Monday

This morning after breakfast, I went up to the roof to do my laundry while the weather was still nice.  I figured that by the time lunch rolled around my clothes would be dry if the sunny weather kept up.  I've gotten a lot better at washing my clothes by hand now.

I finished my laundry by the time I was supposed to start teaching dance class.  Angela was getting fitted for her school uniform, so we had to start a little bit later this morning.  I was really proud of them today. I taught them something that I thought might be a little bit hard, and they picked it up right away!  I've also been making them do some exercises with a book on their head so they work on their posture and stop looking at their feet.  It's been helping a lot.  I really love teaching them.  This is the last week though since they are going to be attending school starting next week.

After our class, I went up and asked Mari if it was okay if I took them to buy their backpacks.  She was a little nervous sending Angela out with me and told me to watch out for her with the traffic.  Pilar and I both held her hand all the way to Plaza Vea.  We looked at one store and then ended up going to Plaza Vea.  They both got their backpacks there.  They were so happy, Pilar even gave me a kiss on the cheek when we were at the checkout counter.  When we got home though, we realized that Angela's still had the security tags on it.  They didn't stop us when the alarm went off because there was another customer in the way who had bought a refrigerator.  I was planning to go back to get them to remove them, but Tino ended up doing it himself.  Mari was really happy as well and gave me a hug and a kiss for getting them such nice backpacks.  I was just happy that I could help them out since they do so much for us and the children at the school at the expense of their family.

After lunch, Lauren and I went out for a walk.  We were going to go to the Casa de Artesenia, but it closes between 1 and 4, so we decided we would go back before dinner.  Instead we walked through the open market and I took a bunch of pictures.  The guinea pigs were out and I asked the woman if I could take a picture of them.  She said it was okay, but that they were so ugly, why would I want a picture of them.  When I turned my camera to take a picture at a different angle, she thought I was trying to take a picture of her and she ran away.  She said she didn't want to have her picture taken with the ugly guinea pigs.  She asked if I wanted to buy them or if maybe I didn't eat guinea pig.  She was funny.  I also took pictures of all the chicken and meat hanging around.  Lauren says she always has the urge to tell them to put it in the refrigerator.  :)  They have really good fruit, tons of different types of grains, and every type of potato imaginable.  Here are just some of the sights you can see there.

A stand selling chicken.

Chicken in the background, cheese in the center, and fruit in the foreground.

The stand selling meat of all sorts.

Grains in big sacks.

The guinea pigs in all their glory.

Other animal parts...do you think those are goat or sheep heads???  I didn't ask.

There are always people selling cotton candy like this around town.

Potatoes!!!

This is my favorite fruit stand to buy fruit from.  :)

After they got back from the school, Lauren and I went back out to La Casa de Artesenia.  We looked around a bit and we had to walk back home in the rain.  We were thankful to put on dry clothes and be served dinner shortly after.  Now I'm getting ready to teach class and then do some weaving before I go to sleep.

Have a good week, everyone!!!

Laguna de Paca

Sunday morning I got to talk to my mom for a long while, which was really nice.  She got to meet Mari, Angela, and Mabel while we were on Skype.  Mari was asking her for tips on parenting since she said my mom did a good job with me...awwww.  She was trying out her English on my mom and my mom was trying to speak in Spanish with her.  It was really sweet.  Later on Mari was telling me that my mom was very nice...muy simpatica.  :)

After that, Mabel took Lauren, Dwan, and I to Laguna de Paca.  We had to go to Jauja (pronounced Howha) first.  We took a taxi there from Huancayo.  Mari had been telling us some things about it before we left.  She said that Jauja used to be the capital city of Peru.  There's also a small airport there.  When we got there, there was a big outside market there, just like in Huancayo.  We took another taxi from Jauja to Laguna de Paca.  Mari told us the legend of the lake before we left.  She said that it used to be a town, but the people of the town were bad.  A man came down from heaven to tell them that if they continued to be bad, the town would be turned into a lake.  The people of the town were mean to him, throwing boiling water at him and yelling at him.  He came back and told them he had warned them.  Little by little the town was filled with water until a lake formed.  Now the lake is 260 feet deep in the middle.  When we reached the lake, there are only a few stores and restaurants along the lake.  

La Sirena restaurant from the boat.

A woman from a restaurant called La Sirena told us to come to her restaurant and we could take the boat ride from there.  She took our lunch order before we went on the boat so that it would be ready when we got back.

On the boat on Laguna de Paca.

A young guy was rowing our boat along the lake.  We saw another boat rowing out to this small island.  There was a little patio there and they were served there lunch out there in the middle of the lake.

The little island where the family was eating lunch.

Mabel was asking him a bunch of questions about the lake.  He eventually told us the legend of the lake in Spanish, so Lauren and Dwan had no idea what he was talking about.  The he set down the oars, took out a bunch of keychains from his bag, and told us to buy one or give him a tip for telling the legend.  Mabel was shaking her head.  He hadn't really done a great job telling us the legend, so I just followed Mabel's lead and shook my head.  He told us also that there were two islands nearby: one was the island of love and the other was the island of divorce.  He said after a few hours with your significant other on the island of love, you would leave as three if you were lucky.  I'm not sure if he meant you were supposed to consummate your love there or just that being there would bring you luck in that area.  :)  He said if you were lucky after going to the island of divorce you with your spouse, you would leave divorced, otherwise you would be forced to stay together forever.  I was thinking it was all a bit strange.  He told Mabel that there were ruins up in the mountains above the lake.  She was asking him how to get up there and he said he could take us for 5 soles a person.  Mabel had rolled her eyes I don't know how many times since we had gotten on board the boat.  Everything had a price to it.  He even told us that going further across the lake would cost us more.  

Me on the boat at Laguna de Paca.

