You're Invited . . .

Dear Reader,
I fondly remember fill-in-the blank invitations for parties when I was younger. Here's one for you.

You're invited to a party!

Where: Sara's house 

When: Friday, June 25, 6 p.m.-?

Why: To party (sort of) Peruvian-style to celebrate Inti Raymie, our safe return to the US, and Matthew's golden birthday.

R.S.V.P. Please send a note to sara.wells2@gmail.com so we know how much food to make.

Although many of our friends are far away from Columbus, for those of you who are nearby and want a psudo-Peruvian party experience, come on over! We'll be serving delicious non-meat foods (no guinea pigs or chicken feet) and the famous Pisco Sour. We have plenty of party music that we bought in Peru for about $1 at what Matthew claims was the black market, so dancing will be encouraged.

We hope to see you there!

Home, again

As Matthew said, the posts will keep coming. I don't feel compelled to write as often as I did when I was in Peru, probably because I can share stuff easier than before. Anyway, there is more to write about, so here's my turn:

Towards the end of our time in Peru, I surprised myself by how homesick I started feeling. Because I was excited to return home to my family, I didn't put much attention towards leaving our small community with some closure.

Matthew and I spent our final week painting furiously with our new English friends (and I fought a stubborn migrane), instead of volunteering in the classrooms. We tried to take advantage of the sunlight as much as possible because it was dark by 6 p.m. Aside from talking with curious children who constantly checked in on the mural status, we didn't hang out with the students very much. Late Friday night I realized that we didn't make any official announcement about our leaving and Saturday morning was particularly difficult for me because our sobrina Dana didn't have a clue we were leaving that afternoon. I felt awful.

Before heading to Cusco for the 21 hour bus trip to Lima, we made our way around Oropesa taking photos of important places. Eventually we headed to school to photograph the murals. As we walked closer, we heard the familar sounds of recess. What? On a Saturday morning? Apparently I hadn't understood the conversation that had taken place the day before among the teachers. The students had to make up a day of school that had been canceled earlier in the month.

We photographed the murals and made our way to see what was going on with the students and their athletic-themed make up day. We were fortunate enough to see the preschoolers play a kindergarten class in a 10 minute soccer game, and to have the opportunity to talk and visit with some of our favorite students and teachers. The realization that Matthew and I were leaving without finishing the murals or really saying goodbye made me feel like we were abandoning our volunteer positions in the middle of the school year, although I had planned to leave in early June when we started our journey in January. I am thankful we got to see the students one last time.

So here I am, home again after a crowded combi, a taxi, a long overnight bus ride, two flights, a short train trip, and finally a megabus.  I'm back where I started, in the house where I grew up, living with my parents and one of my younger sisters.

I made it to Marie's graduation (the reason I wanted to come home at such a specific time), where I saw both of my sisters and all four of my grandparents again for the first time since January. It's to be expected that I have been experiencing mixed feelings about being back. I cried saying goodbye to our family in Oropesa and got teary seeing my family again. It's been nice to have hot water just by turning a faucet, to have an immense amount of reading material at my disposal, and to have a coffee pot in the kitchen. It's been strange to flush my toilet paper (or to have a toilet seat at all), to be able to drink water that comes from fountains and faucets instead of buying bottles, and to be able to put on functioning seat belts.

I'm working on adjusting my whole thinking process. The other day I didn't realize that if I bought a gallon of milk (non-evaporated, actual cow milk!) at the gas station on the way to the library, I'd have to take it home to refrigerate it. What? Refrigerate the milk? Oh yeah, refrigeration, and it's summer. I also couldn't wrap my mind around the need for a can opener, much less an electric can opener. Wow. In Peru (this is how I begin many of my sentences now), the only cans that were opened contained evaporated milk and we opened them with a knife, most often one missing its sharpened tip.

I'm back in Columbus, where the scenery is exceptionally flat, reflecting on my crazy experience in Peru, reconnecting with people I haven't caught up with in a long time, and deciding how to live my life. Not surprisingly, I'm drawn towards work with children. Poco a poco, I'm making progress and figuring things out.

last day in Oropesa

Matthew, Matthew and Matthew painting the Ocean (Matthew 1 failed to get the memo of blue shirt grey pants)

Today was our last day in Oropesa. It feels sad to know that our time here is over, mainly because now that I have finally started on my mural projects, I feel useful here and part of a community. I love the feeling when I walk into school, paint brushes at the ready, and nearly every kid who walks by says "Hola Mateo, ¿Que estas haciendo?" They all know my name and are throughly interested in what I am painting. I feel the mural of the world (now labeled with every country) is the most useful and touching painting I have ever created. Nearly every kid walked by after school, stared at the map, and wanted a geography lesson. Many times I walked back to the mural after cleaning my brushes and found Sara or one of the Matts (we met 2 volunteers from England, both named Matt, and they have helped greatly with the two murals) with their arms stretched out telling the students where one country or another was located.

