spanish and English while walking in the rain every time
• The satisfaction of grasping a great deal more about the politics of Latin America than I did when I came
• Eating mangoes, Maria’s hot chocolate, choclo and the big popcorn it makes, quinua, coca tea, muña (the Peruvian mint)
• My favorite tree in all of Cusco
• My favorite plazoleta
• Dancing my heart out at Garabatos
• Playing with the kids at Conchacalla
• Maria’s smile that only fades when she yells at me to wear my coat!
• The fact that every single child I have ever seen here has been adorable
• That certain place on the way to school where the cab and combi drivers always cross themselves
• Watching women weave or spinning their alpaca yarn
• The Andes
• Evelyn’s accent when she speaks English and the way she says everything is “superlindo”
• The heavy, warm alpaca blankets on my bed
• Cusqueña
• Edson, Evelyn, Denis, Maria, Esmeralda, Milagro, Irma, Lucio, Pepe, Suci, the really nice smiley man who sits at the reception desk at the CBC, the girl in the bakery who’s learning English, the old man who sits on the stone with our street name every morning, the ladies selling papaya with their monotone voices, etc.

Tú vives equivocada

Sometimes I get really mad at Peruvians. It’s usually when I leave political science class. A lot of times it happens when we’re discussing the government’s use of funds. But most recently it had to do with their treatment of the environment.

There’s a river that runs through Cusco called Huatanay. It runs right by the Molino, and right by the neighborhood in San Jeronimo where we start going up the mountain to Conchacalla. It is hands down the dirtiest river I have ever seen in my life. It looks like a dump. It is absolutely full of every piece of trash imaginable. It’s a nasty color. It smells. It makes you want to vomit.

One day in political science class Carlos brought in a guy who I believe works with the municipality to talk about Peru’s environmental policy. Carlos is very proud of the fact that some of the “rights” included under the constitution of Peru (which has been rewritten more than 12 times since Peru became a Republic) are rights that protect the environment and animals. It sounds really wonderful and cutting-edge. Certainly a lot better than what we have in our own country, but unfortunately it’s not put into practice. The speaker went on and on about how great these laws are for the whole class. Afterwards is when I dove in.

I didn’t hold back. I asked what was being done. I asked why Huatanay was allowed to remain that way in a country with laws designed to protect the environment. I asked what kids were being taught in school. I asked why there weren’t recycling programs. The answers: there is no interest, there aren’t really any student groups like Greenthumb fighting to get things done, and that there has been pressure on the government to clean up Huatanay for years but it has never been done. That Peru doesn’t have the resources or technology for a recycling program.

And he’s right. The bigger issues here in Peru are putting food on the table, finding stable employment, trying to get an education in the country declared the worst in primary education, and in getting through university when the professors are on strike half of your college career. It’s hard to think about the environment when your only goal is to survive.

But I had still hoped for more out of Peruvians. And in reality they aren’t completely oblivious. Edson himself once mentioned wanting to have a tree planting day and I’ve talked with him multiple times about the lack of green space in the city (he blames the architects that design the parks here). Carlos talks about Huatanay every chance he gets on television. The laws for passage on the Inca trail are becoming stricter an effort to preserve Machu Picchu. (In exasperation, I was citing the rules in Machu Picchu and wondering how the Peruvians could have pride predominantly in the pieces of land that could generate profit.

What ended up being even more saddening for me than the lack of drive of Peruvians to fight to preserve the incredible beauty of their land was the ignorance of one of my classes on the abuses of the United States to the environment. She was for some reason defending the U.S. after the speaker had spoken of our contribution to global warming. She was unaware that we did not sign Kyoto. She was arguing that Peruvians contribute more to the destruction of this earth. I felt frustrated by her lack of knowledge and the fact that her questions were getting in the way of the pressure I was trying to put on the speaker.

Because of all of this, I am unbelievably grateful for what I have in the form of Greenthumb. Our little environmental club faces obstacles, challenges, and frustrations in Lexington, but we keep fighting. We see the need and we will make sacrifices to try to chip away at the damage we are doing to our Earth. If any of you are reading this, know that we are a powerful group and that we have an extremely noble cause. And any change we are able to make is going to help Peru, which is one of the places in the world most impacted by the changes caused by global warming. The same people chucking their chicha bags in the river are watching as all of the snow in their mountains dries up and their corn crops are ruined by later and later rainy seasons. My hope for Peru is that it will someday arrive in a place where the environment becomes more of a priority, but until then we will have to work individually and through groups like Greenthumb to make sure the people of the Andes don’t bear the brunt of the suffering and sink further into poverty.

Another time I was more shocked than mad. The subject was violence in the politics of Latin America. My professor began to talk about all of golpes del estado and military takeovers, guerillos, and terrorist organizations. Later he talked about what violence is to Latinos. He said that when Latin Americans can’t get what they want through the system legally, they will use force. He called violence a resource that they can always turn to. He even gave an example about a cause of his own and said he would use force if necessary to achieve his goal. Needless to say, it was a little disturbing to me, forever the idealist. But it’s certainly true in terms of history.

Later when I talked to Edson about it I got a different perspective. He was surprised that Carlos had used the word “resource”, but he said this idea was human nature. Violence is what happens when people can’t get their way peacefully. He cited the worker’s riots in Chicago and said that in some ways America had started it all… Latin Americans learn about those riots in school, but I can’t recall when I might have studied those riots. The Chicago fire gets more attention.

As I thought about violence in our own country, I realized that we may be a bit guiltier of using it as a resource than I’d realized. George Bush certainly seems to view it as a resource, and at times bypasses attempts to get what he wants peacefully or with the guidance of the United Nations.

So here I am with my frustrations at Peruvians that turn out to be frustrations at my own country and humans in general…

Sometimes I get really mad at Peruvians. But maybe I should direct the greater part of that anger back home.

Todavía diahrrea

The title of this blog entry is the name of a song that my friend Amy is going to write about her experience in Perú. Unfortunately, it also describes our trip to Machu Picchu.

The first day we met up with our guide Johan (who had an annoying habit of saying señoritas about a thousand times per sentence) for our 6 hour hike from km. 104 on the camino Inca. I thought that it would be fairly leisurely, having heard that it was the easiest hike you could take to Machu Picchu. I was wrong. It was really hard. A lot of the time I could barely breathe. I had to be given oxygen several times. It was quite scary. I guess being here 2 months to get used to the altitude wasn't quite enough time for my poor lungs... At least the path itself was beautifully green and full of flowers and trees and all the things I've been missing in the dry season in Cusco. I just wish there weren't so many steps... I can't even imagine doing the 4 day hike! Most of the group did do that one, and they haven't come back yet to report on how it went.

When we finally arrived at Machu Picchu to catch the last bus down to Aguas Calientes, we were able to see Machu Picchu as the sun was setting behind the mountains. It's really an incredible sight, a gigantic stone playground that was once an amazing city full of the religion of the Incas and wondrous irrigation systems. I was too tired then to enjoy it, but I figured I had the entire next day...

We hiked up the hill to the medicinal baths that gave Aguas Calientes its name. They smelled a bit like egg drop soup, but they were pretty southing after a long day of hiking. Then we ate dinner at a small hole in the wall of a restaurant that I am now blaming for the stomach problems both Amy and I woke up with the next day. What a ridiculous day to be sick! I was pretty disappointed, but I pushed myself enough to take the tour up and down the city for a few minutes before I was too exhausted to move anymore, having only eaten crackers and running to the bathroom at least every ten minutes. Fun times. Hopefully someday I can go back and experience Machu Picchu the way it should be. But for now I'm probably going to look back on it as poopy times.

Luckily for me my stomach issues seem to have cleared up pretty quickly at this point. Last night I was able to go out for dinner with Edson and Maria so that they could try falafel. As far as I could tell they liked it. I think they actually liked the hummus best. This weekend I'm planning to go camping in Pisac with Evelyn and Edson, so I'm pretty excited about that! Until then, I hope these blog entries have satisfied you and filled you in on all you've been missing.

I miss you all!

Fotos para ver

Here are some links to more photos from recent events. Enjoy!

http://utk.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2169509&l=a84d5&id=12900100

http://utk.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2169517&l=daea0&id=12900100

Mis cumpleaños

My birthday here in Cusco ended up being a blast. Of course I missed my family and Jesse and all of my friends back home terribly, but I made it work here!

