Aeropuerto de Lima

    Ahora, estoy en el aeropuerto de Lima.  Tengo seis mas horas aqui y despues yo voy a Miami y despues Chicago!!  Estaba aqui en Peru para cuatro meses, entonces creo que es tiempo para escribir en espanol para mi blog.  Y ahora tengo mucho tiempo!  No quiero regresar a los Estados Unidos, pero quiero ver mi familia.
    Estoy feliz que he visto Puerto Maldonado porque es muy diferente que Pisac o Cusco.  Esta ciudad es mas similar a Chiang Mai, Thailand que Cusco o Pisac.
    Ayer, para cena, tenia pescado con salsa de maracuya.  Que rico!  Y ayer habia una fiesta en las calles y en la plaza para el aniversario de Puerto Maldonado - cien anos!  Me gustaba Puerto Maldonado y Taricaya, pero hay mucho mucho mucho mosquitos y tambien hay mucho calor y humedo que no me gusta.
    Creo que yo hace todo que yo quiere hacer en Pisac y Cusco.  He caminado en el mercado muchas veces y he comprado muchos regalos!  Fui a todas las ruinas en el valle segrado y fui a tres iglesias.  Y tambien fui a fiestas con mi familia y fui a Lago Titicaca y la selva.  Creo que tengo muchas cosas hacer si yo regreso a Peru, pero por ahora estoy feliz!
    Hay mucho para hacer en Lima - ahora, yo voy a tener un mesage de mis pies!

Tapirs and Jaguars and Bats! Oh My!

           I am now in Puerto Maldonado before I leave on Sunday (tomorrow!) to go home.  The boat from the conservation project, which is an hour away from Puerto Maldonado, only goes to Puerto Maldonado on Saturday mornings, so I am hanging out and spending the night here with lots of other volunteers.  I cannot believe that I am leaving already!  I am excited to go home, but I am also not ready to leave.  Anyway, here’s what I have been doing for the past week at Taricaya Ecological Reserve and Conservation Project.

            When I got off the plane in Puerto Maldonado on Sunday afternoon, I was expecting the heat so I was not surprised that when I climbed down the stairs of the plane that I almost immediately started sweating in the 100% humidity.  I was surprised, however, that it felt so hard to breathe because of the humidity.  And I was also surprised that the rain forest has a very distinct smell - the same smell of the humid, smelly, rainforest room at the zoo, I guess they are accurate.

            The airport is tiny and I was immediately met by a taxi driver holding a Projects Abroad sign who took me to Elvira’s house (the volunteer coordinator) where I had lunch and waited for thirty minutes before we went to the port to take the boat to the Taricaya lodge where the conservation project is located.  We went to the boat and I met several of the other volunteers and staff that had been in Puerto Maldonado for the weekend.  Then we took the hour long boat ride to the lodge.  When we got there, we formed an assembly line to take all of the suitcases, food for the week, and toilet paper off the boat.  The boat only goes back to Puerto Maldonado once a week, so they have to bring all the food on Sunday for all ten volunteers, fifteen staff, and all the animals.  After bringing all the food to the kitchen, the two other new volunteers and I were given a short introduction and shown our rooms.  The rooms are small bungalows with two bunk beds and a bathroom in each.  For the first three days, I had my own bungalow and was joined by Yuca, a girl from Japan, on Wednesday.

            Everyday at Taricaya each volunteer does two or three “activities.”  An activity can be anything from feeding animals to cleaning out their cages to clearing farm areas.  On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we have breakfast at 7:15 and then have a morning activity from 8 to 11, lunch at noon, a siesta until 3:30 and then a second activity from 3:30 to 5:30 and dinner at 7.  On Tuesdays and Thursdays, we wake up earlier to bird watch at 5:30 and then have breakfast at 8, a second activity from 9 to 11, and the rest of the day is the same schedule.

