Ventanillas del Otuzco

This weekend we hosted two women in their 30s from France who have taken a sabbatical and are traveling south america. They connected with Fred through couch surfing, which is a network of travelers around the world that host or are hosted in whichever city around the world. Their coming was a breath of fresh air that made me realize again how exciting traveling is, and how improbable and sweet the connections you make with people here are. Such randomness, the people you meet when youve pulled up your roots, but so exciting and exhilerating! Im not really doing a very good job explaining this very concisely, but I really like the idea of couch surfing, I think it brings to a point the best parts about traveling. On either end, hosting or visiting, the action of two people from improbable ends of the world living together for a few days on the basis of friendship sort of zooms out your perspective on the world for a bit. You become aware of your life not just in terms of my building, my neighborhood, my city but instead my origins, my current location, places you dream of going, and how reachable the whole world is. Either end, the experience is extremely refreshing. Ive titled this post Ventanillas del Otuzco, because that is what we went and visited with them, but our site seeing is completely overshadowed by what their visit signifies, so I wont bother writing about the pre incan gravesites, although they were interesting.
This reminds me of a thought Ive had several times while here, another thing brought to a head by traveling, that being "everywhere you go, there you are". Traveling is very cool because I am aware much more frequently of the present moment, where I am, what I am doing, what I want to be doing in the future. I think that is promted by unfamiliar landscapes, people, culture, experiences. In the US, I am very accustomed to life there and its easier to sort of check out and get into autopilot. I should remember that home is another exciting place on the globe, so dont take it for granted!

Granja Porcon

All is well down south! My cold has subsided and the morning has been
good. We decided to go to Granja Porcon on saturay morning. Granja (meaning farm) Porcon is an evangelicist community about an hour away that makes their own cheese
and artesan products. We went in taxi and it was quite amusing, seeing
as some of the roads were under construction, so at one point it turns
into a one way road with dirt piled high on either side and the road
curves around a corner, and there are no men with reflector vests and
walkie talkies to tell you when to go. So, you just go and hope, our
first attempt we got about two thirds through before coming about a
foot and a hlaf away from a head on with a semi truck who through a
series of hand gestures refused to back up. so we did for about a
quarter mile. Our second way through, we came on to a car and this
time refused to back up, and they had to do the reversing. The entire
way there are signs along the road with bible verses, and all the
buildings in the center are covered with them as well. We staid in a
little house, and we were the only ones there, so we had the entire
house to ourselves complete with a stocked fireplace. The weather was
amazing, we went and waded in the river, crossed a hanging bridge,
walked through a pine forest to a little waterfall, and passed by the
zoo they have there. The menu there is trout, trout, and more trout
cooked in various forms, because they raise it there domestically. A
classic example of the way peruvian restaurants function is my order
"Ill have chicharron de chancho"
"no hay señorita" (there isnt any, even though its on the menu)
"okay then Ill have ceviche de trucha"
"no hay, señorita"
"okay Ill have grilled trout"
"yah señorita"
"and to drink could I have a bottle of water?"
"would you like it with gas?"
"is there with gas?"
"no, no hay"
really, its classic. Fred, whos from france dared to ask at dinner if
they had any wine, and she gave him a look and said its prohibited. He
then asked, with bravery I admire, if they had any beer. "no, no es
prohibido". The stars out there in the countryside were amazing, with
a perfect milkyway, the only bad part was that since it was in the
southern hemisphere I am not familiar with the constilations. We woke
up late on sunday and laid out in the sun and ate some more trout
before getting in the combi, a privately owned van used for public
transportation, and squeezing in between the 9 other people in the
van, the pile of firewood and the can of extra gas.
One back in the city, we showered and lazed around before going out to
dinner on the main plaza. Today I woke up in an excellent mood, I
think due mostly to a winning combination of good health, good
weather, and a weekend outside the city.
And pictures soon, I swear, it just takes about 15 minutes to load one picture...I am apparently not so patient...