A few days before Halloween I convinced Edson and Maria that we had to have a jack-o-lantern, so we went on a quest with Evelyn at the Molino to find the perfect calabasa (which I always learned was the word for pumpkin). It turned out calabasas were not much like pumpkins at all. They're a lot smaller and an entirely unsuitable shape. So then we started looking for a good zapallo (squash which also sometimes means pumpkin so I'm kind of confused, to say the least), but they were all HUGE... about 25 kilos each... So we didn't find one that day at the molino. But the next day Edson went out and brought home a nice, round, green zapallo that could sit up on its own! So we got to work. We decided to make a traditional face since this was the first jack-o-lantern for the household. Edson was really into it and he did most of the carving himself. I was really thrilled by how much he enjoyed it, and how Maria and Evelyn ooohed and ahhed and wanted to have their pictures made with it after we put in the vela (candle) and put it outside in all its Halloween glory.

On the night of Halloween, my sobrinos (niece and nephews) came over and Edson and I took Valeria and Eduardo to the plaza to go trick-or-treating. It was really interesting to experience it in a different way. Valeria was the evil witch from snow white (although I'm pretty sure she thought she was the princess), Eduardo was hombre araña (Corey and Jonathan would get along well with him) which from what I could tell was the most popular costume of the evening. I was a cuy (that's right, a guinea pig) and Edson was Pablito or Pablucha, a guy from a legend about a girl who got raped by a bear and Pablito saved the day by killing the oso. His costume was pretty awesome. You'll have to consult the pictures.

To say "trick or treat" the kids would just scream "HALLOWEEEEN" at each of the stores in the plaza. By the time we got there, almost all of them were saying "ya no hay" since they had run out early on. Clearly these people have not yet mastered the concept of Halloween. But they do it in their own way, I suppose. It was really cool to be in the plaza with all the lights and a TON of parents and children. It was a little bit more magical than walking down the streets of Greenbriar, but it didn't have the same neighborhood feeling when you ring the doorbell and see someone who has essentially watched you grow up and knows it's your birthday so they give you a dollar!

After we went around the plaza for awhile, we headed back since Eduardo was almost asleep and just barely trudging along. Estrella was there too, but her fear of masks kept her from going out in her cute Tinkerbell costume. She probably stayed at home where she could rule everyone by looking cute and screaming, "agua!" because she didn't want to eat. Anyway, we got back home and started getting ready for my birthday party! All the students in the program came along with my friend Denis and her friend Rocío. Most of the ProPeru girls were dressed up as "revolutionaries" including Tupac Amaru, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara. Essentially their costumes involved drawing mustaches on each other and wearing hats. Although Michelle's Che costume was pretty convincing. Dane, Grant, and Carly wore traditional outfits they rented complete with limp stuffed llamas. I really enjoyed the party, and probably drank most of the cuba libres (coke and rum) available. During the course of the evening, each of Maria's other children called me to say Happy Birthday! We went out to the plaza shortly afterwards, but I didn't last long.

It was really an amazing birthday. Thanks to everyone who sent me something in the mail or wrote me an email or a facebook message or even sent me warm wishes! I'm a very lucky girl. It was a great birthday! I'm 22!

Viajera solita

BOLIVIA

Next stop: Bolivia. I left the other girls with a German, dread-locked friend we made at the bus station to catch my bus for La Paz. I was on my own. Ahh! I was on my own!

It didn’t end up being that scary really, in fact a lot of what’s between Puno and La Paz is considerably more flat than Cusco. My first bus was a group of students from all over the world (Israel, Korea, England, Denmark, and Switzerland to name a few) all taking a bus to Copacabana, Bolivia which is just over the border. The border wasn’t so eventful, just some stamps and a little kid who spoke all kinds of languages just from working selling cigarettes and candy there on the border line. I felt somehow less worried or daunted being with a group of people my own age all in it for the adventure and excitement! Of course, none of them seemed to be traveling alone.

We made it to Copacabana in time for the sunset at which point the seven or eight of us NOT going to Copacabana were informed we had to switch buses. Okay, no one mentioned this! Stay calm. We got on a bus full of jolly traveling Peruvians and continued on our way. It quickly became dark, and in what seemed like the middle of the night the bus came to a halt. Tired, disgruntled Peruvians filed off the bus as if stopping here is routine. Well. Okay. Maybe this is a bathroom break? The seven of us silly tourist students left on the bus were next informed that we would be getting off to take a boat. A boat?! What?! Are we at the ocean? No one said anything about a boat! But we filed off, me taking all my luggage and wondering if I would be stranded in a strange Bolivian city. Turns out there is a small stretch of water (El Estrecho de Tiquina if you ever travel from Peru to Bolivia) that you must cross to save four hours of driving time to La Paz! It costs 1 Boliviano and 50 centimos and you get an exciting midnight boat ride (or daylight, of course)! It ended up being beautiful to sit there with the other student travelers (we had a boat to ourselves because we were the clueless ones who got on last) under the starry, starry sky of the Southern Hemisphere.

It turned out the 3 Koreans in the boat were filming a documentary as a final project for school. They were very energetic and talkative, and spoke English quite well but very little Spanish. One of the guys was the camera man and another was going around the boat asking for the complete story of all present. What? You’re from Kentucky? KENTUCKY FRY CHICKEN! Without fail that is what they know of Kentucky. When the Swiss couple across from me (French Switzerland, sorry Jesse) realized I was traveling alone they were impressed. You’re traveling alone?! You must be so brave! Yes, they too spoke English as did the entire student bus. We really need to catch up to this knowing more than one language phenomenon! Their comments only made me feel more alone and frightened as I glanced at my watch and realized my chances of making it to La Paz to catch the last bus for Oruro were pretty slim…

Needless to say, we made it across, and the bus went in its own little boat and then we all piled on for the rest of the ride. When we got to La Paz, I asked a cab driver if he knew when the last bus would leave for Oruro. He seemed to think there was one left (this was at 10:30), so I decided to make a run for it despite offers from the friendly Swiss folk to share a cab to the main square and help me find hostel. I ran into the bus terminal (a big, fancy yellow one like a girl from Cusco has never seen!) only to hear the ladies singing out another city name. I asked hopefully, “Oruro?” but the lady just shook her head and said “Ya no hay!” And that’s when it hit me. I was alone in a city of a million people. I had no guide book, no idea of a hostel, and no internet café to check for the one Tiffany had sent me. There were lots of lights and endless hills of lit up houses and plenty of areas that were probably dangerous that I had no clue about. I started to panic. But, behold, I saw the light of the information booth and I knew what I had to do. I asked the woman for a safe hostel. She pointed across the street to a place called El Tambo de Oro or something like that. So I went, with my bags, asked for a room, called Tiffany using a funky calling card with a chip that I bought from the front desk, and went to sleep.

It’s nice to know in some ways that I am capable of traveling alone at night in a foreign country without getting mugged or having a nervous break down or wandering into the wrong side of town. But do I want to do it again anytime soon? No way. I much prefer traveling with someone I trust. Is that the State Farm motto? Sorry. But really, I love traveling, but not alone. I want someone to laugh with and take pictures with and chuckle about that unexpected boat with! What is a trip without a friend? Lonely.

I finally made it to Oruro the next morning (and learned that a bus filled to capacity is not really to capacity if the aisle isn’t filled as well) and my friend Tiffany at the bus terminal. I felt so at ease to see a familiar place and know that I was safe and not alone. She introduced me to her peace corps friends and peace corps life, as well as the decidedly non-touristy destination of Oruro. We ate pizza and had beers and watched Grey’s Anatomy (sometimes sitcoms from the homeland can be extremely comforting, okay?!). The next day we went to Huari, the town where she is living in the altiplano of Bolivia. The altiplano, as you may guess, is high and flat. It’s a desert climate. There aren’t many trees. But there is a beer factory and one of the most beautiful sunsets I’ve ever seen and plenty of kids to run after Tiffany crying, “Profe!” They really do ask where she has lost herself when she is gone. She is the local gringa celebrity. She lives in a purple house and cooks gourmet meals on her miniature stove and has learned to save water because a lot of the time during the day there is no running water. I enjoyed my time with her a great deal, and was glad to have been brave enough to travel alone to visit her even for a short time! I even got to go with her to buy her bicycle in La Paz!

