Central Market and Physical Contact

So, I owe you guys a couple of posts. I've been pretty wiped out with a sinus infection which devolved into a nasty cold, so I've been being lazy. Anyway, here we go!

On Friday, Mom and I set off on a little morning adventure to the central market downtown. We jumped on our bus, number 14. I had a seat for a block or so, but then a mom got on with her little child, so young and healthy (relatively) me jumped up because I'm good at standing! As the bus got stuffed full, I was quickly surrounded by people on all sides. Here, the bus doesn't really ever get "full." They can always fit more. So, you get to be real close to a lot of people. Here, that space bubble doesn't really exist. In the US, if someone is touching your arm on public transit, you scoot over a little, but here people are touching you all over and that's just how it is! (Probably didn't help with the whole sick thing I have going on). My arm got a little tingly from reaching up to the bar to hold onto, but other than that, no problem. We wiggled our way out at our stop and made our way to the main square! From there, we walked to the grocery store to buy me more cookies and then we went onto the central market. Here's a picture of me sitting outside of the market (I look grungy because I didn't feel good, so there)

The central market is generally less touristy than the artisan market that we went to last weekend. This place sells everything- produce, bread, meats, prepared food, clothes, shoes, fabric, and all of the good touristy scarves and key chains and woven things. It's pretty crazy. We got some bread for later, and then hung out in the touristy area, looking at all of the cool things. I really hate when people try to make me buy things, and even when I want to buy things, I hate having to haggle about the price. But, luckily, mom is good at it. So, we got a few fun things! Here's a picture of the market right when you walk in the front entrance

Then, back on the bus, on which we got seats for the whole time, and up to Carmen Alto! We made it to the school around noon, made a quick potato lunch, and then got ready for kidlets. Friday is fun day, so we did a cool art project where they all drew self-portraits with the theme of self-esteem. It was so fun watching them work, but they are so much more worried about drawing than are kids in the US! If you give a kid in the US some colored pencils and some paper, they will typically just draw (unless they were a weird perfectionist sort of kid like me, and then they hate to draw because it never looks like real life...). The kids here though are all perfectionists. With handwriting and drawing, they use the eraser more than they use their pencils! So, it took work to convince some of the little sweeties that we wanted to see their own work, not a perfect drawing. Poor kids, drawing shouldn't be stressful. Here's me trying to council a few kids into starting their drawings and not erasing each time...

After that, we played some, and I got mobbed by my new best friends (see below). At the end of the day, all of the kids are called up one-by-one, and they hug GeGe, get their sandwich and their fruit, and then we get goodbye kisses! Like a lot of the world, they do kiss hello and kiss goodbye here, so I get a good 50+ kisses a day. It's the best. Between that and the lack of physical bubble, I'm meeting my quota for physical contact. The US is bad at that. Being close to people is nice sometimes. Especially when they're as sweet as all of these little pumpkins!

Things to Eat!

So, there are a lot of great things to eat in Peru, and I really like to eat, so that works out really well for me. All kinds of potatoes and grains and fruits and drinks, and I am just happy. Here is one of my favorite things, granadilla in Spanish, passion fruit in English, and "monkey brains" for tourists in Latin America.











Then, we also have chirimoya, which is this really unassuming brown/green fruit, which opens up to be deliciousness. The inside is all sweet and white and the seeds are this perfect black. It's great. It reminds me a lot of guanabana in Costa Rica, but that fruit is much larger! Here's a picture of chirimoya.

We of course are also drinking coca tea, made from the same leaves that can be turned into cocaine, but the tea and candy made from the leaves are really common here. I find it to be a lot like green tea. It's supposed to help with the altitude, so I use that as an excuse to drink lots. The US doesn't let us bring it back, but I don't see why. It definitely isn't a high-producing sort of concoction.

I have also discovered two of the most wonderful beverages here! We finally opened that bottle of chicha, and it is delicious! The kind we got reminds me of grape juice, partly because it's purple, and then also because of the sweet, sticky, kind of taste. It's fantastic! Then, there is also Inca Kola, certainly an elixir of the gods. It is bright yellow and super sweet. Most foreigners don't like it, I guess, but I am a big fan. It kind of tastes like cream soda on steroids. 46 grams of sugar per serving. Delicious and probably diabetes inducing. Here's me with a big bottle! (And I like to think that I look a little less like I'm dying now! Yay!)

