I signed up to build houses in Chincha which is a city down south by Ica that was destroyed by a terrible earthquake in August of last year. I signed up with my two roommates Trevor and Michael and a lot of people from their UVA group.
Friday: We went to meet at a stadium at 8pm Friday night but had to get into smaller groups and wait around for buses until about 10pm. There were probably a couple hundred people who volunteer, both Peruvian and foreign. The organization that does this is called "Un techo para mi país which means "A roof for my country." We arrived in Chincha at about 3am and set up our sleeping bags in a church. There were a lot of younger people and the whole experience felt like a weekend at summer camp as a child. My friends and I were really tired and wanted to go to bed but a group of about 20 people stayed up and played games until 5am when they finally turned the lights off and we went to bed.
Saturday: At 7am they started blasting terrible music to get us to wake up and I was very unhappy at that point since I couldn't get to sleep until 5am. We got up, ate some breakfast, brushed our teeth outside and changed into working clothes. Then we had to play "team building" games (again with the summer camp feel), which only made me more annoyed because I could have slept for another hour while people were doing all that. We were split up into groups of 3 people. In my group were two other Peruvians; Carla who was 18 and our leader, and Alonso who was 21 and had also never built a house before. The three of us were supposed to build a house in the two days we were there. At probably 9am we took our tools (shovel, hammer, nails) to the site of our house and we met Luís who we were building the house for. Luís lived in a house with his sisters, some man, nieces and nephews. In a 6 meter by 6 meter house made of bamboo sticks and tarps lived at least 10 people, and for those 10 people we were building 2 6 meter by 3 meter wooden houses. To start the house we had to build a foundation which was three 6 meter boards. We had to level the ground and dig wholes to put the boards into but the ground is made up of clay so digging was really hard. Once those boards were down we nailed the floor panels perpendicularly across the three boards and nails then down by hand. That is all we finished the first day and we were nailing by candle/flashlight because we didn't finish until about 9pm. We were by far the group who worked the latest and had the least amount of our house done because Carla really had NO IDEA what she was doing in building this house. In comparison Trevor’s groups was done at 4:30pm and had put up their walls. We went back to the church to eat dinner which was mashed potatoes, rice and tuna and then we went to bed.
Sunday: We woke up around 8am after sleeping through the blasting music, ate breakfast and went to our site. We started by putting up the pre-constructed walls which didnt really it together correctly so there were spaces in the corners at some points. All the wood we were using was terrible and it was almost impossible to nail through it sometimes so we dipped the nails in cooking oil first (if that helped or not I have no idea). In the afternoon we ate lunch that the family prepared for us on their propane camping stove that they had in their hut. I'm pretty sure it’s a terrible idea to use those inside because the whole place smelled like propane and our food tasted like it too. We just had very simple chicken and rice. The next step of the house was to put up 7 ceiling beams, the roof and then we nailed the walls to the floor. We had a lot of help with the last parts and I basically just played with all the little kids that were running around. The kids were fascinated by my camera and each wanted a turn taking pictures so I have about 20 of the same photo of me holding various babies. In the end I had to tell them that the battery died because I did have to do a little work on the house! We had a littler ceremony with cake and balloons and we gave the family a certificate for the new house and they told us how grateful they were that we did this for them so it was really nice because they seemed so happy. Shortly after we got back on the bus and came back to Lima.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Monday, September 22, 2008
Chiclayo, Pimentel, Lambayeque, Monsefú
After a long week of studying and two 'controls' (tests) I had to get out of Lima for the weekend. Hannah ran her finger up and down the map, I said stop and it was decided that we were going to Chiclayo which is a city up north.
Thursday:
Wednesday night I packed my bags and headed to class Thursday morning with my backpack to leave directly from school. I had class from 10-12 then studied all day for my linguistics control at 5pm. After my control I went straight to TESPA the bus agency and Hannah, An and I left Lima at 9:30pm. We bought the last tickets on the bus but had to sit at the back by the bathroom which smelled like poop/air freshener for 13 hours. On the bus we watch Dennis the Menace Christmas, and some crazy alien movie. Movies on the bus are always the most bizarre American movies from the 90's. The bus was fairly comfortable and I got a couple hours of sleep before we arrived in Chiclayo at 11:30am on Friday.