            On Monday, my first activity was “New Farm 2.”  The conservation project has two farms, a little ways from the main lodge, that they experiment on to see what farming methods are best for protecting the environment that can be taught to local farmers.  A big problem in this area is that farmers tend to use the slash and burn method of farming, which drains the soil of proper nutrients and thus makes the land usable for only 5 or 6 years.  Most farmers in this area have bananas as their main or only crop, so another problem is that since so many people grow bananas in this area they are really cheap, so sometimes it is cheaper for the farmers to let their bananas rot rather than pick them and pay for the gas to bring them down the river in a boat to Puerto Maldonado.  Projects Abroad is trying to see what other things farmers can grow and sell that would be more lucrative for them and better for the environment.  They are experimenting with growing trees (that the farmers could sell for wood) next to banana trees and that could be cut down once there was too much shade for the bananas - this would teach the farmers to think more in the long term rather than their current thinking which tends to be short term.  They are also doing things like growing flowers and chilies that the farmers could learn to grow and then sell in the markets.  Anyway, I got to use a machete to help to clear the farm of anything growing except for the banana trees, so they can start their experimenting.  Everything chopped down will stay on the ground to fertilize the earth.

            After a much need lunch and nap and putting band aids on the cuts and blisters on my hands, my afternoon activity was animal feeding.  For this, there are typed up sheets with exact amounts of food written out that each animal needs (i.e. 100 grams of banana and 80 grams of apple).  Each animal or group of animals has a bowl or plate and we had to cut up the various fruits and vegetables and put them in the bowls and then bring them around to the various cages.  My favorite part was going into the monkey cages and having them climb on me.

            On Tuesday, I woke up early for bird watching.  I was assigned to go to the canopy.  I am glad I didn’t know what this would entail before I did it - otherwise I wouldn’t have gone.  We met and the four of us going to the canopy grabbed harnesses.  We walked through the forest for ten minutes and then got to a tree that had a ladder leading up to a short platform.  Before climbing up the ladder, we put on our harnesses.  When we got to the top of the ladder, we attached our harnesses to a rope running along the side of a narrow bridge climbing to a platform on another tree 42 meters in the air.  I was terrified, but I somehow made it to the platform - my legs shaking the whole time.  And it was worth it.  It was great to look out over the trees instead of look up from under them and we found about ten birds over the course of an hour.  And I found one of them!

            My second activity on Tuesday was animal feeding again, which was the same as the afternoon before, but a little more fun because the animals have waited longer to eat so they are hungrier and more excited to see you when you arrive with their food.  In the afternoon on Tuesday, I didn’t have anything because, instead, I got to participate in the night time bat project.  There is a person here, Hugo, at Taricaya who comes for a couple of weeks at a time every couple of months who studies bats and is trying to identify the species of bats in the Amazon.  I got to help open the five nets he has set up - three in the forest and two on the bridge that I had walked on to go bird watching.  Then we waited for bats to fly into the nets.  By the end of the night we had caught 5 bats.  Hugo weighed them, measured their wing bone, identified their species and whether they were adult or juvenal, and then cut some of their hair to mark them and put a small hole with a sterilized needle in their wing in a specific spot based on what number they were that he had caught of that particular species.  It was very cool to watch all of this.  After inspecting each bat Hugo would let them fly away and he even let me release one.  I had never held a bat before!  On a different night, Hugo found one bat that he thinks is part of a species that has not been found in the Amazon since 1980, so people thought it was extinct.

            On Wednesday, my morning activity was “Fruits.”  This meant that I went by boat to a farm about five minutes away from Taricaya with a staff member and another volunteer.  At the farm we walked around cutting huge banana leaves off the trees and we filled nine large sacks with the leaves - food for the animals.  We loaded these bags onto the boat and then the farmer brought us too large buckets full of papayas and three wheelbarrows full of bananas, also for the animals.  It was hard work loading all of this onto the boat and then unloading back at Taricaya.

