-Where is ooosah?

-Huh?

-You know oosah! (writes U.S.A.)

-Ohhhh that means the United States.   (los Estados Unidos in Spanish)

-That doesn’t make sense.

-Estados means States, Unidos means United and A stands for America. So I guess it should actually be Los Estados Unidos de America

-Oh, but why do we write E.E.U.U?

-Well I’m not really sure…

-I’m confused.

-Me too.

Well it’s been quite a while since I’ve posted anything here, sorry to my loyal fans out there! There’s a lot that’s happened so I’ll give you all the titulares (headlines)…

Seasons Come, Seasons Go…

With the exception of a few cloudy afternoons and sporadic showers rainy season is over. In my opinion the weather here is basically an eternal spring with the exception of the winter rainy months. With the fierce mountain sun (which turns this gringa into a lobster) and the cool breeze it’s actually really perfect. Soon the green hillsides will turn yellow and dusty but for now it’s absolutely beautiful. Soon I will be marking my one year anniversary in Peru…unbelievable.

There’s Nothing more Peruvian than a Holiday

It’s true. While we in the states may be overly stingy when it comes to holidays it feels like there’s one every week. Semana Santa, aka Easter Week, is one of the biggest celebrations in Peru but especially in my town. They call themselves the capital of Semana Santa in the North which may be a bit of a stretch but they do go all out. Beginning Monday every night there is a large mass followed by a late night procession where a group of men dressed as slaves, doing their penance (well in theory I hear these are actually highly sought offer positions) carry an elaborate representation of Jesus which changes every night.  A unique tradition which I was told isn’t really done anywhere else anymore is the “Salida de los Penitentes “. On Thursday and Friday night men doing penance do their late walk to the cemetery but this is no midnight stroll. These men are dressed in white or black, hooded, arms strapped to a large tablet, barefoot with iron rods attached to their ankles and a crown of thorns. These men walk from the church to the cemetery (not a easy walk in that condition) in order to carry out their penance. It’s a bit of a spectacle now a days but I guess it used to be serious business with those who had to walk to town from the farther rural areas substituting the tablet for a belt with shards of glass ala Divinci Code. Oddly enough Sunday is the only day that there no sort of celebration or event.

Mother’s Day has also come and gone and which I told my own mother means 2 days of vacation, sitting through hours of really bad mom poetry and making a huge lunch for your family (which is pretty much like any other Sunday).

 This past week was the festival of San Isidro the patron saint of agriculture and farmers so naturally around here he’s kind of big deal. The kids spent all week practicing dances (instead of attending classes) for Friday night. Dancing is a huge part of Peruvian culture so people always find it funny when I tell them that it’s usually pretty tough to get a 14 year old boy in the states to voluntarily do a choreographed dance with a girl in front of the whole school.

Is that Rudy Giuliani?

It’s Decision 2011 here in Peru. Following the first round of elections in April the field narrowed from 11 possible presidential to just 2. The second round is in June and either way its going to be really interesting our two candidates are some real characters…

Keiko Fujimori “the China”- A young congresswoman and daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori. Alberto Fujimori is the President who pulled Peru out of an extremely bad economic crisis and claims to have eradicated the terrorism that had plagued the country. I should probably he crashed and burned after being re-elected to his third term (admist “Votes for Bribes” scandal) and is now sitting in Peruvian jail accused of numerous human rights abuses committed under his government while “eradicating terrorism” from Peru. Keiko was recently in Trujillo, a nearby city, campaigning with none other than former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

Ollanta Humala- He’s an ex-military man he wants to bring a nationalist government to Peru and is known to hob nob with Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales.

Workin It

Well I’m keeping quite busy around here until I go on vacation in June to Cusco (Machu Picchu!) and Puno. I stay busy doing vocational orientation classes as well as weekly talks/activities on topics like communication and interpersonal relationships with high school students, self esteem activities with primary school students, and the library project. I’m also starting up an “Escuela de Padres” aka parents school with some community partners and the new psychologist and the health post. I did my first activity with parents the other day during a talking to your kids about sex (Peru has an extremely high teen pregnancy rate), “Label Those Reproductive Organs!” Lemme tell you if you can lead an activity for more than 30 Peruvian parents over the age of 40 on the various parts of reproductive organs in Spanish you pretty much no longer have any fear of doing anything.

The library is slow going but we recently received the donated books that we solicited from a government program and are now in the process of obtaining funding to improve the “children’s reading room” within the library, buy more books and to provide materials for the reading programs I’ve planned. Either way the programs will start in July. I’m pretty excited because it’s something I really think will be a great thing for the community plus I get to work with the primary school kids who are really easy to impress and adore me.