Festina Lente

Lots to catch up on over the last couple of days, but first a hearty thanks to my parents, grandparents, and Kitty Kat for the letters, postcards, and candy. I can’t express how much it brightens my days to get your mail – so I’d like to send a million virtual thank yous.

Had a long weekend here as Friday was a holiday. On Thursday night the US played Argentina in the Copa Americana and lost big time. A big group gathered at my house to watch the game which was a blast, except for the actual game which was a disaster:

There is me wearing my red, white, and blue, though it didn’t help much.

After the game we headed out to a party in my neighborhood where there was lots of dancing and some drinking. They have this thing called a vaca loca or, crazy cow, and it basically entails a person putting on a box constructed out of wood that has a cow’s face on it. Then they light it on fire and all these sparklers and fireworks go off, and the crazy person inside runs around. This drives the dogs insane – so if you can, try to picture human legs with a big cows head on top, fireworks everywhere, running around with dogs alternatively chasing it and then running away barking the whole time. It was a really good time and most of the Peace Corps 9 gang made it over to my ‘hood for the party. Didn’t get much sleep and then spent five hours playing bingo on Friday at my niece’s school. Not my real niece – obviously. The nice thing about bingo is you don’t have to speak spanish very well to play. The not nice thing is that it is not so easy to win at bingo.

Saturday got up early to head into Lima with the group. On Saturdays from 8-1 we have classes at La Agraria which is the agriculture school at the University of Lima. I didn’t know too much about this when I left for Peru, but I have to say, this might be the thing I’m most excited about with training. We are learning all about farming, maintaining a garden, how to go organic or conventional, and a bunch of other stuff about plants and herbs. It was so fun to get down and dirty in the garden and I planted some parsley and some spinach so I’ll let you know how that turns out next week. By the way – my favorite thing that doesn’t involve training might be handwashing my clothes. I am hooked on it; I put on some good tunes and wash the afternoon away. It is such a nice time to relax and to think – or to just let your mind wander. Call me crazy, but I think we’d all be a little happier without washing machines.

So I broke one of the gastronomical rules Saturday afternoon and ate a salad at la Agraria. So far so good stomach-wise (I’m writing this Sunday night), but it might have been worth it even if I had gotten sick; I couldn’t resist all those yummy organic veggies.

Anyways, Saturday night I went with my brother Alfredo to a baby shower. Baby showers in Peru are a little different than they are in the US, but they are also called baby showers, believe it or not (or, rather, baybee chow-wer). There were probably 50 people at this one, and everyone sat around in a big room and there was a show with some clowns. The father-to-be had to act out childbirth which was interesting, and they came around with some tasty finger foods. So it was not a bunch of ladies sitting around a living room gawking over PJs with footies (not that there is anything wrong with that). The *most* interesting thing about this baby shower was that the couple (unmarried) was 18 and 20 (father, mother respectively). Alfredo is turning 21 in a few months and already has several friends with babies. I have zero from college/high school. I couldn’t get over how young these people were and that they were about to have a child. Abortion is illegal in Peru, but contraceptives are available as well as condoms. I’m fascinated by the safe sex (or lack thereof) practices here; SO MANY young girls already have babies, and families are so much bigger than they are in the US. It is normal, par for the course, and so easily accepted. It is not my place whether to say it is right or wrong, and even if I wanted to, I’d have to think about it a lot more. For me, it is just so different than what I grew up around and is a huge cultural leap.

Went out dancing with Alfredo and his friends after the baybeechower and made it home pretty late (2:30ish). Then I got my ass up at 6:30 this morning to go on a hike which I’ll detail in another entry because this one is already too long, and I am already behind on my sleep.