Peruvian Experience

What a nice week; with Easter just around the corner and a good week with school under my belt it was very enjoyable. Last weekend we went to Punta Roca again to have another bonfire. We rented a combi (which took forever to get because our Peruvian friends want us to get the best deal so they kept haggling with everyone but it worked out). And technically you aren't suppose to rent a combi or a bus (which we've successfully done both), but the drivers can get in trouble if they go off their route; however, it seems that there is enough corruption that the law looks the other way. Sometimes I would like to give the police officers S./ 50.00 and tell them to do their job because a majority of the time they are sleeping in their cars or standing there observing as car after car breaks the law. But I guess it's just something they have to work on here in Peru. I keep catching myself thinking about back home and how the traffic is there. MUCH better and safer lol. I know I said it before, that my parents should be happy with the way I drive, but I think now I need to be more cautious about driving just to be better because daily I see so many people cut off and I get frustrated with it. Or the fact that people will turn right when there are two lanes between them and the turning lane, but it happens all the time. I need to take a video of this because it's chaos! lol However, I must admit that actually being in a taxi/bus in Peru doesn't scare me as much as it did in the beginning. But back to my adventure to Punta Roca; we took the combi all the way and then played volleyball and catch with the football and just goofed around until it was dark, then we decided to make our fire. There was a really nice restuarant owner who took care of us a majority of the night (although we didn't buy enough wood to burn the whole night, so it was a little chilly); but by about 3:00am we only had embers left.... we huddled around these so in order to survive the extremely chilly weather we broke down and burned the first half of our books (for our politics class). I hadn't planned on burning my book though because I needed to finish the last couple chapters, so at first I only went through the first half. But as the night progressed and the bone cold air was getting deeper and deeper under my skin I decided to give in and take out the rest.
My classmates were/are willing to share their book so I can finish it. Which I did thoroughly enjoy reading the book. I like being able to see the descriptions through Ernesto's eyes. Honestly, if I wouldn't drown on, I wish I could write more like him. I think the descriptions he offers are prefect for this book; it can be difficult to keep track of what's going on because the perspective changes a lot and his ideas are all over the place, but overall I liked this book. It lent an interesting point of view on the life of a Spanish white person though he grew up like an indian. I liked the struggle that Ernesto went through in order to choose which "side" he was to be on, the Spanish wealth or the Indian culture and nature. The ending was one which he went back to the haciendas of his uncle because he wanted to be with the colonos.
We went to help the high schools again, and this time we went to their classroom and we compared the US with Peru; we made posters and gave a little presentation with the girls too.
For Easter I went to the fancy church with Kathy, Jose and Marshall on Thursday. Mass was interesting; although I must admit, not knowing what was going on was frustrating. In the U.S. Easter Sunday is the big day of the weekend, but here in Peru Thursday and Friday are huge. It was a lot of fun seeing what people made out of palms. They had woven little baskets and then had taken the rest of the palm leaves and made flowers out of them; they were beautiful! And because there were so many people on Thursday, we sat outside on the grass watching a projector and listening. But people stood in front of me so I had a difficult time seeing too much; and I was mostly lost because of all the different ceremonies they do for Easter (Semana Santo). I don't know them in English let alone Spanish, but it was an experience none-the-less. I did enjoy going to el Centro and seeing the processions go around the plaza. We finally got to see the inside of the big cathedral in the plaza and then we waited around for the activities to start. We saw a lot of men dressed in purple, we assumed it was like the Knights of Colombus but they carried the different things around. I loved the crowd though, I've been wanting to take more pictures like the ones I got this afternoon. A couple were purely by chance, because I pointed my camera without looking and took the picture. So I definitely had fun with the plaza full of people.
Saturday we headed to Cerro Azul, where Jose's family lives and has their restuarant. The water was a lot higher than last time, but we ended up finding a spot on the beach to lay out. Kathy and I cracked open some clams as we sat on some rocks in the shallow water, that's was pretty fun! But we headed to the restuarant and had amazing food again; and we spent the evening playing pitch. After a while some of Miguel's family came and they sat around playing music on a guitar and box and singing. It was so awesome- not only was I with friends, on the beach, learning to play pitch, but we got traditional music on top of that. It was a real treat to listen.
Even though I missed Easter with everyone this year (and the ham!!!), I enjoyed being with my friends on the beach one last time. I can't believe only three more weeks are left and I'll be back home. I can't wait, but I know I'll be extremely sad to leave Peru (at least for a few years).