A Day in the Life

Just a little glimpse of what I usually do in a day, because I sùppose I havent really made that too clear, other than kids, hw, spanish, etc which is a bit vague. SO
I woke up around 830 and laid in bed a bit remembering the strange and vivid dreams that accompany traveling. Then I get up and note that after two weeks here, I really should do my laundry, so I put on my least dirty clothes, and take the rest up to the roof, where we have a sink and some detergent and a bucket. Its been sunny the last few days, but today was actually pretty chilly, made even more so by the cold water. Once I had washed about 2/3 of my clothes, I got bored and decided to save the rest for later. So I went down (the building is 4 stories tall, all outside stairs/hallways) to the kitchen and chatted with the cook, Sebastiana and had some tea and some cereal. The kids all greeted me with "profesora crazy" and "the question of the day, profesora, have you combed your hair" which I get asked at least 5 times a day, and I always respond obviously, 3 times already. They always respond, you cant tell. hahha, I enjoy the exchange. Erla, the head teacher yells "to your classrooms!" and I hed off to my room, I have the youngest students in the morning. I have three students, Amy, Raul, and Elmer. First I have them get out all their notebooks and I check all of them to see what hw they have left and check what theyve done. Raul, who is 13 but has severe learning disabilities so is way below his grade level always needs extra work on his math, so I set him on that if hes finished, and its great watching him do his math, because its ALL out loud, so all the multiplication is muttered in a constant stream from his corner of the table. Amy is 9 and is great at art. When she is done with her hw, I always have her find something from the library on the 3rd floor and she has to give me descriptions of what shes read every so often, because she has a tendency to read without retaining anything. Elmer is 7, and absolutely adorable. Just to give you an idea of the size of the kids, and the extent of their malnutrition, ELmer at 7 is the same size as the 2 year and 2 month old of an ex volunteer who was over here for dinner last night. Tiny. He is learning how to read, so usually his hw is copying lines in cursive, and then we start to read, going letter by letter, syllable by syllable. That is for an hour. Today at 11 we had computer class, so a Puervian named Giancarlos comes to teach them in the lab we have upstairs, with 2 to 3 kids at each computer.
Lunch today was mote soup. Mote is like huge kernals of corn, as in the size of my thumb from the knuckle up. Its always astruggle to make the kids finish up, because the portions they are given are enormous, because this represetns their only nutritious meal all day. They hurry to eat their piece of fruit and brush their teeth to get to their classes at 1. The Afternoon shift comes then, and they have the same lunch routine. At 2 they had Dance class, which a Peruvian volunteer teaches, and is an absolute trip to watch, altough the kids hate it. My class inthe afternoon is secondary kids, one each of a 14, 15 and 16 year old. Jorge, Ramos and Rosa Margarita. Me Ramos and Jorge had a Sudoku race today because they didnt have hw, (I won, no big deal) A bit before 4, I went down to the kitchen to warm up the milk and put out the bread with jam that had been made this mronign by the person with the morning shift. I heated it up and served it to the kids, and then we kick them out and I bug the girl Maria, 15, who cleans Incawasi, whos little brother is in the program. I usually give her a hand cleaning as well. After that, we went out walking around the city doing little errands, and now here I am! Tonight we are going out to drink Pisco Sours, the drink of Peru. There is a day in the life!

Cumbemayo

I went today to Cumbemayo for the 5th time with Fred and Vera, the other two volunteers living here at Incawasi. It was really exactly the perfect thing to do today, we went to the top of the hill Santa Apolonia with the plan to catch a combi, a mini bus, but they had all left already, so we got a taxi to take us up for 25 soles (about 8 dollars), ist about a 25 minute drive straight uphill on dirt road, and when you get up there the air is really thin and any kind of incline makes you pant. We walked back down through the countryside, passing donkeys and campesinos, it was much easier than the last time I went down during the rainy season and we were caked in mud halfway up our shins.
I would say the honeymoon period of my arrival, portrayed in my last post, is over but I am glad I am here. I love how everything here is quite different from home, but in a lot of ways so familiar from my last visit, it is strange to have a home on the other side of the world that can be left so easily.
One of the volunteers who was part of my family here last time was here when I arrived, Francisca from portugal, and it was great to see her again, and unfortunately she has returned home to Portugal already, seeing as she has one of those annoying things called jobs that get in the way of vacation...but it was a good transition from my old experience to this one. Things have been a bit hectic here in the last few weeks, and hopefully the dust is starting to settle.
Also of note, no sickness so far, yay!!! That is all, tomorrow it is my turn to get up early to boil the water and prepare the kids breakfasts, so off I go!
I just tried to add picturs but either the computer or I is dumb, so it doesnt work. ill try again later