We also eat a lot of this pita bread stuff that I think I've mentioned before, called chapla. It is great for stuffing full of avocado (called palta here) and cucumbers and tomatoes and potatoes and rice, and really anything else that you have. I also eat it by itself. I'm a fan.

And! We also found cookies here that are vegan. So yummy. Some have quinoa or other grains, and some have nuts, and I just want to eat all of them. In fact, we need to get down into town soon to buy some more...

So, basically, life is good here. I think that I could probably live anywhere where I could be vegan and eat well, so Peru is working out just swimmingly!


Unrelated:

Here's a picture of my best friend dog, Jory.

And here's my beautiful shmom working on lesson plans!

School!

So, we have now completed two days of classes, and it has just been great! To fill in some gaps for those of you who don't know, this school program, Kids at the Crossroads, provides supplementary support in the afternoons for kids who may otherwise have no place to go. Instead of these kids being on the street and getting into trouble, they come to school here to get extra class time, homework help, have some playtime, and get a sandwich and some fruit. It's a pretty great program. GeGe is usually at about 100 kids at day, but the numbers are a little lower right now, around eighty, because the public school teachers are on strike here (for the third week!). So, some kids have gone out to the country to work on their family's property out there. The ages range from first graders to kids who are just starting secondary school. Here're are two of a set of three brothers. These two attend classes here, while the third (see below) just hangs out while their mom helps with the program. About the cutest set of boys ever.

Mom's main focus on this trip, in conjunction with GeGe's direction for the program, is to get these kids understanding math a little better. They can count and perform mathematical operations, but often they don't have a real feel for what a number means. Take the number 25- they can count to 25 and add numbers to make 25 or subtract from 25, but they probably can't tell you that 25 is made up of two sets of ten and a set of 5 or one set of 20 and a set of 5. Without a real comprehension of what a number represents, it's harder to get really comfortable with math and move onto more advanced concepts. So, we're trying to get them better at that! Here's a picture of the first graders using some fun manipulatives that we brought to explore the number 10.

With the older kids, we're doing work with math and work with independent thinking. Classes here are mostly "sit and get," as mom would say. The teacher lectures or tells the kids exactly what to do, and they do it. There isn't a lot of room for imagination or creativity. So, we're doing math activities that don't have one right answer, and asking the kids to find one of many answers. Like a story problem where three people bought 30 cookies and asking them how many cookies each person ate. It's really tempting to say 10 each, and that's one right answer, but who's to say that one person didn't eat all of the cookies, or that it wasn't split 5, 5, 20. This is really hard for the kids to process. Another activity we tried yesterday was having the kids finish a story after we read them half of it. It took a really long time for them to figure out that they could write whatever they wanted, and a lot of them didn't like that. In the US, most kids would take off with that kind of activity because making up your own ending is fun, but school is so much more serious here, and having a wrong answer brings consequences, so kids don't know how to experiment and work outside of the box. It's hard watching them struggle, but making them think about things a little differently is great. (Here's an unrelated picture of the youngest two of the set of brothers with a puppy.)

Now, just a little plug, GeGe has devoted her whole life to this project, giving everything that she has to these kids. She's the teacher, nurse, confidante, protector, and provider for this whole community. Basically, she's a superhero. And any little bit of money helps to keep things going here. I'm a poor college student, and I still make a monthly donation because I think that this project is just that great. Here's the link if you're interested in giving a donation http://kids-at-the-crossroads.org/donations.html  And here's super-GeGe bandaging up one of the kids.

Our Day without Electricity

So, I was reminded yesterday morning that in Ayacucho they periodically turn off electricity, usually on Sundays, in order to do maintenance or something. So, we woke up to no power yesterday! Luckily, There is a lot of natural light in all of the rooms at the house, and there was still hot water in the tank, so I did not suffer at all. In fact, it was a pretty great day!

