First Visitors!

by Micah

Alisha and I were fortunate enough to welcome our first visitors last weekend. My first Spanish teacher from Fort Osage Junior High and good friend Linda Drown came to Cajamarca with Rosa, her friend from Lima. Alisha and I went to Cajamarca to meet them at the airport, and we spent the day in the city seeing some of the sights. Then we took the night bus to Chota, where Linda and Rosa stayed for two days. It didn’t take us too long to see most of Chota, so we spent a lot of time with our host family sharing all sorts of stories. Alisha and I showed Linda and Rosa most of the places where we’re currently doing projects, our world map, the daily market, and the livestock market. The night bus between Cajamarca and Chota passes some points that are at a pretty high elevation, which makes the ride quite cold, so Linda decided to buy a poncho in Chota and show it off in the photo below.

It felt really nice to have someone from home visit us. When you’re away from home for a long time, you start to feel like you’re losing a connection with the places that used to be so familiar, and having someone who shares a knowledge of those places visit you helps to reestablish that connection. And I am particularly honored that Linda, who has in large part inspired my love of Spanish and Hispanic culture, was the first person to bring a little piece of home to us and take a little piece of our experience in Peru back to the States.

A South Dakota Shout Out

By Alisha

It is time for a brief South Dakota shout out. I believe that I mentioned Jason, a volunteer in my group (Peru 11) from Mitchell, South Dakota, in an earlier blog entry. Well, a couple of months ago he came across the best hat ever made and purchased one for himself and one for me. Why this hat was in a market in Ancash, Peru is a mystery as is the meaning of “Westguje Fashions.” I love it!


Last month, Micah and I were on the hunt for Christmas presents for our host family. We thought a puzzle would be a good gift for our host brother and sister since we wanted to give them somthing that we could do with them. We happened to find the perfect puzzle in a grocery store in Chiclayo. I couldn’t imagine passing up the amazing opportunity to buy a Mount Rushmore puzzle! After four days of solid work we now have a Mt. Rushmore puzzle (minus one missing piece). I'm now on the hunt for more South Dakota merchandise in Peru.

Condac

By Alisha & Micah

Yesterday we took a little time to start discovering some of the areas surrounding Chota. We travelled about 2 hours (read about 30 miles) in a combi (see picture above) to the town of Tacabamba. There we met up with Ryan, the Peace Corps volunteer that just started his service in Tacabamba. Suprisingly, the climate and landscape was quite different from those of Chota. Tacabamba is a sleepy little town with about 7,000 inhabitants and sits at a lower elevation than Chota, making the climate much warmer. We were really impressed with the Plaza de Armas because of how well kept it was along will all of the blooming flowers. From Tacabamba we took another combi about 15 minutes outside of town to begin our hike to a waterfall called Condac. We had two of Ryan's friends from town come with us after they assured us that they knew the route. After an hour and a half hike, which included a 45 minute detour due to our guides not actually knowing the route, we arrived at the waterfall. Parts of the hike were extremley steep, so we were holding on to the trail for dear life. The waterfall was nice, but more impressive were the mountain views along the way. After spending some time taking pictures and enjoying the waterfall, we hiked all the way back to Tacabamba, which took about 2 hours. Upon arriving, we folded ourselves into the last combi out of town. It was a long day, but well worth the blaring cumbia music and severe lack of space in the combis and the killer hike. We plan to continue to visit more of the locally known attractions near Chota in the months to come.

Plaza de Armas - Tacabamba

Overlooking the cityHiking to the waterfall

Condac

Bringing in the new year

By Alisha

Happy New Year to everyone! In Peru there are a seemingly endless number of New Year's traditions. Some examples include:

• Picking one of three potatoes without looking (one peeled, one partially peeled, and one with the skin on). The peeled potato represents financial troubles in the year to come while the partially peeled potato means it will be a financially normal year. The potato with skin represents riches in the coming year.
• Eating 12 grapes at midnight (one for each of the months to come) for good luck.
• Wearing yellow for good luck especially yellow underwear.
• Walking around the block with a suitcase to signify good luck with travel.
• Making and then burning a doll. Dolls are usually made with old clothing and with fireworks stuffed inside. The idea is to get rid of the old and make room for the new.

I decided to make a doll and got pretty excited about burning it in the street at midnight. Most of our neighbors burned dolls as well. I didn’t stuff mine with any fireworks or douse it with gasoline so it was somewhat uneventful in comparison to the neighbors who had bon fires roaring in the street. All and all it was fun to partake in the tradition. Perhaps a bigger and better doll will be in order for next year.