Semana Santa

Two weeks ago (Wow! has it really gone by that fast? crazy.) was Semana Santa. It proved to be distinctly different from the same week at home in the states...surprise, surprise. I had known it would be different ever since people started talking about the 12 platters of food they eat on Good Friday, without ever a mention of Easter.

Last Sunday I went to visit Luis in Juliaca. On my way through the chaos of the Sunday market, I noticed a steady stream of people holding elaborately woven palm fronds. They were almost more like decorative baskets with little religious pictures and stickers interspersed than any palm from I have previously seen. I assumed these fronds were acquired after attending Sunday mass, but later, as I was walking through the "center" (I don't think there really is a center of Juliaca) with Luis, this assumption was corrected. There was a whole street of vendors (mostly women as usual) selling and weaving the fronds! I was not really that surprised because (somewhat like Hallmark) every small holiday (Holy days especially) is seized as an opportunity to hawk their kitschy goods.

The week progressed with everyone talking excitedly about Viernes Santo (Good Friday) and all the platters they were going to eat. This included Fredy and Isidora (the mother of my new family) talking about different ways to cook chicken. Fredy insisted that he knows how to do rotisserie style, which led Isidora to think about lecherón (roasted suckling pig? I think?), which they don't eat because they're Adventistas del Séptimo Día who don't eat pigs because they're not ruminants. Anyway, all this talk of food was making me hungry.

On Wednesday I went over to the Cari Puma's to give Erica the pancake recipe that we had used to make some delicious flapjacks the other night. While there we talked for a little while about the coming festivities and she suggested, timidly excited, that we climb the cerro (mountain/hill) that extends from Chijnaya to Pucará and go to the Peñon. At first I was hesitant because I'd been warned repeatedly that the climb was long and arduous and that I might not make it. Then I decided that for heaven's sake it was Erica that was asking me, and how could I possibly turn her down? Plus climbing the cerro is a great tradition for Viernes Santo, and who am I to skip out on Peruvian traditions? So the next day I went back to tell her that I wanted to go. There in her house I was greeted enthusiastically with hugs from Erica and Ruthy, and pan, bananas, and a mandarin from Sra. Juana, her son-in-law, and Beatriz who looks well on the way to recovery from her mysterious and rather horrible illness of this past Christmas (she also told me she's feeling well). These unexpected family members had come to celebrate the pascuas in Chijnaya. The whole family soon had to leave to attend to the cows, and I went with Erica to help her with the sheep. I told her that I did indeed want to go to the Peñon, and she suggested that we also ask her cousin Eli (my ahijada from her baile promocional for graduating colegio) if she also wanted to go. Erica sent me off alone to ask Eli if she wanted to come, as she didn't want to go herself for fear that Eli would say no...thinking that I would have more success in convincing her to come. It turned out that Erica's fears were unnecessary. Eli enthusiastically agreed, and her mom informed me that Eli had been wondering who she was going to go with and had been hoping someone would ask her.

That night at 6.30 (when it had already gotten dark!) we set out, with Umberto in tow (he decided spontaneously that he rather quite wanted to go...despite warnings that he would be the only 10 year old there). He said he was going to come with us only "medio camino," but ended up coming the whole way. We mostly walked in darkness under the light of the stars, to avoid night blindnes from flashlights. We walked for maybe two miles on the road created by herding cows, then, at some seemingly random point, Eli and Erica decided to turn off the now rather rutted path to start the ascent of the cerro. We started climbing and I surprised myself by keeping up quite well with these mountain, cow-herding hardened 16 (and 10) year olds. While climbing a small group behind us (marked by a bobbing flashlight) kept whistling up to us. Umberto and I sent back silly whistles, but the two girls were surprising silent, besides some giggling. At the top of the cerrito (not the summit, by any means) that we were climbing, Eli and Erica decided that it was the right moment to hide from the coming group. Why exactly they found this necessary I don't know, but like I said, they're 16. Anyway, I didn't mind too much as I lay down and looked up to revel under the broad Andean sky filled with stars.