After we got back to the restaurant, they brought us our pachamanca.  It was pretty good, but I was disappointed because they didn't give us a sweet potato with it.  I think that's one of the best parts of pachamanca even though we've only had it at two of the places we've ordered pachamanca.  Mabel was not impressed with the restaurant.  

The shop selling wood carvings by Laguna de Paca.

After eating, we walked along the road and went up to a shop selling wood carvings.  We looked around and then were going to walk up a little further on the mountain, but he told us it cost 1 sol.  It's not much money, but we were a bit put off by all the hidden costs.  We'd been to touristy places before, but this one has been by far the worst as far as having a price for every little thing.  It made the trip much less enjoyable.  We didn't pay to go up further on the mountain for a better look a the lake and just took a taxi back to Jauja.

When we got to Jauja, we walked through the market along the street.  They had different things than the Sunday market in Huancayo.  I prefer the market in Huancayo, but we did see some interesting things like a dead snake for sale, birds in a box, snails in a box, and frogs in a box.

The birds in a box in the Jauja street market.

We also saw a stand with the biggest avocados I've ever seen.

Look at the size of those avocados!!!

I got an ice cream and Mabel got some doughnut and cookie type things from a vendor and then we made our way along the street back to the place where all the taxis and buses leave from.  There were two people from two different buses coming up to us and each telling us to take their bus.  They were both claiming to be faster, have just enough seats available for us, and one of them even said that their shocks were better and we wouldn't be so jarred when we passed over potholes in the road.  Lauren was asking me what was going on and I told her we were trying to decide which bus to go on.  I ended up asking her, "Red or Blue?"  She picked the blue bus.  When we were on the bus, she said she'd probably picked the wrong bus.  It left after the other one, there were loud teenage boys standing in the aisle over her seat, spitting on her, and halfway through the ride we thought we were going to suffocate from the heat in the back of the bus.  Someone finally opened the window and thankfully we were almost home.  It took us an hour and fifteen minutes on that bus to get back to Huancayo.

We walked to Plaza Vea to get a few things when we got home.  Lauren had to wait outside because she had a backpack with her while we ran through.  It was so crowded that I ended up losing both Dwan and Mabel in there.  I bought my things and then went out to find Lauren.  We waited and then Dwan showed up.  After a bit, Dwan went back in to go find Mabel.  By that time, the weather had turned on us and it was pouring rain.  Lauren had spilled water on her rain jacket in the morning, so she hadn't brought it.  We all trudged through the rain back to the house.

Lauren and I were happy once we were back at the house.  After I finished weaving for the night and Emil, Ylfa, and Dwan had gone to La Rustica, Lauren and I sat down to watch Seven Years in Tibet with a bowl of popcorn.  It was a great way to end the weekend.

Lazy Saturday

There hasn't been much going on out of the ordinary teaching ballet, working on the website, and teaching the English class at night to Tino's family, so that's why I haven't written in a few days.  Don't want to sound like a broken record.  It also rained a lot this week, so I didn't really leave the house much.

Last night I was frantically working on my weaving after dinner since I have to finish up pretty soon.  There are fifteen volunteers coming as a group from a university next Friday, so they need the room to put people in.  Mari came in there to ask if we could skip the English class that night.  She stayed and was talking to me and then Pilar, Angela, Mabel, and Lorenza were also in there talking to me.  She was telling me about when Angela and Pilar were born.  She said that she hardly showed when she was pregnant with Pilar.  She said she was really small.  Angela was bigger than that.  She also brought in the snake skin she had bought.  It's an actual skin just cleaned out.  She wants to make jewelry out of it with some gold, but she said she thinks if she takes it to someone that they might steal it from her since it is worth a lot.  She's thinking about trying to do it herself.

After I tired of weaving, I went to see if the others wanted to go to karaoke with Mabel and me.  They were trying to finish up the rest of the vodka and other drinks they had bought because Ylfa and Emil are leaving next Thursday and Lauren is leaving the Monday after that.  It's going to be so strange without them here since they have all been with me since I got here.  They didn't end up coming and when I went to go get Mabel, she was talking on the phone to her boyfriend.  He's Peruvian but he lives in the US.  She had me talk to him to figure out exactly where he lives.  He lives in Bakersfield and said he was familiar with Santa Barbara.

When we got to karaoke, it was already full, so we had to wait awhile before they let us in and sat us at the bar.  I sang a couple songs and got some "Bravos" from the tables around us.  I think they really like it when people sing in English.  I sang one in English and one in Spanish.  We left after that and Lauren, Emil and Dwan were still up.  They seemed pretty happy drunk by that time.

In the morning, Emil said he felt hungover.  Lauren said her stomach wasn't feeling so great, but otherwise she was fine.  We had been talking about what to do today, and since Mabel had to be back for a singing performance and Lauren didn't feel like sitting in a taxi, we decided to just stay in town and walk around.  The rest of the group when to the museum that we went to a few weeks ago with Fiona.  Lauren and I went to a bunch of little shops and ended up getting some clothes and some DVDs.  We went into one place that we thought sold DVDs and the girl showed us into a room with a couch and a TV.  They had a little makeshift movie theater set up.  We could have watched a movie for a little more than a dollar there.  By the time we made our way back to the Plaza Constitucion, we were really hungry.  We ate at a restaurant called Detras de la Catedral, which is named that because it's actually behind the cathedral.  I got artichoke ceviche, lomo saltado, and lucuma juice.  It was all really yummy.  Lauren had a hamburger.  Afterwards we walked down the other way on the main street.  We looked into a dress shop.  When Lauren wanted to know how much one of the dresses cost, the woman asked if we wanted to rent it or buy it.  I was a little thrown off by the question and then realized what she was asking.  Lauren didn't want to try it on because her skin's peeling from the burn she got last weekend.  I'm peeling too from the burn I got last Monday washing my clothes.  We walked through the Casa de Artesania and then went to find the place where Mabel was going to be performing.  We went in and then after awhile, Ylfa, Emil and Dwan came in too.  We realized that she was at the end and they were not very far into the program.  We walked around to kill some time and then when we went back, we thought it was going to be a lot longer.  Lauren, Dwan and I came home and we just found out that we missed her performance because they left out a lot of the program.  I'm really sad I didn't get to see it.

