Today is a special day, so before I share some of the latest adventures, I need to express a bit of gratitude. Padre, I am oh so ridiculously blessed to be your daughter, and even though you only get one day a year that’s officially designated as “Father’s Day,” a dad like you warrants 365 celebrations at the very least! I love you! Hopefully, my siblings have showered you with affection in my absence. :-) Happy Father’s Day as well to all of the other dads who might be reading this post. Relax and enjoy a Sunday of golf and beer and napping!
And now, a few updates for y’all! Firstly, Paul and Eileen Whitman will be here in Cusco in t-minus CINCO DIAS! That’s super soon, and I can’t wait to see them! Today, I had a little date with Jose, of All-Ways Travel, where I booked the three of us on a one-day tour of Machu Picchu. I am so excited to finally see the "Lost City"—the reason that so many people come to Cusco! I also checked out the parental lodgings, at Waka Punku bed and breakfast, and I am quite pleased with the hospitality so far provided by the staff. There will likely be a bit of a communication gap, but I think that all parties will be content to speak in the language of smiles and hugs and laughter! In addition to our Machu Picchu trip, I’m excited to take my parents to the Inka Museum, which I have yet to visit, and also to the Monasterio de Santa Catalina, both to see the inside of the monastery and also to meet my dear Dominga! There will be lots to see and do (and eat!), and it will be a wonderful eight days. Please, to those of you who pray, send some requests up to the Big Guy for a week of safe travels, good health, and family bonding!
Also, an issue of morality. When booking a day trip to Machu Picchu, students who have a valid ISIC card (International Student Identification Card) receive a $20 discount on the total price. To be eligible for an ISIC card, you have to have a currently valid student ID, a passport photo, and a copy of your passport itself. I, though no longer a “student” in the official sense of the word, happen to have a University of Pennsylvania ID card that does not expire until 2012. I am wondering if this is perhaps the result of an error by the card people, who may have mistakenly thought me to be an undergraduate student rather than a one-year master’s student. Whatever the case may be, I have a “valid” ID card, and I am planning on using it to get myself an ISIC card and a $20 discount at Machu Picchu. Is this an immoral act on my part? I am probably going to do it regardless of feedback, but it someone has a really stellar argument that could guilt me into admission of my no-longer-student status, I would welcome the attempt!
Yesterday and today, I spent the morning and early afternoon working in the community of Ocorurro. Ocorurro is located quite close to Pinancay, the community where I have worked in the past. The task undertaken by the Missouri bunch, the ProWorld summer interns, and myself was the construction of a preschool, to be attended by about 15 students between the ages of three and five. While it would have been fun to immediately start laying bricks, we first had to create a firm and level foundation for the school. This process involved using picks to loosen the earth, shoveling and transferring the dirt to a pile to be made into “barro” (mud for brick building), and later digging a trench around the border of the foundation in which to lay cement. As per usual, the community members were impressively able-bodied with the picks and shovels, and we were pathetically weak due to the combined effects of the altitude and our overall lack of disposition toward manual labor. The work was tiring and sweaty, but we had fun. The knowledge of what we were doing and how it would benefit the community made the work seem less bothersome. We also had a pretty good game of “Name That Tune” going yesterday, which made the work go by more quickly. Though I was sad not to be with dear Analie, I did meet several other sweethearts, including a little girl of four named Maili and a three-year-old boy named Carlos, who stole my heart with his sweater vest and his smile!
Here he is!
And here are a few of our intrepid workers!
Friday was particularly enjoyable because I had the opportunity to work not only with the Mizzou crowd, but also with some really lovely intern and study abroad students who are here in Cusco for the next month or two. I met Javier, a pre-med student from Notre Dame, who quickly charmed me with his smile and super-friendly demeanor. Then there’s Madison, another healthcare-oriented intern, who just delights me with her positivity. Natalie goes to Vassar, and is a basketball player—so devoted that she lifts weights every night here in Peru as per her team workout schedule! Ellen is from Texas, and has an amusingly sarcastic sense of humor, and Brennan is just the sweetest thing, and goes to JMU. I haven’t yet had the joy of a conversation with Udani, but in passing greetings, she’s always smiling and sweet. I am also fairly obsessed with Meredith, another Notre Damer who shares my love for words of affirmation. We really have a wonderful group here, and in addition to enjoying their wonderful optimism, it’s also been rather humbling to see the incredibly adventuresome spirits that they each possess. I’m pretty sure that I wasn’t quite so brave at age 20 or 21...Cusco wasn’t exactly as high as Madrid on my list of desirable travel destinations. (Better late than never, though! Here I am, and what a great experience it has been!)