Once the other group had passed, we continued on, going really quite slowly, without a light, relying on the slowly rising moon that was still behind the cerro. Luckily, the way was littered with light colored rocks that substantially helped our foot placement decision-making. Dover, Erica's dog, bounded along in front of us, appearing and disappearing like a travioso mountain ghost. About 3/4 of the way up, two lights ahead of us stopped and shone down on us, blinding us off and on. With the lights came shouts of "Leah" in a voice that could only come from a young man named Uber who, for lack of a better term, is the town's self-assured punk. I actually quite like him besides all the bad rap he gets. Anyway, the group that we had hid from was now taking a rest and had decided to wait for us. When we caught up with them we found Uber in the company of Fidel (who I thought was Beto because of his sweater), his sister Rosemery, and Dina's brother Daniel. We continued up with them for a ways, but separated pretty quickly due to different paces and the fact that the two groups simply didn't gel. After passing a stand of trees that I thought was close to the top, we started going around the mountain. We ended up at the bottom of another little cerrito that finished at the highest point of the whole cerro: the Peñon overlooking Pucará and the flat valleys extending to Azangaro and Juliaca. On the way up I was informed that we had to tie 3 pieces of grass with our left hand before descending the Peñon. We left the path to try to do this and it was at this point, as I was bent over struggling with a single strand, that Milan and Fredy showed up.

With them we quickly summited to be greeted by a pile of rocks glowing with candles from inside little casitas people had made. The summit is topped with three crosses and lined by stone walls and, on some sides, by sheer cliff face. Milan and Fredy, who had summited 45 minutes faster than us, decided it was too windy and cold at the top, so went off in search of a different spot. They soon came back to fetch us and we followed them to a rather cozy nook where people in past years had made large(r) stone houses. We set to work making the casitas and soon our candles were glowing, and I was getting cold.

But the night was brillian, with a bright waning moon reflecting off the Rio Grande far below and casting shadows in the ravines running down the softly lit cerros in the distance. The Peñon was full of people, but in our nook we could hardly hear the noise. Only once we were distracted by a drunken teenager stumbling over Erica to fall into a shrub tree where he stayed for a good 15 minutes as we speculated as to whether he was dead or just passed out. I shared some big popped corn (different from popcorn, but kind of like kettle corn) with Milan, Fredy, and Umberto, while I wondered why Erica and Eli didn't join us. Milan and Fredy, though, just looked over at the girls, heads covered by a blanket and both looking into the candlelight of their little houses, and simply said that they're timid and probably don't want to talk with them. The girls looked pretty content just spending time with each other, heads covered against the cold wind of the Peñon and faces warmed by their candles. Finally, around 11.00 we made a fire out of rather green branches and hay, and kept ourselves occupied with it until it was about time to head down.

As we started down we lost Erica close to the top, when I stopped to take a picture (at the insistence of Fredy and Umberto) of a cool little candle house. Apparently, though, she had told Eli that she was going to head dow, so I only worried about her sporadically. We headed down quite fast, guided by the now very strong moonlight, and actually following a path around the mountain this time. When we had come we had slipped and slided down a slope through pointy and poky trees. At one point we were greeted by Dover alone, and we wondered where Erica had gotten off to. It turned out, as I found out two days later, that Erica had been waiting for us around there, but somehow we had passed her without even realizing! Well, we continued on with Dover, talking only now and then, as we skipped, slid, ran, and got punctured by spiky plants on the way down until we finally reached the cow road. While walking I noticed the inverted Big Dipper which I mentioned to Fredy and said we call it, translated into Spanish, "El Gran Cucharón." Apparently, as I found out the next night, they call it "Awan," in reference to the back-strap weaving common to the area. We finally got home at 2.00 at which point Umberto declared that he was practically drunk (on sleepiness) and stumbled into the house.

Viernes Santo itself turned out to be a bit of a bust. We only made a soup with papa lisa (a weird tuber thingy) and habas and potatoes, and then fried trout with rice and potatoes. Apparently there weren't enough dried cow pies to stoke the fire for more platters.

On Sunday I went to the worst Easter mass ever with a girl named Narby (who turns out to be the mayors daughter) in which people were walking up and down the aisles, talking on cell phones, and talking with their kids about what color sweater they like better. Also the priest couldn't seem to figure out how to work his microphone, so all we heard was "static. static. Jesus! static. static." Very illuminating. But then we went to an Easter party and had yummy soup and asado, so it was ok.

Well, my friend Sarah Charley from Bates is now here with me and we have been continuing with English classes in the colegio, and afternoon classes in Chijnaya. It's been great to have someone else here to help give me new ideas for classes, and for just some good old conversation! Yesterday we went to Juliaca to visit Luis and made some yummy brownies, some of which we saved for Fredy's birthday tonight! We're also planning on making some pizza in a fry-bake setup...wish us luck!

Until next time! Tupanachiskama!