Now we're preparing for the lights to all go out.  Apparently they are turning the lights out in all of Huancayo for ten to twenty minutes to simulate an earthquake.

Last night when I was weaving, Pilar was asking Mari if she could get a certain backpack at Plaza Vea.  I guess she is going to be studying nineteen subjects at school and Angela has thirteen.  I couldn't believe it.  That seems like a crazy amount of subjects.  Anyway, Mari said it was too much.  She was teasing her and saying that she would just weave her a backpack.  She was groaning that she didn't like woven backpacks.  Today I told Mari that I could take them both to get backpacks after our ballet class on Monday.

Tonight I might go dancing with Mabel...or maybe just stay in and watch one of the movies Lauren and I bought...or maybe both.  :)

Goodbye James and Fiona!!!

Yesterday afternoon we said goodbye to James and Fiona.  They brought a good energy to the group that we're all missing now.  I just saw through facebook that they were stuck in snow on the mountain going from Huancayo to Lima for 27 hours.  The trip's only supposed to take 7 to 8 hours.  Fiona said she is going to be visiting one of her friends in Half Moon Bay this summer, so we're hoping that she can come down to visit me in Goleta.  :)

Apart from the daily routine, today I went for a walk with Dwan and Lauren down to the post office.  The man who Lauren and I have bought jewelry from at the Sunday market sets up his stand there during the weekdays.  His name is Anton.  He remembered us and gave us hugs and kisses on the cheek.  Dwan got a handshake.  His wife was there with them too and she greeted us warmly as well.  He showed us all of the new jewelry he had made.  I had been eyeing a necklace on Sunday, but had left it there.  He had a similar necklace on display with a different stone in it.  He is very talented though and was able to put the stone I wanted on the necklace I liked.  He said he was giving me a good price since I was a regular customer.  :)  I told him I wanted to get a picture with him and he said he is ugly but he would do it.  I took a picture with him and his wife.  You can see my necklace in the picture.

Me, my new necklace, Anton and his wife.

Today after I worked on the website (and got a lot further, thankfully) I had to work on my weaving.  I've been slacking on it, but now I have to kick into high gear because Tino needs the looms and we also need the room for when the large groups of volunteers come in a couple weeks.  I worked on it before and after dinner until I taught English class to Tino's family.

The time seems to be passing more quickly now.  I can't believe it will be March next week.  It's Ylfa's birthday next week, so she is planning to have a big dinner with all of the volunteers and Tino's family.  It should be fun.  Today we started kicking around ideas for what to do this weekend.  I can't believe it's almost the weekend again...

Another Monday

We haven't been able to use the WIFI since Friday afternoon.  Tino got sick around the same time and was finally well enough today Tino to look into the problem.  Someone had taken over his WIFI, so he had to reset the name and password and then all was better.  He thought it was the guy who had come to set up the new router.  Yikes!

This morning I taught ballet again.  Pilar and Angela are doing so well.  They can go through the motions of everything I teach them.  I'm so impressed by them!

After that I went up on the roof to do some laundry.  I had been so proud of myself on Saturday for not getting burned during the hike, and today I burned my back while doing laundry.  Go figure.  Tino's mom was up on the roof with me off and on when I was doing laundry.  She and Lorenza (one of the women who does cleaning) kept coming by when it would start sprinkling, warning me to get out of the rain.  It kept sprinkling off and on, but I finished before any real rain came.  When Lauren came home, she started doing her laundry.  I was helping her get her clothing hung up because the clouds were darkening and there was thunder.  Tino's mom was laughing at me because I was raising my arms to the sky like I was catching the rain.  She just makes you want to laugh when she laughs because her whole face crinkles up in a smile and it's so you can see the gaps in her teeth.  She was telling me about the lightning and making gestures with her hand how it was going to come down and strike.  Then she would laugh.  Lauren and I got the last of her stuff hung out to dry before the rain started really coming down.

This afternoon I worked on getting some buttons created for the website I'm working on and then I watched a movie with Lauren when she came back from teaching.  She wasn't feeling so well, so she had come back when the others went for 2 for 1 drinks at the Coqui Cafe in Plaza Vea.

After dinner, I taught English and now another day has passed by in a flash.  Pretty soon it will be March...how time flies!!!

Saturday Night and Sunday

Saturday night we went to La Cabaña and all got hot wine.  After the drinks, we decided to just go home instead of going dancing because the sleepiness from the hike had finally caught up with us all.

Sunday after breakfast, Lauren and I went down to the Sunday market.  We saw the same man there who had sold us necklaces last week.  He always has the best and most unique jewelry there.  I had been looking for some leather bracelets, and he had some that I really liked.  He ended up selling me two of them for a discounted price and also giving me another bracelet as a gift.  I’m sure we’ll get something else from him again because he has such amazing stuff.  He said he sells his jewelry in front of the post office during the week, so we might go by to take a picture with him this week.

The bracelet I got as a present.  :)

We walked around the whole market and then went to get some fruit at the other open market.  We had lunch at home and then went back out to look in some other stores near the post office.  We both ended up getting some jeans that were on sale and then came back home.

We all watched a bad Lindsay Lohan movie before we went out to dinner and karaoke.

