Keeping Up With Tradition


Making our way through fall, real quick, and getting closer and closer to winter means we’re getting  into the thick of the holiday season. Luckily, on this side of the equator we’re actually making our way through spring and getting closer and closer to SUMMER. Since arriving in Perú I haven’t thought too much about how different my holidays would be but at least while we’re in training my fellow aspirantes are keeping up with traditions as usual.

The last week was filled with not only Halloween prep and activities but also the celebration of El Día de la Canción Criolla which falls on the same day. Halloween celebrations started last Saturday with a costume party at a discoteca in Chosica where the Halloween committee had pulled some strings to get us all in without having to pay a cover charge. On a S/. 8 per day kinda budget (roughly $3.25) anything you can get for free is incentive enough. Probably about 30-40 people from our group showed up at some point that night and no matter what we were wearing we would have gotten a few sketchy looks but, of course, we were dressed as Minnie and Mickey Mouse, a Christmas tree, a lumberjack, superheroes, gypsies, skeletons, Bart Simpson, Dora the Explorer and, in my case, a street dog with a monocle.

Note the bite taken out of Taylor's ear during a street dog scuffle
Okay, I realize this probably deserves some explaining but forgive me if it doesn’t end up being as hilarious as I think it is. A few weeks ago during lunch I was chatting with some other trainees about laser eye surgery and whether or not it would be cheaper to get done in Perú. My friend, Taylor, wants to get it done but is nervous so I told her she could get it done in one eye first to see how she likes it and then use a monocle for the other eye. The next thing you know the conversation moves to animals in monocles and we were literally in tears from laughing so hard. I mean imagine walking down the street and running into a street dog with a monocle. The dog would immediately be less sketchy and you might even think to ask it for directions to wherever you’re going. And so, to pay homage to the first tear-jearking, tummy-hurting, cheek-swelling laugh we’ve had in this country, Taylor and I were street dogs with pipe cleaner monocles. And it was amazing.

I had already explained my costume to my host mom but the next day at lunch she asked me to tell the rest of the family so I said, “Era una perra de las calles,” using the feminine version of perro because I’m a lady, DUH. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works. Basically, I told my fam that I dressed up as a “bitch from the streets.” They’re always super understanding and correct me without making me feel like an idiot but it was embarrassing nonetheless.

On the 31st the first half of the day was spent celebrating El Día de la Canción Criolla with music/dancing/singing. We performed songs in our Spanish classes and our teachers were all dressed up and performed their own songs and dances for us, too. They decorated our general assembly area to look like a restaurant and served snacks and drinks. It was an absolutely awesome. We shared a giant tub of candy and treats and couldn’t focus on anything else for the rest of the day. On top of the kick ass package full of Jolly Ranchers and Dum Dums I got from Jordan earlier this week, I’m pretty sure I ended this week with some additional cavities. Thank goodness for Peace Corps health care!


My Spanish tutor, Jenny, and Spanish teacher, Yessica
Our most advanced Spanish-speakers with a kick ass serenade

Later that night, I carved pumpkins with a few other trainees from the Tres de Octubre hood. When my family came home and saw the finished project they couldn’t get over it! They had a photo shoot with the jack-o-lanterns and asked a million questions. With all the volunteers they had in the past nobody had ever carved pumpkins with them. We found a candle to put inside and brought the pumpkin out onto the front stairs and my host mom called to people passing by to look at her pumpkin. It was hilarious.


My youngest host sister, Gianella, posing with the pumpkin
Oh! And of course we made a giant bowl of pumpkin seeds the next night and shared them with the family. Delicious!

We’ve got one more major holiday in Chaclacayo coming up. Thanksgiving will be our final day with our host family and the night before our swearing-in ceremony. It’s really the perfect day to show them how much we’ve appreciated everything they’ve done for us throughout the 10 weeks of pre-service training. As November turns to December we’ll be transitioning to a new family and Christmas will be an interesting experience but it’s all just part of that Peace Corps adventure.

Cuidanse!

CHAO.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bienvenidos a Guadalupe

Image
It’s hard to believe that I am only now entering the fourth week of my two years of service. On top of our ten weeks of training, Perú 20 has really only been in country for a little over three months. Yes, that can sound like a lot but in the grand scheme of a 27-month adventure it’s just the beginning. The first couple weeks at site were pretty difficult, which had absolutely nothing to do with my new host family, the people I work with or the community. My biggest struggles came from the transition itself. I went from the being surrounded by English-speaking friends from training and a training staff cheering us on every baby step of the way to a new home, new routine and a slightly scary sense of freedom. Training was super structured and demanding, but here I’m my own jefa and I set up my own schedule. For some people that can be very exciting but for me, major transitions freak me out. Thankfully, poco a poco , a true Peruvian phrase, is becoming more of a way of ...
Read more

All Aboard! Puno to Cusco - The Perez Family in Peru, Part IV

Image
As my wonderful and talented ghost writer continues chronicling our trip through Peru, my blog moves from Puno to Cusco on a kick ass train ride. Hope you enjoy Part IV of The Perez Family in Peru! There were a couple ways for us to get from Puno to our next stop, Cusco.   When we were planning the trip, we had seen and heard about train rides through this stretch of the country, and we decided to give it a try.   We took Peru Rail’s Andean Explorer (check out the journey on their site with a much better description than I can provide at perurail.com ), which is a ten-hour luxury train ride from Puno to Cusco. It took us between mountains and clouds and between mountains and highlands.   The Andean Explorer is beautifully decorated in the style of the Pullman trains of the twenties.   Marlee and Jamie with the train on one of the stops along the way. Love this photo! Bright and early, we were ready for a relaxing ride. We sat in a dining car, whi...
Read more

Prospero Año y Felicidad

Image
When I was younger, New Year's meant having my best friend over, feasting on sweet treats and a ton of sparkling apple cider and staying up waaay past midnight. One year I was lucky enough to be put on the guest list of a swanky party at the very top of the Bank of America building in the city to watch my dad's band play the event. Then it became more of watching movies with my fam and toasting to the new year at midnight (I mean there were a few wild years during the college times, but nothing to worry the 'rents about). Last year, my mom, sister and I were so consumed with the movie we were watching - NO, I think we were actually reading! We were so consumed with the books we were reading (to be fair, I was reading The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ) that when I glanced at the clock and 2012 was less than a minute away and we hadn't even popped the apple cider! So, of course, we paused the TV so we wouldn't miss the ball dropping, poured ourselves some apple cider i...
Read more