Descriptions/Answers to my Mom's Questions

Alright, so my mom asked me some questions about my house, host family, etc.  So here we go:

My House

I walk into the door off a busy side street filled with souvenir shops, a drug store, internet cafes, a grocery store, places to buy cell phones, a bakery…basically anything I could possibly need during my stay.  Over the door there is a sign for the restaurant my family supposedly runs (that’s another story, see below) as well as a list of what they offer: juices, desserts, lunch, etc.  After I walk in that first door, there is a short, covered hallway that leads onto the open patio, which is the center of the house.  The patio is a reddish/brown cement floor and there are various planted pots with flowers growing and a few different kinds of herbs.  There are also clotheslines along two sides of the patio to hang laundry.  As I stand at the end of the hallway looking across the small patio, there is a green wall with two brown doors, one on either side of the wall.  The door to the left is my room.  My room is very big and has orange walls.  There is a bed in the corner, a window opposite the bed, an alcove in the wall next to the bed, a bedside table with a lamp, five pegs to hang clothes from next to the window, a large table, and a bench.  There are no drawers, so my stuff is on the table and the bench, which are on their own walls, perpendicular to each other.  In my room there is a door that leads to Mariska’s room right next door.  We each have our own doors that lead outside, but it is nice to have the middle door open when we are both in our rooms.  As I exit my room, the main house is to my left.  The small building that my room is in and the main house join to make a 90 degree angle.  There is no door on the main house, just a large open space.  As I walk in, there is a staircase that goes to three rooms where my host family sleeps (I have not been up there).  To the left of the staircase is a kitchen with two stoves, an oven, a refrigerator, a sink, a cupboard, and a counter where there is a blender and two jugs with clean drinking water that my host mother boils every morning.  In front of the kitchen are two round tables that each has two wooden folding chairs.  Next to the kitchen is a small bathroom, which is the only one in the house.  Parallel to the kitchen and bathroom are two couches and an arm chair with a coffee table in between.  In the next room, there is a dining room table which is opposite a TV set.  The four chairs around the table face the TV.

My Family

I have not written about my family in any detail yet because it is not clear what the story is.  My host mother, Fortunata, is always there for meals.  My host father Ricardo is always home for lunch and I usually see him at the house after my Spanish lesson and before lunch, which is only a two hour window, and then I don’t see him for the rest of the day.  On the Projects Abroad page that told me about my family, it said there would be five people living at the house: Fortunata, Ricardo, their daughter Judith, and her daughters Chaska and Lidia.  I met Chaska this past weekend.  Chaska is about 17 and studies in Cusco, so she is there most of the time, but lives with her grandparents when she is not in school, so she was home for the weekend.  I think that Judith is a doctor in Calca, which is a nearby town, but it is not clear.  And I have no idea about Lidia.  However, a girl named Norma lives with the family.  I think that she must get free room and board because she is constantly cleaning and doing chores, except Fortunata always cooks.  When Norma is not working around the house, she goes to school in Calca from 8 to 1:30, Monday to Friday.  Then there is a boy who is always at the house around dinner time.  I don’t know his name and I can’t figure out his story, but he does not live with the family.  I think his connection is that he helps the family run two booths at the market, where they sell various crafts.  It is weird because Norma and this boy are always at the house for dinner, but never eat with us.  They eat on the couch while we eat at the table.  I think it’s a way for the family to show their higher status, but it is very weird and makes me uncomfortable.  I really like both of these teens (I don’t know how old they are), so it would be nice if they could eat with us so that I could get to know them more. 

Also, like I said above, my family supposedly runs a restaurant, however I have only seen one person eat in their restaurant and that was this morning.  When I came in for breakfast, there was a tourist sitting at one of the round tables near the kitchen and drinking something.  Fortunata proudly told us at breakfast that he said he would try her milk and quinoa (basically, heated milk with sugar, thickened with quinoa – it was surprisingly good).   A few days ago, two tourists came in and wanted to have lunch, but Fortunata said something that I couldn’t hear/understand and they went away.  I think that Fortunata must only offer what she has already made.  Maybe it used to be a bigger restaurant.

And, of course, I can’t forget the snoring dog.  He is ugly with a pushed in face and floppy ears.  He has orange fur and his tail is shaved except for the end, which is bushy, so he looks like a lion.  During the day he lies on the patio and spends five minutes in the sun and then spends five minutes in the shade.  He spends the whole day going back and forth between sun and shade.  Sometimes he goes out into the street to walk one of us to where we are going and then returns on his own to the house.  When he has come with me to Spanish lesson, he keeps his distance in front of me, but continually looks behind him to make sure that I am coming.  Today Ricardo happily told me that the dog knows and likes me.  I think I pet him more than anyone else in the family.