So I returned home, this time on what claimed to be a direct bus but didn’t turn out to be (we had to switch yet again when we got to Peru). I sat next to a nice Irish girl who happened to also be traveling alone in South America! I also talked to a Norwegian girl who would soon be visiting Houston, Texas and who missed chocolate a great deal and had not even a hint of an accent in her English. It was a much more tranquil period of travel, even when the woman took my ticket and never gave it back and I had to explain that to the ticket guy when we changed buses…

I was so unbelievably relieved to be back in Peru. Cusco really felt like home to me, and just being here and knowing I would soon be in my own bed under the Van Gogh copy done by Edson with my host family who takes care of me and worried an amazing amount about my terrible sunburn. Home, sweet home. At least for now.

Puno Quema

Hello everyone!

So as you may have noticed it’s been a really long time since I’ve written.

And I have a lot to fill you in on! So I’m going to separate it into different blog entries for organization's sake and so you don’t have to read it in one solid sit at the computer.

I have good news about my camera! It’s fixed. The day before I left for Bolivia (as much a procrastinator as ever), Evelyn’s younger sister Suci (I believe her full name is Suciel or something along those lines) was kind enough to take me to her friend who knows how to fix cameras. Evelyn was actually the one who called him up and she only referred to me as a friend so he wouldn’t know I was a gringa and give me a gringa price. Or maybe just because I am a friend. Anyway, Suci took me to this guy’s house. We went into a weird dark garage-like room and he looked at my camera. He didn’t know if he could, but he agreed to try to fix that day for the low low price of 60 soles (which is 20 bucks, so literally, a steal). Later I went back with Edson and he had fixed it! Hooray! I couldn’t believe it! It felt like a miracle. I mean, can you imagine getting a camera fixed for that cheap in the US? I sure can’t.

So I was ready to depart. I packed up all the traveling essentials (which ended up fitting in a small duffel bag and my backpack, and prepared to leave that night for Puno, Peru which is a town right on Lake Titicaca in the southern part of the country. I traveled to Puno with three other girls from my group: Amy, Emily, and Michelle. It was my first cross-country South American bus ride! Relatively uneventful. We got to Puno at about 5:30 in the morning on the day of Peru’s census. For the census everyone has to be shut up in their homes so almost nothing is open. We were able to eat breakfast at a little restaurant at the bus terminal. From there, we hauled our bags to the port to find out about visiting some of the islands on the lake. We found a guy who offered to let us stay on his island called something with an A (I’ll look it up for you), which is a four hour boat ride from Puno. So we went! Unfortunately, my sunscreen-slathering ways didn’t protect me from the terrible sun rays reflecting off the lake (which is huge, by the way… at times you can’t see the other side and it feels like the ocean) while I was sleeping with my arms flung over the side of the boat and my shirt riding up on either side. I ended up getting the worst sunburn of my life, one on each side right above my hips. Just perfect for pants-wearing. Later it blistered and peeled and screamed, but you probably don’t want to know about all that.

First we stopped at the Uros which are a small group of man-made floating islands. They’re really cool and made out of some kind of masses of organic matter and carpeted with reeds. They use the reeds to build their houses, build their boats, build their islands, make cool crafty reed things for the tourists, and sometimes they even eat them! I tried the reeds, and they tasted a lot like celery, only they were spongier. One of the men on the island we visited gave us a spiel about how they live and then we ooed and aawed at the reediness of everything and then we left. We made it to the A island where we stayed with a woman who seemed perturbed that we would only be paying for one meal as we had brought food for the rest. For that reason, she generally laughed menacingly at everything we said and made herself an enemy. The island wasn’t all that exciting, while obviously extremely beautiful. It seems almost the entirely livelihood of the place is tourism. We walked all around and watched the sunset. We talked to the sheep that the woman we stayed with (Serafina) owns. They were nice. Then we slept (me on my stomach since there was no sleeping on my sides this time) and got up early to take the boat back to Puno. This time I stayed inside.

Estoy en Bolivia

I'M IN BOLIVIA

More on the unexpected boat ride, cranky island hostess, Korean documentary, and lonely hostal room when I have time. Until then: I'm safe!

Taxistas, Bolivia, Vida

¡Saludos a todos!

I know I've been a lame blog writer lately, but I promise I will make it up to you as soon as I have hours of internet time to write my usual novels. You're in luck! I think that time might be now... ;)

Yesterday I took a cab to class (I was late, as I nearly always am so I can never take a kombi... but luckily ProPeru gives us transportation money so I'm not hurting from the extra US cents) and it was probably the nicest cab driver I've had yet. He was extremely talkative. Mostly he was talking about the Peru and Chile soccer match. He predicted that we would all be crying because Chile would win. Then he dropped me off and commented that I didn't have an umbrella. Cabs who care. I know it's weird, but I always feel that much safer when I'm in a cab covered in Catholic virgin regalia. I feel like all the saints hanging out in the cab can probably help me out in the daily bumper car ride that is traffic in Cusco. A lot of times I'll get drivers who like to charge me an extra sol (alright, so it's definitely less than a dollar, but it seems like a rip off here) because I'm a blonde, blue-eyed gringa... or just because they know they can. You really never know what you're going to get in these cabs. Sometimes they have nice leopard print seats. One time I got in and the seat was all wet because the person before me had spilled coffee. I kind of wished I hadn't told the cab driver when he started reaching back with a wad of toilet paper to try to clean it up while driving with his other hand... This afternoon I had a guy that seemed to be about ready to retire. I was a little worried that we weren't going to make it to Tullumayu anytime this century. All the cabs are the same make and model here (and right now I can't seem to conjure it... sometimes I just don't speak English and I'm sticking to that excuse) except for the luxury cabs which are usually white and not so luxurious (just bigger and station wagon-esque).

In the end, Perú lost just like the cab driver said. Everyone was sad. Caroline had the nerve to send me an email this evening from Chile with the fact that we were defeated right there. Okay, who am I kidding? I didn't watch the game at all... Edson has confessed that he doesn't like fútbol (which is definitely a rare thing here) but he sometimes watches the games so he can make comments about it with his buddies at work (who are all fanatics like good Peruvians).

This coming week is our break, so I'm planning to go to Bolivia and visit my friend Tiffany who is there working for the Peace Corps. I'm pretty excited about seeing her and seeing Bolivia! Denis may or may not be accompanying me. I'm hoping she will. I'm also hoping that I won't end up as one of the bodies under blankets that I keep seeing when they show bus wrecks on the news (don't let my mom read that part). Maria has advised me that there are certain bus lines less likely to crash. And there is also an autopista (highway) at least all the way to Puno on Lake Titicaca.

What other fascinating details can I share? Today for lunch I had ceviche, which I love (for those of you who don't know, I've been eating fish while I've been here), but for some reason I couldn't eat it all today. I think it was because Maria brought out some very green seaweed that smelled like Maine. Yum, a big lunch of the smell of Maine. Bon apetit! Also, the white picket fence in front of our house is broken. Someone came to the door to inform us this afternoon.

I've been told to elaborate on my family's visit. My dad's Spanish was pretty hilarious, complete with "solos" rather than soles and "papa fritos" rather than papas fritas. But you've got to give him a hand for trying. When I was with them I remembered that I'm really not Cusqueñan. I'm really a freakishly pale young woman who doesn't know what's going on about half the time but whose Spanish is really improving! I must admit I was pretty annoyed when my dad started talking to one of the little boys claiming to be Pablo Picasso that was selling postcards in the plaza one afternoon and actually bought postcards from him. But for the most part I really enjoyed being able to see my family. I miss them more than I let on.

I was impressed with Stephanie's ability to pick up and use some Spanish even after only a few days in Cusco. She should have stayed longer! One night (the night before Steph and my parents were leaving for Machu Picchu at the crack of dawn), Edson, Evelyn, and I took Steph out to experience the night life in Cusco. I really enjoyed it this time, more than I've ever enjoyed going out with the group. It was just so much more relaxed and fun. I was a little irked that Edson insisted on paying for everything, but more and more I'm learning to ignore the machismo society and just try to take deep breaths. Haha. I found out recently that there is a new Gender and Women's Studies faculty who has done a lot of research on domestic violence in Perú, so I'm hoping to talk to her in order to spill all my issues with the roles of women in this country when I get home.

