Funny Little Story

This past weekend I went to visit Vinañi again because I had not been out there in awhile. Though I went to the meeting for the youth group I worked with all last year and through the beginning of this one, only one of the kids actually showed up. Mostly, I chatted with the young nun who runs it, and she was very excited because she will be travelling to the United States. Specifically, she will be going to Manchester, though I found it quite funny that she had no idea which one (nor does she speak English).

As I was walking around out there, however, I passed by two kids working on building a house with their father. One of the defining aspects of life in Vinañi is that there is always construction and improvements happening. Although a very poor area, it is incredibly dynamic and every time I go it feels like it is growing and developing. I have never witnessed such a rapidly transition before.

Anyway, I thought I recognized the two children, but I was not a hundred percent sure. So, I sort of smiled at them and was going to just pass by. As I was walking right by them, however, I heard the older one whispering to his brother, ¨Es el profe.¨ The younger brother, in turn, responded, ¨No, no es el profe.¨ Maybe three or four times they went back and forth like that, arguing in hushed voices. As I was about ten yards past them, I couldn´t resist turning back and shouting at them, ¨Sí es el profe y buenos días chicos.¨ I turned around, smiling to myself, and heard the older one say ¨Ya ves¨ (basically, ¨You see¨). It immediately brightened my day and sent me off in good animo.

I love little moments like that.

Vacation Recap

As I mentioned before, vacations passed with some real excitement and great travels. I spent an incredible amount of time sitting in buses (probably around 60 hours total - not to mention the bus and train ride to and from Aguas Calientes at the foot of Machu Picchu), a lot of time drinking good coffee, hours having good conversations with Peruvian friends and with my mom, and ate a lot of good food. Here is more or less how vacation went down.

For the first few days, I organized my life, relaxed a bit, and generally just spent time with a lot of people here in Tacna. I visited the wonderful Cuba family - most of whom can be seen in the photo. They are simply wonderful, life-giving people who always make me feel like I am amongst extended family. Their two children, Jorge Luis (next to my mom) and Yessenia (third kid from the left), are absolutely wonderful and truly feel like my little cousins that I try to be a mentor to. Also during this time, we had the front of our house finished with a layer of cement by the local handy man, Capacute. It was fun to spend the day chatting with him and helping out a little bit (or as much as I could). The best part was how in the beginning he simply flung the cement willy-nilly against the wall (though this did lead to the jambing of our keyhole.

A few days later, I left for Arequipa, Peru´s second biggest city. I have visited there a number of times, and this was mostly a chance to get to visit my extended host family there and get out of Tacna a bit. I had a wonderful conversation with my host cousin, ate some good, Arequipeñan food, and got a campaign shirt from one of my host family members there who is running for office this October. His little symbol that you mark on the ballot is a smiling pepper (one of the great aspects about being here for the elections is seeing all the different symbols. Everyone pretty much has their own political party - except for APRA, which has been around for awhile and to which Alan Garcia, the president belongs. And each of these parties have an accompanying symbol that you mark on the election ballot. They range from a little tree, to a smiling water drop to a potato).

From there, I went on to Lima to meet up with my mom. I was in Lima early in the day, and so spent some time wandering around and then took a bus that took me all over Callao (Lima´s port) before reaching the airport. I have to say again how much I love the energy and movement of Lima, despite all its hecticness, traffic and crowds.

With my mom, we spent the night in Callao to be a bit more rested and then made our way down here to Tacna. Basically, I had to teach on Monday and wanted to show here my classes and Miguel Pro. Even though she woke up on Monday feeling a bit sick to the stomach, she gritted through it and we had a wonderful time especially in my primary classes as we sang songs, and played little games for the chocolate she brought down. Some of my students even made little cards for her that they gave to her at the end (very adorable even though, as I joked to my mom, that meant that they were not paying complete attention in class).

With my mother, I travelled again to Arequipa and then to Cusco. We only spent a few hours in the former, but that was enough time to have a meal overlooking the stunning Plaza de Armas, enjoy a good good cup of coffee and the accompanying conversation, and buy a little Ekeko doll for each other (it´s for good luck: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ekeko).

Cusco was the main part of the trip and especially our two day adventure to Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu. But before we could even get there, we ran into a paro, or strike. Our bus simply stopped at about 4 in the morning and through the mist and fog, all I could see at the time was a line of stopped vehicles. As the hours passed, we came to find out that a bridge up ahead was being blocked and though the bus company assured us we would pass through in a few hours, there was no certainty and many people from other buses were getting off and walking.

My mom and I decided to wait it out and about 7:30ish, they finally told us that we were going to be let through, but that we would have to get off the bus and walk across the bridge before getting back on. The bus stewardess was very nervous, didn´t know what to tell us to do with our valuables and kept saying that sometimes they throw rocks and to be careful. Needless to say, this in turn worried me. But in the end, it was fine and they simply wrote some propaganda on the front of our bus and we made it through.

In Aguas Calientes itself, there was not much to do, but it was all worth it to get up to the top of Machu Picchu early the following morning and see the cloud cover move off and the sun rise. To me, that was the most spectacular moment of our trip up there, and you really felt a sense of something surreal or mystical. Later, the sun emerged, shining brightly and strong.

Machu Picchu is quite an incredible place, both for the architechture and history, and for its simp awe-inspiring views. Not to be missed, for sure.

Other than that, we spent most of our time in Cusco talking, enjoying the Obligo (bellybutton) of the World as it is called, and eating some good food. We stumbled upon a food festival with live music, sought out some falafels since I had a real hankering for one, and as I mentioned before, drank some good good coffee. My mom also sampled nata in the market on Sunday morning, a food that I had never heard of before down here in Tacna. Basically, they take the cream off the top of the fresh milk and spread it on bread (it sort of has the consistency of cottage cheese sort). It is all the breakfast rage up there in Cusco.

After saying goodbye to my mom in the airport, I took an overnight bus back to good old Tacna. I still taught my classes on Monday after arriving in the bus terminal at about 7:30 in the morning. Seeing my mom, visiting Peruvian friends, and enjoying this great country, however, left me with lots of energy and animo, and I plan to use that boost to take advantage of this second half of the year!

Back in Business

After a busy couple of weeks of being on vacation and covering most of the southern part of the country by bus (to Arequipa, to Lima, to Arequipa again, to Cusco and back to Tacna), I am finally back in the swing of things here at school. I will write a little recap of the travels, of seeing Macchu Picchu, of having my mom visit again, and how I feel looking ahead to my final months here, but for now I wanted to just make sure to let everyone know I am fine and back with lots of energy.

Also, I uploaded a number of photos with some captions to whet the appetite on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=13802227&v=info#!/album.php?id=9313&aid=2310124.

Unfortunately, that´s all for right now before my fingers freeze (its quite chilly - and definitely not Chile - here) and my classes start, but I promise more for later.