Dear Blog Readers,
It's been a while since I've written a letter to a random company, which, I have to say, is one of my favorite things to do. I recently wrote to a Staples store in Charlottesville, Virginia and raved about the incredible customer service I experienced there. I also wrote to Pepperidge Farm complimenting them on a job well done in the creation of graham cracker goldfish. And one of my favorite parts of working in university relations is getting to send thank you e-mails and notes to the people who meet with me when I visit college campuses, or to the people who plan and host campus career fairs and study abroad events.
Of course, I occasionally have to send some constructive criticism, as in the letter I sent to AT&T when my poor, sweet grandmother was charged a monstrous fee for accidentally calling the Dominican Republic three times while trying to dial my sister's cell phone number...and the time I wrote to Turkey Hill to complain against their deliberately unannounced decrease from half-gallon ice cream cartons to 1.5 quart containers without any decrease in cost. (And seriously, since when does Turkey Hill think it's okay to convert to the metric system? I think not.) These matters merit a response, and I am willing to be the one to pen the sentiments of the many!
All this to introduce today's letter, which I wrote--rather ferociously--to LAN Airlines. LAN is the airline on which my brothers flew en route from Lima to Cusco and back again. My parents will also be arriving to Cusco via LAN. There are four main airlines that fly into Cusco--TACA, LAN, Star Peru, and Peruvian Airlines, and after a bit of cost comparison, I went for the LAN option. Silly me. I think further explanation is unnecessary if I simply share the letter with all of you. Here you are:
June 15, 2011
Dear LAN Airlines:
My name is Sarah Whitman, and I am the recent purchaser of four round-trip tickets from Lima to Cusco, Peru, two for my brothers and two for my parents. I am working out of Cusco for three months, and while here, I have been able to host my brothers and will soon act as host to my parents. I assisted both parties in purchasing their tickets between Lima and Cusco on the LAN.com website. Obviously interested in saving money, I opted for the least expensive tickets available on the dates I desired. I was satisfied with how simple it was to purchase these tickets on LAN’s website. Later, however, I learned that my brothers had been charged an excess fee of over $300 upon leaving Cusco because their tickets were designated for Peruvian nationals only. My parents, who will be arriving in Cusco next week, will be charged the same fee, which is equal to more than the costs of their flights, upon their departure from Cusco in July. The subtlety with which LAN makes its passengers aware of these fees is akin to deliberate deception, and not at all an effective means of increasing the airline’s clientele. I therefore respectfully request a refund of these charges, which total $708 in unexpected fees.
Yesterday, I visited the LAN Airlines office in Cusco, Peru to see if I might be able to help my parents to avoid paying the excess fees that my brothers were recently charged. The kind woman who assisted me regretfully informed me that the only alternative to the paying of said fees would be for my parents to cancel and repurchase their tickets, which would ultimately cost more than the $177 each that they are now obliged to pay. In making economy tickets so easy to purchase and so difficult and expensive to alter or upgrade, LAN Airlines essentially ensures that they will receive an extra $177 from every non-Peruvian customer who purchases tickets at the most economical rate advertised. $177 can easily cover the cost of at least one, and often two, additional round trips of one hour in length. To charge such an amount to an unsuspecting passenger is not only audacious, but also very often a hardship for the many passengers who may not have $177 to place atop the fare they have already paid.
During the process of purchasing my brothers’ and parents’ flights on LAN.com, I was prompted to provide the nationalities and passport numbers of all four passengers. It strikes me as odd that LAN would allow me to go forth with the purchase of tickets priced for Peruvian nationals immediately after I had specified that the passengers were not Peruvian citizens. It would make sense for LAN Airlines to provide a conspicuous warning regarding the restrictions surrounding the fare. (By conspicuous, I am suggesting a pop-up window, or a warning that passengers must read before being able to continue the purchasing process.) Even more sensible would be to forbid the passenger to purchase the restricted tickets until he or she is able to provide a Peruvian citizen’s identification of some sort. The current, vague presence of the restriction on the website is easily overlooked, and I would hope that LAN Airlines would not deliberately mislead customers for the sake of receiving $177 from them at a later date. This would of course represent an absolute mockery of the very customer service that keeps the best airlines in business.
Having seen and understood the socio-economic challenges of many Peruvians, I do not argue against the existence of special, in-country fees for Peruvians. I do, however, argue against the wrongful deception of non-national customers. The world’s best companies are those with great customer service and a high level of transparency, and LAN has sacrificed both these merits for the sake of unjustly acquired financial gain.
I apologize for the evident frustration that can be easily felt in this letter, but perhaps it may be advantageous to understand the frustration that can come from being customer to an airline that has placed its customer service by the wayside. I ask that you, the executives of LAN Airlines, reconsider the way in which you make customers aware of the costs they will incur in choosing to fly with LAN. I also request that you refund the $708 total incurred, and soon to be incurred, by my brothers and my parents, whose names and flight booking codes I have included below.