Today in Political Science class we had a guest speaker who was talking about the process of decentralization that they are trying to go through (quite slowly) in Perú. If you didn't know, Perú has no stable form of regional govenment (I guess the best comparison is to state governments), so the major political power, economy, and population center of the country is in Lima. In the other regions of the country, lack of development reigns. They do have local governments in the provinces and districts, but for the most part Lima is able to control things from a different and move happily forward with 9 million residents while the rest of the country suffers. It sort of baffles me that Perú doesn't have an infrastructure similar to our states, but due to the tumultuos history of governments and corruption, it shouldn't be all that surprising. For over 50 years, Perú has been in a process of attempting decentralization. Unfortunately, the regional governments are always weak and have little respect. There is an elected president of the region who then selects 13 of his friends (no matter their qualifications) to be the "consejos" and wine and dine on the money allotted to the regions. Also, the various presidents that come in and out and change constitutions as they please (Fujimori again... he must have become a target of mine) can also choose to wipe out these regional governments. So the sierra and the selva remain underdeveloped. This, my friends, is part of why Rocío doesn't bathe and one of the little boys at Conchacalla clearly has a parasite. Development is a powerful thing in terms of education and health. Too bad Alan Garcia doesn't have a vision to really help these kids.

If you're wondering about my personal well being, my morale remains relatively high when I'm not frustrated about homework or missing my boyfriend or my family or all of my friends. Haha. There have been some rocky days, but I think my host family has made all the difference. Also, I believe I'm learning a lot. They say my Spanish is improving! And I'm definitely getting a whole new perspective on my home country. I have to say, seeing on BBC World that George Bush mentioned World War III does not help matters. But that is precisely why they tell you to study abroad right, to expand your horizons and develop a broader world view! So that's what I'm doing. I'll let you know what else I learn.

Mucho tiempo sin hablar

Hello again! It's been awhile since I've written, mostly because internet opportunities have been a lot shorter and I haven't felt I've had time to write an entry.

There are about a trillion things that have happened, as you can imagine. My parents and Steph were able to come for a visit which I really enjoyed. I think they had a great time too, and it seemed like my host family here was overjoyed to be able to meet them and spend time with them. The language barrier didn't end up being nearly as big as a problem as I had worried, especially when Evelyn was around to help me translate. Denis, as usual, was a godsend who took them around on a day when she didn't have class until late afternoon. I'm not quite sure what I would do without her!

We have been back to Conchacalla twice since I last wrote, the first time we carried giant Eucalyptus logs from down the mountain to the top to use to build the techo (roof) of the bathrooms. We ended up riding in the back of a giant pickup truck along with all of the logs (which was terrifying, but an experience I probably won't have anywhere else) and then carrying them after the truck could go no further. I still really enjoy going there, as concerned as I am about these little kids running around with torn clothing, damaged teeth, and dry, cracked, dirty skin. They really do make the whole process more enjoyable. This past week Rocío (who has become the favorite of the entire group quite quickly) giggled for a very, very long time as she was playing with us and her older sister, Jobana (that's my guess at the spelling). She was hilarious... she has the most wonderful laugh and smile, it's impossible not to love her.

Last night I decided to go out again with the group, which I must confess is something I never particularly enjoy. A lot of the other girls seem to be looking to make out with a Peruvian boy they've never met and running around to all sorts of different bars, and that doesn't appeal to me much. I miss being able to be on Grosvenor with my friends in a more relaxed and safer environment. Although we have found an excellent place to get really good late night falafel (and falafel is certainly not plentiful in Cusco) from a little stand and a guy named Victor. That is what I look forward to when we go out, and Garabatos if we ever get around to going there (it's the best place out there but people are starting to explain it's too expensive... by Peruvian standards, yes, but certainly not by ours...). I'm looking forward to the party we'll probably have at John and Gina's on my birthday to celebrate Halloween and my birthday and Dane's. I'm hoping I will enjoy that more!

Well, I'm off for now. But I have more to say!

Fotos por fin

For any of you who don't have facebook, I have finally gotten my act together and posted some photos! I hope this link works and that you enjoy them. The captions will have to come later.

http://utk.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2160628&l=54987&id=12900100

Espera

I forgot to mention in that last entry that my camera lense refuses to close. I was telling John and Gina about it the other night(John and Gina are friends of Edson and Evelyn who are also the host family of Dane, another volunteer in the group), and Gina just looked at me and said, "Espera". Apparently the same thing happened with their Sony camera, and after a week it started working again. I'm hoping for the best here.

That same night I got the pleasure of listening to two solid hours of Peruvian karaoke and songs that I'd never heard. It was quite an experience, but I especially enjoyed one of the songs that was some kind of patriotic anthem. According to the song, here is what PERU stands for:

P de patria
E del ejemplo
R de rifle
U de union

So now you know, in case you are wondering.

In terms of Fujimori (I must be giving you his biography), I learned today in political science that under his government there were forced sterilizations done of women in the campo. After these women had the operations performed on them, they had to give the doctors gifts in exchange for the service. All of this was done in order to follow the rules of the United Nation in terms of slowing the growth of Latin America (which was growing quite rapidly). Depressing, eh?

The worst part is this is supposedly continued today...

¡Conozco a una fujimorista!

You're probably not going to believe this, but I met someone who actually remains casi pro-Fujimori. For real! Maria's cuñada (sister-in-law) Lydia came over last night and was talking to me about Fujimori. She was saying her kids made fun of her because when Fujimori was extradited and she saw it on the news she cried! She had a slightly different perspective than anyone else I've spoken to about him thus far. She told me she could remember a time during Alan Garcia's first term (he is also the current president) in the 80s when she had to stand in line for a can of condensed milk for her 1 year old child. She talked about the terrible inflation and the lack of jobs. The terrorists were going strong and it wasn't safe to be out in the streets. During Fujimori's first term, all of that changed. There weren't any lines and under his government some semblance of economic stability returned. The rapid inflation slowed down and the nueva sol (their unit of money) gained value. He also created a lot of jobs and made a commitment to stop the terrorists. In Lydia's eyes, he was the best president Peru has had.

She did admit that after his first term things got corrupt, but she made the point that there is corruption in every government (and we all know ours is no exception). "El chino", as Fujimori is lovingly called, did a lot of good and a lot of bad. But for Lydia, the difference he made in the lives of Peruvians is not something she can easily forget. She was once a social worker who worked with the campesinos (farmers) to try to motivate them to work and help themselves. So she witnessed firsthand what changed when Fujimori became president.

I asked a lot of questions when I was talking with her and Maria over mate de coca. I asked why the people chose to re-elect Alan Garcia. Lydia says he was the lesser of two evils since the other candidate was a military man and he would become a dictator for sure. Maria said she never voted for Garcia (if you don't remember, voting here is mandatory). Latin America was run by military men for a number of years, but that's another screwed up subject for another entry. It's amazing what these people have been through, and what "democracy" means to a Peruvian. I still have a lot to learn about the history of the government and development of this place, but I love learning more and asking questions.

In other news, I discovered today that Lima beans really are named after Lima, Peru.
Today I also took my first trip to Molino, which is a centro comercial (mall) where they sell all kinds of contraband items including movies, CDs, cameras, cell phones, etc., as well as a lot of brand name clothing. Very interesting.

On Saturday, my parents and Steph are arriving for their visit! This should be exciting and difficult since not one of them is particularly knowledgeable about Spanish (I've got my fingers crossed for you all).
On Monday, we have no classes because it is a holiday. Here is what I was told in an email by Mike, one of our ProPeru directors:
You have Monday off, as it is Combate de Angamos. This is a national holiday commemorating a battle in the 1800´s when Peru lost and a Peruvian Navy hero killed himself and sank his ship before the Chileans could get to them and kill everyone.

What bravery! ¡Hasta luego!

He aprendido cosas nuevas

Things I have learned:

1) In quechua, the word for baby is wawa. I think it's funny that that's what Stephanie used to call me when she was little and couldn't pronounce Laura.

