Weekend Happenings.

First of all, I want to say that I reread my last blog entry and was like, ¨Good God! Could I sound more morose?!?¨ I mainly wrote it because indeed it was a frustrating week and sometimes I do kind of feel like that. But for the most part I am very happy and I love being here. So for those of you that are overly sensitive to any slight expression of unhappiness (Mom), don´t despair. That being said, I´ll continue with the goings on of the fin de semana.

This weekend started on Thursday, which was a national holiday equivalent to Labor Day. Susan and I were both tricked into attending a 6 hour long agro-ecology diatribe which we were told was going to be a party. I was actually really excited about the topic until the speaker begain to speak. First he showed us a horrible video about Mexican campesinos who supposedly grind up rocks to replenish minerals lacking in depleted soils. The video was followed up by the speaker proposing that those in attendance, all poor farmers, begin the practice here in Peru. However, many of these rocks are in the hands of large multi-national corporations and, hence, are completely unavailable to the average Peruvian farmer. Sounds like a practical solution. Susan and I were both incredulous and made sure to point that out. The speaker avoided our questions about feasibility completely and recommended that they group together to place mass orders (on the scale of tons). At least the meeting ended on a positive note. Susan and I were approached by a woman who said, “Well you girls must take your vitamins because you are both so pretty and fat.” Why, thank you. What a compliment.

As for my counterpart, he recently told me that awhile ago he was learning English and Irish. Baffled by the comment, and convinced that Irish must be a language, I said, “Well, I only know English…I don’t know any Irish.” To which he replied, “That’s funny because they both use the same verbs…I am, you are, he is, etc.” It seems that he was learning English from an Irishman which still fails to explain why he thought he was learning both English and Irish. Either way, I came out looking like the idiot.

Until Sunday night, the rest of my weekend was less eventful. I was in Chiclayo Saturday night for my friend’s birthday and by the time I got back on Sunday I was running on little sleep. Thus, when three people came to my house at 8:00 to invite me to a birthday party I was less than enthused. Apparently lacking common sense, I agreed to go. My thought process was that it would aide in community integration. I´m not so sure about that. First of all, I threw on some jeans and went as I was which made me the most underdressed person there. I’m sure that impressed them. The first couple hours I passed sitting along one wall with the grandmothers of the birthday girl and my host-mother. Sounds alright until you consider the fact that I was being offered liquor and beer from one of the men there on a fairly consistent basis. Somehow the grandmothers have all mastered the are of declining but every time I attempted I came off as highly insensitive. I also had to eat cebiche around 9:30 at night which means that today I will most likely die. My participation in the dancing unfortunately began with an intoxicated young man who already has two children. His current wife was not there; however, his ex-wife who he left for his new wife was very much there. Their 6 year old child was also there. Luckily, he eventually left but then came my counterpart’s 17 year old son who regretfully asked me to dance just as a reggaetton song came on. Let me clarify that reggaetton should be avoided at all costs in almost all situations, but especially when in the company of elders, family members, and fellow community members. There is also an unspoken rule here that you should not look a man in the eye while you are dancing with him because if you do it signifies that clearly you are now dating. I have a bit of a problem with this rule and unknowingly left the dance with around four new boyfriends. Thinking I could leave early, as in around midnight, was shot down by the fact that my sister had provided the stereo. I had to stay until 2:00 AM when my host-mother finally determined that she could end the fiesta by simply removing the music.