It looks like I’ve already managed to acquire a Peruvian boyfriend. Unfortunately, he’s only eight years old and less than half my size. Perhaps the Spongebob Squarepants drawing he used to declare his love for me is indicative of our age difference. My friend Sara returned home the other night to find that her host-brother (my suitor) had left a card for me on the back of her chair. The self-labeled “papel de amor” included instructions for Sara to tell me that he loves me with all of his heart. He is apparently undeterred by the rather significant age difference as the other night he slicked his hair into a ridiculous side-part and bathed in his dad’s cologne to impress me.

As for my progress with the Spanish language, I have determined that my skills lie somewhere far below those typical of a 6 year old. My host-brother Alan is 6 years old and he rarely makes grammatical errors. The other night he made a simple mistake and my family started cracking up. I can only imagine how hard it is for them to keep a straight face while I talk. For example, the other morning my mom was trying to get into my sister’s room but it was locked. She came into my room and asked me for something which I assumed to be the key. So I tried to hand her the key and she looked at me funnily and asked me what I use to brush my teeth. Clearly I responded that I use a tooth brush and tried to hand that to her wondering what on earth she was going to do with it. She still seemed puzzled and asked again what I brush my teeth with. Thus, I handed her my floss figuring that maybe she was going to try to pick my sister’s lock with floss. At the time it made more sense than the toothbrush. Finally I realized, after running out of all possible teeth-brushing accessories, that she was after my toothpaste. But at this point I was still trying to connect brushing teeth to opening my sister’s door so I was kind of concerned about what she was planning to use my toothpaste for. Once I gave it to her she proceeded to put a small dab on her hand. Apparently she just wanted to brush her teeth but the toothpaste was in my sister’s room. It probably would have been easier and certainly faster for her to bust down the door. So much for my supposedly “advanced” Spanish level!

My mom also tried to tell me yesterday that I can not bathe for the next week because she discovered that I´m on my period. She’s convinced that I’ll get sick if I bathe while menstruating. Luckily what Spanish skills I do have came through and I was able to convince her to hand over the water for my bucket bath.

Dirty Feet

Recently we celebrated my host-dad's 43rd birthday. The fiesta took place in our house which was all good except that I think half of Peru was there. Later my host-sister told me that only about 20% of the family was there. We started off the night watching my cousin's quinceanera video which only lasted for oh, about THREE HOURS. Probably about 20 minutes of it were entertaining. Luckily my friend Michelle stopped by randomly to keep me company. My entire extended family probably thinks we're uber-strange because we were somewhat socially ackward. In Peru, as in many other Latin American countries, it is customary to share beer by passing around a bottle and drinking from one communal cup. Someone passes you the bottle and then you use the cup once they are done. However, when one of the señoras offered Michelle and I some beer we accepted the bottle from her and then of course proceeded to pour it into our own cups before realizing we were supposed to wait. Furthermore, I noticed at some point that we were both wearing Chacos which according to our directors is not so normal here. Exactly at this point we also both noticed that Michelle's feet were ridiculously dirty. Seriously, it looked like she hadn't bathed in months. So thinking that someone would take notice Michelle insisted on washing them. I, without thinking, insisted on taking photos of her washing her feet in my bathroom because it was a pretty funny situation. Stupidly, I allowed my host-sister to borrow my camera later that night to take some pictures of the fiesta. What I failed to realized was that everyone and their mother would then proceed to look through all of the pictures, including the pictures of Michelle bathing her feet in the upstairs bathroom. I'm fairly certain they are now convinced that people from the U.S. have some kind of foot fetish. Who randomly washes their feet in the middle of a party?!?

