So fiestas...yeah. Well now that I finally have time to write about them, I'm looking back and thinking that they all just kind of blur into a large fiesta of tomando Brahma from tiny plastic cups, and doing a whole lot of dancing to mostly huayno and the occasional cumbia. There are a few moments that stick out though:

-During the baile promocional (or graduation dance) for the colegio I was the madrina (again!...they seem to use madrinas and padrinos for every big event...but don't worry, I didn't spend much money on it at all...i just gave her photos of it afterward!) for my sixteen year old neighbor Elizabeth, or Eli. She's a great girl who hangs out with us a lot in the evenings playing with Chico and bantering with Beto and Richard. Anyway, during that baile promocional we came into our first contact with the "Circle dance." This is a very intricate and complicated dance in which the participants shuffle around in vague huayno steps while passing and chugging cervezita. Occasionally people get crazy and spin their partner around or something, but that's only de vez en cuando. Mostly it just reminded Maren of a lame middle school mixer with beer.

-On the monday before New Year's we went to a Corrida de Toros...a bullfight. We skipped the one on Sunday because it was a Corrida de Muerto in which the bull is killed (and then eaten afterward), but for some reason we just really didn't feel the need to see that. Anyway, the corrida that we did see was pretty fun, although we sat there waiting for about an hour and a half and I got severly burned. The bulls run around, sometimes try to escape by attempting to hurtle the walls of the arena, men in schmancy suits with red or purple flags/caps antagonize the bull, and when it gets tired men try to lasooe it then pull it out of the arena (which usually takes at least 3 men).

-On New Year's Eve and New Year's Day I attended to Corte de Pelo ceremonies for the youngest children of Paula's sisters, Dionisia and Luzmila. The first was for Dionisia's baby girl, Nayeli (I think that's how it's spelled) and the second was for Luzmila's son Chano. The basic concept is that the baby is sat out on a sheet, the guests line up, choose three intact coca leaves and with them wish good things for the child, put the coca leaves in wine (?), and then the first madrina makes and "pays" for the first cut of hair. The payment is money (for wealthier families it can get into the thousands), toys, or promises of goodies to come. From then on the hair is "sold" to following padrinos and madrinas (usually all of the guests). It seems like there are generally two rounds of haircutting, and in between the rounds there is more dancing and drinking. It's quite a feast. Chano's Corte de Pelo was preceded by his baptism, so the party was larger, with an "orchestra" (really just a band) and everything!

Well, those were the most exciting fiesta time occurences. Next time maybe I'll actually bring myself up to date (about last weekend for example!)

Writing From Bolivia

For a post-New Year's/Christmas vacation (and rest from the ridiculous amount of fiestas in Chijnaya and Pucará) Maren, Daphne, and I decided to venture across the border to the strangely alluring country of Bolivia. So that's where I am now! Writing to you all from the Loki hostel after a day of wonderfully cheap and thrillingly adventurous mountain biking! La Paz (and Bolivia in general) is an unfortunately nerve-wracking place because of all the police around who are supposed to be really corrupt and all the rateros (pickpockets) that are rumored to be around. So far so good, though...knock on wood. Besides that, though, the countryside is beautiful, the city is less touristy than Cusco with just as much good food (went to a great Indian place yesterday!) and great deals on anything you could possibly want! For example, I bought a pair of incredible chrome blue (i'm not sure if that is a possible color combination) spandex shorts for 15 Bolivianos, or about 2 bucks. I was psyched. Anyway, the city is huge and is nestled in a steep valley whose hillsides are covered with houses and other buildings. At night the hills look alive with dying embers---all the streets have streetlights of about the same wattage.

But I feel like I'm getting ahead of myself. So much has happened in Peru between now and my last post! So many fiestas! And all so different! It boggles my mind. Here's how the days unfolded:

