Cultural Difference #2 (Personal Space)

Whether it be a 3 hour trip or a 10 minute trip, all of us have ridden on a bus once in our lives. We board the bus, find the seat number we purchased or just an open seat and sit there. Likewise, we have all ridden in cars or vans. We find a seat and sit in the open seat. When there are no open seats left, we wait for the next van or try to find another means of transportation. This sort of behavior is natural to us and we really don’t think there is any other way. Well, in Peru, there is.

In Peru, the concept of personal space is really non-existent. If you were to board a van and sit in a seat, you should not be surprised if you have someone else practically sitting right on top of you. Also, there does not exist a maximum capacity for any car or bus here in Peru. Vans are like clown cars and buses are the same. From my site, I have to take about an hour or an hour and a half ride into the provincial capital. Never have a I been comfortable on one of these rides haha. Grandmas will fall asleep on top of you sometimes or kids will do the same. There just is no recognition of personal space. It’s natural and accepted to lean on people, sit on top of them, etc. Even on the buses there is no personal space. If you have an aisle seat you can be assured someone who is standing in the aisle will use your arm rest or back of your seat as their own perching place. It’s been rather difficult sometimes dealing with this aspect of the Peruvian culture. However, you really can’t say anything about it because it’s normal to everyone else.

Anyways, update on my life. The tourism association has been chugging along. It took us like 2 hours to give a name to the association but the name is Asociacion del Turismo Nacimiento del Rio Amazonas del Lari. It’s way too long in my opinion and I expressed this opinion but no one listened to me. The birth of the Amazon is located in Lari at the Nevada which is called Mismi. So, the other name of the association could have been Asociacion del Turismo El Mismi de Lari. I feel it has a smoother sound to it and everyone knows that the birth of the Amazon is at Mismi. However, I got shot down. Also, people in my town are looking to build hotels which I’ve already said is not feasible right now due to capital, demand, etc. However, most people just think hotels will bring lots of money. I’ve got a lot of things to try to sort out with the association. Other than that, tonight is what Peruvians like to call Noche Buena. All the Peruvians wait up until midnight and then open presents, light fireworks, etc. However, in my town no one really does anything. Those sort of events happen more within the cities. On Christmas Day, people really do nothing. They basically work on the chacra some more. It’s definitely going to be different for sure.

Soccer Update: So, we had a game on Sunday, our third. We started off the game pretty poorly. The other team scored three goals right away. Our goalie isn’t really too dependable. But then we scored a goal on a volley from like 20 yards away (that’s likeee 16 meters I guess???). Then, I scored one on a breakaway. But then the ref called a handball on us in the box which was crap. So the other team was winning 4-2 at halftime. In the second half I got pulled down in the box and I put in the penalty kick so we were down one. Then, this kid on our team had a nasty volley from like 25 yards out that went upper 90 (aka right underneath the cross bar). We ended up tying 4-4. The ref sucked haha. The defense kept on taking me down from behind which was pissing me off a lot. So I ended up pushing the one kid over and I got a yellow card hahahaha. Then, on Christmas day we played my brothers team and lost 5-4. It was pretty disappointing. Lets just say we need to buy our goalkeeper gloves so he can hang onto the ball. We ended up getting knocked out...grrrr. The thing I really can’t stand about playing with peruvians (I’m not saying all peruvians but pretty much everyone I’ve played football with) is how they cheat so much. It’s so annoying. I really can’t stand people who cheat. Anyways, also it annoys me that no one shakes hands at the end of the game. I’ve been here 4 months and every football game I play, at the end I run over and shake the players from the other team’s hands. But my team never does it. Hopefully by the end of two years the players here will start doing it.

That’s all. I hope everyone has a happy new year.