The Last Supper

as it would have taken place in Peru:

I can't say for sure whether I miss cuy, at least as a cuisine option, or not.

Happy Holy Thursday.

Two things

that remind me of Peru:

1. This awesome llamafont site. I loled.
2. The stomachache I had last night from possibly eating something bad. (Maybe I shouldn't have left that sandwich in the car and then eaten it?)

1 Year (where are they now)

Hello again everyone. Hope the passing of time has treated you well over these last several months. Today is a milestone day in the lives of Matthew and Sara. One year ago today Sara and I went to Peru. (On the hour of writing this is actually when we landed in Lima) I thought I would do a "where are they now" type of post. Fill everyone in on the exciting lives that we live. Well I will fill you on my life and let Sara do her own. I remember when we first landed in Peru, it was a scary time. We had no idea what to do or how to read the signs or anything really, it was like landing in a alternate universe in a way. Now though I am confident that when we go back (because we most likely will) that shocking edge of the unknown will be gone, and life will carry on without any hiccup.

Since returning in June I have been in Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Maine, Massachusetts and Nebraska. I have experimented with facial hair (in the form of a handlebar mustache that didn't go over well with some.) Really I have been floating around trying to find where to go with life. So its only fitting that today, the one year anniversary of one life experience, that I should start another. Today was my first day as a graduate student at Boston University. Yes, I am in Boston, the Athens of America and I would not be here had I not experienced Peru. I am attending school to become an Arts Administrator so I can use arts as a way to shape the cityscape by providing a venue that promotes cultural exchange, because really everything we do is an essence of culture. Peru allowed me to realize the joy of working with youth and the positive affects cultural exchange can bring to youth.

A year ago, while landing in Lima, I never would have thought that just one year from then, I would be a grad student. So who knows where I will be in life next year (still a grad student as its a 2 year program, but where will I be in my career?) Life truly is an exciting adventure full of surprises. The question now is, what is Sara doing? Will she too come to Boston?

(pictures to come as I am far too tired to do it now)

As Anonymously Requested...

Some updates:

I recently spent 10 days in Chicago and St. Louis/Collinsville. It was a little quest to see if I really want to go to Chicago and to get a feel of the city as a living destination instead of a place to visit. (I also got to speak a little Spanish as Dora the Explorer at a fun cartoon-themed costume-birthday party!) I like that there are soooo many things to do in Chicago, that public transportation is much more readily available than it is here in Columbus, that I know several people already. So. We’ll see.

During my visit with Matthew, we kept busy and tried to avoid the hot, hot heat. We dodged killer wasps at a holy site, tried on paper mache hands at an art museum, celebrated his mom’s birthday, and danced our feet off during a wedding reception at the City Museum. (That's a photo of us looking awesome!)

I got back to Columbus Sunday evening in time to celebrate my “little” sister’s 20th birthday with a delicious [steak] dinner and ice cream cake. Lots of laughing, being loud, and funny pop-culture references from dad (thankfully, he’s been over the word “bling” for a bit...). It’s good to be home, back with my family, and events like the Sunday’s dinner are one reason I longed to come home to something familiar.

And now, more blogging on Peru:

I waited a long time to write about what we did in the classrooms in Oropesa, where we spent the final 2-3 months of our trip. Now that I have photos of the projects all together and I’ve been back in the US for about 2 months, I think it’s about time.

The first few weeks in Oropesa were tough. We mostly substituted in classes of very naughty kids until we had a regular schedule and assisted teachers however they wanted. Sometimes this meant covering cardboard boxes with wrapping paper to make them more aesthetically pleasing or sorting markers. Most times, though, we taught. Many of the teachers wanted us to teach English because Oropesa is near Cusco, one of the major tourist cities in Peru and English is a huge plus for the industry. (One teacher even told her kids that they needed to pay attention unless they wanted to grow up and be cart pushers. lovely, huh?) However, the kids got bored copying down vocabulary words and we didn’t make much progress there. We started giving the kids the choice between an art or English lesson and mostly ended up teaching art, which was fine with us!

Matthew and I brainstormed kid-friendly art projects we could teach in Spanish with few supplies. The first project was blind contour, which required only paper and pencils. It was basically teaching kids that art doesn’t have to look like real life. We made references to Picasso that flew over their heads then partnered the kids up and demonstrated the process ourselves. It doesn’t sound difficult: face your partner, draw him or her without lifting the pencil from the paper and without looking at what you’re drawing. It was difficult for the children, even after we demonstrated. They kept peeking at their papers and drawing legs and feet and things they thought were “supposed” to be there, though they couldn’t actually see them. From my experience, it seems that Peruvian children aren’t encouraged to be creative. For example, a young girl we knew was coloring animals from a coloring book and she was told which colors to use and was corrected when she wanted to use colors like purple for a monkey. We praised the kids who actually listened and created wacky lines, weird versions of people. This is my blind contour drawing of one of the students.