12/23: The day of Leidi's graduation from elementary school party. After waiting the customary hora peruana (meaning that everything starts at least an hour after it's supposed to), we were fed a huge bowl of soup, asado de alpaca (i'm really not sure of how to describe this dish...), and then wafer cookies with champagne. Then they had a simple but very nice ceremony in which the students and their padrinos (me included) stood up and were presented to the guests. The kids all looked quite smart in their party clothes...especially Leidi who was wearing a sparkly green dress and sparkly heels that were just about as nice, if not nicer, than my prom dress! Then each student received a diploma, a medal, and a gift. A few "inspiring" speeches were given, as well as a tearful thank you and goodbye from the professor. Then, best of all, the music started and all the students were encouraged/forced to stand up and dance for us! The all stood in a circle dancing and took turns dancing in the center of the circle either alone or with a partner that was embarrassingly pushed toward them. I was quite impressed that none of them died of embarrassment and on top of that managed to dance decently well (especially Leidi!). Finally the grown-ups decided it was time to start drinking more seriously (beer had been passed around the whole time) and that it was their turn to dance. Some grabbed a student (or vice versa) and started dancing with just students. This quickly, though, turned into just adults dancing with adults while the kids escaped outside to play. Maren, Daphne, and I all were dragged to the dance floor and I was lucky enough to be the main event for a good 4 minutes---One of the parents of a boy from the colegio (and also a good friend of the family) decided it would be a fantastic idea to drag me, the poor blonde gringa wearing Daphne's red flamenco skirt, out to the center of the room and have what almost felt like a dance off...except that he would lead me and I would follow, "copying" him, though it was more like we were trying to one-up each other. It was really actually very fun despite the potential for mortification. By the end of the night most of the kids had disappeared, most of the adults were chock full of revelry, and it was raining so hard there were genuine rivers in the middle of most of the streets. At the end of the night it seemed like all I had taken away from the party were soggy feet and an unfortunately drunk neighbor to walk home...but looking back I not only got to show-off my fantabulous dancing skills, but I also had great conversations with Zenovia (Leidi's mother), as well as gaining an ahijada! Pretty cool.

And that was only the first night of the fiestas! They pretty much continued straight through New Year's Day!

12/24: I will write the rest soon! Unfortunately everything else I wrote got erased!

But for your personal enjoyment, take a look at some huayno videos for a taste of what kind of music we get to hear all the time!:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGxZhJYbTAg&feature=related :Rosita de Espinar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OykEwDRFiOE :Sonia Morales (maybe my favorite)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3aVumDW19M :Dina Paucar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g__L0nrT-Tw :William Luna

Some Snippets

Well, I was lazy and didn't write a proper blog, but there's been a lot of stuff that has happened, so I'll tell you about them in bullet form:

-Leidi, the 11 year old daughter of Zenovia and a regular in our classes, asked me to be her madrina (godmother)! There is going to be a celebration for her graduation from elementary school

-there are tons of little explosions everywhere 24/7 (many thanks to Richard and Beto) because apparently firecrackers are sold around christmas time.

-We FINALLY had some people show up for adult English class, but it was short lived...the two who came left Chijnaya once the professor's strike at the University of Puno ended.

-Went to Juliaca (where we stayed at our veterenarian friend Luis's house and watched a fantastic Korean soap opera) and then Puno in hopes of getting my Christmas package...which sadly did not happen (nor have I gotten Sam and Aubrey's letter..boo.) though I did get to eat Scrumptious cake. A dark chocolate-coffee concoction that satisfied my sugar cravings for at least a day.

-Dionisia, Paula's sister, had a techamiento (roofing) celebration during which a lot of asado de alpaca was eaten, beer drunk, and huaynos danced. I also had a couple of great conversations, the first involving storytelling (my favorite!) and the second about past volunteers and life as a young adult in Chijnaya/Peru. Oh, and Dionisia asked me to be her daughter's madrina too! So I not only get to attend the very interesting Corta Pelo ceremony (first haircut), but I also will have two god daughters! Wow, didn't think that was going to happen for a while.

-The next morning at 5:00 I woke up (with a bit of struggle) to go with Richard, Verónica, Daphne, and Maren to Juliaca to buy...a puppy!!! For Verónica's family. His name is Loki (after the Norse trickster god and a hostal in Cusco) and he is grey with a splotch of white on his chest and toe socks and a "lab" and super duper cute.

-I've been doing a lot of watching/playing with Davis lately. He is quite the little boy. Picks up Everything, throws most of it, babbles constantly, and has a smile that just glows. A couple of days ago he decided it would be really fun to slide from a slight rise of dirt in back of their house onto the lower part, lay there for a minute, crawl a little ways, then get up and do it again. There was a bit of dirt eating going on too...yum. Then, he decided that he would make his game even better by grabbing onto my hair and swinging from the rise to the lower part, laughing hysterically all the while. Luckily I was soon called away to help peel potatoes and wash dishes.