I thank you for your time and attention, and look forward to receiving a response to these concerns.
Best,
Sarah Whitman
Thoughts? Am I in the wrong here? I certainly don't think so! :-) And I certainly won't be flying on LAN Airlines anytime soon. If anyone needs an opinion letter written on their behalf, just let me know!
xoxo
Sarah
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
My New Addiction
So this will be quick. I would just like to say that I have developed a new addiction...the podcast. I kept seeing Laura sitting at her computer and laughing hysterically at some podcast or other, and I couldn't help but wonder what all the fuss was about! Now I understand, and I've been downloading podcast after podcast to find my favorites! And they are...
1. The Moth - People tell stories from their lives and it's touching and interesting and engaging.
2. TED Talks - Brief (15-minute) lectures on every topic you can think of! I like these because they make me feel more equipped to at least engage in an initial conversation about so many topics!
3. Notes in Spanish Advanced - Clear conversations held at a realistic speed to help the more advanced Spanish speaker to grow his or her vocabulary and comprehension skills. Quite interesting conversation topics too!
Okay so that's all I've got right now...maybe "addict" is a strong word...heh. But I'd welcome any recommendations from those of you who also enjoy podcasts. I'm particularly interested in the funny and the touching, of course with the caveat that they be free of cussin'!
That's all for now! I'm off to the post office and to drop off a deposit and to make a restaurant reservation and to argue my case against LAN airlines. Wish me luck!
1. The Moth - People tell stories from their lives and it's touching and interesting and engaging.
2. TED Talks - Brief (15-minute) lectures on every topic you can think of! I like these because they make me feel more equipped to at least engage in an initial conversation about so many topics!
3. Notes in Spanish Advanced - Clear conversations held at a realistic speed to help the more advanced Spanish speaker to grow his or her vocabulary and comprehension skills. Quite interesting conversation topics too!
Okay so that's all I've got right now...maybe "addict" is a strong word...heh. But I'd welcome any recommendations from those of you who also enjoy podcasts. I'm particularly interested in the funny and the touching, of course with the caveat that they be free of cussin'!
That's all for now! I'm off to the post office and to drop off a deposit and to make a restaurant reservation and to argue my case against LAN airlines. Wish me luck!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Reading Provence in Peru...
Happy Monday, dear friends!
Until about ten minutes ago, I thought that I was leaving for Urubamba today to help out at our other Peru office for three or four days, but I just found out that my presence isn’t required until tomorrow, which means that I have time to write a little blog entry!
I’m here in the office and dying a little bit inside because it smells AMAZING in the office kitchen right now and lunch isn’t for another hour. Irma, one of the office staff members and a lovely woman, is cooking something delectable as a celebratory lunch for Lauren, who is headed back to the US this week. It will be sad to see her go, both because she’s quite nice and because we’re going to be working extra hours until we find someone to take Lauren’s place. There are lots of students here right now, and so lots to be done in the way of airport pick-ups, dinner plans, project excursions, and participant check-ins. Somehow, we shall make it work! I’d describe what Irma is currently cooking, but as I’ve only smelled it, I’m really not quite sure. I know that it involves cilantro, though, and that alone makes me quite happy!
Yesterday was Sunday, and without the hullabaloo of the presidential elections, I was able to return to my usual mass at 11:30 AM at La Compania. Despite the end of the elections, the Plaza de Armas was still PACKED with people. It seems like every week there are more people than the week before, but I think it must be all in my head. Anyway, this week, there were huge groups of Cusco citizens, and each group was garbed in its own version of traditional attire. There were pants covered in colorful pompoms in one group, and elaborate, sparkly matching skirts and tops in another. There were also lots of men simply attired in black suits and looking kind of like secret service agents. It was a relief to make it through the masses and into the peaceful church sanctuary.