2) I had seen a short news clip about a very impoverished neighborhood in Lima that had suffered under Fujimori's dictatorship (and that's what it was after he rigged the voting and tore apart the constitution and congress). I didn't really understand what had happened, so I asked yesterday during our political science class. Our professor is extremely opinionated when it comes to Fujimori. The name of the neighborhood is Barrios Altos, and during the time the terrorist group Shinging Path was causing trouble Peru's intelligence found a party in Barrios Altos where there were supposedly four known terrorists. So Fujimori sent in the military and the shot 70 people to death, including 5 children. That's what they mean by human rights violations.

3) Maria, my host mother, got married when she was 17 years old and still in high school. She has also always been a little bit afraid of the dark. :)

4) I still procrastinate assignments when I'm in Peru.

5) I met another Peruvian vegetarian last night at the intercambio who claims Peruvians speak normally and so do Colombians but no one else in the Spanish speaking world.

I've learned a lot of other things, but unfortunately they'll have to wait because I have a lot of reading and writing to do...

Mi primer temblor y Fujimori

Hello all! It's been a few days since I've updated, so I know you're thrilled. Jesse came to visit this past week and it went by in such a blur. It was wonderful to have him here to see where I am living and just to be together for a little bit before he goes back to Atlanta and I don't see him for 2 months! He ended up being able to stay with my family which was certainly unexpected but not unwelcome! They have an extra room in the backyard (sort of) where he was able to stay which was certainly convenient. You'll have to ask him for his take on Cusco. Everyone he talked to asked if he was going to Machu Picchu and when he told them he wasn't they were shocked because it's a Maravilla del Mundo (a wonder of the world)! I think all the Peruvians in my life were nearly as sad to see him go as I was. Since he left a lot of them have commented and said they wish they'd had more time to get to know him! Hopefully as I type this Jesse is on his way to Atlanta and will arrive safely. I miss him already!

Yesterday I experienced both my first Peruvian barbeque and my first temblor. Edson has a friend, Christian, who is in town from Switzerland and he hosted a parrillada (a Peruvian cook out on a grill, essentially) so I went over to join them. I didn't eat any of the vaca (cow) they were serving up, but I did drink quite a bit of the Cusqueña Cerveza they kept offering me. Toward the end of the party, one of Chrisitans drunken uncles came and introduced himself. He held onto my hand and looked into my eyes for an uncomfortable length of time while he recited his full name and explained every facet of his lineage... During this time, we had retreated inside away from the evening cold (it gets dark and cold at around 6) and the adults that had attended were in a back room enjoying ABBA in Spanish and I suppose reminiscing. Not so different from an American cookout, except that part of me was expecting to participate in some sort of sporting event or to hunker down on a couch and watch American football...

After trying to use Skype to talk to Jesse and failing pretty miserably (I also have Windows Live Messenger ID if anyone is interested: lcseit@gmail.com), I returned home and Maria and I watched a movie (actually, she always falls asleep, so it was really only me watching). After the movie, she switched the channel to hear about Fujimori who has been extradited from Chile and returned to Peru to face JUSTICE. It has been interesting learning about Alberto Fujimori having known almost nothing about him before. He is being accused of a great deal of corruption and has a really interesting history. As things were starting to come out about bribes he gave out and the possibility of his involvement with a number of disappeared students (similar to those in Argentina), he went to Japan for a conference and didn't come back. Then he faxed his resignation back to Peru. That didn't fly with congress, so they voted him out to publicly denounce his actions. If you want to read more about what's going on with him, here's a good BBC article that covers it pretty briefly: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7008302.stm
No matter what ends up happening to him, his influence has already created a political party of supporters (fujimoristas) and there is talk that his daughter will follow in his footsteps in the next election. Maria was talking about how saddening and embarassing it must be for his daughter to have to continue to support such a corrupt man. She is apparently married to a gringo and she's pregnant right now. Fun, fun. Latin American politics are crazy, but never dull!

As we were watching the local news coverage, there was a brief moment where everything moved from side to side. The floor, the couch, the entire world around me. It was barely anything, but it was my first experience with seismic activity. I'm not sure if it was connected to a terremoto (earthquake) or only some slight movement of the plates. Nothing close to what Jessica experienced in Mexico, but it's worth noting!

This past weekend we started our primary service project for our time here. It's located in a place called Conchacalla which is about an hour kombi ride from the ProPeru office. It's a community of about 40 families nestled high in the beautiful Andes (I've got to get pictures up soon, I know!). We worked right near the school there. There are two classrooms but we are working on building two much needed bathrooms (all the have is a whole in the ground surrounded by a small adobe buliding. The bathrooms we're constructing are also built using adobe bricks and mud. ProPeru conducts development projects in a specific manner: they hire maestros to help direct the clueless volunteers, but the community itself is also expected to participate in the project since it is being done to benefit them or their children. This concept of community building is actually borrowed from the Incas. Their community as a whole would help newlyweds construct their dwelling and in turn those newlyweds would help the next couple who got married. In this way communities helped eachother help themselves. So far at our projects there have been few community representatives. In Picol there was some kind of rumor spread that volunteers were getting paid while community members were not, so community support was lost there. In Conchacalla, the father of one student was around to help out and several mothers and a teacher from the school helped to prepare our meals.

The work was definitely hard, especially when each of us would have to cart 30 lb. adobe bricks from up the mountain down to the work site. We also worked mixing the mud to coat the adobes and we would hand everything to the maestros as we were constructing the walls. We slept on the floor of one of the classrooms, so we were all achy and grumpy the next morning while we continued to work. After the work we hiked back down the mountain to take a kombi back into town. I was pretty beat at this point, but it was wonderful to walk in the countryside and see so much livestock and campesinos. I feel really lucky to have chosen the service aspect of the program, because it really gives me the chance to interact with rural communities. The children who attend the school were around all the time and we got the opportunity to enjoy a bonfire and marshmallows with them on Friday night. One little girl in particular, Rocio, took to me and pulled me into a game with the other little kids. It was something about being in the forest and we were all holding hands and running in circles. And then one of the kids would say something and everyone would run! I didn't really know what was going on, but maybe I'll figure it out next time. The poverty and malnutrition of these kids was pretty apparent, it didn't appear that they bathe much or eat properly. One of the smallest boys has the pooched belly of a parasite and all of them had the driest skin I've ever seen. Spending time with them was extremely rewarding and I hope we will really be able to make an impact with our work there. We are also going to complete an adobe kitchen so the students can be served lunch while they are studying.

Unfortunately, school work is picking up quite a bit now that I have 3 other classes. I actually have to go to the library! And I thought everything would be papaya... ;)

Whatever, man

Hello! You won´t believe the awesome computer screen I´m using... it´s huge AND it has firefox. A rare treat in the land of the Andes. If you´re wondering, I have yet to come across any Andes mints, but I´m keeping my eyes peeled.

The last few days have been terribly full. Sorry I lied before about the pictures. I have a bunch I want to post, but who has the time? I´ll work on that. On Friday, I sent my first letters and postcards (which costs an armload, but my loved ones are worth it!) and I attended my first show by Peru´s best showman Carlos Galdos. Essentially, he is a comedian/ DJ who is pretty popular here. His show was called "Papá... yo?" and the experience was a riot. When we were standing in line to get in (I went with Edson and Evelyn), this guy with a camera came up and shoved a microphone in my face. In rapid-fire Spanish, he asked me a question. I had to stand there with a dumb look on my face and say "no entiendo" until Evelyn and Edson told the guy "más despacio, por favor" (my parents should write that one down for future reference) and he asked me, more slowly, what my expectations were for the show. I said that I was from the U.S. so it was a new experience for me. Then he asked what ONE WORD I wanted to say to Carlos Galdos... Luckily Edson stepped in at that point and delivered, "Whatever, man," a phrase I have recently taught him. Phew. My fifteen minutes of fame in Peru!

The show was pretty funny when I actually understood what the guy was saying. He made a lot of sexual jokes and talked about finding out his wife was pregnant, etc. At the end he started singing all these songs and doing impressions of people which sort of went over my head. At that point, I was already exhausted anyway from trying to process everything. Edson had given me a short slang lesson beforehand which ended up helping a little bit! Before Galdos made his appearance, they played a number of Fleetwood Mac songs which was what I understood most clearly the entire night! The even was held in some kind of sports arena which seems to hold events geared toward youth. There was a guy wandering around handing out controceptives. But not condoms, something you insert vaginally. The flyer that came with it advertised that it is strong during love and strong during battle... Haha. There were also all the usual venders walking around saying "Gaseosas. Gaseosas. Gaseosas." We sat back in the cheaper section, but I knew a few people in the VIP section (no, not V.I.P., they pronounce it as one word).