We kept our original plan of heading to an artisan market down in the center of the city. To get there, we rode the bus. My first time doing so here! There are two buses that go from Carmen Alto (our neighborhood) down to the center. One of them has nice buses, but the drivers are also under a lot of pressure to go fast, and that results in some pretty dangerous driving that has resulted in some casualties. So, we take the other bus, which is not so pretty, but I sure prefer it if it means being safer! Going down, the bus wasn't too crowded and we got seats, so that was really nice. Then we hopped off right near the market and went shopping! This market is in an old prison building, but I don't know that I would have guessed that just seeing it. Here's the front

This place is also pretty touristy- definitely catering to foreigners. Lots of woven stuff and trinkety key chains, pretty cool overall. But, a bunch of the stalls were closed because there wasn't power and there aren't really windows inside the building. Still, what was there was fun, and we visited a jewelry maker with whom mom had made friends last summer. She basically bought a bajillion pairs of earrings from him, so they got to know each other well. He recognized her and was super nice to us, giving us lots of deals and making me a wish bracelet for free! And some of you know how much I like wish bracelets... Here's a picture of the three of us

Notice the whiteness of my skin- the anemia is being mad at me. Anyway, that was really fun, then we left the market, and there's this cute little plaza in front of it! The statue is, according to GeGe, the lover of somebody who did something important in the revolution. I'll need to wiki it or something to get more details because the info plaque was missing. (Also, sorry about the cars, they wouldn't stop)

Then, we walked towards the central plaza just because. There, the streets were actually closed to cars, which was nice! We went into the grocery store since we were right there, and mom wanted to find some chicha, which is a drink made from purple corn. We bought a big bottle, but we still haven't opened it yet... In the grocery store, you may think that a lack of electricity would be a big problem. Our stores would probably be closed. But, they're pretty accustomed to it here and so there were still a bunch of people shopping, with candles lighting up the darker rooms.

Then, after not too much longer, we caught the bus back up. But! This time, it was much more crowded. At first, neither mom nor I had a seat, then mom had a seat for a little while, but then a woman got on with four kids, including a baby on her back, so mom of course gave up her seat. They just kept putting more and more people on! It was quite the experience! I liked it though. Better than Madrid public transport when it's crowded just because people aren't mean here. Anyway, we got off at our stop and walked back to the house, where we freshened up really quick before lunch.

For lunch, we walked up to the Mirador because they have a bunch of food and activity going on up there on Sundays. We were in search of Puca Picante, which is a festival sort of food that they have on Sundays a lot of places. It's made of potatoes stewed in a saucy mixture which consists of beets, peanuts, onions, garlic, and other spices, and it's served with rice. Mom had it last summer and loved it, so I have been waiting many months to try it for myself. And! It was everything that I had hoped and dreamed. So yummy. I could probably eat it every day forever and not get tired of it. I'm definitely going to have to learn how to make it at home. Here's a picture of my anemic self getting ready to indulge in the heavenly puca.

We ate at this row of tents with tables, where the "moms" cook. It's a bunch of ladies working over their fires, cooking chicharrones (pork stuff) and puca mostly (I think). Supposedly, it's the best place to go because these ladies really know how to cook good, authentic puca. I would certainly believe that after trying their food, although I don't know much about authenticity!

After that, we wandered around the Mirador for a bit and then headed back home. I took a little nap and an iron pill, and when I woke up it was getting pretty dark out. Still no electricity, so we pulled out the flashlights and ventured downstairs, where everyone was hanging out outside, just chatting. After awhile of that, we headed up to our respective living spaces, with us in GeGe's kitchen. We set up a bunch of candles and lights, and then the power came back on. Right as I was about to send a facebook message, out again. Mean electricity people, just playing with our feelings. After another few minutes, it was back on for good and has stayed that way! Yay!

So far today, we've just been cooking up some lentil soup (after some carrot and potato peeling), drinking Coca tea (which is really just a lot like green tea), and anticipating the arrival of those children this afternoon!

No Electricity!

The power was out almost all day today, makingg blog writing difficult, so we had some fun adventures, but I'm going to be lazy and not write about them until tomorrow morning. Right now, I will rejoice in the light and internet which have been returned to us!

