Teaching English

I've had kind of an interesting experience this week that Andy thought would be fun to blog about, even though some of the content might be a little gross.

A couple of weeks ago when Andy and I were sick when I met Sonia. Sonia is a lab tech at the clinic, and when I went back to the clinic with my ahem, sample (which is a whole other story), she was there to test it and see what kind of parasite or bacteria I had. While I was waiting for the test Sonia began to talk to me, some in English and some in Spanish. After 20 minutes, the test was done, I had a parasite, and Sonia had invited me over to her house to practice English the next week.

At first I didn't know what to think. I mean, how many times do you get invited to someone's house after you have handed them a cup of poop?

But I decided to go ahead and meet her one morning. The first time Andy came with me, and Sonia, her husband, Andy and I sat in their living room and chatted in Spanish. Then we got down to teaching English. I figured she would want to learn some basic words and phrases, but alas I was wrong. Here are some of the phrases she asked me to teach her:

I am going to take your blood now.
Please urinate in the toilet a little first, and then in the cup.
You have a parasite.
You have a fever
Go in the bathroom and bring back the sample (of urine, of stool - although for some reason at the time I couldn't think of the word stool, and only could tell her the word poop)
And so on and so on.......

It turns out that most of the people she works with are English speaking tourists, and everything she needed to know related to her job. While the conversation was awkward, I realized that I was thankful to hopefully help her, which in turn will help sickly tourists not have to ask, "you want me to do what in the cup???".........more than once.

Overall, I have enjoyed talking with Sonia. She has been incredibly friendly and welcoming, and I now have a new friend in Peru.

Salomon, The Artist

Last week Erin and I were walking up the main street when we walked past a small gallery. We haven't stopped in many stores because it's like shopping at the border in Mexico: everything is the same mass-produced stuff. But this place was different.

We walked in and met Salomon, an 84 year old man who has been painting for over 45 years and is about to start his 6th trip around the world exhibiting his paintings.

His paintings are all about Peru: the sites, the history, the people. He has paintings of the steep alleyways in Cusco. He has paintings of Incans. Our favorite paintings are his abstract paintings of the jungle, a splattering of the colors of the jungle without form.

He invited us to his museum where he has 30 murals of the history of his people from, "The Big Bang to present day." We visited his museum, which is also the bottom floor of his house, last night with two of our housemates.

He gave us a private tour through the murals which tell the history of the pre-incan people, the Incan kings, the Spanish conquest of the Incans, and the Peruvian revolution, led by Simon Bolivar, which gave Peru it's freedom.

It was truly a special and memorable night. We kind of figured it anyway, but our house mom told us he is a very famous painter. Here he is explaining a mural to us.

Things I've Done Wrong at the Supermarket

One of the things we talk about with missions teams at our church in San Diego is cross cultural awareness. We usually talk about the importance of observation when going to a new country. We tell people to spend some time watching the locals in different situations and follow suit. I have to admit that I have often failed miserably at this, specifically in one area.

Down the road from where we are living is a large supermarket called Mega. We have been shopping there for water and snacks frequently.

After shopping in the Mega for two and a half weeks and walking around the store with our backpacks, Andy noticed that there is a bag check right next to the door. Yesterday I went in and talked to the employee, and found out that we were supposed to be leaving our bags at the front and picking them up when we are done shopping. Probably to prevent theft.

Last week Andy and I were ready to pay for our groceries. There were two empty lines, and the cashiers were chatting to each other, just waiting for customers. We put our groceries on the counter, and the cashier said, "solo boletas." Huh? We must have looked pretty confused because I saw the other cashier role her eyes and motion to her friend to just go ahead and let us pay in her line. I smiled meekly at her and said, "gracias." When we got home we looked up boletas, and found that it means tickets. Now I am not sure what kind of tickets we needed to have, but I now know not to go back to that line.

Yesterday I stopped in to pick up two bananas for our lunch. Just like at home, I took two bananas from a bunch and brought them to the cashier (the no boletas required line) and put them on the counter with my other groceries. Right away the cashier yelled to the bagger, and he took off running with my bananas. Hmmmmmm, what did I do wrong this time???? After a couple of minutes the bagger came back with a bag and a sticker with the price for the bananas. I asked the cashier what to do for the next time, and she said I needed to weigh them first, get the sticker, and then come and pay for them.

