condor
river wild

lil kids
giving ur soul away haha
making sacrifices and such
hot
canyon
otra vez
waterfall
view of the fort from above
sweet look at the canyon
la fortaleza
madrigal is the closest...then lari is behind that...and to the right is maca
little waterfall
sweet nevadas
again
cool
condorsss
condor
arch

sweet view
i walked to madrigal at 5am this is a view of the dawn
carnaval tree cutting
carrying
the big pot with yummy caldito..kinda yummy
lots of food
all that is for my host dad

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.

Town Anniversary

we just built a puente colgante to maca...without the help of maca...chris´s fault

carrying the banner

drunkard fighting with the "security"

dance dance

high school dancing

me singing haha

my dad dancing with the high school..the guy with the green skirt

cool pic of the municipality

high schoolers

sweet pic of the castillo...a wooden plethora of fireworks...notice that its wooden haha

cool

more fire!!

cool pic of the church with the full mooon

llamaaasss

Pics from the Canyon

lizardddd

pic of the canyon at one of the more deep points...and there are towns there too dunno if u can see them

canyon

we´ve got a bunch of weird pics like this hahaha

i look really weird

nother pic

the oasis

Reflections on 2008

2008 has been a rather eventful year for me. I graduated from college and left to live in Peru
for two years of service with the Peace Corps. On the brink of 2009, all of which will most likely be spent in South America, I have some reflections and revelations. First, I must say, that I imagined before coming to Peru that I would lose touch with most of my friends back home. Luckily, that is far from the case. I even received a nice Christmas video from all of my friends in college which was greatly appreciated. Second, I definitely thought that the transition to Peru would be much harder. However, it has been smooth and I wouldn’t say easy but not hard either. Part of this is due to the fact that Peru and its people are quite stellar. Also, all the PC volunteers down here are really amazing people and provide a support network like no other.

Another thought which has come to my mind many times this past year in Peru has to do with development. Although we all believe that coming into impoverished towns to provide aid and assistance should be a good thing, it does have it’s down side as well. Recently, I borrowed a pollera (traditional dress) from a family here in my town so that I could participate in the typical dances for the provincial capital’s big party. When I got back from the party with the pollera, the person which I had borrowed the pollera from came to my house to collect the pollera and asked for 10 soles for the usage. I assumed when I borrowed it that it was out of good faith. Just like if you borrow a pot or pan from a neighbor. Apparently, nowadays people ask for money whenever they do a favor for someone else in my town. However, back in the day this was not the case. I think this partly has to do with the fact that there are now tourists with money that come through the canyon. Also, I think it has to do with the access to the city these people have now. Sometimes, it might even be better for a society to live in ignorance of the things which are out there in the outside world because I believe this area about 70 years ago had a pure sense of happiness which is hard to obtain. Once these people had access to the outside world, thoughts of things they did not have started coming into their mind and now people want money for anything. It’s interesting to think about. I still fully believe in what I’m doing, but it’s nice to think of the other side.

I think my fourth and final revelation which I would like to share with everyone would be in regards to people relationships. Last night, I was reading this book called Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. The protagonist in the story, Greg Mortenson, is a hardcore moutaneer who attempts to climb K2 in 1993. Unfortunately he fails and accidentally ends up in an impoverished Pakistan village in the mountains. This village takes care of him, feeds him the best food they own, treats him like a family member and so on. Regrettably, this remote town in the mountains does not have a school where the kids can study. Therefore, Mortenson promises to come back and build a school. He overcomes many obstacles and eventually gets back to start to build the school. However, at this point, he is a leader of an instution with a large endowment whose mission is to build many schools in the area. So, he tries to boss and push the villagers around as much as he can so the school can get finished as soon as possible. Well, one day, the town chief takes Mortenson aside and taught him a very important lesson about how he was handling the situation. Here is the quote from Mortenson:

” That day, Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I’ve ever learned in my life. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. We’re the country of thirty-minute power lunches and two-minute football drills. Our leaders thought their ‘shock and awe’ campaign could end the war in Iraq before it even started. Haji Ali taught me to share three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He taught me that I had more to learn form the people I was with than I could ever hope to teach them.”

I really love that quote and I think it relates a lot to my Peace Corps service. I’ve learned that we’re all in such a rush to get our work done everyday that we miss out on the most important thing in life, people relationships. Here in Peru, if I’m on my way to the chacra to work, it wouldn’t be uncommon for me to stop and talk to someone for a half an hour. That’s something we’d never do in the U.S. and I think it hurts our country as a society. So, if you don’t have a New Year’s Resolution, try to increase and strengthen your people relationships. The world runs on people relationships. If we can strengthen them, we will make the world a safer and happier place.