Thursday, February 5, 2009

Quechua!!!

So I’ve been away for quite awhile. I was up in lima for two days visiting a friend. After that, I had quechua class. Therefore, I have not written much in the past couple of weeks. However, now I’m back and writing again. So, quechua class, what is quechua, why do I have class about it? Quechua is the indigenous language that is still spoken in the country of Peru. It dates back to the Incas (I think or I’m just making that up haha). However, it has no resemblance to Spanish and is therefore rather difficult to pick up. I think it most resembles German. The pronunciations are rather difficult and although that grammar is kind of similar to English it really doesn’t help. The language you were born speaking with doesn’t really help you learn other languages, at least that’s how I feel. I’ve learned Spanish. So, other languages similar to that would be easy to learn. A language similar to English is not really easy to learn b/c I don’t think about grammatical structure and all that jazz when I speak English. I just know it. I hope that made sense haha. Anyways, learning quechua will allow me to speak it with the people in my town. The people here in the canyon love when a gringo can speak quechua. It’s not really necessary to learn but it’s better to know it than no to know it. So, I’m working on my third language now…pretty sweet.

Other than that, not too much is going on. I’m heading across the canyon today to attend my friend’s town festival. I really don’t want to go because I know I’ll be forced to at least drink a little. However, I’m arming myself with my younger brother so I have a legit excuse not to drink haha. Unfortunately drinking is a huge problem at these parties. Also, peruvians seem to be those people that get really drunk and don’t pass out. If you saw these people you’d be amazed they are still standing and functioning in their state. Buttttt, of course the poor towns are spending their money on liquor and beer. The cool thing about the parties is the traditional dancing and stuff like that. I don’t really want to dance anymore either haha. However, there’s this band that’s supposed to be popular which is called Genesis. Now, I wish it was the one with Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins. However, I’m pretty certain it’s not. So, we’ll see how they are in concert haha. The bands here are crazy they play from about 8PM til 6AM. Maybe their counterparts in the U.S. should ponder playing more than an hour and a half when we pay about 60 dollars to see them. Just a thought.

That’s about it. I have a regional meeting this weekend in Arequipa at our regional coordinators house. We’re making hot wings..yessssss. Also, it was a pretty good super bowl. It was basically the eagles cardinals game over again except the cardinals lost, haha. But you can’t complain about how the steelers won. That catch was pretty nasty. That’s it. I’ll post soon. Hope everyone is well.