Thankfully, the employees have been very nice to use throughout our mistakes, and I am learning the hard way to ask ahead of time.

Home Cookin'

Last night we went with our housemates to dinner at a place called "Jack's". Jack's is a favorite among the students at the school because it serves English and American food. As much as we enjoy trying new food, it was nice to have something familiar. Erin had a ham and cheese sandwich and I had a cheeseburger. Delicious. Though mine tasted more like sloppy joes than a hamburger.

Speaking of food, I've been collecting some recipes of traditional Peruvian dishes to cook once we get home. They are crazy about their carbs here. Every meal usually has rice and potatoes and bread. Erin's in carb heaven.

Some meals I'm planning on cooking:

• Lomo Saltado - It's like a beef stirfry with potatoes. It has strips of tenderloin beef with onions, peppers, potatoes, and some spices served with either rice or spaghetti.
• Papa Relleno - A stuffed potatoe. I'm planning on taking the leftover mashed potatoes from Thanksgiving to make this. You take the mashed potato and add egg to it. Form it into a potato shape and dig a hole out in the middle. Feel the hole with carrots, onions, and cooked ground beef. Roll the potato in some flour and fry it. Nice.
• Causa Limena - Another potato dish, kind of like a potato quiche with layers of mashed potato, avocado, and chicken salad served cold.
• Cuy - Guinea pig. I'm going to go to the pet store and pick up a guinea pig to cook. You just skin it, put it on a stick and BBQ it. Just kidding...that's gross...we haven't been brave enough to try cuy...we learned our lesson from the ceviche.

The first things we'll eat when we get home? Sushi and a nice big salad. We can't eat the lettuce here because it doesn't get clean.

Machu Picchu

This weekend we went to Machu Picchu and had a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Early in the morning on Saturday we boarded the train in Cusco. People from all over the world come to Cusco to go to Machu Picchu and it was evident in our train car. Out of the 50-60 in our train car, we were the only English-speaking tourists. French Canadians, Latinos, Germans, and more.

The train ride was supposed to last 4 hours but took six because our engine broke down not too far outside of Cusco. The mountains coming out of Cusco are so steep that the train has to do a series of switchbacks in which the train goes backwards and forwards up a series of tracks.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes (or Machu Picchu Pueblo) around 2 in the afternoon. The town is named after a natural hot springs that is located there. The town itself is actually quite ugly having just sprung up to accommodate the tourist industry. The buildings are non-descript rectangles of block.

Our hostel was nice, a small room with a bed and a private bathroom - the first private bathroom we've had since we've been here. We covered ourselves in sunscreen and bug repellent and headed out to get some lunch. So what do you think we ate for lunch? Some cuy (baked guinea pig - a traditional Andean dish)? Some alpaca? How about some Lomo Saltado - a kind of beef stir fry dish? None of the above. About 3/4's of the restaurants in Aguas Calientes are pizzerias. No joke. So we had a nice pepperoni pizza.

We woke at 4:45 on Sunday to get a light breakfast at 5:00 to get to the bus stop for the first bus at 5:30. When we arrived at the bus stop, there was already about 100-150 people in line. The 8km drive to the top of Machu Picchu was a series of switchbacks on a dirt road up the mountain. The Andes spring up so steeply out of the valley that we had to put our heads against the window to get a glimpse of the tops of the mountains.

We pull up to the bus stop, show our tickets, walk about 100 yards, and there it is. I can't overstate the grandiosity of Machu Picchu. It's huge. It's incredible. It's unbelievable.

Terraces cover the hillsides at impossibly steep angles. A small city stretches out in front of us, stone buildings without roofs, half-completed temples to the Sun and the Condor. It was built around 1430 and abandoned 100 years later as the conquistadors ravaged the Incas. The Spanish never found Machu Picchu though. The last Incan king took great care to not lead the Spanish there. It's actually surprising that they didn't find it considering there was a royal road from Cusco (a city for royals only) to Machu Picchu (probably a royal retreat and learning center). And by royal road I mean a stone path.