Friday:
Once we arrived we headed straight for the central market which was teaming with clothes, toys, herbs, meats, live animals, shoes, fruits, vegetables, dishes, cookware, fabrics, shoe repairs, it was a vary bizarre mix of things like in all markets in Peru. The raw meat area is by far the worst smell I have ever smelled in my entire life, followed by the fieldtrip to the sewage treatment plant in elementary school. There was beef hanging on hooks, full chickens, blood running down the drains, all kinds of fish, crabs, octopus, shrimp, fillets of something that was 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 foot thick. There was also an area of Shamans and we bought little bottles filled with herbs and weird things that were for good luck and health. The Shaman rubbed our hands, said a prayer, took a sip from some bottle filled with herbs and spit it on our hands, then we had to rub the vile between our hands and now apparently we have good luck and health. The whole experience was really funny because we just had no idea what was going on.
We left the market to go to Pimentel which is right on the beach where we wanted to stay that night. In our Lonely Planet guide they recommended this hostel with bungalows on the beach. It was a ten minute walk down the beach from the town and just appeared in the middle of the desert. When we got there it looked deserted but finally this guy showed up and gave us a room in a pyramid shaped building that has room for about 8 people. We walked back to the town to eat and there was this strip of restaurants and ladies would come out from each one and bombard us, flagging us down, yelling what they were serving and trying to give us "Menu Turistico" which is the tourist menu that always costs like 3 times more. Most places in Peru have a daily menu that’s between 5 and 10 soles which has a first plate, second plate and drink. After looking around for a while we picked one and just had the normal Peruvian chicken and rice. After lunch we went to the market to get some food for dinner that night and took a Moto rickshaw back to the hostel. There were 5 kitten, 3 puppies, 2 dogs, and some roosters and other birds in cages at the hostel so we played with the kittens and puppies a bit. We took a walk down the beach, roasted bananas over a camp and chatted with the two guys who ran the hostel. When we went back into our at night we found out that there was no electricity and had to use candles all night, also we found rats who ended up eating a bunch of the food we had during the night. I probably only got an hour of sleep at most between the rats and the dogs barking outside.
Saturday: We got up early and packed out stuff after deciding not to stay there another night. We went back into Chiclayo and found a really nice hostel with hot water, electricity, and even a computer with internet. This hostel was also 15 soles cheaper per person.
We took a cab from Chiclayo to Lambayeque where there is the Museum of Sipan. Sipan is an ancient ruin from people who lived way before the Incas. The museum is a replica of the ruins and starting at the top you go down each level and it shows what archeologists found when they dug it up. There were a lot of tombs and we say the actually human remains along with pottery, textiles and metal work. The jewelry was so intricate I couldn't believe that they had to tools to make such tiny detailed things back then, it was really amazing. They didn't allow photography but if you look up Sipan online you can probably find some pictures.
After Sipan we went to Monsefú which is an even smaller town but has a really nice artisan market. Each town is known for different handicrafts and this market has a lot of wooden tools and artwork. We got interviewed by high school students about out time in Monsefú which is actually the third time I have been interviewed here. The first time was a student learning English who tape recorded our conversation for a class project, and the second was a survey from a girl who had different sketches of clothes and I had to pick one or the other from about 30 pairs of sketches.
We returned to Chiclayo in the evening and ate dinner at a chifa (Peruvian Chinese food) but it was terrible. We got ice cream and just hung around for the rest of the night.
Sunday:
We got up and ate breakfast before going back to the Chiclayo market. We left all of our stuff at the hostel so we could explore the market with out having to worry about getting things stolen from us. The market is so chaotic and exhausting because people are constantly yelling at us to come look at their goods.
We went to catch our bus at 7pm; all of us were exhausted by then! There was this really weird young girl we met there who I’m not sure if she had some kind of social disability for was just very bizarre. She came up and started talking to us and asking us how to say things in English. She tried to give us these bracelets she had on but we would not accept and when her bus was leaving she just kept coming back up to us to say goodbye over and over again and her mom had to keep pulling her away from us. Once we got on the bus it was only 11 hours back so we were home at 6am Monday morning.