Yesterday was the celebration of Pentecost, the first day of the church year, and we heard a reading about the day when God sent the Holy Spirit to make all of His followers speak in different tongues so that they could spread the Gospel in different languages. The priest elaborated on the reading with an interesting analogy. Many divorced couples, he said, when asked for the reason for their divorce, will respond, “We just don’t understand each other anymore.” While these couples, for the most part, speak the same literal language, they have ceased to speak the language of Love, which is basically the language of God. What I guess I’m taking from this is that there is a language of the Holy Spirit that transcends our more traditional list of languages, and without this spiritual language, we won’t understand each other regardless of whether I speak Greek and you speak French or we both speak in perfect English. Something to think about…
Another interesting occurrence during the mass—while the priest was giving his homily, a man walked into the church and spoke to a woman in fairly loud whispers in the middle of the aisle, fairly close to the altar. He handed her a gold item that I couldn’t identify except to say that it looked like some sort of gilded item that an altar boy might carry into the church during the opening procession. I couldn’t hear exactly what the man and the woman were saying, but I gather that he somehow convinced her that she needed to go and place the item on the altar right away. So, while the priest is still delivering his (rather engaging) homily, the woman distracts everyone by walking up to the altar and placing this unknown “thing” up there and then genuflecting and returning to her seat. Here’s the amusing part: as she’s on her way back to her pew, the priest stops in the middle of his thought and says something like, “Stop. You didn’t need to do that in the middle of the mass,” and he looks pretty annoyed. While I agreed very much with his sentiments (the “thing” went untouched for the entirety of the mass, and I still have no clue what it was), I also felt sort of bad for the woman, who must have been embarrassed to have been singled out so obviously. The whole episode lasted only maybe five minutes, but it was highly intriguing to watch!
After church, I went to visit Dominga at the monastery, but she was M.I.A.! The doors to Santa Catalina were closed, and I’m hoping that she’s not sick. I will try to see her again next week.
My next order of business was to embark upon “The Great Hostal Search,” which really does merit its grand title! Trying to find places based on their street addresses can be rather difficult in Cusco. Even the cab drivers don’t often know street names—only neighborhoods. Before church, I had written down a list of four places I’d researched and wanted to see, and I headed in the direction of the first one, which appears to be nonexistent if it is indeed on the street that it claims to be on. In fact, of the four places I originally listed, I found—wait for it!—ZERO actual hostals. While maybe one fourth of this failure could be blamed on my directional faultiness, I would argue that in three of the four search situations, I walked down the advertised street in its entirety without finding any evidence of the place I sought. What ended up happening was that I found other nice-looking places that actually existed. I ended up making a whole new list based on my walking tour, and collecting lots of “listas de precios” and “tarifas” and such until I had a nice little page of possibilities. I ended up settling on a lovely place called Waka Punku Bed and Breakfast, which is in a pretty super great location, right in between the Plaza San Blas and the Plaza de Armas. I also got a discount simply by asking for it, which was pretty awesome! I think Paul and Eileen Whitman will be mightily pleased with their accommodations!
After my long search, I was pretty tired, but I decided to walk back to San Borga since it was so beautiful outside. I joined Laura at the office for a little while to check e-mail, and then the two of us took an outing to El Molino! I have heard much about El Molino, but yesterday was my first actual visit there. While it’s been referred to as Cusco’s “Black Market,” it didn’t strike me as such, and was almost more like a traditional market, except with clothes and electronics and kitchenware and DVDs rather than fruits and vegetables and meat. I found my long-desired hair dryer, which was super exciting (and which may need to double as a body heater since our apartment is so darned COLD) and Laura found her webcam, and we also bought some DVDs, which made us thoroughly excited being as we have no internet in our casa. Last night, I watched “Scent of a Woman,” which was pretty good, though I’m rather more excited for “The Last Samurai” and another movie that I bought about Tolstoy…I can’t remember what it’s called. I am hoping to go back soon because I want to buy a bath towel and a vegetable peeler and a backpack—all necessities, obviously.
Back at the ranch, Laura and I made ourselves some dinner—some sort of pasta concoction for her and alphabet soup for me! I’ve been on this alphabet soup kick the last few days because my stomach hasn’t been feeling quite up to par, and I’m actually really enjoying it. And for those of you who would argue against the medicinal qualities of such stuff, here’s some fodder for thought: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/diet.fitness/10/17/chicken.soup.reut/.
After I finished up my evening movie, I read another chapter of my latest and greatest read, A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle. May I just say that this book is FABULOUS? Even for those of us who do not dream of cheese and have not visited France, it’s very much a must-read! If you don’t have a copy, go and get one! A special thank you to the lovely and beautiful Meredith Rich, a dear Franklin & Marshall friend, who gave me the book as a bon voyage present. Meredith and I are both appreciators of the beautifully written word! Last week, I finished reading The Good Earth, which is a Pulitzer prize winner by Pearl S. Buck. I can’t recall whether I mentioned it in a previous blog entry, but if not, I would recommend it, but not as highly as A Year in Provence!