We quickly snapped some photos before it became covered in people and rushed to the base of Wayna Picchu (small or young mountain, seen in the background of the picture) to get tickets to climb it after our guided tour. They only let 400 people climb it each day. As you can see in the picture, it's very steep. What you can't see is that there more terraces and a temple there. Most people climb it for the view of Machu Picchu (Machu Picchu means old or large mountain).

After we get our tickets we scatter to the Guard House to get the typical picture, the one on all of the postcards. The stairs are steep and uneven and we stop often to catch our breath.

We have a two hour guided tour in which the guide gives us all of the information I'm now regurgitating to you. We see the temples, the sun dial, and the end of the famous Incan Trail. Amazingly, the Incans knew about true north and magnetic north. There is a rock with the four cardinal directions plus magnetic north.

Everything has symbolism. Rocks are shaped like the sacred animals: the condor, the puma, and the snake. They are close to God (physically being so high and God being in the sky) and commune with him through sacrifices of llamas, alpacas, and guinea pigs. They believe in one God and don't know what he looks like. They also celebrate the sun, the moon, the rain, and the earth (Mamapacha).

Like many religions, the land where they are is holy and given to them by God. Think of the Promised Land for the Israelites and Mecca for the Muslims. Native Americans have the same attachment to the land that gives them life.

After our tour, we exit the park and eat a ham and cheese sandwich at the cafeteria. The cafeteria is out of place. Perhaps it belongs at Disneyland, not at ancient ruins. We are too tired to climb Wayna Picchu and I'm worried about my knee on such a steep climb. Instead, we take the Inca Trail, backwards, to the Sun Gate. It's a long hike (1 hour) uphill and, again, we stop often to cool the burning in our chests and legs. The top is steep and precarious but when we get there we can turn around and see a view of all of Machu Picchu with Wayna Picchu ascending in the background.

We are done. We've seen the ruins and wondered at their construction and the people who decided to build them there, high in the mountains. We settle into our seats on the train and say goodbye to a once-in-a-lifetime visit.

The Slowest Taxi In Cusco

In a previous post Andy described the majesty of riding in a taxi here in Cusco. I admit, the first couple of days it was a little unnerving.

Funny how quickly your frame of reference can change...

The other night we were late to dinner with the family we are staying with and we thought that getting a taxi would be the quickest and easiest way to make it remotely on time.

I think we caught a ride with a guy on his first day as a taxi driver in Cusco. He used his blinkers, kept his distance from the cars in front of him, drove the speed limit, and never cut anyone off - just politely waited his turn. And I found myself silently urging him to pick up the pace.....

Pictures!

A blurry picture of Erin at night in front of the cathedral in the main square.


Us in front of Qoricancha. Qoricancha is Quechua (native Incan language) for "field of gold". The bottom portion of the church in the background was built by the Incas and was the sun temple. When the Spanish came, they looted the gold, demolished the temple and built the church on top. The most impressive part of the Incan architecture is that for their most important buildings they didn't use mortar for the blocks. The blocks were cut so precisely that they didn't need mortar. Oh, and the blocks are huge and the Incans didn't have horses or wheels to move them. While the church on top has fallen apart a couple of times from earthquakes, the Incan ruins are still intact. This is right across the street from our school.


Me standing in front of our host family's house. It's in a nice neighborhood with private security. While the family has two cars, they rarely use them. They take the taxis and combis like us. A short walk down the block is a big supermarket and the main street where we catch our taxis.

We've also posted some pictures on these posts:
http://erinandandyinperu.blogspot.com/2008/11/zoo-and-ceviche.html
We have no idea what animal that is.
http://erinandandyinperu.blogspot.com/2008/11/we-rode-batman.html
Here's a picture, right outside of our school, of a taxi and a combi.

Raw Fish = Parasite + Bacteria

Sure, some may say (Stever) that raw fish is a sure path to hours spent on the toilet, but Peru is known for its ceviche. We were careful in choosing where we ate. We went on the recommendation of a staff member of the language school. But, alas, we will not be eating ceviche again!

The staff here is great. They took us to the doctor yesterday and helped translate for us. (We've only been at language school for a week...don't expect us to know the medical terms!) The first time around I was the only one who was able to...ahem...provide a sample. After an hour, the results came back. Parasite and a bacteria.

We went to 4 different pharmacies looking for generic versions of the drugs I needed.