            My afternoon activity for Wednesday was cleaning the Tapir Pool.  The Pool is basically a big toilet for these animals and cleaning it involved filling buckets up with the smelly, dirty water and throwing it a little ways from the pool.  All around the pool was incredibly muddy, making our job even harder because it was difficult to find a good place to stand.  We did an hour of backbreaking, sweaty work - seriously it was awful.  Imagine being covered in poopy water while continuing to bend over and stand up again and again to fill up buckets and poor them out so your back and legs hurt so badly they are shaking and you’re sweating so much that you cannot even see out of your glasses because of the sweat and you can‘t clear the sweat or push the hair out of your face because your hands are covered in poop and mud.  Yep, that was me.  But it gets worse.  All of a sudden it started to pour!  We decided to go for shelter, but my rubber boots got stuck in the mud and I couldn’t get it out despite pulling and moving in every way possible.  Eventually I had to give up and pull one foot out of the boot - I tried to step onto a log, but it was too far away and I missed, sticking my foot right into the mud.  I tried to move my other boot, but out came my foot from my boot and that was that.  I pulled out my boots from the mud with my hands and walked through the ten-inch deep mud in my socks and straight to the shower, going in fully dressed to wash my smelly clothes and myself.  I will definitely be throwing those clothes away!  I got myself completely clean except for my hands, more than two hours later they still smelled like the toilet water of the pool despite how many times I washed them with soap or used Purel.  It was disgusting.

            And lucky me - Thursday I got to clean the peccary pool.  The same kind of hard and smelly work as the tapir pool, but there was less mud, which made it a little easier and meant my boots didn’t get stuck.  Oh well, I am glad that job is over!

            In the afternoon on Thursday, though, I had an easy job of chopping lettuce into miniscule pieces to feed to baby turtles.  I cut up the lettuce and then threw it into the water for the turtles to eat.  And then I got to hold a one-month old turtle.  It was surprisingly strong!

            Thursday was a long day because I had to get up to go bird watching at 5:30 in the morning.  It was fun though.  I am not very good at finding birds and cannot identify them at all, but Rike, a staff member, was with us and was able to quickly spot and identify birds - we saw parrots, parakeets, humming birds (that kept coming up to us because they are attracted to the color red and I happened to be wearing a bright red shirt), and several other kinds of birds.

            And for lunch on Thursday, we had fresh ceviche.  One of the staff members caught a huge fish from the river the day before.  It was great.

            On Friday, my morning activity was working to clean out fifteen containers full of caterpillars.  First I had to go outside and cut down a few banana leaves and then cut them into 6 inch by 1 foot pieces for new food for the caterpillars.  Then I would open up each box take out the old leaf, which could be anything from a whole leaf with little bite marks taken out to only a bit of the stem left, depending on the number and size of the caterpillars in each particular box.  I also had to count the caterpillars to make sure none were missing and move them off the leaf with a wet paint brush so that I wouldn’t squish them with my fingers.  Then I had to dump out the poop and toilet paper from the box and replace them with new toilet paper and a new leaf with its stem in a small test tube full of water, make sure the caterpillars were all in the box and close up the box.  There is a butterfly specialist on the conservation project studying the different types of butterflies in this part of the Amazon - so far he has found 476 different species.  They have built a butterfly house and are reproducing the butterflies that are endangered, which is why they have so many caterpillars they are taking care of.

            In the afternoon on Friday I got to help feed the jaguar, Preciosa, in the rescue center.  First Raul, one of the staff people, put Preciosa in a smaller cage by using a pulley system from outside the big cage to open a door to the small cage and tempting her with a big piece of chicken.  After getting Preciosa in her smaller cage and closing it up, five of us entered the large cage and took out old plants, swept up pieces of cardboard and bones from last week, put in new tree branches with lots of leaves on them, and lastly placed a lot of cold, raw meat all around the cage.  Some of the meat we rolled up into banana leaves or put into closed boxes so that Preciosa could have more of a challenge eating.  Then we all left the cage, closed it up, and watched as Preciosa was let back into her big cage and happily ran around devouring pieces of meat.  The only thing that was scary was that I was up close to the cage, like other volunteers were, taking a picture and all of a sudden Preciosa stopped what she was doing and ran directly at me, jumping up at the fencing on the cage.  I screamed and ran backwards.  Nothing would have happened because it is a strong cage, but it was a little disconcerting to have this huge animal running directly at me.