All in all it was an enlightening experience. I now know more about the world of Peruvian entertainment. Unfortunately, I missed my first skype call so I still don´t know if that is going to work here... I missed it because in a stereotypically Peruvian fashion, everything started really late (an hour and a half late!).

Yesterday I got up early to head out to our second project site in a place called Picol. It´s basically up a mountain from Cusco, but close enough to take a kombi and walk the rest of the way. There, we sanded and painted a schoolroom that was built by other ProPeru volunteers. I got unbelievably dirty in the process but I really enjoyed the work and felt like we were really accomplishing something when it was completed. We painted the whole room eggnog yellow, and the teacher at the school was there to see it. When we were finished, Sandra put up a plaque that said ProPeru had helped build the room, and Mike smashed a champagne bottle that was hung over the door with a hammer. Then the president of the area (the head honcho lady) went around and sprinkled confetti on our heads for buena suerte (good luck). Some of the other volunteers joked that she liked me best because she put a ton of the stuff in my hair!

I returned home to Maria looking like a swamp thing who had just attended a celebration! I took a quick shower and we headed back up to Picol to my Peruvian brother Willbur´s house. It was Eduardo´s birthday party! He turned four the other day, so they had all of his little friends over to dance to silly songs in Spanish. There was also a clown and a TON of sweets and junk food. It was pretty hard to resist, so I dove in and ate the things that were handed to me (over and over and over), but I put my foot down when they tried to give me an hombre de araña slice of cake. It wasn´t chocolate, and Peruvians just don´t do cake the way we do. On top of that I was absolutely sugared out.

It reminded me of Corey because Eduardo is obsessed with Hombre de araña (SPIDER MAN) and there were a lot of spiderman themed items. I ate some kind of weird mousse that came in a little plastic tub with a spiderman spoon. For the girls they had Barbie stuff and lipstick. Valeria, Eduardo´s older sister (age 6), is a little prima donna. She put on the lipstick and she already has some killer hip dance moves (Peruvians are just born with it). She´s pretty funny. She´s started to warm up to me, so we have fun together. I met little Estrellita for the first time last night. She´s their little sister, and I think she´s almost 2. She was adorable. She refused to play the games and much preferred to sit in Maria´s lap with candy in her mouth and a pout on her face. The whole time, Edson and Evelyn were walking around handing out food and taking pictures. I have some good pictures of the craziness that I´ll have to post at some point. They played one game where you walk in a circle and sing a song about getting married to a señorita and when the song ends you have to hug someone and "marry" them. Whoever doesn´t get married has to leave the game! What kind of message are we sending here?

It looked like Eduardo was already a mujeriego based on the number of little girls he enjoyed hugging and following around. He´s four years old! They don´t waste anytime indicating gender roles here. Haha. All around it was a very enjoyable time just watching the little kids and the amount of candy being passed around and eaten. It was sort of a sad night as well, because it was Willbur´s last night in Cusco for 3 months. He left early this morning to go to Andalucia, Spain to study Economics. I was sad to see him go after getting to know him a little bit, and I´m sure it was hard on him to leave his wife and three beautiful children behind! It made me think about leaving my family so I tried to give him a lighthearted goodbye. Cuidate Willbur!

We all left the party in the VW bug that I have now discovered Julio owns... This family is really the Peruvian version of the Connecticutt McVeys. I had my doubts before, but now I´m convinced. There are five kids (granted, there is different ratio of brothers to sisters), one of whom the parents live with (not exactly the same situation, I realize) AND they have a VW bug. A red one. Lucky me to find the McVeys in Peru! Haha.

Today I tried out the awesome spider man plastic kite I got. Edson used his Transformers kite. There wasn´t much wind, but we made it work. Now I´m going with Edson to his friend´s house for lunch! Ciao, amigos!

Soy un amante, no soy un peleador

Alright, alright. I´m going to do the best I can to give you the update I know you´re craving, but it´s going to be difficult. A few moments ago I was sitting here in an empty internet cafe across from La Canasta (grocery store) minding my own business, tapping my foot to P.I.M.P. and enjoying checking my email and facebook. De repente, out of NOWHERE, a gaggle of little boys in school uniforms comes rushing in, talking at 1000 words per minute, ready to play some kind of roleplaying game while making as much noise as possible. Never a dull moment here, folks. Haha.

Looks like a pretty intense game. Sameera, I hope it´s not like this during our Skype date.

Let´s get back to life in Cusco. Things are going really well right now. I think I finally got over the transition hump in which I was struggling to deal with new foods (you don´t want to know what I mean), fighting a killer cold, and generally feeling like I have no idea what I´m doing half the time.

Yesterday I enjoyed my awesome morning jugo de piña and quinua con chocolate (a rare treat), met my Peruvian cousin Esmaralda, and generally enjoyed a relaxing morning. I hopped on Servicio Rapido around 2:30 to head to school, enjoyed the Daddy Yankee on the radio, and actually correctly deciphered the slurred speech of the guy running the door of the kombi. I made it to Spanish class, where I managed to beat my lone classmate Grant in "Simond says" (that´s not a typo, that´s how my teacher says it!) in Spanish. I returned home in a taxi with Carly and Grant (who told the cab driver for the trillionth time to take us to La Canasta even though there are probably at least 10 different La Canastas in Cusco). Maria made me a small dinner with fried gluten (she´s been experimenting) and Esmaralda showed me her textbook for learning English. One of the pages had little speech bubbles that they were supposed to fill out where she had written: ¨Goodbye Fred, enjoy your evening!" and "Oh, thasnsk you, Lucy. See you tomorrow."

I became one of Edson´s official English teachers last night. His new favorite phrase is "Whatever, man." I made a pretty hilarious video of him saying, "Moooom, I´m hungry." I love the Peruvian accented English. Muy lindo!

The other night we had an intercambio with some Peruvians who are trying to learn English. We played some silly games and then we went out to a place called Norton´s (none of the Peruvians came there except Sandra who is one of the ProPeru staff because it is a gringo bar like no other). We played darts and I managed to hit the middle during a game where the objective is to hit a certain number... Then we went to Galabatos, which is finally the kind of discoteca I wanted! They had a live band and everyone was dancing salsa (which I will learn before I leave, but for now it´s fun to watch). They played a whole medley of Grease songs later as well as everyone´s favorite ABBA hits. They had little tables with alpaca-fur covered benches. It was a Peruvian discoteca for sure! Much more enjoyable than my last night out.
I drank lots of Cusqueña beer (well, actually only 2...) which I really love for some reason. I finally like a beer, Mariela!

Before I escape this day care, I think I´ll put up a few pictures for your enjoyment!

Hey guys! I just wanted to let you know that anyone can comment now. For some reason I had it on registered users only... So comment away because it honestly makes my day.

Something I´m thinking about:
What is the deal with Japan and Peru? Last night we watched this special on Japanese culture. Three different Japanese-Peruvians were interviewed. I didn´t follow most of what was being said, but I need to investigate this more. I know there was President Fuji Mori, and from what they´ve said he was a real clown. Maybe I´ll find out more about this in my Political Science class.

I´m going to have to ask around and do some research. Does anyone have some amazing insight?

Extras

Okay, first let me correct that last entry. Raquel is from Spain, but Sergio is from Peru. Details probably don´t matter to you, but I´ve been thinking about it.

I found out recently that in Spanish to give birth is "dar la luz" which means to give the light. Some of you Spanish freaks probably already knew that, but I think it´s very beautiful. :) My host mother´s mother´s name (so my host grandmother, I guess?) is Luz, so her mother gave the light to Light! Last night Maria was telling stories about the births of her children. Apparently her son Orlando was born at home because they couldn´t get to the hospital in time! And with Edson she had to have a c-section because he had his hand on his head. She was joking that when they opened her up Edson was waving at the doctors!

