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!
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