We got hamburgers and pizza at La Cabaña and then made our way to La Rustica for karaoke.  Since there were so many new songs, I got to sing Let's Hear It For the Boy.  I also sang Tú by Shakira, which I had wanted to sing the last time we were there.  James and Fiona sang Straight Up and Rasputin, and Emil and Ylfa sang Baby, One More Time by Britney Spears.  James said that Emil sounded like Arnold Schwarzenegger when he was singing.

After we had all sung, we made our way home, trying to imitate the accents of our various countries and more.  Emil was doing a Scottish accent, Fiona tried out a Canadian accent, James attempted an American accent, and then James challenged me to try an English accent.  I'm not sure anyone really mastered any of them, but it was a good laugh.

Silly Side Note: This peach juice is sooooo good.  :)  I'm addicted.

Yummy peach juice for only 1 sol (~ 35 cents).

Friday Afternoon and Saturday

Friday after we finished lunch, Lauren walked with me to mail a package home and some postcards.  When we got to the post office there were about three people in line in front of us an only one woman working.  They had posts up with ropes between to indicate where we were supposed to form a line.  I set my package down on the middle pole on one side and then tried to get something from my purse.  The pole fell over and it took down the other two poles since they were connected by the ropes.  It made a lot of noise when they fell and everyone looked at us.  Not like we needed any more attention brought to us since we were the only white people in there.  The security guard was nice though.  He came over and helped me pick up the poles and the package.  He put the package up on the ledge by the woman who was attending to customers.   When we finally got to the attendant, she was frustrated with me first of all because I had already sealed the package.  Then she told me that I needed to have a copy of my passport.  I didn’t realize it was going to be such a big ordeal.  I was really glad that I spoke Spanish because otherwise I think the woman might have yelled at me.  She told me to go make the copy around the corner and come back.  I told Lauren to stay with my package while I ran to find a place to copy my passport.  The woman at the copy shop made three copies of my passport.  I was trying to figure out what she was doing.  She told me the first two weren’t dark enough.  I asked her for them though because I had no idea what she was going to do with two copies of my passport.  When I got back to the post office, the woman was helping another man.  I really hadn’t thought we’d be spending hours at the post office.  When I got my turn though, I felt bad but not too bad that the woman was taking her merry old time with me.  I had to fill out two pieces of paperwork and she scolded me for filling in a few of the boxes wrong.  I figured getting two boxes wrong out of a bunch was pretty good for having to figure out everything in Spanish.  Then I had to put my fingerprint of my right index finger on both documents, and one of the documents had several copies, all of which needed my fingerprint.  I paid for that package and then I told her I had seventeen postcards and three cards.  Even though I told her how many postcards I had, she went through and counted them all.  Then when she was getting the stamps, she started to count them again.  Before she got very far, she asked me, “Te dije diecisiete?”  (“Did I tell you seventeen?”)  I was glad she said that because I was afraid the people behind me might have had a heart attack if she counted them all over again.  She got out the stamps and started to rip them apart one by one.  Then she put the stamps in a wet sponge and stuck them on each one.  I felt like it was going in slow motion.  After she was done with all of them, she had to stamp over each stamp.  After all that, she finally had me pay and then I took all of them over to the international drop box.  By that time, Lauren had left because it was taking such a long time, so I started walking to Plaza Vea by myself.

In Plaza Vea I tried a jacket on that I had tried on a few weeks ago.  The woman remembered me, which might be kind of impressive, but I’m sure I’m one of the only gringas that has gone in there to try on a jacket.  I still wasn’t totally sold on the jacket and she kept on asking me what I didn’t like about it.  She said that it looked really good on me.  I left that jacket there and ended up buy a jacket at the store across the way.

Back at home, Emil had stayed home sick.  I was going to start work on the website when the new volunteer came.  His name is Dwan and he’s from Ireland.  Tino, Mari, Emil, and I sat around the dinner table with him.  He was pretty quiet though.  I figured it was because Tino and Mari were mostly speaking in Spanish.  I was speaking mostly in Spanish with them, and when I spoke with Dwan he told me he thought I was Spanish because I hadn’t been speaking in English.

After some conversation, Tino took me to start my weaving again.  The others came back and I stopped my weaving to go to Plaza Vea with Lauren to get some food for our Saturday hike.  By the time we got back it was time to eat dinner.  By that time my stomach was feeling really bad.  I lay down before I had to teach class after dinner, but I felt really bad while I was teaching class.  Mari told me that I could end class early and she would make me some tea with Inca muña, an herb that helps a lot with stomach problems.  I drank quite a few cups of that and sat and talked with Mari.  I had been wanting to go sing karaoke with James, Fiona, and Mabel, but I felt so bad that I ended up staying in and going to sleep early.

I felt a lot better in the morning, but I still drank two cups of Inca muña just in case.  Mari thought that it had been something that had been cooked in the house since both Emil and I had had stomach troubles after lunch.  I was just glad that it passed quickly and I was able to go on the hike with the group.

After breakfast, we all prepared our lunches and snacks for the hike.  Lauren and I had bought trail mix, juice, and stuff to make sandwiches.  Once everyone was ready, we set out to hike up the mountain that we can see from the window in our house that says, “CHRISTO VIENE PRONTO.  PREPARATE.” (“Christ is coming soon.  Prepare yourself.”)  We walked up the front of the mountain, across a ridge and up to one of the highest peaks.  It took us about four hours to get to the peak.  

James drew arrows on a picture from out our window of where we went up and came down.