Another exciting development in my life has been my use of the combi as a means of transportation. Combis are the main form of public transport here in Cusco. A combi can range in size from that of a 12-passenger-sized van to a full-fledged bus. Each combi runs independently of the others, and each follows its own unique route through the city of Cusco. For 60 centimos (about 20 American cents), you can board any combi and go pretty much anywhere in the city. The catch is that you have to know the routes that each combi takes, and you also have to smush yourself into what is often a very tightly packed vehicle and announce to the driver when you want to get off. I avoided riding a combi for a little more than a month, which is pretty impressive in a sense, but also pretty foolish as it’s quite economical. My two main objectives were my lack of knowledge of the combi routes and my overarching fear of getting into a clearly claustrophobia-prone vehicle going who knows where. I often watched combis zoom up to their stops, at which point the designated “yeller” (as I call him) would slide open the door, yell out something like, “Avenida Cultura, Rapido Express, Sube, Sube Sube, Sube!”, wait about five seconds for any eager passengers, and then shut the door and tell the driver to zoom off to the next stop. The whole process was frightening to witness, and I had only the slightest desire to take part. However, last week, I joined Eliza and two internship students on a combi ride to their internship site (a school in one of Cusco’s poorest districts), and it was not only not scary, but also kind of fun. I’ve come to realize that combis are a very authentic and standard part of Peruvian life, and to not experience them is to be only a tourist and not a traveler. I have therefore decided to make more regular use of combis, and to diligently study the routes. One of the combi services is called “Batman,” and I am particularly eager to find out where that will take me! I shall attempt to take a photo of a combi so that y’all can better understand the experience!
Another recent highlight has been my visits to El Molino, which is basically a big, partially outdoor shopping center for just about anything you might want to buy. There are soccer balls, chocolate, towels, sheets, clothes, kitchen supplies, electronics, movies, music, shoes…all for rather low prices and all in one convenient location…rather a rarity in Cusco when all the florists are together on one street, all the hardware stores are on another, etc. etc. (This aspect of Cusco baffles me still.) My primary motive in visiting El Molino has been to buy the SUPER cheap movies, which cost, on average, between 75 cents and $1.50 per DVD. What a steal! Today, for 13 soles (about $5), I bought Season One of “30 Rock,” “City of God,” “Revolutionary Road,” “Mar Adentro,” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One.” Ridiculous! I’m planning on growing my quality movie collection by way of occasional trips to El Molino. Another super important El Molino purchase was that of a supplemental bath towel. Having only one bath towel means that I can’t shower when said towel is at the lavanderia (laundromat). Today, that problem was happily solved by the purchase of a beautiful, bright green toalla de bano. Awesome.
I also wanted to share an experience that I enjoyed a few days ago at La Pagina en la Puerta, a library where some of our interns are placed. The library is located in San Miguel de San Sebastian, a very poor area located just outside of Cusco city. It is founded and run by an American named Amy, who has lived in Cusco for several years. The reason for the library’s placement in San Miguel is to promote a love of reading among children who might not receive much academic encouragement in their home lives. Normally, two ProWorld interns visit the library three days a week from 4:30 PM until 7 PM. On the day that I went to visit, the two interns were both sick, so it was just the teacher, a bunch of kids, and me. I ended up spending some time reading individually with a few different kids. One sweet little girl kept picking books with “extras”—like flaps to open and pop-up pictures and things. She was fun. Then a sweet little boy sat with me and read to me from “Caperucita Roja” (Little Red Riding Hood!). After reading with a few other children, I went down to the game room, where a little girl decided to challenge me to a puzzle competition. She pulled out two puzzles, gave one to me, and then proceeded to slam hers onto the desk upside down. She looked at me and I did the same, and then it was ON. We battled to the finish, and I scarcely beat her on Round One. She then took me down on Round Two, and in Round Three made the mistake of giving herself a much harder puzzle than she gave me, and I emerged victorious. (I’m not a bully who doesn’t let kids win, but I think she would have picked up on it since my puzzle was clearly so much easier than hers…losing would only have looked suspicious!). It was a really lovely afternoon, and so great to see kids who were so sincerely excited about reading! While I’ve pretty much obtained all of the information I need on the library for the purposes of website updates and such, I would still like to return a few times to again read to the kids and play with them. I’m so glad that such a place exists here in Cusco. Although it’s small and although there’s much room for growth, it’s a really beautiful start, and I know that it will continue to garner support from reading advocates in Peru and abroad. Want to learn more about La Pagina en La Puerta? Here's a link...http://lapaginaenlapuerta.org/
The final announcement of the day is.....another visitor will be gracing Cusco with her presence…my cousin, Maura Pawlowski! I am very excited to know that I’ll have some company for part of July, and I’m hoping that Maura and her friend might join me for a frolic to Lake Titikaca. It would be fun to have some company!
That’s all for now, folks! I’m off to watch an episode or two of my newly-purchased season of “30 Rock”! Tomorrow, it’s off to church and then a lunch date with Helmut and then some relaxing in a sunny plaza somewhere and reading a great book! And of course, contemplating the awesomeness of Paul Andrew Whitman on Father’s Day!
Hasta pronto!
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