-Oh, and apparently Beto took my cell phone with him to arrear the vaca and found a Signal, so decided it would be way cool to try to call people. So if you got a random phone call from me, from Peru, that's why. Thanks Beto.

Well, that's all for now, hope to hear from you all! Enjoy the snow, those of you in the Northeast. I hope it hasn't all melted!

Thanksgiving!

While most of you were sitting around the family dinner table enjoying your turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie, Maren, Daphne, and I found ourselves in the middle of a giant anniversary party for the neighboring town of Choquehuanca (or Chumbahumba, as we like to call it). Here in Peru the anniversary of a town is no small thing. Costumes are rented, singers are hired, games are brought in, and much beer is consumed. So our Thanksgiving was passed getting bombarded by marching bands playing huaynos (if you don't know what these are go to youtube or Maren's blog) and lots of ladies and some men swirling about in sparkling costumes. Luckily we were able to find a tent that held many foosball tables, so Maren and I challenged Fortunato and Daphne to ten+ rounds of awesome foosball on a table that barely made it from the 60s.

Our real Thanksgiving, though, was held on Saturday. We spent all day preparing apple crisp, a squash pie thing (DElicious, kudos to Daph), loads of mashed potatoes, vegetables, stuffing, and oven roasted chicken. We were unable to get a hold of a turkey because apparently they don't sell turkey anywhere until Christmas time. In any case, it was a smashing success with Everyone liking the food (a new phenomenon concerning the food we cook for them..though they're always very generous) and our three families getting together and having a great time chatting and getting stuffed. We were told many times (mostly by Veronica) that they would never forget this meal...and I don't think I will either. It was a wondeful moment where I think we all felt a real inclusion in this community.

I hope you all had a wondeful day as well!

Toma! Baila!

Daphne, Maren, and I have just returned from a great vacation-trip to Cusco where I had no time to write an extensive blog. I thought, naively, that I would have loads of time to catch all of you up on the goings on of Chijnaya, seeing as we had free, more or less unlimited, internet access. I was quite wrong. We were too busy eating yummy things like Indian food (at the only Indian restaurant in Peru!), hamburgers (DELICIOUS), and bagels.

In any case, I am left with not as much time as I would like, so I will have to resort to telling you about Eli(zabeth)'s baptism/first communion/confirmation party. Normally I wouldn't write about drinking beer on a blog, but this party was just too great not to write about!

I woke up the morning after the party with, thankfully, no ill effects. This probably had something to do with the three pieces of bread I had before sleeping, and my middle of the night awakening, thanks to the resident mice. I made my way to the kitchen building (very small), where I found Paula cooking/making Quaker (oats). I asked her if she had heard Daphne playing her fiddle. She responded "Oh yes, I even tried it! Your friend plays beautifully. Me, not so much." Everything then came flooding back to me.

The party started off with a large lunch of delicious chicken and rice soup, followed by asado de alpaca on top of corn, salad, and potatoes. Having not finished all of this pile of food (despite the tastiness of the asado), Maren, Daphne, and I vacated the premises to teach English to the rapscallions at the school. Class finished quite early that day due to the almost combustible energy of the (almost exclusively) boys, so at five we left and went to try to chat with Veronica and Fortunato about our upcoming trip to Cusco. Fortun wasn't there, so we helped Veronica lug her pig's food over to the other family compound where her uncle lives. After watching the pig gobble down its food we returned to the school where we continued our pointless wait for adults to show up for class (no one showed up the entire week).

We finally returned at 6:00 to Eli's family compound, despite the tempting calls from the mass of children playing CTB *(for more on the goings on of the neighborhood children's obsession with Capture the Flag/Ball see below). Upon entering, I saw that I had guessed right--everyone was well on their way to being drunk, or "festive" (as Megan would say). We were herded in, sat down, given beer, and told that there was no electricity so we (lamentably) couldn't dance. Everyone looked so bummed about this that I suggested that we sing. Of course this "we" turned out to be us gringas. So Maren and I sung a couple of Christmas carols, while Daphne fetched her fiddle (after much prodding and encouragement from all of us). When she came back, we "performed" 'Orphan Girl', 'Wagon Wheel', and Daphne played a reel.

