Week 5
It’s been almost two weeks since my last entry, so I’m going to try to give a quick recap.
I survived my first major fiesta. I can’t say it was the time of my life… in fact it was fairly awkward, but definitely a worthwhile experience. Without going into a lot of detail, the annual fiestas are coordinated by a different person/family each year. They take care of all of the planning and also cook a number of meals for the entire neighborhood. I had already eaten around 7:00pm so I wasn’t really hungry, but I went with my host family to eat again. We each had an enormous bowl of some type of soup. I hesitate to ask what kind of meet is in it after I watched my host father eat the ear of a sheep a couple weeks ago. The actual fiesta didn’t really begin until 10 or 11pm. I spent most of the time standing with my host mother watching the band play. At about 1:45am I pulled onto the dance floor by some 60+ year old drunken woman. Fortunately the dancing was quite easy…so I didn’t stick out too badly(besides being the only giant white guy at the fiesta)
Probably the most exciting part of the fiesta was the pyrotechnics. First there we ‘toro locos’. They were bamboo framed bulls.. kind of like Chinese dragons…but strapped with homemade fireworks…. One lucky person put it on and chased after the crowd, spraying it with hot showers of sparks. Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous. Not something you’d find in the States! Also there were “castillos” which were tall (probably 20ft or so) bamboo structures which also had a bunch of spinning pyrotechnics. They were pretty interesting, and very loud. The fiesta went on all night, though I turned in around 2:30am. After a brief break in the morning, it resumed and carried on until the wee hours of the morning(Monday). These people love the party life.
Other than the party, the past couple weeks have not been extremely exciting. I have advanced to the level of Spanish needed to enter my site, however I’ve got a long way to go. I’ve got the basics down, but I haven’t quite memorized the 30,000 words in the dictionary. On Tuesday I returned to one of the local schools with fellow trainees to give a talk on planning for the future. I was really dreading having to present in Spanish, but it went rather well. Afterwards we spend a good 15 minutes signing autographs… We also gave another presentation on Thursday on business ethics. This one was a bit more difficult since it was much more involved and complicated.
This past Sunday I went with my family and an American friend to El Castillo de Chancay. It is a castle made in the 1800s (rather late for castle building huh?) It is about 1 ½ hr drive north of Lima. It was nice to get away for the day, and the castle was rather interesting. Probably the most memorable part of the day was the ride home. We decided to take the scenic route which follows the ocean. It was really pretty with cliffs dropping to the water. About 45 minutes into the drive we were pulled over by the police. Apparently small passenger cars are not permitted on the road…so the officer was going to give my host father a big fine….until we paid him off with a 15 soles bribe. I really didn’t have much to do with it… but I did help pay!
I am quite excited now, because we have a three day weekend!! Tomorrow is Peru’s day of independence. It also happens to be the inauguration of the new president, Alan García. It’s a pretty interesting scenario as he was presidend in the 80s and really ran the country into the ground. There was ridiculous hyperinflation… something like 1,000,000%. Apparently a lot of people are afraid of what might happen, although he is setting out to mend his reputation. So anyway, this is the first time that we have had two or more consecutive days of rest since we arrived 5 weeks ago. We are also very excited for next week because we will receive our site assignments. The following week we will be leaving for field based training and site visitation. Boy, time is flying by!!!
Also, there is a slight change in my mailing address:
PCT Ryan Nelson
Embajada Americana/Cuerpo de Paz
Calle Vía Láctea 132, Surco
Lima-Peru
South America
I survived my first major fiesta. I can’t say it was the time of my life… in fact it was fairly awkward, but definitely a worthwhile experience. Without going into a lot of detail, the annual fiestas are coordinated by a different person/family each year. They take care of all of the planning and also cook a number of meals for the entire neighborhood. I had already eaten around 7:00pm so I wasn’t really hungry, but I went with my host family to eat again. We each had an enormous bowl of some type of soup. I hesitate to ask what kind of meet is in it after I watched my host father eat the ear of a sheep a couple weeks ago. The actual fiesta didn’t really begin until 10 or 11pm. I spent most of the time standing with my host mother watching the band play. At about 1:45am I pulled onto the dance floor by some 60+ year old drunken woman. Fortunately the dancing was quite easy…so I didn’t stick out too badly(besides being the only giant white guy at the fiesta)
Probably the most exciting part of the fiesta was the pyrotechnics. First there we ‘toro locos’. They were bamboo framed bulls.. kind of like Chinese dragons…but strapped with homemade fireworks…. One lucky person put it on and chased after the crowd, spraying it with hot showers of sparks. Yeah, it was pretty ridiculous. Not something you’d find in the States! Also there were “castillos” which were tall (probably 20ft or so) bamboo structures which also had a bunch of spinning pyrotechnics. They were pretty interesting, and very loud. The fiesta went on all night, though I turned in around 2:30am. After a brief break in the morning, it resumed and carried on until the wee hours of the morning(Monday). These people love the party life.
Other than the party, the past couple weeks have not been extremely exciting. I have advanced to the level of Spanish needed to enter my site, however I’ve got a long way to go. I’ve got the basics down, but I haven’t quite memorized the 30,000 words in the dictionary. On Tuesday I returned to one of the local schools with fellow trainees to give a talk on planning for the future. I was really dreading having to present in Spanish, but it went rather well. Afterwards we spend a good 15 minutes signing autographs… We also gave another presentation on Thursday on business ethics. This one was a bit more difficult since it was much more involved and complicated.
This past Sunday I went with my family and an American friend to El Castillo de Chancay. It is a castle made in the 1800s (rather late for castle building huh?) It is about 1 ½ hr drive north of Lima. It was nice to get away for the day, and the castle was rather interesting. Probably the most memorable part of the day was the ride home. We decided to take the scenic route which follows the ocean. It was really pretty with cliffs dropping to the water. About 45 minutes into the drive we were pulled over by the police. Apparently small passenger cars are not permitted on the road…so the officer was going to give my host father a big fine….until we paid him off with a 15 soles bribe. I really didn’t have much to do with it… but I did help pay!
I am quite excited now, because we have a three day weekend!! Tomorrow is Peru’s day of independence. It also happens to be the inauguration of the new president, Alan García. It’s a pretty interesting scenario as he was presidend in the 80s and really ran the country into the ground. There was ridiculous hyperinflation… something like 1,000,000%. Apparently a lot of people are afraid of what might happen, although he is setting out to mend his reputation. So anyway, this is the first time that we have had two or more consecutive days of rest since we arrived 5 weeks ago. We are also very excited for next week because we will receive our site assignments. The following week we will be leaving for field based training and site visitation. Boy, time is flying by!!!
Also, there is a slight change in my mailing address:
PCT Ryan Nelson
Embajada Americana/Cuerpo de Paz
Calle Vía Láctea 132, Surco
Lima-Peru
South America
posted by Ryan Nelson | 3:10 PM
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