sickness, festivals, and holidays

 I had an interesting day to the start of my week. First off I have to take a combi to my internship at the school, and whenever I get on those things people look at me like I am an alien or something. I am one of the last stops on the combi and on this particular day everyone on the combi happened to get off at stops before me, so the driver asked me where I was going and I do not know the name of my stop, I only know where to get off. So it was pretty hard for me to try to communicate where I needed to go. Eventually I got close to my stop and the driver told me to get off there even though I knew it was the next stop. I had already had enough problems so I just decided to get off and walk the rest of the way. When I was almost to the school the combi passed me on the way back and the driver was laughing at me, and it was really annoying. Mondays at my school seemed to be a kind of fluke day. Classes started 2 hours late for some reason, so I only had two classes. My first class went pretty good. I was able to help the students some more and I felt more useful. My second class though the teacher just left me alone for the whole hour. He told me to just let the kids work on the computers themselves, so I did not try to teach anything, I just made sure none of them caused problems. A little after the start of class though these two boys walked in and I asked them if they were in that class and they said yes, a few minutes later a little girl came up to me and told me these boys actually were not in the class. I went up to the boys and told them that they couldn’t be in there if they were not in that class. As they were walking out one of the boys pushed the other boy to the floor and picked up a chair and was about to hit the other boy with the chair, but I grabbed it before he could do so. I told them to leave and they just laughed and went away. This school is so disorganized and there seems to be not that much discipline. Fifteen minutes before I needed to go, the professor that I work with told me we had a teachers meeting. I thought this would be good to help clear up some problems, but this meeting just consisted of eating cookies and drinking wine. I understand now why this school is so disorganized!

The next day I arrive at the school to find out that there are not classes at all. June is big holiday month in Peru, so they have been having dances and festivals the whole month. When I got to school I found out that a group of students from the school were dancing at the plaza today, so we piled ten teachers into a van and went to the plaza. It was cool to see the dances because they are Inca indigenous dances. It is really cool to see how there is such a mix of indigenous and Spanish history here, but really the Inca culture prevails. There was a very large group of people watching the dances and I had been advised before to be very careful about pickpockets at these events. I kept my stuff very close to me and had my hands on them at all times, but none the less I definitely did feel some hands feeling my pockets the whole time. Luckily I was smart about the whole thing though.

On Thursday I went to my other job at APOMIPE. When I got there I found out that there was a market fair that day and some of the vendors APOMIPE works with were there. So we went to the fair and my boss was super busy running around trying to set things up. I tried to help out when I could but there were just so many people speaking Spanish and I just could not follow everyone. Eventually my boss asked me to go back to the office to pick something up. I was not really sure what I was supposed to get, but when I tried to clarify with him he got really annoyed, so I just left and prayed I would figure it out when I got there. Of course though I brought back the wrong thing, so I had to go back and I got it right the second time. At the end of the morning my boss just said to me that I had a choice of whether or not I wanted to come to work the next day. He pretty much said we would be doing market fair stuff the next day too and I could come if I want, but that he thought I would be better off going to the plaza and watching the dances and festivities. So pretty much he was just trying to nicely say, we do not need you tomorrow so don’t come to work. I got the hint and decided not to go. I really do not like that job, and I really feel like it is not a good job for an internship. I think if I even did speak Spanish fluently that I would not be of any help there.

So the next day I decided not to go to work and instead accompanied my host dad to my host brother and sister’s school and watched them do dances for Father’s Day. It was really cool to see and I took a lot of pictures and videos of the dances. The funnies dance was probably these little five and six year old boys doing dance where they had empty beer bottles in hand and pretended to be drunk! My host day said they represented the people that like to get drunk during the festivals and stuff. I was just shocked that five year olds were doing this! I took a video of it, and in the video you can hear my host dad say, “and this is the problem with my culture,” Haha.

Saturday I helped to build stoves out in the country again. Luckily we were not served cuy again! And then at night myself and all the volunteers went to a salsa class, that was really fun. Afterwards we went to a pizzeria and had some really good pizza. I had woken up that morning with a sore throat and had not been feeling that great all day. After dinner though I felt really bad and left to go sleep. Sunday we went to go see some ruins which are always cool and we had a good tour guide that told us a lot of cool facts. We went to this fancy store afterwards where they sell some really expensive and fine quality souvenirs. A lot of the volunteers were talking about coming back and blowing a lot of money. My stance is I really do not care to waste a lot of money on something you can find a lot cheaper in the market, even if it is not as fine in quality. After lunch and a little rest we all did go to an artisan market where I bought some souvenirs.