Other Volunteers

It has been really fun meeting other volunteers.  I have run into a couple of them, one in Cusco and one in the Pisac market.  Although we don’t know each other well and range in age from about 18 to 35, we are all going through a similar experience, which makes for easy interactions.  Mariska is the other volunteer that is staying in the same house as I am.  She is taking Spanish lessons and working in a kindergarten too.  We get along well and it is really nice to have someone else going through the same experience.  It means we always have someone to go shopping with or talk to our host family with.  And we have helped each other translate countless times.  Mariska is from Holland and speaks Dutch, so she often starts speaking to me in Dutch without realizing and I just think she is really messing up her Spanish.  It’s funny, but her English is really good and I’m glad I have another volunteer with me.  I don’t think it is interfering with my Spanish or getting to know the family, if anything, having her here helps.

The Town and Where I’m Located

I live in the PERFECT location.  The only thing not perfect about where I live is that there are more volunteers living in Urubamba than in Pisac, but that is not a big deal – it is easy enough to get between locations.  I live about half a block from the main street where there are constant taxis and buses.  You take one step onto this street and you have three guys asking if you want to go to Cusco in their taxi.  In the other direction, one and a half blocks away, is the main plaza where there are a number of cafes and, of course, the Pisac Market.  Within two blocks of my house I can easily get to a countless number of cafes and restaurants, taxis and buses to a variety of places, internet cafes, the Market, grocery stores, pharmacies, bakeries, and a number of other places.  Most of the streets are stone and have narrow canals running down the center.  There is obviously a huge range in wealth: many times I will see two houses next to each other – one that is falling apart and one that looks very fancy.  There are ruins in the mountains a few miles outside of Pisac that I can easily take a taxi to and then walk back to Pisac.  It is a great place to be located.

Food

Desayuno (breakfast): We always have bread.  Usually they are fresh rolls, but sometimes it is toast that they buy pre-toasted.  Sometimes we just have jam or butter on the rolls and other times we get a 1/3 of a fresh avocado, which we salt and then spread on the bread.  To drink, we usually have hot water or milk, which we put ovaltine in.  My host mother always adds a couple tablespoons of extra sugar to her ovaltine – Peruvians use a ton of sugar!  Once we had some sort of rice drink, which we also added ovaltine to.  Another time we had coffee.  Our mugs were filled with hot water and then we added about two tablespoons of premade coffee to the water in our mugs.  I thought it would taste weak, but it was strong, delicious, and extremely caffeinated – I felt like my heart was racing and my legs were shaking for the next hour!  This morning we had milk with sugar which was thickened with quinoa.  It was very good and was the first thing we have not put ovaltine in.

Mariska, Fortunata, and I eat together at 7:30, along with their granddaughter Chaska, if she is visiting.  Our host father never eats with us.

Almuerzo (lunch):  This is the biggest meal of the day.  We usually have some kind of meat or fish and two different kinds of carbs, usually potatoes and either rice or pasta.  We have had pesto with fish, fried chicken, a stir fry of pasta and eggs and vegetables, as well as a range of other food.

            For lunch, Mariska, Fortunata, Ricardo (our host father), and I always eat together at 1:30, along with Chaska if she is visiting.  Our host mother, Fortunata, always prays before this meal.  When we are all sitting down with our food in front of us, we clasp our hands together in front of our faces, and Fortunata mutters some words and then we eat.

            After lunch, Fortunata puts the leftovers (usually bones and rice or potatoes) in the dog’s dish, and that is his meal.  It seems like a good way of composting!

Cena (dinner):  This is a smaller meal than lunch and is usually just a bowl of soup.  We have also had fried potato and veggie pancakes, as well as fried rice.  After the meal, we always have a cup of tea, usually chamomile (which I didn’t used to like, but now do) and sometimes animal crackers or a piece of toast.  Yesterday we had homemade tamales for dessert, which were delicious!

            For dinner, it is just Mariska, Fortunata, and me.  Fortunata prays the same way she does at lunch before the meal.

At the end of each meal, Fortunata gets up and says, “Probecho,” which basically means you may continue to enjoy.  Usually we are all done eating by then, so we help to clear the table and then everyone disperses.