One other thing is that this entire time I thought Edson´s girlfriend´s name was Emily, but I dis covered after some careful listening that it´s actually Evelyn... Like Mamaw! I feel bad that I didn´t know here name, but she seemed to think it was pretty funny so I was off the hook. Last night I had a terrible coughing fit while we were hanging out at home, so I ran to the kitchen and when I came out everyone was gone! It turned out Evelyn and Edson had jumped up to go to the botica and buy me some cough medicine. It was really, really nice and made me feel so taken care of. I´m still dealing with this pesky illness, but all of the students in my program are going through it, so I hope I will pass! Meanwhile Maria will only let me drink warm liquids because she thinks cold liquid is bad for my throat. Does anyone know if this is true?

Gotta run! Spanish class!

Mantay y La Virgen de la Natividad

On Saturday we went to our first work project at a place called Mantay. Mantay is a home for young, single mothers on the outskirts of Cusco (when we got there if you looked up all you could see were mountains). The mothers are ages 12-18 (some very young) and they come to Mantay because their families have cast them out and they have no other option. Many times they have been raped and/or sexually abused. Sometimes by members of their own families. A couple from Spain runs the builiding. Their names are Sergio and Raquel. Raquel gave us a tour of the building and explained the situations these mothers are in when they arrive. She gave us the history of Peruvian laws governing rape. Until recently, rape of women over 14 was only considered "seduction". It was also easy for men to get out of serving their jail time if they paid the fine or if they agreed to marry the girl. It seems like things have improved in writing, but in enforcement there are still a lot of problems with violence against women and how it is approached. If they could not come to Mantay, these mothers would likely abandon their children, so it is a good way for them to learn to take care of themselves and their children. The home offers schooling for many of them who have not had the opportunity to be educated. There is also a full time therapist that works with the mothers and sometimes the mothers along with their children. They have a rotation in which they take turns washing the children´s laundry, watching the children, and working in the workshop as well as performing other chores.

Our job as the ProPeru group was to work on finishing up a new workshop and digging a trench for an electric line that would go out to the new building. Previous ProPeru groups constructed the workshop itself, so our job was to finish up the painting and work on the trench. It was tough work, and at times it felt like we weren´t contributing much. But Mike, Adam, and Sandra had already spoken to us about our sweat equity. While generally one volunteer without training can do very little in terms of manpower and hard work, the idea is more that we want to help and that we participate in a community effort. Digging the trench with pic axes was pretty strenuous work, and I found myself drifting to the painting crew where I felt like I could contribute more.

Around lunch time, I made a little friend named Maria. She is two years old and she lives at the home. She was immediately holding my hand and wanting me to play with her and I really enjoyed her company! She was pretty funny, she even wanted to help paint. When I get the chance I will put up some pictures of her so you can see.

After working at Mantay we were all exhausted, but it was a Saturday night and we wanted to go out. My host brother Edson took me over to a friend´s house where another of the volunteers named Dane lives. There they served us a lot of tequila so I didn´t buy drinks while we were out. I had fun dancing at the discotecas, but I missed my friends at home. I missed knowing people on the dance floor and hearing all of my favorite songs mixed by Sameera. But I had fun anyway, even though I was the first to go home and tumble, exhausted, into my bed.

The next day I got up to meet my friend Denis from the airport at a bus stop we both know. She took me shopping for Steph´s birthday present and showed me some parts of the city I wouldn´t see as a tourist. At one point we came to a market full of women selling all kinds of fruits and vegetables in huge baskets. It was amazing. I have never seen so much fruit in one place. We also went to a festival for the Virgin of the Nativity. About 90 percent of the population here is Catholic, so there are these kind of festivals for various Virgins all the time. They have Peruvians dressed in sparkling outfits doing traditional dances of all kinds and from different parts of the country. One was from the jungle, many were from Puno which is near Lake Titicaca, and others were from the Cusco regions. Denis was partial to the ones from Cusco because she thinks the Puno bands play the music too loud to the point that it is unrecognizable!

It was really great to talk to Denis and to have a friend from Cusco! We can really relate to eachother since she was recently in my situation when she was in Orlando working at Disney World. She told me she doesn´t want to stay around in Peru after she graduates. She has dreams of getting a scholarship to study in Russia or in Spain in the future. Now that she has left Peru, she has some serious wanderlust!

We were talking about how there is less personal space here and you hug and kiss people when you greet them. She said that at first in Orlando she was afraid to hug and kiss her friends because she thought they would be offended and wouldn´t understand. But then she realized that they thought it was nice! I really enjoyed my time with her and hope I will continue to get to know her while I´m here.

Lapiceras, un circo de congreso, y me duele la garganta

Well, Tommy, they dont¨exactly use "pen" or "pin" here. I have no idea how to say pin in Spanish, but pen in Latin America is lapicera. Maybe we should just all use lapicera from now on to avoid confusion?

Last night I was watching the news with Maria, Edson, and Emily (Edsons girlfriend) and we started watching some kind of story about the Peruvian congress. It was pretty insane. Emily said it was a circus and I agreed it was a little like a soap opera/drama television show... Apparently people fall asleep during sessions all the time and they get it on tape. The periodistas (news casters) put the cameras VERY close to the faces of these members of congress as theyre talking. Last night they even captured a small spat between two congresistas. Somehow there doesnt seem to be much pride taken in the job... But sometimes I suppose you could call our congress a circus as well. It just looks a bit nicer on television.

One thing about Cusco is that the dry season is literally a dry season. The whole city wakes up every morning with a sore throat and dry lips. Today the combination of that dryness and my weakened immune system (it takes time to build up the right bacteria in a new place) has left me with a cough, a sneeze, and a terrible sore throat. Most of the group has either already gone through this or is starting to deal with it now, like me. I think Im going to go to the pharmacy (where you never need prescriptions) to get something for my throat and stock up on chapstick.

Last night I also found out more about Edsons work in the restoration of art. He showed us a series of pictures of art that was almost completely destroyed by water or not being taken care of. Then he showed us the process of restoring it using tiny points of paint to slowly, slowly fix it so it looks almost as good as new. It is incredible how much they are able to do. When I saw the before paintings I thought there was no hope! But Edson does really amazing work. It takes a lot of patience. I dont know if I could do it!

Note: Please excuse my lack of apostrophes in this entry... I couldnt figure out how to make an apostrophe (even a weird incorrect one) on this keyboard.

Fotos carnet y cultural differences

This font is called Fuente, for anyone that´s interested. Fountain, ¿no? I know I already have on entry today but I have some things to add. Today I went to get my picture taken for the student ID I have to have here. They´re like pictures the size of a passport photo. So I went to a little photo shop on Avenida del Sol (one of the main drags here), and I paid my 5 soles and got a typically terrible ID photo taken. What I didn´t expect was the giant copy of the photo with a border added... Anyone want that one in the mail? Well, you may never get it because I then proceeded to leave the photos in the librería down the street. I have to go back and see if I can find them. Or else I´ll get another go at a glamour shot for almost 2 dollars.

2 things you should know about the customs in Cusco:

1)They put papas fritas (french fries) in every food. Maria mixes them in with my vegetables and soya and also sprinkles them on top of my soup. Strange, eh? It´s not good for curbing my french fry addiction, so I guess I´ll have to ask her not to put them in.

2) When you enter a room, it is most polite to say hello to every single person individually. Here you give them one kiss on the cheek. Sometimes Maria hugs me also which is nice. You´re supposed to do the same thing when you leave the room. They also say that it´s best to start with the older people and move to the young. I actually really like this custom because in the process everyone gets acknowledged and feels loved and important! Try this at home!

Kombis and La Huatia

My first kombi rides and all rides after have been insane. Those of you who have been to Mexico know what I´m talking about. You have to find the right kombi and know where the heck you are getting off. There is a guy who runs the door and the whole time he is barking out different stops and routes like an auctioneer, only in Spanish of course. My first ride Maria went with me and Cooper came too. It was comforting to have someone show me the ropes, but naturally 2 other people meant less space in the cramped vans that are kombis. I didn´t even know you could fit that many people or seats in a van, but they can be literally crammed. I climbed in and sat near this guy who was singing loudly about owning a cow and playing some kind of percussive wooden instrument with a stick. You know like the ones with ridges? Do they have a name Jesse? He was really pretty annoying, but when Maria paid she dropped the change into his little instrument. It´s important to note that my legs were crammed up against this guy since I was sitting across from him. There´s not enough leg room for two sets of legs across from one another. Fun fun! When we got to our stop near my school (which is called CBC and is fairly close to the Plaza de Armas downtown), we all squeezed our way out and greatfully breathed in the fresh air while avoiding a number of stray dogs at our feet. There are stray dogs EVERYWHERE here. If one comes at you, you´re supposed to pretend to pick up a rock to throw at it.