How to deter people from ever reading my blog again…

Today was kind of intense…maybe thought provoking is a better way to put it. I watched a movie about Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) in my Spanish class. The Sendero Luminoso was a Maoist group created in Peru in the 1970’s among the rural population with the goal of generating a completely different vision for Peru. Unfortunately, they relied on violence to accomplish their mission and thousands of innocent people were killed in the process. Government attempts to temper the revolution were likewise violent and the corrupt politics of Alberto Fujimori led to further human rights violations. Anyway, what is more important than the actual details of this period is to think about the impacts that such atrocities can have on a population, on an individual. I don’t think it’s really possible to fathom, but it’s imperative to realize how very real it is and that it does happen. (I would recommend that everyone read “The Little School” by Alicia Partnoy for a better understanding of what I mean. It is one woman’s actual account of life in a detention center during the Dirty War in Argentina.) Furthermore, it is necessary to recognize that genocide and disappearances persist today in various countries around the world. While they may not be happening in our own backyard, other human rights violations probably are. Severe inequalities exist in the U.S. as well.

To follow that up, a couple of people came from the U.S. embassy to give a presentation on the U.S. free trade agreement (TLC) which Peru will most likely sign before too long. Basically, it was exactly what I expected to hear—a stereotypically optimistic, glossed-over spin on free trade. In short, what the TLC will do is encourage more global trade and especially trade between the U.S. and, in this case, Peru. The most annoying part was that the main speaker tried to tell us that the agreement is environmentally friendly. The speaker based his argument on the fact that the TLC will hold Peruvian companies and factories up to U.S. environmental standards. Okay, but since when has the U.S. been a leader in clean production practices? How do you explain the tons of pollutants dumped directly into Lake Michigan by BP all under the guidance of the EPA? Also, is more “development” in the U.S. TLC sense of development really a positive thing? Increasing the number of factories and hotels in Peru doesn’t exactly seem like a smart environmental move. Last time I checked, the U.S. was responsible for more carbon emissions than any other country. Are we a good model for development? If anything, we, who by this point should be aware of massive environmental degradation and global climate change, should be encouraging the purchase of local goods and a reduction of consumption. Do we really need apples from Chile, cotton from Peru and everything else from China? Just maybe, we (as in the U.S.) are pushing for the signing of the TLC because we need it to sustain our own economic system and our own quality of life.

Anyway, I just thought I’d throw out a couple of hugely complex issues for you to ponder! My sister warned some of you that my blogs would turn into ridiculous, overly analytical reflections, so I didn’t want to disappoint.

Bob Esponja and Pogs

I spent part of this afternoon watching “Bob Esponja” with my little brother Alan. I have to say that watching Sponge Bob Squarepants dubbed in Spanish was highly entertaining compared to the other Peruvian television I’ve been subjected to thus far. Soap operas are a big hit, as are eccentric talk shows that may include anything from clowns to people being shot at with paintball guns at close range. My host-dad is a big fan of “La familia Ingels,” otherwise known as “Little House on the Prairie.” It´s kind of like watching it with a constant play-by-play analysis because he seems to have every episode memorized.

Alan is a big fan of pogs. He has 76 of them, which I know because he made me count them. He tried to teach me how to play but I still don’t get it. Alan is 6 years old. As far as I concerned, it appears that you just through one pog at the other pog until the other pog flips over. If you’re Alan, you continue to do this for hours on end, day after day.

Last week I learned a bit more about where I might be heading for the next two years. I now know that I will either be in the dry forest or the cloud forest. I have an inkling that I’ll be heading to the dry forest because it seems that most of the available sites are there. Interestingly enough, I probably won’t be too far from where I did my independent study project in Ecuador. All of the environmental volunteers will be going to one of the following provinces which are all located in the northwest region of Peru: Tumbes, Piura, Cajamarca, La Libertad, or Lambayeque.

And finally, some intriguing facts about Peru:
- The potato originated in Peru. There are more than 3000 different varieties.
- The two deepest canons on earth are located in Peru: Cotahuasi and Colca.
- The largest river in the world, the Amazon River, originates in Peru.
- The highest navigable lake in the world, Lake Titicaca, is located in Peru at 3,812 m.
- Peru has more species of birds, orchids, butterflies, and fish than any other country. Peru has 1816 bird species, more than what is found on the continents of North America and Europe together. It contains the second largest diversity of primates and the 3 largest number of mammal species.
- Of the 107 different biomes that have been identified, Peru contains 84.