            On Saturday morning, we took a boat at 5:30 in the morning to Puerto Maldonado.  As we were getting off the boat and walking across a slippery, narrow bridge, I was holding my huge suitcase and somehow slipped and fell into the deep water.  I amazingly saved my suitcase from going in, except for the bottom of it, but I fell in up to my neck - getting all my clothes wet and completely submerging my backpack full of electronics.  Amazingly none of my electronics are ruined, except for my camera, which was around my neck, but hopefully it will dry.  Thankfully it’s my last day and I was able to save all the pictures from the memory card!  I sloshed back to the hotel and took a shower and brought my clothes to the laundry.  Clumsy, stupid me.  What a way to say goodbye to Peru.

            I am sad to be leaving this project, but I think that a week here was a really good amount of time and I am so glad that I decided to do the conservation project.  It was a great way to experience the jungle.  I enjoyed seeing both the animals in the rescue center and the wild animals, especially the wild monkeys who run around in huge packs in the trees around Taricaya.  And it was great to be able to enjoy myself while learning from all the specialists on the project that are part of the staff and being able to volunteer.  I also enjoyed spending time with the other volunteers, many of whom are vets, biologists, or science teachers.  Another fun part was that the cook had two kids, a 9 year old boy and a 2 year old girl, who loved playing with the volunteers.  Most of the other volunteers could not speak Spanish, so I had a good time talking to the kids and translating what they said for the other volunteers.

            And now it is almost time to head home!  It is bittersweet.  Hasta luego Peru.

Somewhere Over the Mountains

Written on Monday 12/17

            What a great last two days in Pisac!  On Friday I had a party in my class for my last day.  I brought in fruit to make fruit salad that the kids helped to make.  I also brought in cake and soda for an unhealthy treat.  I am not sure that the kids actually realized it was my last day - despite Vanessa and me telling them several times and them thanking me for my time with them.  It was fun to give the kids treats and just spend a stress free day with them.  I had brought a lot of stickers with me to Peru and never ended up using them, so I brought them all with me to school on Friday and gave them out to the kids.  The kids loved them!  And were in shock when I told them they could do whatever they wanted with them - even put them on their hands and forehead.  They were so happy.  When it was time to go, Vanessa told all the kids to give me a hug goodbye.  I was swarmed by my 18 students hugging and kissing me and telling me to take care of myself.  I couldn’t have asked for a better send off.

            Friday afternoon, I went on a trip to Awana Kancha, a llama and alpaca farm 20 minutes from Pisac, with my Spanish teacher, Shaarda, and another volunteer, Cristiana.  Because I took so many hours of Spanish, a trip with my teacher was included with my lessons, but we never had time to go, so I was glad when Shaarda asked me if Friday would work!  It was fun to see the alpacas and llamas, but especially fun because we spoke Spanish the entire time.  I was proud of myself and surprised by how much I was able to say, even if the grammar and vocabulary wasn’t the best.

            When we got back to Pisac, the three of us walked around the Pisac market and Cristiana and I bought earrings.  Then Shaarda left and Cristiana and I walked around Pisac for more than an hour.  It was a nice way to say goodbye to my village.

            On Saturday we decorated for Christmas.  Chaska and I put together three plastic Christmas trees - two white and one green.  All the branches were separated and put away in boxes, so we had to build the trees and then decorate them.  We took a break for lunch of Aji de Gallina (my special request) and homemade Chicha Morada.  Chicha Morada is the non fermented version of Chicha and is made by boiling purple corn, the peel of a pineapple, and cinnamon.  (By the way, I think Peru may have cured my cinnamon allergy?)  Usually we have Chicha Morada made from a powder, but the homemade version is much better.  At the end of lunch, Chaska’s father came to the house.  This is the first time I have met him - he is from Puno and I don’t think he comes here very often.  Chaska seemed surprised to see him.  After lunch Chaska, Norma, and I put together a nativity seen.  This seemed to consist of every plastic animal and doll that they own, complete with flamingos and three baby Jesuses.