Monday I woke up feeling really crappy and spent the whole day in bed. My host brother seemed sick with the same thing too and he stayed home that day too. I felt a lot worse though, and my host dad said the problem probably was the altitude difference was making it harder for my body to fight off the sickness. The other volunteer that I live with really wanted to go to see the fireworks and events they were having at the plaza to start off this big week of holidays in Peru that night. I tried to get in touch with the other volunteers for her to go with them, but I did not have any luck. So I decided to be really nice and sucked it up, put on like three layers and went out. Before I left though I totally got mothered by my host mom while she proceeded to tie up my hoodie and zip up my jacket really tight haha. The plaza was packed with people! When we got there, there was a light show being played that portrayed some Inca rituals. The ironic part was that this was being projected on one of the cathedrals. I wonder what the Spaniards would have thought about that haha? Then there were fireworks and a band played. That was about all I could handle and then we left.

Tuesday I did feel better, but not super great but I still decided to go to work. When I got to the school the professor I work with said that I probably should not have come and should have just stayed at home. After the first class I started to feel really bad again and I was going to ask him if I could leave, but then he said to be he had to leave and just to supervise the next class and that he might be back for the third. My second class was second graders and they were a little bit of handful, especially when all I wanted to do was sit there. After that class I decided I could not handle a third class because I started to feel real nauseous. I wrote a note to the professor I work with and went and told the teacher of the third class what was going on. She was really nice and said it was no problem if I left. The combi ride back home though was probably the longest combi ride of my life though because those things are really bumpy and not fun when you feel nauseous. I rested for the rest of the afternoon and still did not feel that great, but I still went to Spanish class and dinner afterwards.

Thursday was Corpus Christi and I did not have any work that day. In the morning I went to the plaza where they were having a huge catholic mass. Wednesday they had brought in all the saints in a huge procession. There was just a little kind of parade and there was a food fair. It seemed pretty chill and not so much of a big deal. Afterwards we went shopping around. There were a lot of food markets going on selling a lot of cuy(guinea pig). We went to this chocolate store which is literally heaven on Earth! It was very touristy, so they spoke English there and they sold so many types of chocolate. They also offer a class where you can make your own chocolate. I had a cup of chocolate tea that was amazing! When I first tasted it, it tasted like tea and then once I swallowed it tasted like chocolate! I definitely plan on going back and buying some of it.

The next day on Friday was Inti Raymi which is the Inca holiday and that was huge. We started at this one area where they had huge show of dances and there was a person who represented the main Inca. After that everyone was supposed to go to the plaza, but we skipped that part because we had heard it was not that great, and went ahead to an Inca ruins area right outside of Cusco. We sat on a hill for a few hours and just bought ice cream and other snacks from the vendors. Then in the afternoon there was a huge procession of all the dancers and the main Inca. It was pretty hard to see, but Inti Raymi is for the “god of the sun” because apparently this day is the coldest day of the year meaning the sun is farthest away, so the Incas would sacrifice a black llama to the sun god so he would come back. I am not really sure if they actually killed a llama or if it was just a representation because I had heard from different people that they actually do kill and animal and some people say they don’t actually kill one. I really couldn’t tell from what I saw. It really is just kind of funny how the Spaniards tried so hard to convert the Incas, but now the Spanish catholic holiday is just kind of brushed over in comparison to the Inca holiday.

This seems to be a really confused culture because the people seem to be either saint worshiping catholics or the indigenous type people. But no one here is truly Inca, but there is just a lot of history and influence of it here.

Saturday some of my friends and I went to a little fair. It was really cool and they sold a lot of cool stuff! There was so amazing food and we shared a huge plate of chicken, noodles, stuffed pepper, potatoes, and a wonderful dessert. I bought some chocolate coffee there and had some ice cream that was some of the best ice cream I had in my life!