Erin had to go back later by herself after she was able to provide her sample. She even went to the pharmacies by herself. Her result? Just a parasite.

So now we're back in action, weakened from eating only crackers for two days but feeling much better.

Someone's Revenge

I don't think it's Montezuma's since we're in Peru...maybe Inca's Revenge. About 10 last night Erin started to feel it in her stomach. Then, about 10:30, it hit me too. It's what the Peruvians call (pull out your Spanish/English dictionary for this one) diarrea.

We were suppossed to go on a tour of the Sacred Valley today, a valley in between Cusco and Machu Picchu. The tour consits of visiting 4 ancient ruins and lasts all day. About 20 minutes before we were suppossed to get picked up we called the tour director to let him know. Luckily, he said we can do the tour on Tuesday instead.

So we spent the day sleeping and going to the bathroom. I felt good enough to walk down the street to the internet cafe but there's definitely some rumbling still going on down there!

Zoo and Ceviche

One of our housemates volunteers at the zoo as well as takes Spanish lessons. We're actually some of the few people who aren't volunteering on some local project while we learn Spanish! But they only have between 1 and 2 hours of Spanish lessons per day while we get four.

Anyway, the zoo isn't open on Saturdays but our housemate got us in. The zoo is small, about the size of a football field, and is attached to the university. We took lots of pictures but we're having trouble uploading them and using the wifi for our laptop. If we keep having trouble, we'll just post them when we get home in two weeks (for the two or three of you who actually want to see the pictures).

About 50% of the animals at the zoo were monkeys of some sort. This isn't like the San Diego Zoo where there is a huge moat and then an enclosement. No, we were right next to the cages and the monkeys would reach their hands out and we could touch them. I actually saw one catch a bee, pull off the stinger and eat it.

After the zoo we went to a cevecheria (a restaurant that specializes in ceviche). Ceviche is a seafood dish in which everthing is marinated in lime juice, not cooked. Peru is known for it. Erin got the Seabass (our Amor compadres will see the humor in that) and I got the Seabass mixed with shellfish. It was pretty good though I think that was enough for one trip.

Ok, we're off to our salsa lessons! Should be funny considering neither of us have any rhythym.

We Rode the Batman!

In our previous post, we mentioned the combis or small buses. We have to take a taxi or combi to get from where we are staying to the school and city center. Taxis cost 3 soles, the equivalent of about 1 dollar while combis cost 1 sol 20 centimos, or about 40 cents for both of us. Not a huge difference but it adds up over 3 weeks.

Sitting at dinner the other night we asked Pepe, the father of the house, which bus line we should take to get to the school. He thought about it for a second and replied, "You take the Batman." We must have had puzzled looks (we were expecting a number) so he continued, "You know? The dark knight?"

OK, so we look for a bus shaped like the batmobile?

So the next day we went to the bus queue and watched as the different buses came by. The names of the other bus lines, you ask? Santa Maria. Santa Ana. Correcaminos (roadrunner for you gringos)...

Then there it came...Batman. It's actually only a sign in the front passenger side of the window and, sure enough, it says Batman.

Before it pulled up to a stop, the side door flew open and a young man started yelling out stops along the line. It really wasn't a yell though, it was more of a chant. He stretched his neck forward as he hung off the side of the combi and with the precision of an auctioneer and the tone of a town cryer sped through the stops.

We didn't understand a word he said but it was the Batman, so we got on and it took us to our school.

He´s the boletero or ticket-taker. When we decide we want to get off, we hand him our money as he crows at the potential passengers at our destination.

I mimicked the boletero for my teacher and she said she can't understand them either. But now we know we can ride the Batman every day.

Frogger Versus MarioKart

Most of the readers of this travel blog have spent at least a little time in Tijuana and know the craziness of the driving there. It is child's play compared with the driving in Peru.

MarioKart is a nintendo game in which Mario and his friends race each other on go-carts in different levels. I'm pretty sure all of the taxi drivers have trained on and mastered the game.

The horn is a work of art here. It says, "Here I come!" "Do you want to ride in my taxi?" "As I approach this intersection with no traffic signs, I expect you to yield to me because I honked first!" "I'm going really fast down this narrow street with cars parked on both sides so you better not try to open your door right now!" and, as in America, "Watch out, dummy!"