            We had a two course dinner - the first was paneton and hot chocolate, as a special treat for my going away and the second was an egg, cheese, and vegetable fried pancake, fried potatoes, rice, and tea.  Chaska’s father Carlos, Judith, Chaska, Fortunata, Ricardo, and I were all there and it was nice to have a big family dinner for my last night.  It was also nice because Carlos asked questions about my time here which was a nice way to wrap things up.  My favorite was Fortunata’s explanation that I couldn’t speak any Spanish when I first got here but that I have improved a lot - my Spanish is not perfect, but I can really communicate.

            The house is now a Christmas wonderland.  All three trees have blinking lights and the big 7 foot white tree sits on a rotating stand that spins the tree while playing Christmas carols.  To say it is annoying is an understatement.  There is a huge nativity seen, tinsel everywhere, and bows and bells hanging from the doorways.

            On Saturday morning, I woke up early to finish packing.  It is a good thing I did not buy anything more than I did because my suitcase was bursting at the seams.  I joined the family for breakfast and then sat around with Judith and Ricardo for an hour talking about my time in Peru - where I had gotten to travel and what I need to come back to see.  Twenty minutes before I had to leave, Fortunata and Chaska came back from the market with fruit I had never seen before.  They made me try everything.

            When it was time to go, everyone helped me bring my stuff to the taxi and I gave everyone big hugs goodbye as I started tearing up.  When I got into the taxi I started really crying.  I had to pull it together because the taxi driver started speaking to me in Spanish, but I was a little surprised that I was crying so much and felt so sad to leave.  And now that I am in the jungle, I feel homesick for Pisac!

Pictures, the Zoo, and a Playground

            What a wonderful day!  The class trip to Cusco that I thought was going to be miserable and stressful, turned out to be really fun.  This was partly because 11 moms and 1 dad ended up coming at the last minute (or maybe I misunderstood and they were always going to come?).  I am glad they were there though because it made our job much easier and the principal never showed up, so it would have only been Vanessa and me on this trip if the parents hadn’t come.  So, Vanessa and I were really only in charge of five children.  It was fun to just have to watch over a few students because I could really pay attention to them without feeling stressed.

            Instead of leaving the school at 8:00 like planned, we left at 8:50 - not bad by Peruvian standards!  We crammed all 12 parents, 18 students, a younger brother, Vanessa, and me into a collectivo built for 18, which was nothing compared to on the way home when we got the same number of people into a collectivo built for 11!

            When we got to Cusco, we first went to the Koricancha, which is apparently the designated picture taking spot for school groups in Cusco.  It was amazing how many groups of students came to take a class picture there before heading on to their next destination.  Somehow we got all 18 5-year-olds to stand still and smile.  Then all of the parents wanted me to take individual pictures of them with their kids.  It was fun to be the photographer!

            Next we went to the small zoo at the public university.  I heard from another volunteer who went with his class to the zoo last week that a monkey bit one of his kid’s fingers.  When we got to the zoo I wasn’t surprised that this was possible.  Before going in, Vanessa warned the kids not to touch the animals or put their fingers in the cages.  Of course, the parents immediately started holding hands with the monkeys and feeding them bananas and encouraging their kids to do the same.  Good role models.  Thankfully no one got bitten, but at one point Emerson was poking around at a cage and somehow the monkey reached under the netting and started pulling Emerson’s hand with both of it’s hands.  The monkey looked angry and I got scared, so I pulled Emerson away quickly.  The other scary thing was that one of the mom’s was throwing leaves at an ostrich to try to get it to stand up.  Well, it did stand up and put its head right over the gate with a big squawk leaning towards us - luckily there was enough room to jump back, otherwise the ostrich would have been able to bite/peck someone!  Other than the dangers, though, it was fun to be in a zoo where you could stand so close to the cages.  There was a toucan, condors, parrots, various kinds of monkeys, a peacock, turtles, the ostrich, and various kinds of pigs.  It was fun to be at the zoo with 5-year-olds.  They loved it!

            After the zoo, we piled into three different taxis and drove to a playground.  This playground was amazing.  It kind of felt like a less advanced version of Disney land.  It even had a flying merry go round with Dumbo.  There were huge slides, small slides, swings, a hand pushed merry go round and Ferris wheel, seesaws, and anything else you could possibly imagine in a playground and more.  It was so fun to watch the kids run around with huge smiles on their faces.  Any child would love this playground, but it was especially great for these students whose tiny playground has not been available to them for the past two months because of construction being done at the school.