Sara giving a geography lesson.

My idea for painting a map of the world as accurate as possible, with labels for every country, came from seeing that there was not a single current map in the school, and very few extremely outdated maps. And also some kids were unaware of which country they lived in. They now have a 11ish feet (I measured the map in centimeters) by 9 ft map of the world painted on the wall as they enter and leave school. With another mural facing it on the opposite side with the theme of cleaning the earth.

Our World completed. (Though I now hear its missing a few minor countries)

A week has passed since I wrote these first two paragraphs. Blogging is a bit difficult at times because keeping the mood and feelings of a week ago is so difficult now that I am in a setting so very different. I am now sitting in Glenview Illinois, in an air conditioned house, wearing shorts and using a very sluggish internet that barely works. (I have also taken three hot showers and brewed my own coffee) A week ago we were saying our tear filled good-byes to teachers and students at our school and to our Peruvian family in Oropesa. We were also lucky enough to talk to them on the phone before our flight. I knew this trip was time well spent when I heard the voice of Dana our niece say very cheerfully "Hola tio Mateo!" It is odd to think that right now on this same earth, the same land mass (though now split by the Panama canal) is a landscape 12,000ish feet high containing a lifestyle so very different than mine now.

Our Peru family. Yes I am wearing a cowboy hat, it was a departing gift. 

A quick game to play as my internet connection is so poor I might loose it at any moment. Can anyone guess what was the first thing I noticed upon arriving to the States? No it was not diversity (though there is quite a lot when compared to Peru), it wasn't the lightness of peoples hair. It was the obesity of Americans that I noticed first. My goodness our younger population is LARGE.

And a brief note, just because we are now home, does not mean the blog updates are going to stop. They might be a bit more infrequent, but we still have a lot of writing about cultural exchange, differences and grievances to do. As well as talking about how a simple trip to volunteer in a foreign culture can change your views for life.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

I´m coming home in 6 days...count ´em...SIX!
And it´s not even that far, right?
43.5 centimeters, according to my giant ruler.
Love you and see you soon <3

Coming Back, and Answers to Some Questions

After leaving Columbus and before departing for Peru, Matthew and I spent a few days in Chicago doing last-minute errands before the big trip. I was nervous. I was scared to go through customs and thought I didn´t know enough Spanish to survive. The way my body decided to cope was by letting a giant rash break out on my neck that didn´t go away until we landed in Lima. Great.

Now that I´m only a few days away from making the return trip, the migrane that started last Friday and decided to make itself known more forcefully for the better part of the following 5 days has finally gone away. I think. Who knows? Maybe it´ll be like the fickle water situation we had in our house and it´ll come back. Maybe I´m stressed about transitioning back? I know it´s going to be tough to buy stuff after spending the equivalant of 30 US cents on a soda, or on a small tube of toothpaste. I don´t know what I´m doing "next." I do know that I´m excited to see my family again.

Here is a list of interesting questions I received the other day, and my responses.

What do you miss about US cities that Peru doesn't have?
Trash cans that are conveniently located.

Do you miss anything?
Things to read that are in English! At home, I have the newspaper, magazines, and a huge shelf of books I have been "too busy" to read. Here, Matthew and I share English books that we carefully choose at book exchanges. I´ve read a few good things, but am holding off on our last book until our 21+ hour bus ride and the plane rides. I haven´t been reading enough.

Also, coffee drinks and regular sized sidewalks without random holes/broken concrete/drop-offs.

Are you turning into Mark Twain and now that you know all about other cultures, you're not nearly as enamored by them?
I didn´t know much about Peru before coming, except for what I learned looking at some library books. I don´t know what I expected. I can say that I´m absolutely still amazed by the Incas. Although I´ve seen enough old rocks for a while, the technology that the Incas incorporated into their architecture is incredible. The current lifestyle in Peru is tough. I´m so impressed with the work that people do day-to-day without complaining. For example, on my way to school today, I saw 3 donkeys strapped with giant bundles of reeds and a woman with her own enormous load tied to her back walking to who knows where. People work so hard. I do want to learn about other cultures, but am ready to return to my own for a bit.