By that point the lights had come back on and Eli's padrino decided it was time to educate us about huayno. This lovely traditional Peruvian music, that dates back to the Incas, then began to blast from the speakers and the padrino (godfather) began telling us about more Peruvian traditions that are beginning to disappear; coincidentally one involves visiting your padrino and celebrating with him. We were soon drawn to our feet to learn how to dance huayno (basically involves moving your feet to the rhythm...quite difficult). This, of course, was quite the spectacle, and everyone got a good laugh, though I like to think I carried myself just fine. I danced with the rhythm, spun and was spun, acted silly, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

At various points, Maren and I demonstrated swing dancing, "salsa" (with Daphne cutting in and showing us how to really do it), and the "waltz." I also danced with Chico (the 1.3 year old)--quite a highlight--who was absolutely thrilled with all the music. Daphne brought out her fiddle again and Maren and I again demonstrated "traditional dance" from the U.S./Ireland/our heads. We later learned that no one else wanted to dance because they couldn't "jump like us" (our interpretation of Irish step dancing). Paula told Cesar that he would need to "bajar de peso" if he ever wanted to dance like us.

After our dancing demonstrations Daphne's fiddle, inexplicably, began to be passed around the room. Nearly everyone tried it, much to the delight of everyone else. Daphne said that Paula looked like a natural, but compared to the rest of us (whose skill could be marked by the piercing squeaks of the fiddle and the laughter of everyone else), I'm not sure this is actually saying much.

Finally, after more drinking, a little more dancing,, and a good deal more conversation about I don't even know what, we went our separate ways. Apparently, though, Cesar and Paula went back after taking care of us kids...I guess Eli's father was insistent about needing to chat more with Cesar. Though I can't imagine either was comprehensible to the other.

Until next time, Cuidanse bien!

...

*On the morning of the 14th I woke up at 4:30AM to shouts of "Richard!" "Beto!" Apparently the kids actually got up at that horrid hour to play CTB!!! They were totally thrilled about it. What I love about CTB (and sports in general) is how it really brings out personalities. For example, there is Beto, who takes control in a fair manner and has a very mature overview of how things should be going (even though he has no faith in the skills of the girls); there is Livio who is dangerously fast, constantly has a cheeky smirk, and is totally concentrated on getting to the ball...though he tries to hard to be tricky; Livio's sister, Delia, also tries to be sneaky, and is very playful, but is most often found sprawled on the ground, looking up at the stars and singing to herself; Richard also tries a bit to hard to be sneaky--he is always strategizing (sometimes they work, usually they don't) and is always worried about justice; Jhoan (Johan), is the brother of Leidi (who is very fast and constantly takes advantage of being underestimated) is a tough little guy who is just out there to have fun, but sometimes gets his feelings hurt when the big boys tell him he isn't any good at running; then there is Umberto...he doesn't beat around the bush, he simply takes all. But he is actually sneaky about it. He doesn't try to hard to be sneaky, he just is, and he usually wins because of it. So yeah, CTB is pretty awesome.

¿Vamos a jugar?

So it's official. Capture the Flag has become the new obsession of the neighborhood kids.