A final note of hilarity/disgust. Currently, there are very LOUD construction efforts taking place both in my apartment complex and directly next to my office, which means that I am constantly surrounded by such sights as a random man standing on some scaffolding outside my window, as well as bombarded with the most catastrophic of noises. Many moons ago, when I was deciding where to go to college, my dad would laugh at my serious aversion to construction, which actually caused me to eliminate certain colleges from my list. In retrospect, I should have eagerly jumped at the chance to go to a college overflowing with construction because that construction would have been a brand new building by the time I arrived as a freshman. Sadly, no one brought this to my attention, and I therefore endured construction at both my undergraduate and graduate institutions. Luckily, both schools made up for it with their awesomeness! Anyway, construction has always been a pet peeve of mine, despite its ultimate goal of progress, and it’s just kind of mean of Cusco to throw me into it full force! I have decided to view this as a test of my endurance, and I will—somehow—emerge victorious!
Hope all is well with you, lovely readers! Y’all are in my thoughts and prayers!
Until about ten minutes ago, I thought that I was leaving for Urubamba today to help out at our other Peru office for three or four days, but I just found out that my presence isn’t required until tomorrow, which means that I have time to write a little blog entry!
I’m here in the office and dying a little bit inside because it smells AMAZING in the office kitchen right now and lunch isn’t for another hour. Irma, one of the office staff members and a lovely woman, is cooking something delectable as a celebratory lunch for Lauren, who is headed back to the US this week. It will be sad to see her go, both because she’s quite nice and because we’re going to be working extra hours until we find someone to take Lauren’s place. There are lots of students here right now, and so lots to be done in the way of airport pick-ups, dinner plans, project excursions, and participant check-ins. Somehow, we shall make it work! I’d describe what Irma is currently cooking, but as I’ve only smelled it, I’m really not quite sure. I know that it involves cilantro, though, and that alone makes me quite happy!
Yesterday was Sunday, and without the hullabaloo of the presidential elections, I was able to return to my usual mass at 11:30 AM at La Compania. Despite the end of the elections, the Plaza de Armas was still PACKED with people. It seems like every week there are more people than the week before, but I think it must be all in my head. Anyway, this week, there were huge groups of Cusco citizens, and each group was garbed in its own version of traditional attire. There were pants covered in colorful pompoms in one group, and elaborate, sparkly matching skirts and tops in another. There were also lots of men simply attired in black suits and looking kind of like secret service agents. It was a relief to make it through the masses and into the peaceful church sanctuary.
Yesterday was the celebration of Pentecost, the first day of the church year, and we heard a reading about the day when God sent the Holy Spirit to make all of His followers speak in different tongues so that they could spread the Gospel in different languages. The priest elaborated on the reading with an interesting analogy. Many divorced couples, he said, when asked for the reason for their divorce, will respond, “We just don’t understand each other anymore.” While these couples, for the most part, speak the same literal language, they have ceased to speak the language of Love, which is basically the language of God. What I guess I’m taking from this is that there is a language of the Holy Spirit that transcends our more traditional list of languages, and without this spiritual language, we won’t understand each other regardless of whether I speak Greek and you speak French or we both speak in perfect English. Something to think about…
Another interesting occurrence during the mass—while the priest was giving his homily, a man walked into the church and spoke to a woman in fairly loud whispers in the middle of the aisle, fairly close to the altar. He handed her a gold item that I couldn’t identify except to say that it looked like some sort of gilded item that an altar boy might carry into the church during the opening procession. I couldn’t hear exactly what the man and the woman were saying, but I gather that he somehow convinced her that she needed to go and place the item on the altar right away. So, while the priest is still delivering his (rather engaging) homily, the woman distracts everyone by walking up to the altar and placing this unknown “thing” up there and then genuflecting and returning to her seat. Here’s the amusing part: as she’s on her way back to her pew, the priest stops in the middle of his thought and says something like, “Stop. You didn’t need to do that in the middle of the mass,” and he looks pretty annoyed. While I agreed very much with his sentiments (the “thing” went untouched for the entirety of the mass, and I still have no clue what it was), I also felt sort of bad for the woman, who must have been embarrassed to have been singled out so obviously. The whole episode lasted only maybe five minutes, but it was highly intriguing to watch!
After church, I went to visit Dominga at the monastery, but she was M.I.A.! The doors to Santa Catalina were closed, and I’m hoping that she’s not sick. I will try to see her again next week.
My next order of business was to embark upon “The Great Hostal Search,” which really does merit its grand title! Trying to find places based on their street addresses can be rather difficult in Cusco. Even the cab drivers don’t often know street names—only neighborhoods. Before church, I had written down a list of four places I’d researched and wanted to see, and I headed in the direction of the first one, which appears to be nonexistent if it is indeed on the street that it claims to be on. In fact, of the four places I originally listed, I found—wait for it!—ZERO actual hostals. While maybe one fourth of this failure could be blamed on my directional faultiness, I would argue that in three of the four search situations, I walked down the advertised street in its entirety without finding any evidence of the place I sought. What ended up happening was that I found other nice-looking places that actually existed. I ended up making a whole new list based on my walking tour, and collecting lots of “listas de precios” and “tarifas” and such until I had a nice little page of possibilities. I ended up settling on a lovely place called Waka Punku Bed and Breakfast, which is in a pretty super great location, right in between the Plaza San Blas and the Plaza de Armas. I also got a discount simply by asking for it, which was pretty awesome! I think Paul and Eileen Whitman will be mightily pleased with their accommodations!