Sunday I went to two more ruins sights, which were really cool! I still do not get bored with seeing so any ruins. They are amazing and it still completely amazes me how the Incas where able to build all of these. One of the ruins we went to there was a mountain nearby and it looked like there were two faces in the mountains. Our tour guide said that they were natural and that the Incas used to worship them because they thought they were gods. There used to be a lot of temples to worship different gods at this sight but when the Spaniards came they destroyed them and looted them for gold. Hearing of all the bad things that the Spaniards did and all the history they destroyed still annoys. But they the conquistadors would probably roll in their graves if they say the Peruvians still doing ceremonies like Inti Raymi to the sun god!

Well that’s my update for now! Almost done with my first month yay!

A very long first week

I am still getting adjusted to everything in Peru right now. It is really hard being here right now because the language barrier is a huge problem. When I talk to my host family I can understand them most of the time except when they are just talking to each other because they talk a lot faster to each other than they do to me. It is just really hard because I just feel so stupid most of the time because there is so much that I do not know how to say in Spanish, and I have to think about what I want to say so much that it takes me forever to get out whatever I am saying and I generally make a huge amount of mistakes. I almost feel like my Spanish has gotten worse since I got here. It is probably because I am always so nervous and frustrated. I feel like my host family pretty much holds my hand and walks me through my sentences, but when I am talking to other people in Cusco it is so hard to say what I want to say and get my point across. I really want to learn Spanish, and I hoping my Spanish will not continue to get worse because living in a Spanish speaking country is supposed to improve my speaking ability. People here just do not understand how difficult it is to adapt here. I have Spanish classes every night, and my teacher is absolutely wonderful, and she says she understands because she feels the same way I do when she is around people who speak English. I just feel like I am having a bit of culture shock right now.

I do not really like my internships because the people I have to work with do not have much patience with me and they act really annoyed when I do not understand. The school I work at I am actually more of a teaching assistant because there is another teacher who teaches the computer class and I am supposed to help him out. I do not mind that at all because with my speaking ability I would not be able to teach the kids anything. The hard part of working at the school is that the teacher is really hard to understand and his does not have much patience with me. I cannot understand a word that the kids say to me and I all I can really do is point at things to help them in class. The only plus side of my job at the school is that the kids are really affectionate and at recess they do not really care if I talk to them as long as they can sit on my lap and play with my hair. The kids get really excited to learn English, so I try to teach them words here and there, and they love using them. I just do not really feel like I am much help at the school because I cannot really communicate with the teacher or the kids. And schools are so different here. There seems to be a real lack of discipline compared to the United States. Everything is just really relaxed. A dog literally walked into the classroom and walked around and no one cared. All the kids are real big tattle tails though, so they are always telling me something and I do not know what to do or to say. All I can do is hope and pray things get better.

My other internship is a little worse because I am working with this organization called APOMIPE, and I feel a little more pressure here to get things right and actually be of a help because it is an actual business. My boss at this job is kind of a jerk. He can be nice sometimes, but he can be really sarcastic and mean other times. For example, he said something to me about how I am having a hard time understanding him, and I responded by saying it’s just cause he talks so fast, and his response to that was, “that is a great observation Gabrielle!” and that was loaded with a sarcastic tone of voice. I did not really appreciate that because I am just trying to learn. His name is Hugo and he asked me what his name in English would be and for some reason I thought Jugo instead of Hugo, and jugo in Spanish means juice, so I told him that his name in English would be Juice. I realized right after that that was wrong, but the man already thinks I am an idiot so I did not try to explain my mistake and just let him continue thinking his name is Juice haha. This organization is an organization that helps people start their own business, and one of their areas of concentration are flower vendors. So my second day of work we went out to el campo(the country), and visited a few vendors and they gave me a bunch of flowers as gifts. I thought that was really nice, and probably the only part of the job I have liked.

As far as experiencing life in Cusco, I have had a little trouble. My first few days here I continually got lost, which was not fun and kind of scary. The city itself is big enough where you need transportation to a lot of places. I have two options for transportation. First off, I can take a taxi which is fine, but not the most economic option. The other option is to take these little bus/van things called combis. They are super cheap and are constantly running, but they pack people like sardines into them. It is a very interesting experience being on them, and I always get weird looks whenever I get on one because most tourists don’t know what they are or how to take them. I am getting better about learning to go places and not getting lost.

There is a type of soda here called Inca cola that tastes like a mixture of mountain dew and cream soda. It is delicious and the United States seriously needs to start selling it!

