sugar cane and wild horses

I’m getting close to having spent 6 months here in Peru, and almost 3 months in my own town that will be my home for 21 more months. Now that I am getting into a routine and understand how things work more and more, I feel like the days fly by in a flash! All my friends in my town told me I would be leaving before I know it, and now I am starting to believe them!



But with routine also has come the feeling that things don’t surprise me anymore. I try to remind myself how little things in my life here used to shock me and make me laugh on a daily basis, but now are just things that happen. But, for example, it is still so amazing to go for a run and have a pack of wild horses walk by, grazing in the newly growing grass that has sprouted seemingly from no where. However, I still feel lucky because everyday brings little surprises. Yesterday for instance, I went to the river with a couple local kids and we played tag in the water for a while, followed by them inviting me to eating pure sugar cane for the first time in my life. I had never even seen sugar cane, let alone eaten it. It tastes like... sugar! But its cool because you suck the sweetness from a plant and it somehow doesn´t seem like eating white processes sugar. I guess it really is ¨pure¨ meaning that it is unstripped of all the nutrients from the plant. Cool stuff! I also have started a new tradition of going to my best friends league soccer games in the main town on Sundays. I get to go to a stadium and watch them play and its really fun and full of people from my town watching. Even better is that his Mom is a lot like my Mom and just sits on the bleachers yelling at every play! It´s a lot of fun and reminds me of home... except now I am watching and not playing!



A few things that have changed in my life lately, for example, it is no longer avocado season… making me very sad at breakfast time when I no longer have my source of green. Luckily, the field is still sprouting bananas, mangos, limes, coconuts, and a fruit called mamai that I had never seen before and don´t know what it is in English. Also, my dog is growing everyday! I went away for the weekend for a meeting with other volunteers and when I came back he had grown considerably! Him growing means he is getting stronger and now follows me around town and everyone knows he is my dog. A lot of people ask me to give him to them because he is so pretty and healthy looking. But I tell them I cant because he is my love and I cant part with him. I have also started learning how to cook. The other day I had a cooking lesson from a local friend on how to make “papa rellena” which is a little bit like fried mashed potato balls. She sells them every night while the local boys play soccer and they are delicious and I was honored to get cooking lessons from her and to spend time with her family. I also learned from my host sister how to make chifles, or fried bananas. It is actually as easy as it sounds, but I didn’t know you needed a special kind of banana! While I know how to cook and have cooked for myself for years, cooking here is a whole different adventure because it is with firewood and without running water. Everything is just a tiny bit more complicated so I am taking my time learning to make local food. Hopefully when I come home to visit I will shock and awe all of you with the wonders of Peruvian food.



In terms of weather, the rain still hasn’t hit us hard yet. I heard it will be crazy in March, so I will fill you in then if I am able to leave town of course! What we do have is lots of clouds and humidity. Humidity like you wouldn’t believe. I feel like I sweat 24 hours a day, even while I’m sleeping. When it actually does rain it feels sooooo nice because it cools down a little and I stop sweating for a very short while. The humidity and little bit of rain has also brought us mosquitos and I find myself constantly coating myself in bug spray in the afternoons to save my poor arms and legs.



Finally, to keep my email relatively interesting, this time I have decided to write a list lifestyle things I have adopted in order to fit in to my Peruvian community:

-I can carry my big bucket for my clothes on my head when I walk to and from the river on laundry days.

-I listen to cumbia music ALL the time… even when I can listen to my own music I sprinkle in my own cumbia. (There is a song named after me about an English teacher call ‘Carito’ by Carlos Vives if anyone is interested…)

-I talk about the weather several times a day (a VERY common conversation filler)

-I go to the chacras (fields) with my host siblings to hunt for fruit from the trees

-I sweep my dirt floor

-I let people abuse and pick on my dog

-I eat lots of shaved ice and ceviche (a fish dish famous in Peru) from people in my town that sell it to support local stuff and because it is delicious!

-I sometimes spend over an hour “bathing” in the river just to play with kids or be social with the local women

-I describe people in a much more physical way, using words like fat, skinny, tall, short, dark, light, etc. It is very normal here to describe someone as fat or skinny, and I am told all the time that I am “engordando” or getting fatter, in a very loving and sincere way.

-Speaking of engordando… I eat plates of rice and cooked fish, onions and tomatoes for breakfast.



I plan on making a photo diary of a week or my meals here in Peru sometime soon to share with all of you. My food is sometimes shocking, sometimes delicious, sometimes overwhelming, and sometimes boring. But I will share food stories for the next email! In the mean time, if anyone every feels like sending me snacks, in particular cliff bars, from the US… I would be forever grateful!