Snakes in jars, parties and wanka coolness

Its been quite a good week :)

We went up to the school on Monday but its been nationals holidays here for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday so a total of 4 children showed up. The holidays are to celebrate Peru´s independence, though a lot of the planned parades and stuff had to be cancelled in the interests of swine flu control... :( So Monday we decided to close early and we headed to Huancayo´s daily market (different from the Sunday market) which was huge and maze like. They had different areas selling different things, with shop after the shop selling the same thing within that area...I dont know how they stay in business. We ended up strolling into what seems like the apothecary section, with jars of herbs and liquids labelled with all the things they suppossedly cured. They had mule fat for pain, jars full of life frogs for colds and dead cut up snakes in jars which you are meant to drink the liquid from for your lungs or rub the snake carcass against your skin for skin problems. Gross but oddly fascinating.

Then we came accross the section that sold the traditional peruvian skirts that people wear during the holidays, which I later learned cost around 1000 soles each, equivalent to about 350 euros!

It was nice to see the market that the locals shop at rather than the one set up for more touristy things. It was disturbing though that the locals bought their meat at this place where there is no cold storage, no real higiene and dogs running around as they please. I guess their bodies are better adapted than us weak Europeans...

On Tuesday we didnt bother going to the school at all because all the children would be at home celebrating with their families as this was the main day of the holidays. We were invited to another traditional party and Patty had to get dressed up in the traditional outfit! We were late getting there because of car trouble so we missed lunch and once we got there everyone was already dancing and drinking. Me and the other 2 volunteers (thats what we are down to now!) decided to leave and get some lunch as it seemed the party would mainly be drinking and we didnt know anyone. So we got in a taxi which took us to this restaurant out in a rural village that was right on a lake. The village was lovely, just a few houses and their small fields. Cows, donkeys and sheep roaming round. The farm animals look so cute at the moment because they put colourful ribbons around their ears for the holidays. Most of the villagers were out on the little school field playing sports because of the holiday.

The restaurant consisted of an open field/garden with makeshift wooden tables made out of the surrounding trees and a shack like building as the kitchen. When we arrived the owner came over to us, very welcoming and told us the 3 things on the menu. It can be good to be foreing, or gringas as the call us here, as we seem to get the best treatment!! Me and one volunteer ordered trout and the other this traditional dish consisting of different meats, including guinea pig :(. The meat dish was kept next to a fire burning on the grass in the middle of the restaurant, but thankfully no food poisoning ensued. The trout was great and we got given this fermented corn drink which is typical around here (see photo).

Once we were fed we headed towards the ruins which involved a nice climb up a hill that gave us a view of the whole valley. The ruins at the top were from the wanka culture that lived in the valley before the incas arrived. Last sunday we went to visit some other ruins which were even pre wanka, so from before 500 AD and in the museum of that place we saw pictures of the buildings that still remain from wanka times in the surrounding valley. One of the pictures was of the ruins we visited on Tuesday so I was all clued up on what we were looking at and I was telling the other volunteers about how it was all used for food storage etc. The views were the best part, you could see the huge, snow covered mountain we visited on Saturday and all the valley.

It started to get dark (gets dark here by 6 15) so we headed back and caught a "combi" back. These are the local buses which dont really have any stops you just get on and off anywhere. You can tell what way they are going because there will be someone hanging out of the door screaming it. They are small mini buses and they pack them tight tight. The one we got on was really full and we had to stand half the way, which for us tall westerners meant crouching because the roof was really low. 45 mins of bus ride was less than 50 euro cent and took us to the bottom of our street. That evening we headed out to see if anything was going on party wise but all festivities were cancelled. So we went to a restaurant on the square and tried some of the local drinks, I had Pisco sour and wasnt amazingly impressed. Its basically lime juice, pisco (local type of alcohol) and sugar. Glad I tried it but wont have it again!

With any luck there will be more children at the school today so we can teach them the numbers in English. Yesterday with the kids there were we did introductions in Englisg, so "Hello what is your name". Worryingly one of the kids who was around 8 couldnt even read the Spanish properly and couldnt imitate me when I tried to teach her the English. I spoke to Juan about it later and he said that although school is free here, some children dont start their first year until they are 7 or 8. There are also a fair amount of handicapped children in that part of town, though its not generally recognised. Mainly caused by malnutrition and perhaps from not being looked after properly as babies if they are left to be looked after by their young siblings like very often happens. I doubt very much that there is any help with things such as dyslexia. The volunteers do what we can at the project but sometimes you are left with the feeling that the problem for some children is so big that it would be very hard to fix with 2 hours a day of extra schooling. I try to focus on that fact that if anything we are opening up their minds to the fact that there is another world beyond their neighbourhood and we are giving them a safe place to play so they are not on the streets. Its also nice that they can have toys at the project that they wouldnt otherwise have....

love to everyone

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