 Saturday I went out to el campo and built these stoves in people’s house that are supposed to be more healthy for the people living in the house. Most of the people in the country are indigenous people and speak a language called Quechua. Some of these people know Spanish, but some don’t. It is a very poor area, and people live in one bedroom tiny houses that are just super dirty. It is actually a sad sight. ProPeru does the healthy burning stoves project because these people continually cook and the smoke circulates in the house and causes lung type and breathing problems for the family. The stoves we built help to get the smoke out of the house. It was a really cool experience, and fun making them. After we finished the people served us lunch, and they served a traditional Peruvian cuisine called cuy (guinea pig). Now having had a guinea pig as a pet when I was a child, made the idea of eating a guinea pig even worse. Also the people living in the house just let the guinea pigs run around everywhere and they have like 20 of them, and some of the ones I saw were little babies and super cute, and it was just sad to think they would be killed for food. To be polite though I ate my cuy, and I did not like it. It has a very distinct taste and it is very gamy. It was a new experience though.

Today we went to see some Inca ruins called Tipon. It was really cool to see and we had a tour guide that told us a lot of interesting facts and stuff. I just really liked just being a tourist, and being with the other volunteers and hanging out and having fun. We are all planning on going to see different places around Peru every weekend, which will be really fun and also costly, but I think it is worth it.

I am really just hoping things get better because right now I do not really want to be here anymore. I really like my host family, the other interns, learning about Inca history, seeing ruins, and learning about another culture, but I just feel like such an outsider, like I do not belong, and I am just a waste of space here. Like I said before, it is fun just being tourist. Peru does not seem like a place where outsiders can really immerse themselves in the culture, we can only take pictures and try not to get in the way. I will try to make the best of my time here by learning, experiencing, and having fun when I can. I have already learned a lot and obviously there is a reason why God brought me here. I hope this won’t be a long two months, but in due time I will be more comfortable and have a better time at my internships.

Ok that’s all for now! Prayers please!

Peru thus far

 Ok so I have not been able to get on the internet for the past couple of days so here is a recap of everything so far! sorry it is so long!

Saturday: My first day in Peru was crazy! Traveling was a bit frustrating because I had never traveled alone before and I was nervous and scared the whole time. It was pretty miserable flying through the night, and then arriving in Peru not to be excited but tired an frustrated with the many airport employees who seemed to disapprove of my inability to speak fluent Spanish. I just kept telling myself that in 2 months when I travel back it will be a different story!

Peru is a lot colder than I anticipated and a lot of the other volunteers agreed as well. We also all agreed that we did not pack warm enough clothes! I am hoping I will adjust to the temperature because today I have been shivering all day! I also probably should not have brought any flip flops and brought more closed toed shoes because right not I think I might have to go buy some more.

I can definitely tell a difference in the altitude but I think I am adjusting well, and being so tired from traveling helped me take a long nap. I arrived in Cusco a little after 9am and proceeded to get my bags whiles being hounded by hotel representatives and taxi drivers. I think I seriously had 20 different guys ask me if I wanted a taxi, and they would not take no for an answer. It was kind of annoying cause I was trying to fumble out in Spanish that I had a ride while trying to get away and finding the ProWorld representative. I eventually found my group and we left to go to the ProWorld office. One of the girls in the car is actually from Harrisonburg and goes to JMU! And we know a few of the same people. Small world! When we got to the office everyone just talked and one by one we went in for an interview completely in Spanish to see what our speaking level is. I did not think my interview went that bad. I of course made mistakes here and there, but I was not disappointed with my performance. After that my host dad (Ricardo) came with his son Carlos to pick me and another volunteer named Ellen up. Ellen is staying in the house with more for only a month, and then it will just be me in the house. She and I have separate rooms though and we share a bathroom.

I am getting used to really quickly kissing people on the cheek when you greet them and say goodbye. I just kind of find it funny right now cause I am meeting all these people for the first time and already kissing them! Haha My host dad does not speak any English, but he is really easy to understand in Spanish. I am actually quite proud of how I can understand him, and I am also learning new words and such from him already. He and Carlos showed Ellen and I around the house and they were so nice about everything. They constantly emphasized the notion of “mi casa es su casa.” Hah. I really like house and the family is so hospitable. I have so much room in my room! The only problems I have found are that there is a chair blocking a door in my room and it smells really bad around there, so I think it is like a broken bathroom or something. And the other thing is I found two gigantic spiders in my room and to kill them, and I am really scared they will come back!