After my long search, I was pretty tired, but I decided to walk back to San Borga since it was so beautiful outside. I joined Laura at the office for a little while to check e-mail, and then the two of us took an outing to El Molino! I have heard much about El Molino, but yesterday was my first actual visit there. While it’s been referred to as Cusco’s “Black Market,” it didn’t strike me as such, and was almost more like a traditional market, except with clothes and electronics and kitchenware and DVDs rather than fruits and vegetables and meat. I found my long-desired hair dryer, which was super exciting (and which may need to double as a body heater since our apartment is so darned COLD) and Laura found her webcam, and we also bought some DVDs, which made us thoroughly excited being as we have no internet in our casa. Last night, I watched “Scent of a Woman,” which was pretty good, though I’m rather more excited for “The Last Samurai” and another movie that I bought about Tolstoy…I can’t remember what it’s called. I am hoping to go back soon because I want to buy a bath towel and a vegetable peeler and a backpack—all necessities, obviously.
Back at the ranch, Laura and I made ourselves some dinner—some sort of pasta concoction for her and alphabet soup for me! I’ve been on this alphabet soup kick the last few days because my stomach hasn’t been feeling quite up to par, and I’m actually really enjoying it. And for those of you who would argue against the medicinal qualities of such stuff, here’s some fodder for thought: http://archives.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/diet.fitness/10/17/chicken.soup.reut/.
After I finished up my evening movie, I read another chapter of my latest and greatest read, A Year in Provence, by Peter Mayle. May I just say that this book is FABULOUS? Even for those of us who do not dream of cheese and have not visited France, it’s very much a must-read! If you don’t have a copy, go and get one! A special thank you to the lovely and beautiful Meredith Rich, a dear Franklin & Marshall friend, who gave me the book as a bon voyage present. Meredith and I are both appreciators of the beautifully written word! Last week, I finished reading The Good Earth, which is a Pulitzer prize winner by Pearl S. Buck. I can’t recall whether I mentioned it in a previous blog entry, but if not, I would recommend it, but not as highly as A Year in Provence!
A final note of hilarity/disgust. Currently, there are very LOUD construction efforts taking place both in my apartment complex and directly next to my office, which means that I am constantly surrounded by such sights as a random man standing on some scaffolding outside my window, as well as bombarded with the most catastrophic of noises. Many moons ago, when I was deciding where to go to college, my dad would laugh at my serious aversion to construction, which actually caused me to eliminate certain colleges from my list. In retrospect, I should have eagerly jumped at the chance to go to a college overflowing with construction because that construction would have been a brand new building by the time I arrived as a freshman. Sadly, no one brought this to my attention, and I therefore endured construction at both my undergraduate and graduate institutions. Luckily, both schools made up for it with their awesomeness! Anyway, construction has always been a pet peeve of mine, despite its ultimate goal of progress, and it’s just kind of mean of Cusco to throw me into it full force! I have decided to view this as a test of my endurance, and I will—somehow—emerge victorious!
Hope all is well with you, lovely readers! Y’all are in my thoughts and prayers!
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
Time Flies...
I can't believe that Andrew and Brian are going to leave for the USA this Friday--it feels like they've only just arrived! It has been such a blessing to have a little bit of home here in Peru for a short while, and we've had some serious bonding moments.