Lauren and Fiona got up there first, then Mabel and I reached the top and lastly James.  Ylfa and Emil had turned around before we had started up to the higher peak.  Dwan didn’t come with us because he was still adjusting to the altitude and didn’t feel up to it.  Nearing the top, it got increasingly harder to continue walking without getting really winded.  I knew I was really close to where Lauren and Fiona were, but I still couldn’t take more than a few steps at a time without resting in between.  My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest.  Our house is at an altitude of about 3,200 meters.  When we reached the top of the peak, James used his phone to calculate that the altitude of the peak we were on was 4,200 meters in altitude.  We sat up at the top for awhile, eating our lunches and taking pictures.  

Me, Lauren, Fiona, Mabel, and James at 13,800 feet.

Me at the top (13,800 ft.) after a bit of a rest.

It was much easier walking down, but my knees felt like they might give out and my legs were starting to feel like jelly.  We stopped in a little shop when we got back to the house.  James, Fiona, and Mabel got Cokes and I got an Inca Cola.

Me and my Inca Kola after we got back to lower altitude.

The highlights of the hike were: 1. We saw a herd of alpacas high up on the mountain;

This alpaca was particularly interested in us and kept coming closer.

 2. We saw ruins of Huancan houses;

Me inside one of the Huancan houses.

3. We saw a naked man sitting in meditation high up on the mountain, although technically by the time Mabel, James, and I passed by him, he had put his shorts back on after seeing Lauren and Fiona; 4. Getting to the top of the peak and taking silly group pictures; 

For some reason we all thought it would be funny if we were carrying James.

Pensive poses at the top.

5. Ylfa and Emil pointed out after we got back that we had walked right through the “CHRISTO VIENE PRONTO” sign, although the rest of us didn’t realize it.

When we got back to the house, the new restaurant across the street was in full swing.  Now it’s 8:00 at night, raining, and the music is still going strong.  Earlier we had been looking out the window at the people who were going in.  Some people looked up at us and waved.  

In a bit, James, Fiona, Mabel and I are going to go out to a discoteca, which should be a lot of fun.  I’m glad I’m feeling well enough to go out with them tonight.  They said we’ll have to go out to sing karaoke again tomorrow night since they had added a bunch of new songs to their songbook when they went on Friday.  I’m excited to go again even though I’m sure the crowd won’t be as good as on Friday night.

Gracias a Dios Es Viernes

GDEV doesn't sound quite as good as TGIF.  :)  I think all the other volunteers are echoing my sentiments that it's Friday.  Friday-night karaoke is near.  I'm not sure if we are going tonight, but there has been talk.

Last night after I made some progress on the website, I was too tired to weave.  Tino even asked later on in the night if I had done any weaving.  I felt like a lump though and just didn't have the energy to do it.  It is coming along quite nicely though, and since I've been too lazy to take pictures this past week, I took some pictures this morning to make this blog entry a little bit more interesting.  Here's what I have so far for my weaving.  The things that look like little boats are what you use to slide the yarn from one side to the other.

My weaving.

Close-up of my weaving.

I felt like I was falling asleep at the dinner table and went to lay down on the couch before I had to teach my English class.  Tino came to get me right at 9:00, saying he was looking for his teacher.  He said he wanted to get to sleep early.  The class went by quickly though and I didn't have to do much since I had given them homework to write up some questions using Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.  I had each of them come up to ask the class their questions and I wrote them up on the board.  After that they had to read them out loud for pronunciation.  I think that might be the hardest thing for them.

The other volunteers were in the middle of watching a movie, so I just got ready for bed, read a bit of my book, and then crashed.

This morning after breakfast, I was taping up the box I'm planning to take to the post office today.  I'm trying to make it more sturdy since it looks like it went through the wringer on the way over here.  Lots and lots of tape.  When everyone left for school, I got my stuff together and went to set up the room for ballet class.  I went over a few more new things today as well as reviewed some of what we learned yesterday.  I had them do some small leaps to either side, which took a bit longer to master than yesterday's lesson.  We also did the waltz step and I actually got to use music for that.  I took some pictures of them in ballet poses before they left.  Angela wanted me to take a video of her doing the pattern that we had learned today, so I took some videos of both her and Pilar doing the combination.

Angela and Pilar doing a ballet pose.

Angela and Pilar in first position.

The building in front of the building we live in has been under construction.  Tino said they were building a tourist restaurant.  It's supposed to open tomorrow, but it's still looking pretty rough around the edges.  Emil said we should all go over there and look at the menu, say it's too expensive and then walk away.  They all think that they know Tino houses a lot of "tourists," so they would be devastated if we didn't want to go there.  It is kind of off of the beaten path.

The restaurant across the street.

Yesterday I got some snacks at the supermarket, but I didn't have a whole lot of money on me, so I left the chips I had been craving there.  Lauren went back later in the day and got some for me.  I swear these are the best chips ever, sweet potato chips.  Why don't we have them in the states?

Yummy sweet potato chips!!!

Jueves - Cuatro Semanas en Huancayo

Today marks four week in Huancayo...

This morning I was happy that Mabel made hot chocolate.  They make it differently here with rice and porridge, which makes it so much better.  I graded homework papers after breakfast and then taught ballet to Pilar and Angela for about an hour.  They are doing so well.  Their form obviously isn't perfect, but they are getting the steps pretty well.  After some bar work, I taught them a simple combination of chasse, pas du bourree.  I also showed them how to curtsey before we did our end of class adagio.  Angela was so cute because one of her teeth is loose and if we had a bit of downtime she would start yanking at it.  After class she continued to yank on it.

I was listening to some of the ballet music after class and Tino came by to give me a CD of Peruvian music.  He wants the children at the mountain school to be able to sing Condor Pasa.  I told him I liked singing, so he asked me if I would be able to teach them.  It's interesting because there is a version in Spanish and there is also a version in English that Simon and Garfunkel sang in the 70s.  I'm not sure which I'll be teaching the kids.  Mabel is also taking a singing class.  The other day Mari asked me if I played the organ or the piano.  I told her that's one thing that I'm not good at.