Day 1.5

So, yesterday we moved into our very spacious and cute room (which is really hard to take a picture of due to angling, so sorry about that, and sorry about the mess too, moving in is a process, ya know). My bed is the far one! The room gets really chilly, but the bed and some thick socks have been doing a good job of keeping me warm at night!

And here's a picture of the backyard

The house is three stories, with the school on the bottom, GeGe and school on the second floor, and the family whose house it is on the third floor and another little upper area. Our room is on the third floor, and we even have our own bathroom! So great!

Anyway, yesterday, we took some naps, and then we got ready for school! The teachers got there, so I got to meet them, and then the kids all got there! They are pretty darn adorable. First and second grade had class first, so we observed those classes. Then, there was movie time because Friday is a fun day, and that was neat watching the kids watch the movie. After that, the kids got their snacks and headed home. We hung out for awhile longer with the teachers and staff, and they're all really cool people. Then, they left; we ate a quick snacky dinner; and we headed to get some much-needed sleep!

This morning, we woke up around nine, which felt like lots of sleep. We had some beautifully hot showers, and ate a little breakfast, and then we went to the market! On the way, we ran into GeGe, who was hanging out with some neighborhood kids on a quest for bread. So, she was able to join us on our little adventure! We stocked up on produce and bread and lentils and potatoes (!) and then walked back up the little hill home.

We spent a few hours there, during which we had a yummy lunch of pita bread type stuff that is typical here all filled up with cucumbers and avocados, and then, right as we were about to leave, a woman who works at the school and was friends with my mom last summer showed up with her adorable, chubsy little baby! Such a sweetie. Anyway, after they chatted for awhile, we set out to the mirador- a neat lookout point over all of Ayacucho that is right by our house!

And here's me and mom right in front of it! (It was windy, hence her hair in my face)

Then, we started the trek down to the center! So many stairs! But it was really neat getting to see some of the city.

Once we got to the bottom, we wandered around the central plaza area for awhile, glancing in the different shops and stopping by to visit a few of GeGe's friends. The plaza itself is beautiful, with a little park, and a statue of Sucre (the general during the battle of Ayacucho that determined the independence of Latin America- according to my understanding anyway, you may wanna fact check on that), and the view of all of the buildings up in the hills is great! You can even see the mirador up on the hill from whence we had come (but not in this picture because I didn't take a good one of that... my bad)

Then, we went to this nice restaurant where all of the tourists hang out, just for fun, and we met up with another American who works here and is friends with my mom and GeGe. This young lady, Amanda, works with the women in the prison here to teach them how to make jewelry so that they can earn a living and support themselves. It's a pretty incredible project! Dinner was good. They had a vegan noodle and vegetable dish, so that made me pretty glad! Then, we went to the grocery store down the street to grab some stuff that we can't buy at the store and market up here. Luckily, we didn't have to walk back up, and we caught a taxi right to our front door. It was a pretty great day overall. I'm a big fan of Ayacucho thus far!

We Made It!

So, the rest of the trip wasn't actually so interesting. We were off of the ground in Houston before nine, then I slept a lot, then we got to Lima a little before 3am. They didn't have an immigration forms to give us on the plane, so we had to fill them out in line, and little mom couldn't read the small writing, so that was a little crazy trying to get that done. Still, we were one of the first groups to get to the baggage claim, but our luggage didn't come out for about a year. Then, we went through customs, checked our bags, went through security, and hustled to our gate. We were still super on time! They started loading us into our little tram around five, and then they made us stand there for awhile. Then, we drove over to our very last plane! It was a short flight, during which we watched the sun rise over the Andes and I tried to sleep instead of watching the sun rise over the Andes. Forty minutes later, we landed in Ayacucho, where it was quite chilly so early in the day. Mom found us a taxi who eventually got us where we needed to go. Just based on that little tour, I'm a fan of the town. The buildings are mostly quaint little brick contraptions, the people are beautiful, and there are dogs all over the place. We're staying in the house where the school is also located, which is super convenient and really nice. Our room is spacious and beautiful, and I tried out the bed for a few hours- super comfy and warm! Gege, our friend and the one behind the school program, has been playing hostess, showing us around the complex and getting us some hot tea first thing in the morning. Things are going well! I'll post pictures soon, when I'm being less of a lazy. For now, I'm just working on staying awake!