Yesterday, I worked in the morning and then met the boys at their hotel to go to lunch at a place called Quinta Eulalia. Before we left, though, Andrew wanted to check out a very "authentic" chiccha bar that Sonia had mentioned to him. When we asked Sonia about it, she said that Maria (the woman who helps out at the hotel) would take us there, and thank goodness she did or we probably wouldn't have found it! We walked about two blocks down the street and then went into what looked like someone's yard. Inside the courtyard was a room and in the room were about four tables, mostly occupied by Peruvian men drinking HUGE glasses of chiccha. This chiccha was yellow and quite different from the more well-known chiccha morada. I had no interest in having any more than a tiny sip of Andrew's (and even that was quite narsty), but A&B both bought huge glasses, each of which cost only one sole (35 cents!). Apparently, refills only cost 50 centimos, but luckily, the boys weren't crazy enough to refill such huuuuge glasses! I don't know how the men of Peru drink so much chiccha without their bladders bursting. (Well, actually, I do know...most of them pee quite publicly...but still, the quantity of liquid that they take in is impressive!). We contemplated having lunch at the chiccha bar along with our chiccha, but since there was only one dish available and since I felt rather outnumbered in gender, we just stayed for chiccha. Andrew also got the joy of his life when he discovered that the men had a sapo table. Sapo is a game (often a drinking game) played by lots of Peruvians, and basically involves forcefully throwing little metal disks toward the table and trying to get them into the mouth of a little golden frog at the table's center. Maria informed me that it's very much a "men's game," so she and I watched as Andrew and Brian made pretty serious fools of themselves in front of several Peruvian sapo experts! One of the men said to us as we were leaving, "Cierto Peru." "True Peru." We've officially seen the "real thing"! :-)
Our lunch experience was also quite authentic. Quinta Eulalia was inhabited only by Peruvians until the Whitman siblings entered. We were initially quite distressed to find that the quinta didn't have a "menu del dia," but we quickly discovered that the portions of the a la carte items were HUGE and more than satisfactory for filling our bellies. I had grilled trout, which came out with its head still attached and served alongside potatoes and vegetables. The boys each had a bowl of the house soup, which was full of various "mystery items." It was quite flavorful, though Andrew wasn't able to handle the unusual items he kept finding, and gave up after he'd eaten out the recognizable meat and vegetables. Two musicians came to serenade us briefly, which made the experience all the more delightful.
In between meals, I had to work, so the boys occupied themselves primarily with searching for a charango for Andrew. A charango is similar to a guitar, but much smaller--kind of like the Peruvian version of a ukelele. The one that Andrew bought is from an actual factory where the owner makes the instruments right behind the counter--super authentic! Andrew is very pleased. My work day yesterday was pretty awesome. In the morning, I joined Eliza and two new interns on a trip to the school where they would be teaching English and computers. It's always interesting to be inside of the elementary schools in Central and South America. I haven't seen enough of how they work to truly understand them--right now, I just get the feeling that children are constantly "running free" throughout the school. I know that many of the teachers are working hard at instilling knowledge in young minds, but I get a kick out of how bold some of the kids are, and how often I find them walking around outside of their classrooms! I think that Elizabeth and Gabrielle, the two volunteers on the site, will do a great job there.
In the later afternoon, Eliza and I escorted two other interns, Brennan and Lena, to a library in one of the poorer suburbs of Cusco. We only stayed with them for a little while to give them a tour of the site, but by the time we went to leave, I was hooked. I know I'll be back there as often as possible! The owner, Amy, is originally from New York, and she started the library as a way to promote love for reading among children in a neighborhood where such love is less likely to be cultivated. The library has a bunch of books for reading practice, a homework room, and a play room, and the kids are just precious. I'm sure I'll have more to share on this after I've been back a few times!
For dinner, Andrew and Brian and I headed to the San Blas area, and eventually settled on a restaurant with a long Incan name that I can't remember. What I CAN remember is the meal, which was super delish! We all had pollo saltado, which is essentially chicken stir-fried with onions, peppers and french fries and served with rice. "Saltado" dishes are quite common here, but we all agreed that this was one of the better ones. Super yummy! After dinner, we headed to a bar called The Muse, where ProWorld was hosting an intercambio for all of the students currently here in Cusco. The attendance was very good, and allowed for some very lovely socializing among Peruvians and American students. After we left, Andrew and Brian wanted to go to Paddy's Pub (the only Irish-owned pub above 11,000 feet in the whole world--and they're pretty proud of it!), so we went there and watched the end of an NBA game (Miami versus Dallas, for all you sports fans). Then it was off to bed!
Today, I took the day off to spend with the boys, and we hopped on a bus from Cusco to the town of Pisac. Pisac is a stopover for visitors to Machu Picchu, and is famous for its huge artisan market. We spent the day shopping and improving our bargaining skills (Andrew's favorite method is to say "15 soles? No puedo." He then walks away and hopes that the salespeople will call him back with a better offer, which they usually do!). The boys bought a bunch of gifts for friends, and I bought a gift for Julie and also a teacup to add to my international teacup collection. I actually already bought one a few weeks ago, but this one was so much prettier that I decided to get it anyway! We also had lunch at a cute little restaurant where the boys got to try Peruvian arroz con pollo, which is delectable. Our bus ride back to Cusco was pretty hysterical. We weren't exactly sure of where to catch the bus, so we just stood close to where we'd been dropped off, and eventually a bus drove by (quite filled with people) and the door was opened and a man yelled, "Cusco! Cusco! Cusco!" until we hopped in! It was standing room only until a few people got off at a stop a few kilometers away. Luckily, we made it back in three pieces and it turns out that the bus station is right near my apartment! What luck!
Now I'm here in the office, and I must leave because I want to put on some long pants and a jacket before I meet the boys for dinner! Tonight, I am endeavoring to make them salsa dance a little bit before the night is over. I have high hopes of success!
