peru: a backwards country.

each week i have the same problem: how do i even begin to explain to all my loved ones the many events that i have encountered in the short 7 days from the last time i wrote? this week it is going to be particularily hard, because i feel like as the time goes on, the pace picks up. more things are done in the day, i become acquianted with people better than before. it's hard to keep up with myself.

but i shall attempt to begin.

peru: it continues to be a place of bewilderment, amusement, enchantment, and my heart grows fonder each day. such strange things happen in peru: sercurity guards tell you you can't jump on the park trampolines past 10 or they'll lose their job, yet they light up a joint as they're speaking to you. uncles get pulled over for speeding, he hands the cop a 20, nothing more is said. apparently massive ponds lined with stones count as swimming pools here... quite nice, resort style ones even, without the chlorine of course. people sell porn on the side walks. people wail for glass as their living. it's normal for people to sit on top of an open semi hauling bottles upon bottes of coca-cola, nevermind the fact that the traffic is ludicrious here, tossing and turning from one way to the other, never knowing which way a car may decide to go. children line the streets with candy, begging you to buy with their beautiful eyes. oh peru. it's so fascinating, strange, and lovely. a mix of hot and cold.

as far as what i do here in this massive city, i'll attempt to summarize.

someday last week, i believe it was thursday, we had dance lessons. that was quite enjoyable. there is a goshen blog about it if you care to read a bit more. friday, after school, a large group of us went to the beach. it was quite delightful as well, and we had a grand ol' time. again, much more happened than that, but i'm giving the brief synopsis of all.

after the beach trip, sara and i went back to my place where we met up with my cousin carlos and his surfer friend. after showers, all four of us went to a place called "circuito magico del agua" also known as, "the magic circuit of water." we had a good chuckle about the name, but overall, it truly was a magic circuit of water! there were fountains upon fountains with different pulses and colors shooting up. people were allowed to go in them and get surprise attacks. it was all such a grand adventure of water. and quite strange. i've never seen anything like it in the states.

and that is why peru is so backwards. they spend a billion dollars on a magical circuit of lighted water, yet about 75% of their nation are in poverty. where is the sense in that? no one knows. i've really been enjoying my classes on the current issues of peru. i honestly feel as if i'm better aquainted with all the ins and outs of peru than i am with even the united states! i've been receiving extensive knowledge on it all, which i would love to share with you, but perhaps we should have that conversation in april when i am home.

to continue on... after the magical circuit of water, we wondered about a few other places and ended up in my park of trampolines, where we drank a few beers and attempted to talk the security guards into letting us jump on the trampolines. but apparently they're off limits after 10 pm, and if their supervisor saw us on them, the guards would be fired. but apparently it didn't matter if they would smoke pot on the job, because as they were telling us "no," they were busy lighting up a joint. again: how backwards peru is.

saturday: we all piled in a bus at 7:30 in the morning, and headed down 2 hours south along the pacific ocean to a small city called chincha. the scenary on the way was fascinating. it was the first time i had been out of the city of lima, and the first time i really realized we sure are stuck in the middle of a desert. on one side was the pacific ocean, spreading out for miles and miles with it's salty, fishy water smell wafting in with the breeze through out open bus windows. and on the other side were dunes upon dunes of sand, piling on top of each other in interesting formations, occasionally words scrawled across them claiming love to a person, or perhaps pointing the direction to a town, or even a political statement every now and then. it was dry, colorless, yet beautiful. i fell in love with a desert, and that is one thing i never expected to happen.

in chincha, we went to a hacienda. it was gorgeous and green and smelled of unpoluted air. we went to a restaurant where i had sopa seca, the traditional food of chincha. and then we saw a peruvian-african dance group who were amazing, beautiful, and powerful. i won't go into too many details, because eventually the goshen blog will provide those for you, with pictures as well.

saturday was also the national pisco sour day. yes, peru has a national day celebrating their national drink. therefore, all the towns along the coast had celebrations in their squares with many booths set up selling pisco sours, 2 for 10 soles (quite the deal). and lima itself was the most bustling i have seen it so far, with crazy people out everywhere. so you can imagine what the majority of our sst group did saturday night...

onto sunday. i went to church and of course, afterwards, my church friends had all sorts of plans for me. this time gisela invited me to her house, which i had never been to, and which was a ways away from the church but still in a shanty town. so off i went to her (as she called it) "makeshift home." most of the shanty houses are makeshirt, for they basically built them with nothing, and as they aquired items, they slowly began to build some sort of home. her family was wonderful and fed me ceviche and other yummy peruvian dishes. they also talked quite slowly for me and we had a great conversation in spanish, with gisela only helping out when i was attempting to explain what exactly a Mennonite is. they complimented me on my spanish and said it was quite good. i told them they were quite wrong and the only reason it was good was beacuse i was discussing things i discuss with every peruvian i have met here (ie. what i study, where i am from, what i think of peru, what i like and don't like, hobbies. the easy stuff.). but i will admit the conversation made me feel more confident.

but that was about the only time that happened all day. the rest of the time i was extremely frustrated and at points wanted to cry. i was with gisela and 3 other guys from the church. the 3 guys are all lovely peruvians, but they want to talk to me all the time, and all at the same time. and gisela really doesn't like translating so i try not to ask her to do that. i basically became extremely frustrated with having 4 people attempting to talk to me at the same time and finally told gisela she had to tell them i needed a break and they had to talk to me individually if they wanted to talk to me. it turned out... okay.

they took me to a "pool." i write it like that because it was more of a mini jungle, with trees and horses all about, and crazy jungle-jim creations for children (or in our case, 20 year olds), to play on. and then the piscina (pool), was humungous, but not a pool at all. more like a stone pond, with the pond looking water and all! it was fun though, and even though i had to buy a swim suit just for the event, because of course i didn't have my suit at church (it was only 10 dollars, don't worry), i still had a grand time.

monday. yesterday. i went to the peruvian art museum, which was beautiful and had all peruvian artwork. i fell in love, of course, because i do love good art which there was plenty of. then sara and i went to a massive market called "apolos azueles", or something similar to that. this market was bigger than any i have seen so far, and had anything you could possibly want. but we were getting horrendously ripped off, so we decided to go on a search for my cousin carlos, so he could go with us and help us out in the whole "gringas getting ripped off" department. the rest of the night consisted of me hanging out with sara on the roof (we never did find carlos at that point of time), me doing homework, going to the center of lima with carlos and his childhood friend, and then chit chatting on the steps of my apartment building until the late hours of the night.

i do quite enjoy this whole knowing peruvians, yet peruvians who can also speak english, thing. it's really quite ideal and i feel like i am being completely spoiled. yet, i think it helps my spanish. today in class my profesora said i did a wonderful job speaking, so that pleased me because i often feel so helpless here.

there you have it. the extremely CONDENSED version of my life. again, i shall try to update sooner, but there are no promises because sometimes it just doesn't work out.

i miss and love you all. and as always, appreciate knowing how your lives are as well. i hope your noses don't freeze off in the cold, midwestern weather. and if you don't live in the midwest, then lucky you. i hope your weather is treating you nicely. mine certainly is... and i must admit, i have a pretty nice tan.