El Maracuya

Saturday night most of the group went out to two different clubs. We started out at Mythology. We got there a little after 10pm and there were free salsa lessons. Except most everyone in the bar had clearly been there many times before because everyone was amazing salsa dancers and really fun to watch. After midnight, we enjoyed some American songs that are big here (they’re are old in the US though). We left after no one could move anymore because it was so packed, and once everyone was nice and sweaty from dancing. The second bar was Ukukus; this place was chiller but still played pretty good music. The night concluded with a trip to the McDonalds (pretty much the only American food influence besides Coca Cola) and then a crazy taxi ride home at 3:30 am.

Sunday was a pretty low-key day. We told our family the night before that we’d be sleeping in so they weren’t too surprised when I didn’t get up until 11 am. We ate lunch and worked on homework, and then Rosa came back from the country and took us to a really neat market. There were so many Alpaca and woven things…I’ll be definitely be heading back there with lots more money to do some shopping (I’ll be going over the weight limit on the way home for sure).

Monday we showed up for our culture class at 9:10 but our professor didn’t show up because he had an old version of the schedule (it has changed at least 4 times). So we walked around the plaza and hung out until 11:10 when the next culture class started. We had class after lunch until 7pm, then dinner, and some homework at the ProPeru office so we could use internet.

Tuesday we went to the Inca Museum for culture class. We had an “English” speaking guide, but frankly I would have rather had him speak in Spanish because he would have been easier to understand. The museum definitely needed some updating but all the artifacts in there were super cool and interesting. There were even some mummies. We had 8 hours of class on Tuesday so the group decided not to go back home to our families for lunch but rather to go out and get some pizza. We chose a place right on the Plaza and it was really nice and the food was good. Of course we had to get some pastries afterwards for dessert. In Spanish class we watched “Maria Llena eres de Gracia,” a movie about drug mules (pretty interesting, a tad disturbing). After the long day we had more homework due the next day, so we hit up the ProPeru office yet again.

Wednesday we have four hours of culture class of our professor, Donaldo, just lecturing….awful. Spanish class was pretty low key after lunch and we got done early! Kelli and I went home planning on running, but right when we were about to run out the door Gladys came home saying she was going to Tai Bo class and that we should come. Of course I’m always ready to show off my uncoordinated moves, so we went. The instructor was from Pennsylvania so it was funny to hear her go in and out of Spanish and English the whole time. All in all it was a good experience, but I think I’ll stick to running.

Thursday was a project day. We went to Huaricondo to build stoves. This was a much more developed town with actual streets, stores, and buildings. But once you went through a door off of the street, the houses were the same as all the others, mud. Angela and I were a team and managed to finish two stoves in the morning. The first house had guinea pigs, ducks, chickens, ducklings, cats, kittens, puppies, and a dog all running around at our feet while we were building the stove so we had to be careful not to step on any. This town was a little awkward because both houses we worked people just watched us, and every time we tried to talk to them they were either silent or had one word responses. One thing that was interesting though was at each house they wanted to know if we were married or single (I mean we don’t look very old…married really?) The second house really needed the stove because everything was covered in at least an inch of soot. And the “mud” we worked with here was definitely more animal poop and fur than mud…so much that we had to smooth out the chunks in order to use it…pretty disgusting. When we finished we went back to the main square area where they had made us a big lunch as a thank you (or as we’re learning about in culture class…reciprocity). They had killed a baby pig for us and cooked it up…I had some hooves looking at me as I ate. They also had tamales (really good!), some sort of hard bean, and moti (it’s a boiled corn that is soft and really tasty). We got back pretty late but didn’t have much time to spare because it was Fran’s birthday. He had a lot of twelve year olds running around and there were some adults too. We sang Happy Birthday (in English), some other Spanish birthday song with lots of clapping, and then his head was pushed into the cake (definitely got a piece with face imprint). After the little fiesta, Kelli and I met up with a couple others from the group to go to Norton’s Pub for a drink. We had been there before and really liked the atmosphere. We got back to our house at midnight and they had dead-bolted the top and bottom of the door so that we couldn’t use our keys to get in…we had to ring the doorbell and wake everyone up…whoops.

Today was Earth Day in Peru. We drove to Urubamba (a town about an hour away) to help clean up the big river there. It was disgusting how much crap people throw away…I guess they just walk to the bridge and dump bags of trash over the side. Everything under the sun, from dolls to toothbrushes to tires to mountains of plastic bottle and bags to bags filled with poop. All in all it was pretty gross but the scenery was really pretty. It was actually kind of sad, because all we did was collect the garbage from the river and give it to the garbage people who were just going to throw it somewhere else. Urubamba really hasn’t gotten the idea of recycling or sustainability yet. After cleaning up along the river for a couple hours we moved on to a part further up the side of the mountain. I chose to scale the side of a really steep hill to get tons of plastic bags off of cactuses and other sharp plants (probably not the smartest idea…but it looked nice when I was done). We ate our packed lunches in a really pretty park and then went home. Kelli and I finally decided we should do some laundry so when we got back we walked around by our house for probably about 45 minutes trying to find the stupid Laundromat that we heard was close to our place. Turns out it is only about a block away but we missed it on the first go around….oops.

Tomorrow we have an excursion to some more ruins. Monday I have a culture exam. Tuesday I have to sing a song in Spanish (for all you Iowan’s of course I chose Colgando en Tus Manos por Carlos Baute) and turn in a paper. Wednesday I have a Spanish test. Lots of homework ahead….awesome.

Random facts:
About 5% of toilets in Peru have seats…the one at my house does not.
We have a parrot that likes to imitate children’s laughs…in a creepy horror film way.
We have a nightly patrol man that blows a whistle when everything is clear…the whistle sounds like a woman screaming for help.
Gato likes to bring Kelli and me treats when he stalks past our doors.
Sometimes I think the crazy lady that lives with us is dead because she sleeps in the kitchen on a chair, slumped over, with a blanket over her.
Kelli has bedbugs…I do not!