Thursday:
Wednesday night I packed my bags and headed to class Thursday morning with my backpack to leave directly from school. I had class from 10-12 then studied all day for my linguistics control at 5pm. After my control I went straight to TESPA the bus agency and Hannah, An and I left Lima at 9:30pm. We bought the last tickets on the bus but had to sit at the back by the bathroom which smelled like poop/air freshener for 13 hours. On the bus we watch Dennis the Menace Christmas, and some crazy alien movie. Movies on the bus are always the most bizarre American movies from the 90's. The bus was fairly comfortable and I got a couple hours of sleep before we arrived in Chiclayo at 11:30am on Friday.
Friday:
Once we arrived we headed straight for the central market which was teaming with clothes, toys, herbs, meats, live animals, shoes, fruits, vegetables, dishes, cookware, fabrics, shoe repairs, it was a vary bizarre mix of things like in all markets in Peru. The raw meat area is by far the worst smell I have ever smelled in my entire life, followed by the fieldtrip to the sewage treatment plant in elementary school. There was beef hanging on hooks, full chickens, blood running down the drains, all kinds of fish, crabs, octopus, shrimp, fillets of something that was 4 feet long, 3 feet wide and 1 foot thick. There was also an area of Shamans and we bought little bottles filled with herbs and weird things that were for good luck and health. The Shaman rubbed our hands, said a prayer, took a sip from some bottle filled with herbs and spit it on our hands, then we had to rub the vile between our hands and now apparently we have good luck and health. The whole experience was really funny because we just had no idea what was going on.
We left the market to go to Pimentel which is right on the beach where we wanted to stay that night. In our Lonely Planet guide they recommended this hostel with bungalows on the beach. It was a ten minute walk down the beach from the town and just appeared in the middle of the desert. When we got there it looked deserted but finally this guy showed up and gave us a room in a pyramid shaped building that has room for about 8 people. We walked back to the town to eat and there was this strip of restaurants and ladies would come out from each one and bombard us, flagging us down, yelling what they were serving and trying to give us "Menu Turistico" which is the tourist menu that always costs like 3 times more. Most places in Peru have a daily menu that’s between 5 and 10 soles which has a first plate, second plate and drink. After looking around for a while we picked one and just had the normal Peruvian chicken and rice. After lunch we went to the market to get some food for dinner that night and took a Moto rickshaw back to the hostel. There were 5 kitten, 3 puppies, 2 dogs, and some roosters and other birds in cages at the hostel so we played with the kittens and puppies a bit. We took a walk down the beach, roasted bananas over a camp and chatted with the two guys who ran the hostel. When we went back into our at night we found out that there was no electricity and had to use candles all night, also we found rats who ended up eating a bunch of the food we had during the night. I probably only got an hour of sleep at most between the rats and the dogs barking outside.
Saturday: We got up early and packed out stuff after deciding not to stay there another night. We went back into Chiclayo and found a really nice hostel with hot water, electricity, and even a computer with internet. This hostel was also 15 soles cheaper per person.
We took a cab from Chiclayo to Lambayeque where there is the Museum of Sipan. Sipan is an ancient ruin from people who lived way before the Incas. The museum is a replica of the ruins and starting at the top you go down each level and it shows what archeologists found when they dug it up. There were a lot of tombs and we say the actually human remains along with pottery, textiles and metal work. The jewelry was so intricate I couldn't believe that they had to tools to make such tiny detailed things back then, it was really amazing. They didn't allow photography but if you look up Sipan online you can probably find some pictures.
After Sipan we went to Monsefú which is an even smaller town but has a really nice artisan market. Each town is known for different handicrafts and this market has a lot of wooden tools and artwork. We got interviewed by high school students about out time in Monsefú which is actually the third time I have been interviewed here. The first time was a student learning English who tape recorded our conversation for a class project, and the second was a survey from a girl who had different sketches of clothes and I had to pick one or the other from about 30 pairs of sketches.
We returned to Chiclayo in the evening and ate dinner at a chifa (Peruvian Chinese food) but it was terrible. We got ice cream and just hung around for the rest of the night.
Sunday:
We got up and ate breakfast before going back to the Chiclayo market. We left all of our stuff at the hostel so we could explore the market with out having to worry about getting things stolen from us. The market is so chaotic and exhausting because people are constantly yelling at us to come look at their goods.
