Friday, November 27, 2009

A Peruvian Turkey Day

Last night, for the first time ever, I celebrated Thanksgiving away from my house and my family. Instead, all of the ProPeru volunteers and staff got together to bring the best of our home to Peru and celebrate how much we have to be thankful for by getting to live here. It was strange not watching the Macy's Day Parade, or cooking pies and turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and every other wonderful dish with my mom and dad and grandma in our kitchen (finally with double ovens so we don't have to fight over who uses it first), curling up with our new Black Lab puppy by a fire, watching a cold and grey Portland fall day pass by outside, prepparing my list of Christmas-gifts-to-buy for Black Friday. I missed all the all-day-long lovely kitchen aromas, gathering leaves and flowers to decorate the table, the lazy and yet busy feeling of the day, the peaceo f being with my family.

But we certainly made this a Thanksgiving to remember and give thanks about. There was every kind of Thanksgiving food imaginable that could be made with Peruvian ingredients (potatoes and camote were the stars, featuring in almost every dish). Everything from traditionals like mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie and stuffing to broccoli casserole, sweet potato casserole with pecans on top, and choclo. We all loaded our platters into the ProPeru office, joined together several tables, and sat down for a happy, loud, thankful feast. Even though I still greatly missed being at home, I couldn't have asked for a better Peruvian version of the holiday.

I am so thankful that I have been lucky enough to meet these amazing people and spend my time with them in Peru. My experience in Peru would have been completely different if I didn't have the spectacular ProPeru volunteers and staff that I've both worked and played with, as well as the amazing Peruvian and German friends I have made. These are people I want to continue to remain friends with, and I am so lucky that they have become an influence in my life. Thank you everyone for an amazing Peruvian Thanksgiving!

Monday, November 16, 2009

Now We're Down a Musketeer :(



{{Mira que te siento lejos; yo te busco y no te encuentro ahora}}

This weekend we had to say our final goodbyes to one of my best friends here, Claire. Claire arrived just a few short weeks after I did in September and it's hard to picture these next few weeks without her. Claire was always around; one of the first people I would call to get together, to get coffee or food at the Muse, to plan one of our adventures. We went to Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, and various other sites near Urubamba together. She was a core part of our group and it's just not right that Clara isn't here! No more girl-who-can-fit-through-the-window-bars and churro man costume, musketeers, crazy, fun, amazingly sweet Claire here with us. That puts us at just 15 days until Maddie leaves, and only 20 more for me here. How is Peru coming to an end so soon?? Too soon, as a matter of fact!

Puh-roo misses you Claire and we all can't wait to see you back in the States at our epic ProPeru reunion! ;)

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Remember, Remember the NINTH of November



{{las palabras como patria o porvenir, bandera, nación, frontera, raza, o destino}}

The 9th of November is Día de Urubamba, so this weekend abounded with festivities to celebrate the 170th anniversary of this town. All last week leading up to the 9th of November the Plaza was scrubbed completely clean, all the Plaza buildings were painted white with a red stripe 1/3 of the way up, and a festival air abounded. Basically, Friday night until Monday night was one giant party throughout the district. Villagers came from all the nearby towns in the valley--Yucay, Huycho, Hyallabamba, Chichubamba, just to name a few--to participate in the Miss Urubamba competition on Saturday. This constsis of competitions in best indigenious dancing, best cooking, best sewing of costumes, and in general, best overall representation of the culture of the Urubamba valley.

Then all day Sunday was the Gastronomical and Handicrafts fair in the Plaza. There was all sorts of food--from cuy (guinea pig) to homemade honey from way up the mountains to lomo saltado to special varieties of potatoes with ají and mayonase to chicha--along with beautiful alpaca woven sweaters and hats and scarves and blankets or carved and painted gourds. All native woman proud of what they had made by hand stood by their displays, encouraging you to try their marmalade, feel their sweater, stop for a huge, frothing glass of chicha.

