Our demolished Plaza
Our friend Sal's birthday party
Host dad César hard at work
Members of our host family at the birthday party for our host dad and grandmotherby Alisha & Micah
It's been one month in site. Slowly but surely we are finding our niche. We have had a lot of meetings, done some serious Arrested Development viewing, read 15 books between the two of us and Alisha made a trip back to Lima. Sometimes we feel like we are busy and other times it seems like we are doing next to nothing. Overall, we are very content. Here are some highlights from the first month.
- Visiting some rural areas surronding Chota. A few weeks ago we (along with our host family) visited our friend Sal's site for his birthday, which coincided with his town's patron saint festival. With kids in tow, thing were pretty tame, and we really enjoyed the expansive beauty of Sal's community. We also had the opportunity to travel to another nearby town with one of our community partners to visit families of child laborers with whom he works. Being able to see this whole valley dotted with dozens of rural communities from an elevated perspective was amazing. (Thanks to Micah for not bringing the camera.)
- While Alisha was wining and dining in the upper clase suburbs of Lima, Micah was in Chota participating in the festivities of the "Semana de la Juventud" (youth week). One day there was a workshop with fun activities and informational sessions for local high school kids. However, to begin the event, as is customary with any sort of workshop or training event here in Peru, a figurehead not involved in the actual event gave a speech to inaugurate said event. He started off talking about how important youth are to the future, you know, the usual stuff. Then he he went off on a tangent about hippies and existentialism, the latter of which he identified as the one of the main threats to the moral well-being of all of the youth in our community. We had no idea that Peruvian high-schoolers could be so philosophically savvy.
- During a meeting with the director of a local school we spotted a crate of empty beer bottles in his office. This was not at all schocking to us.
- When we arrived in Chota, we were impressed by the beautiful plaza in the center of town (see picture from previous post). A couple of weeks after we arrived, the plaza started to be demolished (see above picture). This demolition included the cutting down of enormous trees and a debate as to whether the four palm trees should also be cut down. The verdict is still out on this...we will let you know.
