Con creatividad todo es posible.

The coast of Ilo

Con creatividad todo es posible (this is a slogan of a cola comany in Peru, I have taken a liking to it)

I now sit at this computer with a view of the ocean right in front of me, my hair wind blown. Wind blown not from the ocean winds but from learning how to drive a scooter. Other than driving lessons nothing too exciting has occured since our arrival in Ilo, which is exactly what I have been looking for because now I can make a post about observations, social justice, and small tales.

Moto lessons

I start today´s storytelling in the Marcado (market) of Arequipa. We have not whitnessed this tale in person but have seen proof of its existance in photos. Their is this drink, which I call jugo de sapo, which some locals in Arequipa believe acts as viagra. This is how the drink is made, take a live frog, put it in a blender, and blend. Then drink. Sounds tasty huh? We have not tried this drink but we did eat a frog in a different way. We were looking for a prince.

Selecting our prince

Mmm! Taste like strawberry.

The food and juices are all extremely fresh. Juice of any combination and variety can be blended for your drinking pleasure. (even the frog juice is extremely fresh) There is a food culture here that is lacking in the States. Yeah, food traditions exist within families, but there is nothing like the culture or pride of Peruvian cuisine. What is an American food? Hot dog? The ice cream cone maybe (invented in the 1904 World´s Fair in STL)

Next is an obeservation. Con creatividad todo es posible. With creativity anything is possible. This phrase has many meanings to me. One. Creative minds can think of better ways of living. Two. The world is only as beautiful as your creativity. Imagination creates beauty. Learn to see things through a different lens. A river of brown water could be described as a river flowing with chocolate milk. (this is how a friend of ours in Lima described the nearby river)
This way of thinking is most evident in the children of Peru. While children of the States are locked inside with their game consoles, computers, or traveling outside with their bicycles from Wal-Mart drinking soda from a 2 liter bottle that was carried home in a plastic bag. The children here can find fun and beauty in the plastic bag, filling it with air and turning it into a balloon or stomping on the 2L soda bottles and turning them into skies or a sled to slide down a wheelchair ramp. The mothers here let their kids play and explore their creativity. I have never heard a mother yell at her childern because they were misbahaving, kids are allowed to be kids.

For my next observation we must travel to the streets. The streets here range in anyway imaginable. They can be nicely paved with large sidewalks or dirt paths that fill the air with dust lacking a sidewalk of any kind. The buildings can be empty lots or shells of buildings that could have been. They could be 3 stories homes nicely tiled and fenced in. A common site is to see these two very different structures side by side, both with their own kind of beauty. If I were to chose a home to live in during an earthquake, I would chose a Peruvian house of any variety over a States home everytime.

The people of the streets are as diverse as the buildings around them. Maybe not diverse in skin color, but diverse in status and culture. I can walk one block and see people and homes of the poorest of the poor to the richest of the rich. The poor live in little shacks while the rich live in forts complete with electric fences to keep invaders out. The poor here, to no surprise, are the minority, the indigenous. Similar to the States in that the wealthiest population are whites, the majority, the poorest are blacks, the minority. I could also add women as a poor minority, but that would require a lot more writing. All of the beggers of Peru that I have seen are indigenous, women, or disabled. This causes me to think of the injustices in the world. Is it human nature to exclude the minority? Is injust cross-cultural?

And something to wrap your mind around. A sociologist was explaining culture to me. If all the wealthiest people from every country in the world were to meet, there would be very few cultural differences. All would be educated and education closes the cultural gap. Now if the poorest of all countries would meet, there would be a large cultural gap and comunication would be nearly impossible. Education would be lacking, and with it a lack of world view. What would happen if poverty ended? Would cultural diversity end?

Matthew

Camera Update:
Repaired! I hope it was a permanent fix. Also now that my camera is repaied, more pictures of Sara will appear.