Besides that I really like the family as well. They have two daughters as well Alejandra(17) and Abigail(8), and they both seem really shy. Alejandra and Carlos both speak a little English, so they have been helping us out some, and they said they wanted to practice their Spanish as well. My host mom Gaby owns a restaurant and that is where we ate lunch. It was really good food and they said we would be eating lunch there every Tuesday-Sunday. I think Ellen and I really lucked out on the food part then. The interesting thing is that our host family just really expects Ellen and I to learn to travel around Cusco ourselves. We were told all about the different methods of transportation and where to go, but honestly I am really scared to go anywhere without someone who knows the area right now.

The presidential elections are going on tomorrow and everything is shutting down for it. They are not even having church because of it. Also they are having a “dry” time until the election is over meaning no one can sell or drink alcohol without getting a fine, and I thought that was really interesting. I had read a little about the election before I came and I asked Ricardo his opinion on the matter, and he said originally when they were first trying to decide on the 2 final candidates there were 5 in the running and he liked the 3 that did not get picked better. I had read the country itself does not really like either candidate, and they do not think either one will do much good, so it was really interesting hearing it directly from a Peruvian. Ricardo said if he had to pick one it would be the daughter of the former president who happens to be Asian, which I think is weird to have an Asian president of Spanish speaking country.

Well we will see how that goes, and I am looking forward to my time here! After having lunch and dinner with the family I can already tell my Spanish is improving, which is awesome! Hopefully the worries and problems I have will be resolved.

Sunday: This day was not too eventful. Ellen and I walked around Cusco in the morning and then went to lunch. They gave me this juice at lunch that I thought was grape juice, but it was actually corn juice made out of black corn! it was really good. After that I went to orientation where I got a lot of good information, and then had dinner at the house at 8:00pm which is a normal time for them to have dinner! It was really good though. My host mom Gaby is a wonderful cook!

Monday: I did not have to go to my internship this morning because the schools were closed because of the elections, so me and another volunteer went to La Plaza de Armas, which is like the historical part of Cusco. It was beautiful, and I liked it a lot! I wanted to buy so much stuff because it is a big tourist area so they have a lot of souvenirs, but I decided to wait since I do have two months to buy stuff. After that I just hung out for the day and then in the evening I have Spanish classes. They were good cause it is just me and one other volunteer and the teacher is really nice, and I really need these classes!

Tuesday: This is today so far! I went to my internship at the school and it was very stressful. I am working with another teacher to teach computer classes and he is really hard to understand. He did not seem to have to much patience with me either, hopefully things will improve. The kids really liked me though and we excited to learn english. Well thats pretty much all that happened so far today! I have to go to a meeting now! I will update soon!

Preparing for Peru

I am leaving for Peru tomorrow and I am filled with multiple emotions. Excitement, fear, worry, eagerness etc. I am in the process of packing right now and so far I cannot fit everything I need in a suitcase, carry on, and backpack. This is a problem! I will have to go through probably my 5th round of filtering out things. It is way to hard to pack for 2 months and adhere to airline weight limits. This will be a stressful task to finish up packing, but one of the most important things to pack (besides my passport) is in the image above. I purchased this spanish/english bible in hopes that I will be able to use it for God's glory. Whether it be through a church or with my host family or somewhere else, but I have been praying a lot since I returned from Honduras that God would use me while in Peru.

I did have had one of my prayers answered when I learned a little about my host family. In a short synopsis i was able to read online about them it stated that they are involved a lot with their church youth group! I do not know if this is a catholic church or another denomination, but at least I will have a church that I can try out at the beginning, and it is also nice that I will be living with believers.

I was also informed finally about what I will actually be doing for my internship! Part of the week I will be teaching computer classes to kids, which is kind of scary because I do not know if these kids will even be able to speak English! And I have never really taught much of anything before, and I am no expert when it comes to computers. But I will see what happens and I know God will be helping me through it all. Also if these kids do not speak much English then this will definitely be a really good practice of my Spanish.
And for my internship the other part of the week I will be working for a local organization called APOMIPE and I will be doing some in office work as well as some in the community work with them as well. Here is the link to the organization's website if you are at all interested http://www.apomipe.org.pe/

Well that is about all for now. Please keep me in your prayers, and I will try to update as much as I can!

ps: extra prayers for my travels because airports hate me and something always goes wrong for me in them!