We went to catch our bus at 7pm; all of us were exhausted by then! There was this really weird young girl we met there who I’m not sure if she had some kind of social disability for was just very bizarre. She came up and started talking to us and asking us how to say things in English. She tried to give us these bracelets she had on but we would not accept and when her bus was leaving she just kept coming back up to us to say goodbye over and over again and her mom had to keep pulling her away from us. Once we got on the bus it was only 11 hours back so we were home at 6am Monday morning.
Friday, September 5, 2008
Nothing Important
The last few weeks have been pretty low key with the start of school. I love my linguistics class and it might be the most interesting class i have ever taken. So far we are learning about the development of language in children, how languages are perceived in the world and how Spanish differs between its different dialects. Since Peru has so many isolated Amazonian cultures a few languages die out here every year and my teacher is very passionate about informing us about these languages.
I went to the store to buy peanut butter which I was craving here. For a really tiny about 5 spoon full jar it was 14 soles which is about $5. I wasn’t craving it that bad, but it looks like I won’t be eating peanut butter for another few months! They do have peanut butter Oreos here though that are amazing! They have strawberry yogurt filled Oreos too which I think sounds gross but some of my friends really like. Right across the street from my school are some really nice Peruvian restaurants that I have lunch at some days. For 5 soles ($1.70) they serve 3 options for a 1st dish (like soup, salad etc.), then 3 options for main dishes (usually a beef dish with veggies and rice, chicken something with rice, or some other traditional dished) and also a juice. The meals are huge, delicious and so cheap! If I eat at school 5 soles will get me a ham and cheese sandwich. In contrast if you go to a fast food restaurant, even a Peruvian one like Bembos (basically McDonalds but the burgers taste like Taco Bell taco seasoning), it will be 16 soles($5.50) for a nasty burger, fries and a drink.
Since my DVD drive in my computer broke i have been downloading TV seasons on iTunes like it’s my job! Too bad I'm spending $25 on a season when I could get it at the "grey market" for about 12 soles ($4)! They sell all movies and TV shows in the markets here for 3 soles/dvd or 10 soles for 4 DVDs which basically $1 per movie. So... if anyone wants any movies let me know! haha. The quality highly varies but some places let you preview the movies before buying them and that’s when you know the place is going to sell you good movies. We have seen some though that are 100% video taped in a movie theater where you can see peoples heads blocking parts of the screen! I would like to not be watching any TV but since I can’t leave my house without company after 6:00pm when it gets dark the nights can get a bit boring and lets me honest I’m not going to spend all that time studying!
Improve your Latin American cultural knowledge:
1. Watch the movie “Maria Full of Grace” (might be titled in Spanish “Maria lleno de gracia”) the public library downtown has a great foreign movie selection and might have it there. It is based in Colombia but the general looks of the land and family structure is the same. It’s about a girl who is a drug mule- don’t worry I’m not one! It is in Spanish but will have subtitles.
2. Read 100 Year of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One of the most famous, if not the most famous Latin American literary works of all times. He was given the Nobel Prize for this book which demonstrates ‘Marvelous Realism’ which is the combination of the supernatural and real life. Many things here are based on myth since little is known about the ancient people so the belief in the supernatural is much more engrained in daily living and society than it is in the states. In my history class we are talking about the formation of the Incan empire and all of that is purely mythology up to a certain point because there was no written history until the Spanish arrived.
3. The friend of my friend Ana published a book called War by Candlelight by Daniel Alarcon. He is Peruvian but spent some time growing up the states. Its a series of short stories that Ana told me reflect well the culture of Peru. I havn't read it yet but i'll leave an update when i'm done with it.
I went to the store to buy peanut butter which I was craving here. For a really tiny about 5 spoon full jar it was 14 soles which is about $5. I wasn’t craving it that bad, but it looks like I won’t be eating peanut butter for another few months! They do have peanut butter Oreos here though that are amazing! They have strawberry yogurt filled Oreos too which I think sounds gross but some of my friends really like. Right across the street from my school are some really nice Peruvian restaurants that I have lunch at some days. For 5 soles ($1.70) they serve 3 options for a 1st dish (like soup, salad etc.), then 3 options for main dishes (usually a beef dish with veggies and rice, chicken something with rice, or some other traditional dished) and also a juice. The meals are huge, delicious and so cheap! If I eat at school 5 soles will get me a ham and cheese sandwich. In contrast if you go to a fast food restaurant, even a Peruvian one like Bembos (basically McDonalds but the burgers taste like Taco Bell taco seasoning), it will be 16 soles($5.50) for a nasty burger, fries and a drink.