            We had a picnic lunch of chicken and French fries from Vanessa’s family’s restaurant and we bought all the kids ice cream.  Then it was time to go, but first the parents asked me if I would take their pictures with their kids in the park.  When I had finished my photographing duties, Vanessa announced that tomorrow would be my last day and we would be having a fiesta.  This induced another round of pictures, but this time I was included and Vanessa was the photographer.  Every mom wanted their picture with their child and me. I felt like a pop-star, with Vanessa calling out, “Who’s next?”

            At 2:00, we piled into a collectivo to head back home.  I sat with Rene’s mom on the front bench seat next to the driver with four kids piled on our laps.  All of the kids fell asleep on the way home.  It was a wonderful second to last day and I am looking forward to having a fiesta in my class tomorrow for my last day.  I am so sad to leave, but am glad that my time here is ending on a high note.

Día de la Suerte

            Today is 12-12-12 and according to the newspaper, that makes it Dia de la Suerte (day of luck).  So I hope everyone is having a lucky day.

            Tomorrow my class is going to Cusco for a field trip.  We are going to go to the zoo and a park.  I am nervous because I think the only chaperones for this adventure are going to be Vanessa, the principal, and me.  With the 18 crazy, 5-year-old students.  I wish tomorrow was Dia de la Suerte.

            This week, Vanessa has been giving the kids, who have been crazier than normal because they know Christmas is almost here, warnings that if they do bad things or don’t complete work well then they aren’t going to be allowed to go to Cusco.  Both the kids and Vanessa, I think, realize this is an empty threat, but usually it makes the kids behave a little better.  Today, Vanessa left a half hour early, leaving me to glue pages into the kids notebooks for homework, have the kids clean up the classroom and complete more worksheets, while Dora the Explorer was playing.  Given that the TV was on, I had no control over the kids, so I decided to turn off the TV and tell the students that they didn’t have to do any more work but they had to clean up their tables and the classroom before they were allowed to watch Dora.  Usually this creates an immediate reaction of cleaning extremely fast, but given the recent increase in craziness among these students, instead of cleaning chaos ensued.  There was a group of boys in the back of the classroom wrestling on the floor, kids were running around with scissors, Diego went to get a broom to help clean but then Frandud decided he wanted to sweep instead and then the two boys ended up wrestling over the broom and Diego got poked in the eye and started crying.  While I was trying to comfort Diego, who wasn’t actually that hurt, Flordeli decided she didn’t want to clean up and would rather go home, so she picked up her backpack and headed out the door.  When I yelled her name to come back, she gave me a big grin, as if to say, “I dare you to come and get me.”  I didn’t because right then Reyna punched Marco or pulled his hair or something and he was standing in the middle of the room sobbing.  Oy.  There was so much noise and commotion in the classroom, I could barely think.

            Once I got Marco calmed down, I went back to the door to see if Flordeli had come back - she had, I think she was surprised I didn’t come after her.  I told her that if she didn’t come back and clean up her spot (which was messier than anyone else’s) she was not going to be able to go to Cusco tomorrow - following Vanessa’s lead.  She didn’t come back and we only had two more minutes until it was time to leave so I got all the other kids in a line to leave.  Finally the whistle blew to say the school day was over and I let all the kids leave.  I was just going to forget about Flordeli and leave her place a mess for Vanessa to find, but I guess the other kids had heard me tell her she wasn’t going to go to Cusco if she didn’t clean up and pretty soon, Flordeli came running back to the classroom sobbing.  At first I didn’t remember telling her she couldn’t go to Cusco, because there had been so many other things going on and I had heard Vanessa use the same threat without any consequences a hundred times.  After asking her lots of questions - are you mad at me? No. Are you mad at your brother? No. What happened? No answer. Do you think my scarf is ugly? This got a laugh and smile, but no answer.  It finally hit me that I had told her she couldn’t go to Cusco and I felt horrible, I asked if she wanted to go to Cusco and she nodded and started crying again.  I quickly told her that she was of course allowed to go to Cusco if she would just clean up her table with my help really quick.  We cleaned up the table and then I was surprised that Flordeli wanted to wait for me while I cleaned up the classroom and locked the door.  I thought she would hate me, but Flordeli and I walked to the main street hand in hand talking about going to Cusco tomorrow.  I am glad I was able to work everything out, but feel bad that I caused the problem in the first place.