But around 3 on Sunday, the mood in the Plaza changed in preparation for the giant party that was to be there that night. Bands were coming in from Cusco to sing every type of Peruvian music--wayno (folkloric music), cumbia, rock, salsa--so they started putting up the stage decorated with giant Pilsen Callao signs and blasting music from such groups as Grupo Cinco (5) and Hermanos Yaipen (cumbia songs I now know all the words too...). And then out came the Pilsen. Cases upon cases of a dozen 40s were stacked all over the Plaza and the Peruvians began to drink. When Peruvians party, they PARTY!

I went to the festivities later that evening with some of my best ProPeru friends, several of our German volunteer friends, and a few of our Peruvian friends. The road in front of the stage (which was placed, ironically enough, on the stairs in front of the church) was packed like a mosh pit with Peruvians dancing to their favorite wayno and cumbia songs. I can't count the number of times Peruvians tried to offer us beer or asked us to dance because we were gringos, but we had made ourselves strict rules to not separate because we would immediately get lost in the press of people. So we all danced together on the stairs by the stage with a perfect view of the party below. I loved being there as a part of the festivities and showing my pride as an Urubamba citizen. I'm definitely coming home with an Urubamba flag!

And it didn't stop with Sunday, since Monday was the actual Día de Urubamba. From about 9 until 3 Monday, every school in Urubamba and the surrounding districts marched in their school uniforms in front of the main dignitaries of Urubamba and a congressman (still not positive why he was there...). The little kids were the cutest because they couldn't follow the rhythm of the military-style marching and just swung their legs and arms sort of randomly to their own internal beat. All the children wore the most serious looks on their faces as they marched, which dissolved into smiles and hugs as they reached the end of the parade and were scooped into hugs by their parents.

That evening the festivities continued with party part two in a park across from the bus terminal. We also went to that, which not only had more live wayno and cumbia music for dancing (including a very famous singer from Cusco who arrived late, after I left, because she had problems with her car from Cusco to Urubamba), but also carnaval rides and foosball tables. Kids were running around the traveling carnaval, playing, insanely happy, while their parents and siblings danced and just let loose.

But it was back to work as normal for everyone on Tuesday, though I am sure there were quite a few blurry eyes!

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Here Comes the....Rain! Woo?!

{{Raindrops on roses}}

The rainy season is officially beginning here in Peru. Now, along with lugging your fleece with you everywhere so your family doesn't worry that you'll get sick because you didn't "abrígate", you also have to make sure to lug your rain jacket. You never know when the wind might bring in the heavy, dark clouds that seem to permanently hang over the mountains and dump heavy buckets of rain over Urubamba. The rain pours for a while--10 minutes maybe, an hour at the maximum--thundering against the metal rooftops, creating rivers and lakes in the streets, drowning the plants, as heaven opens up above us. And then it stops and the clouds clear and suddenly it's sunny and hot again. Or sometimes it stops but the clouds remain all afternoon, a grey covering over the sky (reminds me of home! That's what it's starting to look like there, no?. You leave your house and have to wade through the mud wallows that now populat the streets, looking as the homeless dogs that wander Urubamba shake themselves of excess water that they couldn't hide from and continue their wanderings for food and who even knows what. The mornings are all quite hot, however, the sun beating down with extra force, as if to try and make its last stand against the clouds and rain that are about to come. It smells fresh now, the earth happily drinking up the water that it receives. My family has been worried that it hasn't been raining as much as it normally does this time of year because many of the crops aren't growing as tall as they should be. Let's hope that it keeps coming in force.

The scorpions are also, unfortunately, coming out with the rain. I hadn't even known that there were scorpions here in Urubamba until Michaela found one on her bedcovers one day while napping. My family informed me that the scorpions signify that the wet season is coming soon, which I find funny because I always have associated scorpions with hot, dry places where the coming of rain is like a gift from god. I search my shoes and my bed every day, but so far no scorpion sightings in my house. Let's keep our fingers crossed; hopefully I haven't cursed myself by saying that!

It's off to Spanish class now. See y'all later!