Since my DVD drive in my computer broke i have been downloading TV seasons on iTunes like it’s my job! Too bad I'm spending $25 on a season when I could get it at the "grey market" for about 12 soles ($4)! They sell all movies and TV shows in the markets here for 3 soles/dvd or 10 soles for 4 DVDs which basically $1 per movie. So... if anyone wants any movies let me know! haha. The quality highly varies but some places let you preview the movies before buying them and that’s when you know the place is going to sell you good movies. We have seen some though that are 100% video taped in a movie theater where you can see peoples heads blocking parts of the screen! I would like to not be watching any TV but since I can’t leave my house without company after 6:00pm when it gets dark the nights can get a bit boring and lets me honest I’m not going to spend all that time studying!
Improve your Latin American cultural knowledge:
1. Watch the movie “Maria Full of Grace” (might be titled in Spanish “Maria lleno de gracia”) the public library downtown has a great foreign movie selection and might have it there. It is based in Colombia but the general looks of the land and family structure is the same. It’s about a girl who is a drug mule- don’t worry I’m not one! It is in Spanish but will have subtitles.
2. Read 100 Year of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. One of the most famous, if not the most famous Latin American literary works of all times. He was given the Nobel Prize for this book which demonstrates ‘Marvelous Realism’ which is the combination of the supernatural and real life. Many things here are based on myth since little is known about the ancient people so the belief in the supernatural is much more engrained in daily living and society than it is in the states. In my history class we are talking about the formation of the Incan empire and all of that is purely mythology up to a certain point because there was no written history until the Spanish arrived.
3. The friend of my friend Ana published a book called War by Candlelight by Daniel Alarcon. He is Peruvian but spent some time growing up the states. Its a series of short stories that Ana told me reflect well the culture of Peru. I havn't read it yet but i'll leave an update when i'm done with it.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Huacachina
The other weekend I took a trip to Huacachina which is 5 hours south of Lima by bus and just right outside of Ica. I went with my friends Ana and Hannah and a bunch of people from this program called APU. APU has international student housing in peru that a bunch of my friends live in so about 50 of us all took this trip together. We got up at 6:30 saturday morning to catch a 9am bus to Ica. From Ica we took a combi about 10 minutes into the desert to this oasis which is Huacachina. Its basically just a pond in the middle the desert.
Once we got to our hostel we settled in, ate lunch then at 4pm went out on dunebuggies. The dunebuggy tour was awesome and we ended up on the top of this series of dunes to do some sandboarding. Sandboarding is kind of like snowboarding, we basically strapped pieces of wood on our feet and went down. The other option was to lay face first on the board and ride it kind of like a sled- this way was a lot more fun and we got going really really fast. You had to make sure none of your skin touched the sand on the way down or it would be shaved off of your body. One girl fell off and really scraped up her body pretty bad.
We went back to the hostel around sundown, and had a cook out with everyone and just hung around the hostel for the night.
The next morning we woke up and tanned out by the beach. It was about 85 degrees and sunny which was nice since i havn't seen the sun in Lima for a month now.
Around 1pm we went back to Ica and took the bus home to lima from there.
Once we got to our hostel we settled in, ate lunch then at 4pm went out on dunebuggies. The dunebuggy tour was awesome and we ended up on the top of this series of dunes to do some sandboarding. Sandboarding is kind of like snowboarding, we basically strapped pieces of wood on our feet and went down. The other option was to lay face first on the board and ride it kind of like a sled- this way was a lot more fun and we got going really really fast. You had to make sure none of your skin touched the sand on the way down or it would be shaved off of your body. One girl fell off and really scraped up her body pretty bad.
We went back to the hostel around sundown, and had a cook out with everyone and just hung around the hostel for the night.
The next morning we woke up and tanned out by the beach. It was about 85 degrees and sunny which was nice since i havn't seen the sun in Lima for a month now.
Around 1pm we went back to Ica and took the bus home to lima from there.
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