June 23 & 24: School visits, Feria and this is why you need to wash the fruit

Thursday morning we had a history lesson with Kathleen, the head of our technical training. She’s married to a Peruvian and has lived here for much of her life, so she is in a unique position to teach us a lot about Peruvian history but with a full understanding of the United States as well. Super interesting! We learned about the Spanish colonization, the republic the followed, one of the more famous military coups and the Sendero Luminoso. The SL is a terrorist organization that operated in Peru in the 80s, it’s a scary time in Peruvian history. After history class we divided into our TAPs groups and went to observe classes in the local schools. About 4 of us were placed in each classroom and we all came back with different experiences. Our teacher, at first, was very hesitant to even let us in the classroom because the school director had forgotten to tell the teachers we were coming. Once we were in the class though, the teacher basically opened up the floor for his students to ask us questions. While this was not the point of our visit, it was very interesting. We were in a class of 5th year segundaria students, so basically seniors. It was a little scary because we thought we weren’t going to have to speak with the group, but they basically wanted to know stuff about the states so it wasn’t bad. However, the teacher decided to ask us about delinquency in the United States and our thoughts on capital punishment. That’s when we found out we had walked into a civics class. Yikes!

Apparently a few of the girls decided I was alright, so they swarmed my desk after class. They invited me to play volleyball with them and to chat with them online and to come back to class the next day. None of which I was actually capable of doing at that moment, but it’s nice to know that at least a few Peruvian teenagers think I’m cool :-P After the school visit we went back to the center for lunch, Spanish class and one of Jorge’s famous medical charlas. This one was on all the diseases we could possibly contract during our time in Peru. It’s a good things he’s a funny man because most of us just walk away scared by the end of these chats…..scared and yet laughing :-P

Friday was el dia de somebody. I know I should remember these things, but I can’t honestly keep the Saints straight sometimes. Instead of classes we had a day of games. Before the games started we elected our Junta Directiva; which is sort of like student counsel for us. I’m one of the vocales, so I go to the meetings to help the officers make decisions. Our two major tasks are the host family celebration at the end of training and the Peru 17 souvenirs. Should be fun!
For the feria we all broke into smaller groups to plan fun activities that you might play in the states. My groups set up bottles that you had to knock over with a ball, like the carnival game. We also played musical chairs, spud, red light/ green light and chicken in the penthouse. Sue and I won our round of chicken in the penthouse and I’m pretty sure it’s the new favorite game of our training class! I’m available to be challenged whenever someone feels brave enough :-P

After our games, the real excitement began. The language staff put together a few traditional feria activities that we might find on celebration days in our host sites. The first was a chance to try one of the traditional dances from Peru. Naturally I volunteered. I was promptly handed a strip of paper the tuck into my waist band and told to dance fast enough that it couldn’t be set on fire. So I wiggled my may around the terrace while the boys chased me with candles...ahhh! For our second activity we had a few rounds of cuy betting. This consists of putting a live cuy in a ring of boxes and betting on which box it will run into, each box had its own prize. There will be pictures on day I promise. Then lastly we moved to the main part of the garden where they hung colorful banners and decorated a tree with balloons and presents. We got in a big circle and danced around the tree while throwing flour at each other and passing a jug of juice (at real celebrations this would be some form of chicha, an alchoholic beverage, but we were in class after all). Then things got even more exciting when they brought out the machete. That’s right, I said machete. We all took turns dancing, in pairs, into the center of the circle to swing the machete a few times at the tree. Then you return to the circle to continue dancing, throwing flour and drinking “juice.” Don’t worry; no actual trees were harmed in the making of this event. The grounds keeper dug a hole and stood an old limb back up for us to chop down, because you hack at the tree until it falls and everyone takes the presents.
Best part? I’m not making any of this up :-P

All our activities were done around 1 at the center so a group of us went to Chosica. The sun was out so we sat around in the park for a few hours. It’s was great. That night though, I learned the hard way that there is a reason staff told us to only eat fruits we could peel at first. I won a delicious bag of plums for my brilliant fire dancing and ate them while I was lying around in the park. Around 8 or 9 it felt like a small, angry creature took up residence in my stomach and I spent much of the night crawling out of bed to the bathroom. No fun at all, but luckily the whole thing played out in just one night. I felt a little worse for wear in the morning, but it was all over in about 12 hours. Phew!