There is a lot of weaving in and out of lanes...it's a game of sorts. You wouldn't let another car in front of you, on the contrary, you should speed up. My favorite "rule of the road" is: If the front of my car is in front of yours, even by an inch, I have the right away to come into your lane.

Frogger is an old Atari game in which you try to navigate a frog across a busy street with lots of traffic. It requires moves in four directions: forwards, backwards, left and right...much like crossing the street in Cusco.

I took a field trip with my teacher to the bank yesterday (she´s lived in Cusco her whole life) and she walked me out into a busy street into oncoming traffic while taxis and combis (small buses, more like a van) came within inches of my front and backside. I told her (in perfect Spanish, by the way) that I was sure I was going to die in the streets of Cusco. She laughed and said the drivers never hit pedestrians in this area of town where all of the tourists are...in the outskirts of the city, maybe.

Over the past couple of days I've taken heart though. I've noticed that all taxi and bus drivers have something hanging on the rearview mirror or taped to the dashboard: El Patron de los Chiffes (The chauffer's saint).

First Day in Spanish Class

Andy and I have been in our Spanish classes for 4 days now. On my first day I thought my teacher asked me (in Spanish of course) if I had any brothers or sisters. I replied, Yes! I have a younger sister and a brother-in-law. She looked at me with a confused look and replied, really? But you are so young? And your sister must have been very young to get married!

I was thinking that it was maybe a nice compliment, that she thought I looked younger than 29, but I also didn´t see why she thought it was so funny that I had a married sister.

Then I realized my mistake.

Hija and hermana got mixed up somewhere in my translation, and I had told her I had a daughter that was married.

Good times.

Latin America Picks Obama in a Landslide!

There is a lot of buzz here about the elections in the U.S. Almost every foreigner we've met and most Peruvians have asked who we voted for...and they are all, to a person, for Obama.

I asked my host family why and they said that he represents change. They are hoping he will restore diplomacy and avoid wars. The economic wellfare of the U.S. definitely affects the economic wellfare of the Peruvians.

In fact, their money (el nueva sol or soles) is directly tied to the dollar. At the ATM's here, you can choose to receive dollars or soles and most established places take dollars. The exceptions are street vendors and taxis.

We were watching CNN this morning before class and it showed that 29% of Latin America support Obama while only 9% support McCain. 34% are undecided and the rest don't care.

There's another reason they like Obama: he looks more like them. One of my teachers reminded me that most of the world is brown, not white. There is a racism that exists in Peru between the lighter skin people of pure Spanish origin and the mestizos (or mixed Spanish and Incan) and the pure Incas. The lighter your skin, the better off you are.

The same teacher asked me what Americans thought about Peruvians. "Well," I said, "We know about Machu Picchu and we know that Lima is the capital. Pretty much we think you're Mexicans who live in Peru." She had a good laugh at that and told a story how one of her students asked her why she couldn't find any tequila in Peru.

Erin Almost Puked

The thought went through Erin´s mind, "Where in the catherdral is the best place to puke?" But before that, I´ll tell you how we got here.

After a long day of traveling through Atlanta, we arrived in Lima at 1:00 in the morning. (I have a post I wrote on my computer that I´ll upload later about that experience.) We sat in the Lima airport all night until our flight at 5:40 AM. It was a nice airport, but can you ever really get any rest in an airport? The answer is no.

Flying into Cusco was an amazing experience. We were so close to the Andes that it felt like you could reach out the window and touch them, especially when we made a sharp 180 degree right before we landed. I thought only fighter jets were able to manuever like that.

We are staying with a family and 4 other language school students. I'm sure we'll tell you more about them later. We slept all day yesterday. The high altitude drained any energy we may have had.

This morning it was off to school. When we arrived we immediately took an assessment of our skills and were placed at an appropriate learning level. We each had two hours of individual instruction and then we were off on a city tour. Whew!

It was on this city tour when we were touring a cathedral that Erin had the aforementioned thought. I could just imagine throw up hurling onto the 15th century Incan foundations or 16th century Spanish upgrades or into one of the many gold covered chapels.

More about the tour later...we're late for dinner. Also, pictures will be coming as well.