How hot is it RIGHT now?
It´s cold, but that´s because it´s night. It sounds obvious, but in the sun it´s really hot and in the shade it´s really cold. I was sweating painting one of the murals today, but in the late afternoon the sun disappeared and we got a little sprinkle. I was freezing!

What is the temperature at night?
Really cold. My bed has a sheet and 3 heavy blankets. When I get into bed, it does not feel warm enough, so sometimes I sleep in my hat, gloves, and socks. Always with socks. If I leave my room to walk to the bathroom or kitchen (or anywhere), it´s outside. Peruvian house structures have an interesting combination of indoor/outdoor architecture, which is really cool, except when it´s the middle of the night and I need to use the bathroom.

How much does it cost to live on a weekly basis?
Oropesa is pretty inexpensive because it´s a small town, but Cusco is much more expensive, especially now that it´s tourist season. However, our experience is that Peru is generally much less expensive than the US. I don´t know how much I spend each week, but to give you an idea of what things cost here (divide by 3 to get the US price)...
 · Lunch (includes soup, main course, and a drink) s/3
 · Internet (one hour) s/1.50
 · Three eggs s/1
 · Five pieces of bread s/1
 · Ice cream s/1-2.50
 · Bootlegged Beatles 2-disc CD s/7
 · One month´s rent for a large, fully furnished room s/200

Are you excited to come home?
Yes. For reasons already listed, and additionaly because it´s summer in the states.

Are you ever going back?
Maybe. Lots of people are shocked that we´re leaving and ask if we´re coming back. (Today one girl told me I should go home and come back in 10 days. I told her I´d think about it.) We didn´t take any trips to the jungle, which has it´s own wonders. There´s definitely plenty more to see and do here and lots of kind people we´ve met.

How tall are you in comparison with average women your age?
Taller. Except sometiemes when they´re wearing giant hats. And even though you didn´t ask, I´m taller than lots of the men too.

Our Life in Ruins

We have been having a whirlwind of a time these past couple weeks. Started working on a mural, were visited by some friends from Boise, did a lot of last minute shopping, met and befriended some Brits who assisted in painting mural (both are named Matthew) and purchased a tourist ticket to see 16 sites (we visited 14). I could write about everything but then Sara would get mad at me for hogging all the fun stories so this will only be about the ruins, and trust me, that is plenty.

So Cusco makes you purchase a Boleto Turistico to visit the sites, it cost S/.135 and is good for 10 days. So we were hardcore tourist for 10 days. The good news is during these 10 days we were visited by my friend Dan Broockmann and his girlfriend Diane Kenski. Dan is a couchsurfing friend I met in Idaho, the most fascinating thing I can say about him is he has a bathtub in his backyard (surrounded by an amazing garden) which is great to soak in while watching a meteor shower.

 A disclaimer, because of the amount of sites visited and the attention span of most individuals, I am only going to include a small tidbit of information about each ruin visited.

Our tourism kick starts with Ollantaytambo, a massive ruin about 2 hours north of Cusco, located in the high rainforest or Peru and the hardest to reach from Oropesa. The highlight of this site is the massive stones located in the temple of the sun. What is impressive about the site is that all the stones came from a quarry on the OTHER side of the river below. To get the stones to the site the Inca would divert the river around the stone. CRAZY, right? There are a lot of carved stones left stranded along a path which are called "the tired stones." This is also a site of an Inca victory over the Spanish. The Spanish horses could not climb the high tarracing walls, and in addition to the high walls, the Incas diverted the river to flood out the Spanish once they attacked. Brillant! (I am sorry to say I do not have photos of this site because we forgot to bring the camera card, we left it in our USB to upload photos for folks stuck at home. If you would like to see photos, you will have to wait ´til we return.)

A view of terracing on the 2 hour walk down from Pisac

Enjoying the stone couch at Pisac.

The next day we met Dan and Diane in Cusco with the idea of seeing four sites in one day. We were successful! This day started with a long cab ride from Cusco to PISAC, a town and ruin about 1.5 hours northeast of Cusco. The site is massive! I had the idea that we would climb to the site from the town but once we saw the site we all descided to cab it to the top, which was a good idea as it took 2 hours just to climb down! Pisac is a bit lower in elevation than Cusco and it was a HOT day. The site was impressive, though. There are two parts to the site, one is the resident section and the other is the sun temple, with terraceing everywhere. Hard to desribe in a short description...look at the photos, we remembered our card for the rest of the sites.

