Surprises

I’m constantly being surprised here and if there’s one thing I’ve learned is that expectations rarely match reality. There are good surprises, bad surprises, awkward surprises….I can never really predict what each day will be like here.


Last weekend I went to Cumbemayo, pre-incan ruins outside of Cajamarca City. Surprise! I was in Middle Earth. Ok, not really but the whole area was absolutely gorgeous and looked like it was straight out of a Lord of the Rings movie.

Surprise! Turns out the hotel cost almost twice as much as we thought.

Last week I went to a birthday lunch for one of the professors at the high school. Surprise! We all went to a wake for a local painter after lunch. That was an awkward surprise. We headed to the family home where they were having the wake. There are certain times where you feel like more of a gringa than others. You become extremely conscious of how tall you are, how you stick out amongst the group of mourning Peruvians, and have no idea what to say....in english or spanish.

Meal time is also usually full of surprises. I tend to question what exactly my food might be. “Pretty sure that’s chicken…”

I’ve been working with a local high school teacher on a project in which we hold cultural workshops every day after school. “…and Keeem you’ll do the drawing workshop.” Uh, what? Surprise! Every Monday I do a drawing workshop for high school students. While I like to draw and love art I did not expect to be teaching it, in Spanish, to high school students.

For the past few weeks I’ve constantly been surprised by the Health Center. “Oh, you need to talk to so-and-so but they aren’t here. They’ll be back next week” “Is so-and-so here?” “Ooo no try this afternoon.” “Is so-and-so here?” “I’m so-an-so but I’m not who you need to talk to. You need Nurse so-and-so but she’s on vacation. Try again next week”.

Surprise! My host mom made pancakes and hot chocolate for breakfast! Awesome surprise.

Surprise! No school today. Surprise holidays seem to happen all the time here.

Whether or not I will throw up during the 4 hour trip to Cajamarca City is always a surprise. Actually the trip in and of itself is surprising. Will there be a car for where I need to go? When will it leave? Will the 3 other people crammed into the back seat be skinny thus allowing all of us a bit more room? (I always feel like I should apologize to these people for being 6inches taller than an average Peruvian) Will I end up sitting in front on the emergency break?

Surprise! Apparently there are pre-incan/incan ruins all over the place here. It sounds like if you walked around this province you’d be constantly tripping over them.

Desfiles aka Parades. They love em here and constantly find reasons to carrys sign and march. With a band. Can´t forget the band.