Have I mentioned there´s a really frightening dog that comes at you while barking that lives right down the street from me? I hate it. I´ve started going around the block to avoid it. Sometimes Julio, my host dad, will walk with me past the dog so I won´t be afraid.

My homework last night given to me by Yessina (my teacher) was to ask my family about la huatia. So now I´m going to tell you what it is. La huatia is an Incan/Andean tradition. It´s a way of cooking potatoes in an oven made of earthen chunks. It looks sort of like an iglou, and the Cusqueñans put fire in it and then throw in some potatoes (or orcas, a type of potato). Then they cover all of that with even more earth until it gets really hot. Then they extract the potatoes and eat them. This method is used in the dryer times of the year (it is so dry here the air sucks all moisture from my skin) when there is no water. Cool, huh? I think Greenthumb should try this out sometime. Write that down, Britt. ;)

Ciao for now.

Mi familia y más

Hola amigos! Thank you so much for all of your responses to my blog. It´s great to know that there are so many people thinking about me. I must admit it´s a bit of an emotional experience checking email and the rest these days, just because I know you are all so far away. But I guess the point of the internet is that we can communicate, and it´s reassuring to know I have so many people on my side!

Let me first clarify that my logic was a bit off in naming this blog. After further thought, I realized that I probably named it stranger from Cusco. I guess that is more accurately what I will be when I come home, right?

I know you are all on the edge of your seats wondering about my family. I love them already. They were the first ones here at the ProPeru office (I´m using the ProPeru internet and computer) since our house is only about 2 blocks away. That´s really convenient when I need to come here to meet with the group or I have questions for the ProPeru staff. My host mother´s name is Maria Isabel. Her husband is Julio and their son Edson is 28 and still lives at home. They are a big Catholic family, so there are 3 other sons and 1 daughter that have already moved out of the house. Willbur, one of her sons, has a daughter named Valeria who is 6 and a son named Eduardo who is 3 (almost 4). The two of them were there to greet me when I arrived at their house. Maria introduced me as tía Laura (aunt Laura), which I found pretty amusing, but it was nice to be a part of the family so soon!

Maria is really a motherly and caring woman. She is around 60 and she knows everything about the health properties of food since she has had some heart problems. She is always telling me that this or that food is good for cholestorol and it is wonderful. I was amazed at how easily I was able to communicate even during the first days. I know my grammar in Spanish probably leaves quite a bit to be desired, but I am able to understand what my family is asking me and for the most part I´m able to respond. Edson always has the Spanish-English dictionary on hand in case I don´t know a word.

The first night I was thrilled to find out that Maria is a vegetarian! In her case, that means she still eats fish, but for my first meal she served me soy meat with vegetables over rice. It was extremely tasty. I feel really lucky to have been placed with her because of her knowledge of food. No one need worry that I won´t be healthy with Maria in charge of my food!

Before dinner the first night, Edson took me to the opening of the brand new SUPERMERCADO around the corner. There was a live Peruvian band, lots of free food, and cerveza cusqueña (beer!). Earlier Maria had gotten out a big book of different Peruvian fruits and vegetables to ask me what I would eat and show me some of the different food they have here. I knew that there would be differences, but it is really incredible how many new vegetables and fruits I am discovering! Anyway, Edson took me to the fruit aisle in the supermarket (which was packed with people) and we went over the names of the different fruits. We declared it a bad supermarket because they didn´t have agueytambo (and that might not be the right spelling), which is a tiny fruit sort of like an orange.

I know Mom wanted to know about the food I am eating, so could someone please print this email out for her? I know she will feel out of the loop if she doesn´t get this! Every morning for breakfast Maria squeezes fresh orange juice (today she even added pineapple... mmm) and she serves me hot soymilk. Today I had quinua con chocolate. Quinua is a grain that is good for protein and one of the Peruvian specialties is sopa de quinua (Quinua soup). Maria served that for part of my lunch yesterday. As far as meat goes, there is a special sauce con aji (which are like spicy peppers from what I gather) that is served over chicken or beef with rice. It turns out Guinea pig is a Peruvian delicacy, so cuy al horno (guinea pig) is a really expensive dish you can order. There is a special tipe of Incan beer here called Chicha. Chicha can be either alcoholic or non-alcoholic. It´s made from corn, and my family has already served me chicha morada which is the non-alcoholic kind made from a purple corn. (You wouldn´t believe how many different varieties of corn and potatoes there are here. I guess if you remember the agricultural genius of the Incas, it´s not hard to believe. I think my dad would be in starch heaven!) They also serve alpaca meat but I think that is mostly for tourists. Not a day goes by that I don´t drink Mate de Coca. Mate de coca is a tea made from the coca leaf (yes, the same leaf used for cocaine, but in smaller doses it is not harmful. The coca farmers have a chant: "La hoja de coca no es una droga!" meaning that the coca leaf is not a drug. And it isn´t! I really wish I could bring some home, but it has to be decocainized before it can be legal. So you´ll all just have to visit Peru to try it. It´s an Andean remedy for altitude sickness, and it makes you alert and energized.

The first few days, I did have to adjust to the altitude a bit. I was tired all the time and I had some headaches, but really it wasn´t too severe. The thing I may never get used to is getting so tired just walking up a short flight of stairs! It´s so hard to catch your breath up here!

As for transportation, people here pretty much use taxis and kombis. A kombi is like a van/bus crammed with people that costs less than a taxi (a taxi is about 2 soles during the day and 3 soles after 10 p.m.). There are approximately 3 soles in a dollar if anyone is wondering. I´ll probably be taking the kombi to school since it is cheaper (about .60 centavos). I imagine it will be quite an experience, based on what I have seen so far and what I´ve read of Jessica´s blog from Mexico. It is also possible to walk some places, and I think it would be about a 30 minute walk to school if I wanted to do that. Cusco isn´t really all that big!

My life has been so eventful! Last night I met Willbur for the first time and he told me all about the Japanese president of Peru and how he claimed to be born here but was really born in Japan. Fun fun! Voting is also mandatory here, otherwise people have to pay a fine. It makes since to me, although Willbur said it is pretty manipulative. His sister Elizabeth who lives in Lima decides just to pay the fine instead of voting every time.

Yesterday we took our first excursions to ruins at Moray which were the Incan prototype for a greenhouse. I will try to get some pictures up soon, it is just difficult to get access to a computer sometimes! After that we went to Salineras, which are the salt mines and are really amazing. There are about 4,000 pools of water and salt all down an entire mountainside. There is a naturally salty stream that runs through all of it and provides the salt. Very cool. Both of these places were in the Urubamba valley, also known as the Sacred valley, which is just outside of Cusco. Our whole group got on a nice bus and the very large bus careened around cliffs on narrow, dirt roads! Cool, huh? Slightly terrifying, to say the least. But it was worth it to see the beautiful countryside and the majesty of the Alps!

Happy Labor day everyone! While you are lounging around, think of me since this is my first day of school! I have Spanish class starting at 3 p.m. and ending around 6:50. It´s going to be pretty intense, but I´m really excited about being able to speak in class and then apply what I learn when communicating with my family.

As for this motorcycle business, we´ll see if I can bend the rules and try it once. Edson does have 2 helmets, and I´m sure he would be very careful. Actually I´m still pretty terrified of traffic here in Cusco so I may not be up for it. We´ll see. Hopefully at least Jesse can go for a ride and maybe Steph when she comes?

Yesterday afternoon I went to a soccer game of Cusco against Bolivia. We won 1 to 0! Sorry Tiffany. Actually it wasn´t a very action-packed game, but I felt like I needed the experience. The Cusco team´s mascot is a scientist because they were apparently once a Science school. Go scientists! It really felt no different than a sporting event at home, except that there was no toilet paper in the bathroom (which is typical in Cusco, also you are not supposed to flush TP but put it in a little trash can next to the toilet).

How´s that for a lot of information? Keep the comments coming and if you have any questions feel free to ask!