I read Como Agua Para Chocolate after I finished listening to the CD that Tino gave me.  When the others got back, we had lunch and then Lauren and I went out to go to the post office.  On the street right outside of our house there was a man urinating against the building.  He had been looking in our direction, so I had unfortunately looked over there.  He whistled as we walked by.  Lauren said, "I'm going to pretend he didn't just whistle at us while he was peeing."  

When we got to the post office, I sent off some of my postcards and then Lauren and I looked into some more nearby stores.  She ended up walking home and I went to the grocery store to get a few things.  I also browsed through some of the stores before heading home.  When I got home, there were three cows along the street where the man had been urinating earlier.  Funny things were just continuously popping up along that street today.

I reluctantly started to work on the website when I got home since I had been hitting brick walls yesterday.  I made some breakthroughs reading the help manual despite the fact that it's in Spanish.  I ended my website work on a good note when the other volunteers came back home.

Now James and Fiona and I are listening to Fleetwood Mac and relaxing in the common area before dinner.  I think we're expecting a new volunteer soon, maybe even tonight.  They cleaned out another room...

Another Wednesday

Today I was excited to teach ballet when I woke up.  I even had a dream about looking for my ballet slippers.  I got up and started looking for some ballet music to download and found a whole CD to download for free.  After breakfast I taught some of the ballet basics to Pilar, Angela, and Lauren.  Pilar and Angela are Tino's daughters.  I think they had fun.  I taught for about 45 minutes today so I wouldn't overwhelm them too much with lots of new things.  It felt good to do ballet again.

After the class, Lauren and I walked down to La Casa de Artesania, the artesan market that's open every day.  We looked around every stall and ended up buying a few things.  We were going to go to the post office, but there was a protest going on in the street near it.  There was police blocking the street around it to keep it contained.  We figured it would be best to stay out of that area so we wouldn't get confused with the protesters.  Instead of going to the post office, we looked into a clothing store before heading home for lunch.

I read a little bit of Como Agua Para Chocolate after lunch.  When everyone else left for the mountain school, I started back up on the website.  Trying to figure out Dreamweaver in Spanish is quite a frustrating task.

When the other volunteers got back, I watched a bit of a movie with Ylfa and Emil and then Mari came to get Ylfa and I for our weaving lesson.  We didn't get much done before dinner was ready.  I got a little frustrated at dinner because I feel like the other volunteers always make fun of the United States.  I've just gotten really tired of it and when I was done, I just got up from the table and started back up on my weaving.  Two of the volunteers came in and commented on how good my weaving was.  I was improvising when Tino came and and said I was doing a really good job.  He said now I can weave by myself whenever I want because I'm doing so well.  It's really coming along.  I'll have to take another picture of it soon.

I got so carried away with my weaving again, that we started English class late again.  We were going over the verb "to be."  Everyone did really well with it.  I have to correct the homework I gave them yesterday, but that can wait until tomorrow.  Now I'm exhausted and am ready to take a shower and fall into bed.

Happy Wednesday, everyone!

Monday afternoon and Tuesday

Yesterday after lunch, I worked on Tino’s website to sell his and other local people’s art.  I talked with him about naming his store Tino Andino, since he had used that as a username for an account he has.  He said he liked it, so I designed a logo for him, drawing an outline of a gourd next to the store name and the motto.  He and Mari both really liked it.  The other volunteers liked it as well.  My very first logo!

After that, I was tired but satisfied with my work.  We ate dinner and then after dinner, Tino and Mari helped Ylfa and I to with our weaving.  I got a lot more weaving done with Tino’s help.  It’s coming along really nicely.  I got so caught up in weaving that I lost track of time and when I asked Tino what time it was, it was already 8:30.  I had told his family that we would have class from 8 to 9 every night.  I got my things together and we started class shortly after.  By the time class was over at 9:30, I was thoroughly exhausted.  I still managed to correct their homework before taking a shower and heading to bed.

In the morning, Lauren and I were planning to go to Concepcion again.  After breakfast we were downstairs getting our shoes on when Tino came down and told us that the woman in Concepcion had called and said we weren’t going to have class there anymore.  Tino told us to write up a document about what we had taught in each class.  After we had finished, we walked down to Plaza Vea to get a few things from the supermarket and then from there went to the open market.  I wanted to find the skirt I had seen on Saturday.  Unfortunately the market is like a big maze and finding that skirt might be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.  We found where the majority of the stands selling skirts were and I tried on a few before getting a simple skirt and also one that has a lot of embroidery on the bottom.  Lauren wanted to get some more raisins, so we stumbled our way around until we found our way back to the fruit.  As we walked through the rows of fruit, vegetables and meat, we saw guinea pigs fileted, splayed open on their backs showing all of their guts inside.  There were several of them lined up on tables along the walkways.  Lauren got her raisins and I got some plums, cherimoyas, and a papaya, all for about $2.50.  The woman at the fruit stall we usually go to cuts off samples of fruit to try in order to get you to buy more.  I got a sample of the plums and also some pears.  On Saturday she had given us a whole banana to sample.  After we made our purchases, we were proud of ourselves that we found our way back to the street without getting caught up in the maze.  I stopped by a store to make copies for my class with Tino’s family and then we went home for lunch.

After lunch I lay down to take a short nap and ended up sleeping for a couple hours.  I got up and started working on Tino’s art website again.  Tino came by a bit before 6 to get me started on my weaving early, so we could start the English class on time after dinner.  Tino and I talked while he helped me with my weaving.  We had been talking about dancing over the weekend and I had told him that I danced ballet while growing up as well as other dances.  He was excited when I told him I had danced ballet and asked if I would teach Angela and Pilar.  I told him I could, so when I asked him when I should start classes, he told me tomorrow morning.  Lauren had also said she wanted to take an adult ballet class, so Tino said she could stay and take the class, too.  I think I will be teaching it for two or three weeks, since Pilar and Angela go off to school at the beginning of March.  I also told him that I enjoy singing and he said he wanted the students at the mountain school to be able to sing the Condor’s Pass.  He asked if I would be able to teach them.  I told him I could try after I learned the song.

