Sunday Markets

As I may or may not have explained, I am living in a district kind of what you might call “suburb” town that is governed under the main town, where there is internet, restaurants and running water! Therefore, the main town is what is referred most commonly as “El Pueblo” and on Sunday’s it is a hoping place! Everyone comes into town from all the surrounding towns like mine in tons of motos and a million little stands and street venders appear from seemingly no where. It is a completely different place then on weekdays. Everything is a little cheaper and haggling is constant. Not to mention how many people you run into! It is a very social day, and I am always entertained by the countless young boys and girls strutting around in the central park (a tiny like “park” of cement and benches and few trees) in their best outfits trying to impress each other and eating 50 cent jello, ice cream or sodas. It is really fun, but also overwhelming to go to town on Sundays. For me, it has become a bonding experience for my oldest host sister, Fanny, and I. We have started going together to shop, walk around, socialize with our friends and famiy and eventually attend a soccer game in the stadium to watch one of our friends play with a big fancy team! These league teams apparently even pay their players a little, and one of my community friends was recruited to play for them so we go out to support him, along with a handful of other people from my town, on Sundays and enjoy a good game of soccer… usually with some 50 cent ice creams too.


Other then Sundays, my days can vary greatly depending on what is going on. I have found out that everything is very last minute, or at least seems that way for me. We will suddenly be heading to the river to wash clothes, or play. So maybe someone will come over and invite me to go hunt for firewood in the hills or go on a fishing adventure. The days are full of a lot of free time for me. I read, write, chat with my host siblings and pretty much wait around for the afternoons when everyone comes home from work and has free time and the heat finally dies down a TINY bit. The afternoons and evenings are full of adventure… if you can call what I do an adventure. For example, this week I spontaneously invited myself to the school with my host Dad and ended up helping all the parents in town sweep, clean desks and chairs, and just generally tidy up the school grounds for a few hours. Afterwards, I was invited by one of my good friends sisters to go “bath” with her, which I took as an honor because it means she wants to spend time with me. Another day, heading down to watch the evening soccer games, I joined in with a bunch of kids playing their own game, girls versus boys. The girls ended up cleaning up with very little help from me! I love that my community is conducive to female soccer playing while so many other communities restrict female sport playing to volleyball. And yet another night I went over to say hi to a friend and neighbor that owns a little shop and farmacy and ended up helping her package up a bunch of candies, listening to music and joking around for a while. I know I have probably mentioned this several times in other emails, but not having electricity really changes social connections because there is just nothing to do but spend time together and joke around. If there is one thing I love almost above all else about the Peruvians I have met and known it is their almost constant upbeat attitude. I feel like whoever I am with is always laughing, joking around or picking on me in general.



Which leads to the other daily adventure for me. Local women LOVE playing matchmaker for me and or telling me how much fatter I am. A regular day will consist of at LEAST one person telling me that I will marry someone from our town and never leave, and/or lovingly proclaiming that I am much fatter then when I arrived. Usually something like “you were SO skinny when you got here and look at you now!” while pinching my arm flab and generally making me feel like a spectacle. The worst is when these comments are combined and then proclaimed to one of my “eligible bachelors” who then have to awkwardly tell me that I am indeed nice and fat and try to get out of the situation. It makes for some very entertaining interactions.



The final notable thing is that mango season has come to an end in terms of having enough work for my family and friends. Which is both a blessing and a curse because a lot of the youth are now out of work and have to wait for the next seasonal job, but means that my friends are back to visiting me! Last night I finally got a long overdue visit from several of my host brother’s friends just to chat with me! It was a great evening of joking around with them and sending ourselves saludos (shoutouts) over the radio and playing with music and cell phones. I still have not gotten over how cell phone crazed people are in my electricity-less, super poor town. They play with them constantly and almost all of them have songs, photos, videos, etc to share and pass around. But mostly, I am just hoping that while my friends are jobless, it will mean a lot more social time and card playing in my life!

Thank you all again for your love and support, keep me updated! Abrazos para todos!