            Speaking of crying children, which seems to be happening a lot lately (I think because it is near the end of the year) this past Thursday, Diego was crying alone outside during recess.  I went up to him and asked him what was wrong.  He finally told me that his grandmother had said that she would be right back with fruit for his snack.  I think she had been gone barely a minute.  I reassured him that his abuela would be back soon and everything would be fine.  He sulked for a few minutes, until Grandma came back with his mango.

            So, given the craziness and the crying, we will see how the day goes tomorrow.  I hope I am not the one crying by the end of the day.

Cusco Chicha Cleaning

            On Saturday, I went to Cusco to spend the day with Vanessa and her family.  Vanessa, her husband Saul, and her daughter Sharmley all speak English, so it was really nice to spend the day with a Peruvian family and be able to speak English.  Sharmley, is 19 and I spent the morning walking around Cusco with her and her boyfriend, Rodrigo.  First, the three of us went to the public university where Sharmley studies anthropology (she and Rodrigo study law at the private university).  Unfortunately, we could not go into the buildings of the university because it was a holiday (when we heard this, Sharmley rolled her eyes…even the Peruvians get sick of celebrating the saints so frequently - it seems like there is always a party for one saint or another).  We walked around the outside gate of the big university, made up of big white, square, ugly buildings and Sharmley pointed out which school each building contained.  The building that stood out to me held language and tourist schools.  Sharmley said that the most popular language to study is English and every student is required to take a minimum of one year of basic English.  Sharmley, however, learned English through a private program where she took classes in Cusco when she was younger.  She also said that the tourist school trains most, or maybe all, of the guides for Machu Picchu and is a very popular school. 

            After seeing the university, we went to a neighborhood of Cusco called San Blas.  San Blas is a Spanish colonial neighborhood, so whereas other places in Cusco feel both very Incan and Spanish, San Blas does not have any Inca history present.  We went into a Spanish house that has become a museum where we saw paintings and statues of various saints, Jesus, and Mary, all with elongated necks.  San Blas is on the mountain side, so we had to walk up steep staircases to get to the museum, but we were able to see beautiful views of Cusco.

            Next we walked back down to the plaza de armas and then went in the other direction up steep stairs to San Cristobol.  At San Cristobol there was a huge Spanish church and to one side of it an Incan wall with niches in it like I have seen at many ruins.  Here there was another beautiful view over Cusco.

            After all this walking, we went to meet Vanessa, Saul, and their 2-year-old, Inti, at a typical Peruvian restaurant for lunch.  It was a fun restaurant - there were very few tourists and there was traditional dancing.  I ordered the trucha frita (fried trout) even though Sharmley tried to get me to order something more adventurous.  She made me try her cow tongue though and I enjoyed watching Saul eat his pig feet.  We also ordered two pitchers of chicha, the Peruvian fermented corn drink.  Saul kept telling me to drink the chicha and pouring me more, saying it was completely natural, there’s no alcohol.  Between him saying this, having his two year old son drink the chicha, and having had chicha before, I didn’t think there would be any problem.  Boy was I wrong.  But, after I fainted three times, threw up, and drank four cups of coca tea, I felt a lot better.

            Besides my chicha adventure, it was a great day!

            On Saturday, Vanessa told me that she had left the party at the school on Friday at 4:30, but it was still going strong, with the teachers from other schools and the parents starting to drink.  Unfortunately, they did not clean up after themselves, so when we opened the classroom doors at 8:30 this morning, the classroom stunk, had full bottles and glasses of beer on the kids tables, and had soda and beer spilled on the tables, chairs, and floors.  It was disgusting.  Vanessa and I had the kids stay outside while we cleaned up and another teacher wiped down the tables and mopped the floor.