But this needs a bit of explanation. Basically, it all began on the night before Halloween. Daphne, Maren, and I threw a slamming Halloween party in Daphne's room that day (it was a friday, so we had the party instead of class). All of the kids who came (mostly boys) were super pumped about bobbing for apples--from which they emerged like half drowned wet rats (according to Daphne)--thrilled about making masks, and off the wall about receiving candy. An overall great success. In fact, we had prepared for this party by holding a monster drawing session in class the day before; an activity that even drew some resident 15 yr old "punks". The results are fantastic. But anyway, as I was leaving the party (it was around 6:00 at this point) I was approached by five kids who seemed to have it in their heads that we were going trick-or-treating for "La Noche de la Bruja"...well they were mistaken, but they begged so desperately to do Something, that I just had to give in to them...But what were we to do? I asked myself. We'd already had a party, so what really was there left? Well, I responded to myself...there's always Ghosts in the Graveyard (which we had successfully played at the party). So I told the kids to meet back up the next night, the Real Halloween night, and we would play a scary game in the dark. Well, the next night came and at first it seemed that no one was going to show up (being that many were making T'anta Wawa --which Maren has written eloquently about--and the fact that the lights had all gone, inexplicably, out), but Beto, my host brother, was insistent that we get a game together. So he tore off on his bike to round kids up. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by 10 very eneretic children. It was at this point that the street lights came back on and I realized that Ghosts in the Graveyard, as great a game as it is, may not quench the thirst for an awesome game. It was at this point that I remembered Manhunt. Brilliant! I thought, and I lead them all to a section of street right before the chakras (fields of cultivation) begin where we could play in psuedo darkness (satisfying the scary requirement). As I began to explain it, though, I slowly realized that I didn't actually fully understand the point of Manhunt, so I quickly changed tack and started explaining Capture the Flag. Well it instantly took off and I had barely finished explaining the bit about jails when they started yelling about splitting into two teams and the game started. That first night everyone was still shaky on the rules, but we ended up playing for a good hour and a half-two hours (much to the chagrin, said Daphne, of her family, whose compound was right near by) despite the massive amounts of cheating going on. The next day about seven kids came up to me expressing an urgent desire to play again that night, so we did. The rules, such as having to walk back to your side after being liberated from the jail instead of dashing straight for the flag, began to get themselves sorted out, and everyone had a great time. One kid even got so into it he decided that hiding in the trash bin was a great tactic. He stayed in there a surprisingly long time, considering. On Monday, instead of playing at night, we played right after class on the soccer field--Maren had introduced the variation where you play with a ball that you can throw, so it worked well on the field. That was going great until the massive thunderheads started rolling in. The kids, of course, ignored them completely, but when a rather startling bolt of lightning zoomed down above a nearby cerro a 13 year old and I decided it was time to high-tail it back home. So, moral of the story is that Capture the Flag/Ball has successfully infected a heck of a lot of Chijnaya kids, for better or for worse.

...

Sorry for that flood of probably unecessary detail. Other things:
- The ovens that are used to make T'anta Wawa (baby bread) are only fired up once a year, so César had the brilliant idea of making use of the horno's heat for Pizza!!! So Maren, Daphne, César, and I rustled up some ingredients for pizza (we were sadly lacking in tomatoes), and threw together four Delicious "adobe-oven" pizzas! That was definitely a highlight of the week.
- Ralph's birthday celebration was quite a to-do. There was lots of dancing (organized), lots of speeches, and Lots of cake. Is it possible to have a sugar hangover? Well I think I had one, whatever the case. Some people of Chijnaya (including Paula and César) performed a dance based around the planting of the potato. It was really interesting to watch. All the men carried tools for digging holes and the women pretended to plant potatoes. There was one man running around with a whip who was the "hacendado"--representative of the time (in much to recent memory) when the campesinos had to work for a large plantation where they were basically enslaved--similar to serfdom. At one point everyone stopped dancing and rushed to the center...apparently for lunch. Then a woman started skipping around stuffing people's mouths with coca leaves...for energy? Once the "field work" was over, everyone rushed to various locations to drink chicha (corn beer)--a reward for a hard day's work. It was quite a sight to behold. Everyone was really into it, which was great.
- Maren is probably writing about this, but one day she, Daphne, and I were tossing the frisbee outside of Daphne's room. We decided that day that it would be fun to blast Totally Hits 2001 out of the window. Well, apparently some kids thought it was pretty cool too, so they joined us. For a little while they were watching us and throwing the disc a bit too, but then O-Town's "All or Nothing" started blasting. Apparently this song was just too good not to dance to, so two of the girls (Leidi and Delia) began doing some interpretaional dancing, inspired by ballet. There. In the middle of the street with the cows looking on. The twirling continued on for Usher's "U Remind Me." It was hard to control ourselves. Leidi asked for some music in Spanish, so I put on "Ganas de Llorar," which was equally well received. Totales son esos chicos.

Well, I think I've probably overloaded this particular blog, so ¡Hasta Pronto!

T'anta Wawa, Halloween, and Capture the Flag

Unfortunately I don't have enough time to write a full blog today to inform you all of the lovely goings on in Chijnaya around Todos los Santos. I PROMISE I will rectify this situation next week. There are lots of great moments to talk about.

In the meanwhile, check out my friend Maren's blog. There really isn't that much overlap, and she's a good writer. I've added a link on the right-hand side of this blog.