I should thank my 8th grade teacher for what I thought was our most brilliant project-the face project. It was brilliant because the supplies needed were minimal- paper, pencils and erasers, colored pencils, tape, and one half of a straight-on face shot from a mgazine. Finding the faces was the most difficult part, but we managed from old magazines Roxana had. When I did the project as a student, the faces we used were pretty much life-sized, but we just did what we could with any sized face. I cut each one in half vertically and we did a lesson about symmetry. I know faces are not completely symmetrical, but the students worked hard replicating the half face they were given; it was a concrete task they understood. For a "creative" bonus, I asked the students to invent five sentences about the person they drew. [Photos: 1.) A pile of the faces cut in half. Students chose at random, without seeing the fronts first. 2.) Examples that Matthew and I each drew using 2 halves of the same man. My recreation is on the left. As you can see, faces really aren't symmetrical. 3.)What I thought was the best job. 4.) I changed my mind about best job when we did this project with a second class. 5.) Another example.]

A teacher got word of a mosaic project Matthew did with another class and she wanted to do the same thing in her class, but didn’t have the same supplies. We modified the project using colored paper. The kids got into groups and had to come up with an animal/nature design they’d make in the mosaic style. I was doubtful about how it’d turn out, but it really took off. One particular group of boys who appeared to be disconnected and undirected developed an octopus/under-sea scene, complete with coral and fish that had eyeballs. Wow. [Photos: 1.) A pair works on their flower. 2.) Four girls work on their moon mosaic. 3.) The octopus design]

Matthew’s friend who worked at an art camp suggested we make flip books. It started off great, though explaining how cartoons/animation works was a little fuzzy. Unfortunately, we only worked on this project for one week before we threw ourselves into painting the two murals before flying back to the states. [Photos: 1.) Matthew counting out piles of 12 pieces of paper. 2.) We left a pile of started flip books with the teacher.]

If we weren’t teaching art, or had some time to fill, I was singing crazy songs with the students. I explained the words of the songs and sang in English and they participated with the motions (even the naughty kids!). I used “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” to teach body parts in English. I also sang “I’m a Little Tea Pot” and “The Itsy Bitsy Spider” with the younger children. All of the students loved the baby shark song that I learned as a camp counselor in Florida. It’s about going swimming and ends with a shark attack and loosing a leg. They also liked my favorite little birdie song that ends in kids making “beaks” with their arms and chirping like baby birds. The shark song was by far the favorite.

where will life go?

I feel I have made full circle now. I am writing to you all from a St. Louis Bread Co. (Panera) in Collinsville. A little over a year ago I was working for Panera to fund my trip to Peru and now I have returned, not to work but to borrow their internet to find work. And what a grueling task it is. How can you take experiences and knowledge gained from travel and apply it to measurable and employable skills? How can you transition from having your own work schedule and being your own boss while traveling to succumbing to the social norms and expectations of a professional world? Let me tell ya, it's hard. I am basically experiencing the same emotions I was a year ago knowing that my year of volunteering was coming to a close. I suppose life is just a series of changes and the willingness to adapt and accept the change is just one challenge life offers.

Now I know the last time I was in this situation people thought I was dreaming a bit. Some of the things they said was "How are you going to afford going to Peru? Shouldn't you start thinking about grad school or a job?" But here we are a year later and I have been to Peru and am now full of new world views and ideals. Really all I did was allow myself to go with the flow and now is no different.

One thing Peru has taught me is that I really enjoy travel, being in strange surroundings, meeting interesting people, and sharing the experience with others(writing/blogging). It has opened my eyes to new global topics and made certain opinions swell up inside of me. It has lead me to challenge the views of American ideals. So right now I think the clear path forward is to keep traveling. I return to the States (a country full of opinion) confused about how we choose to live life, wondering why, since day one, people have been criticizing our leader. I find myself asking the question "Who are Americans?" What are the fundamental believes that fuel our existence as a nation? Why is our educational system declining? Is it really declining? Why is it that 100 years ago, The U.S. of A was patenting things left and right, but now most new breakthroughs come from outside of our borders? I think the only way to find the answers to these questions is to meet some strangers spanning our massive country and search for some answers.

If you are thinking that one idea I have for life would be to go on a road trip to all 50 states to see what this country is like, you are crazy, but correct. If I was to go with the flow, I think I would start a domestic adventure to learn about the country I live in, visit every state, see what binds us and what separates us. Blog about it and if the stars are perfectly aligned make a book. Right now I will call this Plan A. I just have not removed my travel bug, and I think this adventure would put it to rest, for a bit anyway, and answer some questions (and create new ones I'm sure).

Some slightly more traditional ideas are grad school for art administration, which would help me start my own business sometime in the future (which is already formed in my head) Find a salaried job somewhere in the US dealing with art, youth and/or community (this idea is why I am currently sitting in a Panera). Apply to artist residencies. I think that covers most ideas at this point, if anyone wants to throw some more ideas into the mix, let me hear them, I am pretty open. And if you know of a way to make Plan A a reality, I am all ears.

Well back to writing cover letters. Argh.

P.S. For those interested here is one job I am applying too, bikesfortheworld.org to give an idea of what I am looking for.

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.