I had to stop weaving to eat dinner and then I taught my late-night English class for Tino’s family.  Now I’m watching The King’s Speech with James, Fiona, and Emil.  I’m excited to start teaching the ballet class in the morning.

Feliz Dia de San Valentin! Happy Valentine's Day!

Last night at La Cabaña, James, Fiona, Lauren and I had a really good time.  The waiter was a bit absent-minded, but he had good intentions.  James ordered a pizza for him and Fiona and the waiter started to walk away.  We called him back so that Lauren and I could order.  Apparently he thought the pizza was large enough for all four of us and we didn't need any more food.  But then he had written down that we wanted four orders of garlic bread when James had only asked for one.  Fiona had ordered a cup of hot wine and he brought out a pitcher.  Poor guy.  We thought he hated us, but then he came back after we got our food and asked where we were from.  He said that he wanted to get better at English, that he had taken a course but had forgotten a lot of it since he hasn't practiced a lot.  He asked us what "chicha" was in English and we told him there wasn't a word for it in English since we don't have chicha (a drink made from corn).  I ordered an appetizer plate that was much too big for one person.  It had three meat skewers, tripe, and a salad.  I was quite surprised that I liked the tripe.  Lauren and Fiona also liked it.

Meat, tripe, potatoes, and salad at La Cabaña.

After we ate, James ordered a glass of wine and I ordered a glass of hot wine because Fiona had let me try hers.  It was really good.  We started to tell jokes and were all dying from laughing so hard, mostly at how bad some of the jokes were.  James took pictures of all of us after a straight hour of laughing.  He compiled the pictures together in photoshop.  Lauren's hiding behind the flowers that were sitting on the table and I hid behind a "beer mat" as James and Fiona call it.

Me, James, Fiona, and Lauren at La Cabaña.

This morning our usual taxi driver didn't come because he hadn't know if we were going to Concepcion.  Another driver drove us and when we got to Concepcion, the whiteboard that had been upstairs on the third floor was in the room where I had been teaching on the second floor.  Lauren went upstairs anyway, but the lady sent her back downstairs.  Nicolas was there.  He was in my class the last time.  Another little girl was dropped off by her mom.  She wouldn't sit in her chair and wasn't paying any attention to us.  Lauren tried the whole class to get her to write Happy Valentine's Day on a card.  She kept saying that she couldn't do it.  I worked with Nicolas and after he finished cards for his mother and grandmother, we worked on numbers.  I told Lauren I would buy her a pastry from the bakery we had tried the week before because she looked like she was at her wit's end with this little girl.  When Nicolas' mom came to get him, the little girl started crying and asking for her mom.  We couldn't console her.  I talked with Nicolas' mom and the woman who runs the desk upstairs for a little bit before they left.  The little girl went up the stairs, so we figured she wouldn't get hurt if she was still in the building.  I asked the woman if there were older students and she said not today but there would be tomorrow.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.

After that Lauren and I got pastries from the bakery to share with the other volunteers for Valentine's Day.  It was raining and there was a shortage of taxis.  When we finally got into one, by the end of the trip, we were sure that he really wasn't a taxi driver.  He was asking everyone at the beginning of the trip if we had money, and then he was driving really badly and almost ran into a car.  He told us to get out of the car a block before we usually do and even reached over to open the door so we would get out.  I didn't have any problem with that because I was starting to believe we were going to get into an accident.

Once we were free from the "Death Taxi," Lauren and I went to a coffee shop since we had some time before lunch.  She got a cappuccino and I got a hot chocolate.  We just sat and talked for awhile before making our way back to the house in the rain.  When we got back to the house and sat down for lunch, James presented Lauren and I with a box of chocolates each.  He had gotten Fiona some flowers.  It was really nice.  We showed them the pastries we had gotten and we divided them up after lunch.  All in all it has been a good Valentine's Day!

Domingo

This morning Fiona and James decided to make an English breakfast for us all.  It was quite a treat.  They made scrambled eggs, bacon, beans, fried tomatoes, cooked mushrooms, toast, and English breakfast tea.

After breakfast, Lauren and I went to the Sunday market like always.  They had a bunch of stands that were selling handmade jewelry.  We ended up staying at one of the stands for quite awhile looking at necklaces and bracelets.  Lauren ended up getting a silver necklace with a pendant made of pyrite and quartz.  I got a silver necklace with a turquoise pendant.  The man had a bunch of stones laid out on the table and he said he could put any of them into a pendant.  I chose one of them and he set it into a pendant really quickly.  I also got a woven bracelet with a serpentina stone set into it.  We walked around more and Lauren did more shopping for her family.  After we stopped by the open-air market and then headed home.

The day turned out to be quite sunny, so I went up to the roof to do some laundry.  After a bit, Fiona and James came up there to do their homework and keep me company.  Leslie came up to do her laundry after me and in the middle of her washing it started to sprinkle.  It let up after a bit, but the sun didn't come back out.

Now we're all sitting in the living room before we go to La Cabaña for dinner.  We're planning to stay in tonight and watch a movie.  Tino told Lauren and I that the classes are going to continue in Concepcion, so tomorrow we will get new students in the morning.

Warri Wilka and the oldest church in Huancayo

Today I rolled out of bed a bit late in order to get breakfast.  Tino said that he thought it wouldn't be a good day to go for a bike ride since it looked like rain.  He said it would be a better idea to go to a museum and to the oldest church in Huancayo.  Mari also said we would go to eat lunch at Los Girasoles.  James was too tired to go and Ylfa and Emil decided to do something else, so Lauren, Fiona, and I went with Mari and Mabel.