Hasta pronto, amigos!
Yesterday, I worked in the morning and then met the boys at their hotel to go to lunch at a place called Quinta Eulalia. Before we left, though, Andrew wanted to check out a very "authentic" chiccha bar that Sonia had mentioned to him. When we asked Sonia about it, she said that Maria (the woman who helps out at the hotel) would take us there, and thank goodness she did or we probably wouldn't have found it! We walked about two blocks down the street and then went into what looked like someone's yard. Inside the courtyard was a room and in the room were about four tables, mostly occupied by Peruvian men drinking HUGE glasses of chiccha. This chiccha was yellow and quite different from the more well-known chiccha morada. I had no interest in having any more than a tiny sip of Andrew's (and even that was quite narsty), but A&B both bought huge glasses, each of which cost only one sole (35 cents!). Apparently, refills only cost 50 centimos, but luckily, the boys weren't crazy enough to refill such huuuuge glasses! I don't know how the men of Peru drink so much chiccha without their bladders bursting. (Well, actually, I do know...most of them pee quite publicly...but still, the quantity of liquid that they take in is impressive!). We contemplated having lunch at the chiccha bar along with our chiccha, but since there was only one dish available and since I felt rather outnumbered in gender, we just stayed for chiccha. Andrew also got the joy of his life when he discovered that the men had a sapo table. Sapo is a game (often a drinking game) played by lots of Peruvians, and basically involves forcefully throwing little metal disks toward the table and trying to get them into the mouth of a little golden frog at the table's center. Maria informed me that it's very much a "men's game," so she and I watched as Andrew and Brian made pretty serious fools of themselves in front of several Peruvian sapo experts! One of the men said to us as we were leaving, "Cierto Peru." "True Peru." We've officially seen the "real thing"! :-)
Our lunch experience was also quite authentic. Quinta Eulalia was inhabited only by Peruvians until the Whitman siblings entered. We were initially quite distressed to find that the quinta didn't have a "menu del dia," but we quickly discovered that the portions of the a la carte items were HUGE and more than satisfactory for filling our bellies. I had grilled trout, which came out with its head still attached and served alongside potatoes and vegetables. The boys each had a bowl of the house soup, which was full of various "mystery items." It was quite flavorful, though Andrew wasn't able to handle the unusual items he kept finding, and gave up after he'd eaten out the recognizable meat and vegetables. Two musicians came to serenade us briefly, which made the experience all the more delightful.
In between meals, I had to work, so the boys occupied themselves primarily with searching for a charango for Andrew. A charango is similar to a guitar, but much smaller--kind of like the Peruvian version of a ukelele. The one that Andrew bought is from an actual factory where the owner makes the instruments right behind the counter--super authentic! Andrew is very pleased. My work day yesterday was pretty awesome. In the morning, I joined Eliza and two new interns on a trip to the school where they would be teaching English and computers. It's always interesting to be inside of the elementary schools in Central and South America. I haven't seen enough of how they work to truly understand them--right now, I just get the feeling that children are constantly "running free" throughout the school. I know that many of the teachers are working hard at instilling knowledge in young minds, but I get a kick out of how bold some of the kids are, and how often I find them walking around outside of their classrooms! I think that Elizabeth and Gabrielle, the two volunteers on the site, will do a great job there.
In the later afternoon, Eliza and I escorted two other interns, Brennan and Lena, to a library in one of the poorer suburbs of Cusco. We only stayed with them for a little while to give them a tour of the site, but by the time we went to leave, I was hooked. I know I'll be back there as often as possible! The owner, Amy, is originally from New York, and she started the library as a way to promote love for reading among children in a neighborhood where such love is less likely to be cultivated. The library has a bunch of books for reading practice, a homework room, and a play room, and the kids are just precious. I'm sure I'll have more to share on this after I've been back a few times!
For dinner, Andrew and Brian and I headed to the San Blas area, and eventually settled on a restaurant with a long Incan name that I can't remember. What I CAN remember is the meal, which was super delish! We all had pollo saltado, which is essentially chicken stir-fried with onions, peppers and french fries and served with rice. "Saltado" dishes are quite common here, but we all agreed that this was one of the better ones. Super yummy! After dinner, we headed to a bar called The Muse, where ProWorld was hosting an intercambio for all of the students currently here in Cusco. The attendance was very good, and allowed for some very lovely socializing among Peruvians and American students. After we left, Andrew and Brian wanted to go to Paddy's Pub (the only Irish-owned pub above 11,000 feet in the whole world--and they're pretty proud of it!), so we went there and watched the end of an NBA game (Miami versus Dallas, for all you sports fans). Then it was off to bed!