The total site of Tombomachay

After Pisac we took a cab back with the barganing skills of Dan and had the driver drop us off at TAMBOMACHAY, this site was so small all you need to do is look at the photo, because thats the whole site. Its only 7 Km from Cusco and was most likely a weekend retreat from the Inca.

Pukapukara

Right across the street and only 6 Km from Cusco (yeah, somehow in the info packet Dan was reading to us in his best archaeologist voice said that by crossing the street we were 1km closer to Cusco) is PUKAPUKARA. This is where the servants of the Inca would stay when he visited the retreat 1km away. It too was a small site but is unique because of the 2 door entrace. The name means "the red stone."

This is one massive rock that has passages carved into like a maze. This picture does not do it justice.

After crossing the 1km street we were in high hopes that the walk back to Cusco would not be very far at all. But it took a good hour or so to reach Q´ENQO about 4km from Cusco. Right now I am laughing a bit inside because I know probably somewhere around 100% of the people who just read Q´enqo mispronounced it. You have to click your toung at the begining. The name means "zigzag" and the site consist of a massive rock that has walkways carved into it. The site was probably used to sacrifice animals or maybe for Chicha (it is the drink of the gods, afterall) Q´enqo completed our 4 ruin day. Afterwards we had a bit of a walk back to Cusco where we got dinner and rested from our day of productivity.

The huge bowl of Moray, the bottom is planted to give the idea of what it was like.

Dan and Diane buggered off to Machupicchu and left Sara and me to fend for ourselves. Our next site was MORAY, about 2 hours from Cusco. It is a bit off the beaten path, but well worth the visit. We had to take a bus to Urubamba, get off early then catch a cab to Moray. Our cab broke down after dropping someone off so we got another cab. The most interesting thing about the ride out there was that our fellow passenger had a vest from Idaho. He worked for a program from the University of Idaho. Interesting, huh? And has a friend who lives in STL. Our cab dropped us off and we told him not to wait for us becaue we did not want to pay the extra money.

Ok the site. The site is a massive bowl carved into the earth with plenty of flagstone steps to help you climb down. It is thought to have been used to experiment with crops, as each terrace has its own microclimate based on the elevation of the terrace. The Incas used this site to see which crops grow best at which elevation. After we finished exploring the site we were without a cab to we started hiking it back the 13km or so Maras, the closest town. Lucky for us we flagged down a car passing by and made it back to Cusco in no time. We chose to skip Chincerro because it is only a church built on top of a ruin. Which church in Peru isn´t built on top of a ruin? Not many.

Relaxing on a wet Inca bench at Tipon. A zigzag wall is in the background.

Carved fountains at Tipon.

More fountains at Tipon. Can you spot Sara?

Inca Canal, it keeps going and going and going.

Next site, and closest to Oropesa, is TIPON. This was a massive site and so very close to our home. But it was a stiff climb to the top (Dan said the road up there is extremely bad and not worth using, so we hiked up an Inca road. Dan saw this site before us, but it was dark and they had only had 10 minutes to see the site.) This is my favorite Inca site. It has an extensive canal system, with one canal that appears to split the earth in half it is so large. Above Tipon is the site of Pukara, not part of our ticket, but free with the climb. So many tarraces and waterfalls. Que Bonita.

The pre-Inca site and place of the flea, these are all stone built homes.

Our next site was PIKILLACTA which was the only Pre-Inca site we saw. This place was also massive and had skeleton of a dinosaur and armadillo at the museum. The name meas the "the place of the flea" which is kinda a ironic. More on that later in June. There are huge walls everywhere because the Wari culture that built the site had entrances to their homes on the second level. Close by was the Incan Gate, another site not on our ticket, but still fascinating. After we saw the Inca gate we stood on the side of the road and waited for a bus to take us to Cusco. One did.

Sara hugging a stone. She loves the old rocks. This is one of the medium sized stones at Saqsayhuaman.

the 20% remains of Saqsayhuaman.With a massive Jesus in the background. No boundaries.

In Cusco we saw SAQSAYHUAMÁN again. It was worth seeing in the daylight. The site is massive with stones that weigh 3000 tons. WOW! It was used as a fortress to train troops and for religous practices.

Sorry this post has taken so long but as the days dwindle we are trying to sqeeze everything we possibly can into our trip. We also saw some museums, some better than others. Some had rocks in them and some had art and some had both.