            That was the most exciting part of my day at school today.  And the most exciting part of my afternoon was when I was shopping at the market (again!) this afternoon and was bargaining with a vendor.  When we finally agreed on a price, he asked me where I was from and when I said the U.S., he looked surprised and said my Spanish was really good!  He said he has friends in Oregon who sell his jewelry.

Dancing and Chatting

Dancing

            Today was the big party at my school.  When I got to school, all of the teachers were there and only a few kids, helping to set up and get things clean and organized.  I helped make “books” out of cardboard and paper to be used as props for one of the dances and I helped hang paper chains that I had help make earlier in the week.  At 9:30 Vanessa and the principal led a procession of students holding the Virgen del Rosario to the church on the main square.  I sat with the kids in the pews of the Spanish church built around 1580 and there was a mass.  Like any religious gathering when the majority of attendees are between the ages of three and five, there was a lot of fidgeting, talking, and running around (it kind of reminded me of being at family services at JRC).  My favorite part was when the priest came around with holy water which he sprinkled on all the kids and the kids kept jumping on him and asking to be sprayed again.  He took this surprisingly well and did spray them with the water again.  Much of the service was dedicated to blessing the “mischievous” kids.

            After the mass, we were greeted outside by a teacher and some of her students from another school who were carrying a flag and they led the procession of the kids holding the Virgen del Rosario back to the kindergarten.  When we got back, there was a mad rush to organize and distribute all of the costumes, that the teachers had rented in Cusco, for the dances .  All the moms and some dads were there to help their kids get changed.  And then the parents got changed into their costumes too.

            The dancing started outside in the schoolyard in the sun with the three year olds.  It was really funny watching these kids who had basically no idea what they were doing but looked adorable in their costumes.  And the schoolyard was packed with people - teachers from surrounding schools and towns, older students from two or three other schools in San Salvador, parents, friends, and people from the municipality.  Since my class is the biggest, the girls were put with the 4 year old class and the boys danced alone.  When the girls from my class started to dance the sky clouded over and halfway through it started to pour.  Although the people watching started to sprint for shelter, I was amazed that these 4 and 5 year olds stayed smiling and dancing like nothing was happening.  Eventually, Vanessa made the other teacher stop the music and got everyone inside.  We watched it pour for twenty minutes and the yard fill with mud.  Vanessa made the decision to have the boys (the last group of students to dance) dance in a classroom and we quickly made room for them by pushing the chairs and tables to the outside of the room.  It was fun watching each class dance because you could really see the progression in skill from year to year.

            By the time the 5 year old boys were done dancing, the sky had cleared and the parents danced in the mud.  It was kind of boring watching the parents because they really didn’t know what they were doing and it wasn’t made up for by them being cute.

            After all the dancing it was time for a big lunch of cuy!  During the dances, I watched the parents bring in huge buckets of roasted cuy and giant pans of pasta mixed with hot dogs.  I was so glad that I had the excuse to go home - I hadn’t told my host family I would be missing lunch so I had to get home for lunch there.  I have never been happier to eat lentils.

Chatting

            This morning, a woman who is frequently in the collectivo with me from Pisac to San Salvador introduced herself and asked me what I was doing in Peru.  I was able to have a short conversation with Ruth (a teacher in San Salvador at another school who also came to the party at my school) and felt very proud of my Spanish.  Even though it wasn’t much (where are you from, what are you doing here, etc.) it was fun to have a relatively quick conversation where I didn’t feel like I was holding it up with too many ums and ahs and actually understood what she was saying the first time she said it.  Now I have two friends to ride to school with, Ruth and Estelle.  Estelle is a teacher from Qosqoayllu which is a town near San Salvador, who also made the effort to ask me about myself a couple weeks ago.

            This afternoon, when I was shopping in the Pisac market, I ran into a woman who is a host mom in Pisac.  I have met her through other volunteers a couple of times.  I chatted with her about how it is my last week here and that I really like Pisac, especially for the market.  It was fun to talk to her and have this second biggish (for me) conversation in Spanish for the day.

Some of my students in their costumes!