We took a taxi to the Warri Wilka museum.  It means sacred springs.  There are springs there that flow in little mini waterfalls.  It looks like the water is just running from the earth.  The people there built on this sacred ground and inside the ruins, there are two large trees.  They are hundreds of years old and the guide told us that they are very special trees that are sacred to the people.  One is male and the other is female by their shapes.  She told us to hug the trees and that if we did it would bring us luck.  Unfortunately the male tree had been burned and part had fallen over.  The guide said that they thought someone was performing a religious ritual, burning candles in the tree and had forgotten to extinguish the candles.  It is quite a shame since they are sacred trees and there aren't any others like it.

Me hugging the sacred male tree.  You can see the ashes where part of the tree burned.

We also went into the Warri Wilka museum.  There had been archaeologists who found the skeleton of a woman on the grounds.  She was pretty well preserved.  You could see her skin, hair, and nails.  The guide said she was killed when she was around 25.  From her teeth and other evidence, they think she was from a higher class.  She was killed by a blow to the head and also a blow to the pelvis.  There was a bird of prey tied to her and a frog skeleton was also found nearby her.  They think she may have been punished for some wrongdoing.  They also have excavated ceramics like water jugs and also tools they used like pointed rocks on the end of sticks and mortar and pestle.  They found many small jugs and bowls that were used as offerings.  They spent most of their time on agriculture.  There was also the skull of a priest.  The priests heads were shaped from birth so that the skull was elongated.  They put boards on the front and back of the skull from birth until they were four to deform the skull in this way.  It almost looked like a conehead.  Only priests had this done to them.  After the museum, we went into a small church next to the museum and then we took a combi to get us on our way to the first church in Huancayo.

The cross that's said to have healing powers.

When we first got to Chongos Bajo, we saw the Cani Cross.  There were people crowded around it and all the carts and stores sell candles and flowers to offer the cross.  It is supposed to have healing powers and Mari said that there is always a crowd around it, lighting candles and offering flowers.  She said that a lot of people claim to have been cured by the powers of this cross.

Bienvenidos a Chongos Bajo.  Welcome to Chongos Bajo.

The first church of Huancayo is in Chongos Bajo.  It was built in 1540.  Everyone really enjoyed this town and the area surrounding the church.  There was a stone path to get up to the church.  We were lucky enough to go when there was another group of women exploring the church.  One of them knew a lot about the church.  It was very peaceful and beautiful up there.

The church in Chongos Bajo.

The altar inside the church.

Mabel was picking berries from trees along the way.  They were really good, tasting almost like cherries.

Mari eating some of the berries Mabel picked.  Mabel is in the background eating more berries.

We looked around the church and then made our way around to an area with pretty flowers and some ruins of old structures.  There was cactus and aloe everywhere along our walk and up by the church.  When we walked back down to the town, Fiona, Lauren, and I wrote our names into one of the aloe plants using the sharp tip of the end of one leaf.

Our names carved into the aloe leaf.

After the church we went to Los Girasoles.  It was quite funny because when we drove up the the front of the restaurant, there were guys banging on the car and handing Mabel several corn husks filled with the cornbread that usually comes with pachamanca.  It turns out that they just wanted us to come into the restaurant.  Mabel had five bread-filled corn husks in her hands.

Los Girasoles (The Sunflowers) restaurant.

We got some juice that tasted fermented when we went in and on our left were two whole animals roasting on a large grill.  There was a band playing also, so there was a nice atmosphere.  Everyone ordered pachamanca except for me.  I got Chicharron Colorado.  It was pork in a nice, spicy sauce with potatoes and rice.  I also got chicha morada.  I was glad I ordered that because everyone said that the pachamanca wasn't as good as La Playita, where we had gone last weekend.  I'm not usually a fan of pork chops, but this was cooked really well and the sauce was amazing.  I guess drinking anise liquor is standard, because we got a small portion of it after our meal there as well.

Chiccharon Colorado...yum!

We went to the Mercado Libre, open-air market, that is close to the house before we headed home.  I was feeling like I could fall asleep standing up by this time.  But it was really an experience walking through this market.  I felt like I was in a film.  There were people selling all types of things.  There were chickens strung up by their feet in some of the stands, and I think I even saw a pig head in one of them.  There was a man with a monkey, probably trying to get money from pictures.  There were people selling all kinds of fresh fruit, every potato imaginable (there are several types of potato in Peru), purple corn, clothing, shoes, weaving, DVDs and music, and so much more.  Lauren and I were talking about going back tomorrow when we felt more awake.  We stopped at a stand selling cherimoyas and the woman let us try them.  They were so good that Fiona, Lauren, and I bought some.  The woman also let us taste some of the bananas and pomegranate.  As we walked along, Lauren laughed and said that a man had been staring at me while peeling potatoes and had missed the bucket when he threw a finished potato toward it.  People are so fascinated with us gringas.  We had some young boys yell, "Gringas!" several times at us.  Fiona and I yelled back at the same time, "Peruanos!"

When we got close to home, there was a band playing in the street.  Like Tino says, it seems there is always a reason for a party in Huancayo.  At the house we got some water and all fell into bed for a nap.  Dinner was ready shortly after we woke up from our nap, but since we had eaten so much at 3, we weren't as hungry as we usually are at dinner.  Lauren and I decided to stay in because I'm still feeling sleepy and she was feeling a bit off.  James and Fiona went off to a movie and Emil and Ylfa are already in bed.  I think I'm going to watch the end of Harry Potter that I missed out on last night when I was teaching English to Tino's family.

Until tomorrow...