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!