whims

1 month

As always at the 1 month milestone, I feel like I've been here for much more than a month but also don't know exactly where the time has gone. This morning I woke up (unfortunately somewhat late) to find a little painted Peruvain box, full of chocolates with a note that read: for Mariel, for ur time here in Peru. It was a gift from my family for the 1 month marker. So sweet. Good chocolate too. :) For lunch they cooked up a storm. I hadn't tried cebiche (a type of Peruvian sushi: fish cooked only by super acidic lime...the acidity of thier limes is something Peruvians are quite proud of) Loved it. Well, loved it was too strong. Enjoyed it. It's not fishy like I thought it would be. Just good. ALso, today I realized that I have begun to partially dream in Spansih. YAY! :) very good sign. Yes, my rooma has told me that now I speak in bothENglish and SPanish in my sleep. hehe.

THis week flew by! I discovered the cultural activities calender in the newspaper last weekend,which means that I'm going to be spending fewer weekend nights in the apartment wondering what to do with myself. It's also great because it gives me more that i can do with my boys. They don't get to go out much, especially insmall groups and I'm planning on taking a couple out to free activities I find in the paper once a weekish. THe only problem is money. Right now, I'm paying.

Tuesday I went with a couple of boys to the opening of a recently renivated photography room in the Museumof Art in the center of Lima. NOrmally entrance is 10 soles (3ish bucks) but it was free! yay! Dunno if they liked it or not, but at least they entered that museum and got to look around, be around artsy type people, and be exposed to something a little different. There were some photos from the photographer Chamby. WOw. Loved it. He shot int he 20s but his work was veyr much ahead of its time: not only for clarity but because he creatred art, didn't just snap a photo to remember an event. Wow. After we walked around in the park that surrounds the museum. THe boys liked that a lot more. Me too. THat part of LIma is so very very very different. It's oldand the arquitecture is European. Less noise, more glamour. Totally different. Rosa, the mom of the family, accompanied us. it was very nice. I know the boys enjoyed it. TRHe only problem is that we have to take public transport there and back and it's very tiring. I think I spent 3ish hrs. in transport that day. It was worth it, though. ON the way back, in the taxi, Rosa pointed out a group of people with buckets sitting on the side of the road. THey're there to steal food from the trucks which travel this road,she said. Scary.

Friday I went to a theater production which the other volunteer who came to peru thru the uwc comitee directed. The actors were kids and it was fun enough. Veyr impressive that he managed to direct because he hasn't been here long and only had 2 weeks of spanish before leaving. wow. AFter we went to his NGO (he lives there) which is a theater NGO for a 'Night of Stories? very fun. I slept there because it's about 2 hrs away from my house. WOw. I went form one end of the world to the other. THey performed the play in a college in VIlla Maria, one of the most southern points of the city, in the hills. I remember one night in Miraflores, staring down the coast of Peru when my friend pointed to a glowing light waaaay far away and said, that's the end of the LIma. Well, that light was a cross which I passed on my way to the college. I don't know how I wouldhave done the trip alone...luckily i didn't havto. I called one of Florian's (the volunteer) friends and we went together. SHe's Peruvian...thank god. WE had to take a million different buses to get there...and it's not exactly the safest area of Lima. SHanty towns, dirt road, poverty poverty poverty. We made it though. yay. THe NGO is in an equally poor neighborhood, if not more. When I woke up in the morning I took some time to just look around. WHere I live, it's obvoiusly the 3rd world,but it's more like the developing world. THere, it's simply the 'undeveloped world'...they don't have hot water int he ngo. it was good form me to see. ANother thing is that there arent tons of apartment buildings. Lima just sprawls on forever (which is very impressive at night:all the hills are full with dots of light from the individual houses) because people have individual houses...at least in the poorer areas. Houses perhaps isn't always the right word: they're definitely homes...maybe not houses.

AFter the Night of Stories/party, I had to wake up at 630 becaus I had to be back in Callao (2 hr. journey at minimum...but, miraculously there's a bus that passes exactly from the residential district werhe the ngo is to my house. 1.40 soles...that's like 40cents...2 hrs. wow) at 9 because one of the brothers in teh family's soccer team asked me earlier this week if I'd be the 'godmother' for their team. THere's a tournament within their school...big deal, annual thing. THe 'godmother' generally buys uniforms or a new ball, but i had no idea about any of this and i think they just wanted a blonde to walk with them during hte inaugueration ceremony. It was fun. Very immpressive. THey gave me flowers and, I don'0treally know. Hilarious experience. I was happy they asked me.

After the inaugueration (how in the world is that spelled??) ceremony I went back to Posada de Belen to pick up a couple of other boys to take them to a different art show. WE went to a expo. about Aids. Yea....in the beginning we were shown a documentary about a photo shoot for the cover of a magazine in the states about HIV/AIDS. The idea for the shoot was to fill a room with naked HIV+ people. We saw everything. They're so religious in the home, I wondered if they'd be bothered by that. THey said no, that they weren't shocked. THe exibit was very nice, I liked it. THe boys...didn't want to admit it if they did. I asked each what his favorite photo was. THey both said neither. But, when one of the boys left the room, I took the other overto a photo and asked him what he thought. At first he said nothing, but after a while he loosened up and as we were leaving he told me that yes, that foto was his favorite. :) exposure.

after that, i went by myself to another art exibit about nature. it was interesting. afterthat, to a bad concert which was fun enough...and then i came home to sleep. i htink i spent about4.5 hrs in transit yesterday.

I guess another marker of my 1 month here is that I got around to all these new places (wiht prior instructions from my family) all alone, without problems. I can be autonomously mobile in the huge huge huge labrinth of roads and buses.

yes, and so i begin another week and another month. i'm excited.

posted by Marielly @ 4:55 PM