Today, I took the day off to spend with the boys, and we hopped on a bus from Cusco to the town of Pisac. Pisac is a stopover for visitors to Machu Picchu, and is famous for its huge artisan market. We spent the day shopping and improving our bargaining skills (Andrew's favorite method is to say "15 soles? No puedo." He then walks away and hopes that the salespeople will call him back with a better offer, which they usually do!). The boys bought a bunch of gifts for friends, and I bought a gift for Julie and also a teacup to add to my international teacup collection. I actually already bought one a few weeks ago, but this one was so much prettier that I decided to get it anyway! We also had lunch at a cute little restaurant where the boys got to try Peruvian arroz con pollo, which is delectable. Our bus ride back to Cusco was pretty hysterical. We weren't exactly sure of where to catch the bus, so we just stood close to where we'd been dropped off, and eventually a bus drove by (quite filled with people) and the door was opened and a man yelled, "Cusco! Cusco! Cusco!" until we hopped in! It was standing room only until a few people got off at a stop a few kilometers away. Luckily, we made it back in three pieces and it turns out that the bus station is right near my apartment! What luck!
Now I'm here in the office, and I must leave because I want to put on some long pants and a jacket before I meet the boys for dinner! Tonight, I am endeavoring to make them salsa dance a little bit before the night is over. I have high hopes of success!
Hasta pronto, amigos!
Monday, June 6, 2011
Ollanta Wins, Perhaps the Lesser of Two Evils? I Remain Hopeful...
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/politics/2011/06/06/ollanta-humala-wins-peru-election-over-keiko-fujimori/
A Note from the Brothers
Hello all! We have two guest bloggers this week in the form of my awesome brothers! I've been having a wonderful time with them, and after I give you a little taste of what we've been up to, I'll let you read it from their perspectives. I would also like to put in a disclaimer that I did not make any corrections to their grammar, so excuse any issues (and I KNOW that there are issues because I wanted to correct them badly but didn't because the boys were making fun of me!).
Anyway, A&B are en route to Machu Picchu right now, having left bright and early at 6:30 AM. I arranged a full day tour for them with an English guide and all transportation and entrance fees and everything so that they wouldn't end up in Bolivia (seriously a possibility if Andrew continues to believe himself a fully competent Spanish speaker!). They have a long day ahead of them, but I think it will be beautiful and I'm sure they'll take lots of lovely pictures that I'll later share with y'all!
The first day the boys arrived, I took them to lunch at--of course--Victor/Victoria, where we had a super delicious meal, and then I showed them some of the main landmarks of downtown Cusco. Among our stops was an artisan market, where the boys learned the importance of saying "No gracias," and also bought some hysterically, flamboyantly colorful pants to wear for volunteer work! Eventually, we headed over to the Centro Bartolome de las Casas, where I had to meet up with a group from Missouri to show them the way from the CBC to the ProWorld office. I also took the boys to get their International Student Identification (ISIC) cards so that they could get discounts at Machu Picchu (and in over 100 other countries through 2012--they'd better start traveling more often!). I also showed them the ProPeru office and my apartment, and when we'd finally worked up an appetite for dinner, we went to Papa's, a cute restaurant run by a super nice lady, where we each paid about $3 for a three-course meal. The boys also shared a pitcher of chiccha morada (a drink made of Peruvian purple corn mixed with cinnamon and cloves and sugar and stuff), which I discouraged because I think it's kind of gross. They found it rather amusing, though, and particularly enjoyed the large quantity of pink foam that they had to work their way through to get to the actual chiccha.
On Friday, the boys had breakfast made by Sonia, the owner of the Llaqtayai Family House where they're staying. They've been raving about her breakfasts and her general hospitality on a daily basis, so if anyone wants to come to Cusco (hint, hint, nudge, nudge?) and spend $16 a night on lodging, give Sonia a ring! At 8 AM, the boys arrived by taxi to the ProPeru office (in the crazy pants), and we loaded into a bus along with Lalo and the students from Missouri. We headed to Pinancay (the community where I worked with Pittsburgh and St. Scholastica) and proceeded to several community homes to build clean-burning stoves. The clean-burning stove project is seriously awesome because you can see SUCH a difference in the households before and after the stoves are in use. In the "before" scene, we often smell the inside of the house before we see it. The smokiness is so strong that one student actually felt like her nose was going to bleed, and the walls were entirely black from the fumes. Women in Pinancay, and in many other rural Peruvian communities, spend a significant portion of their time indoors, along with their children, breathing in the smoke as they cook and essentially diminishing the capacity of their lungs. By building these stoves, made of simply barro (mud/clay), three tin rods, bricks, and a little metal "sombrero," we can drastically alter the health of the women and children in the community. What's more, the results are almost immediate. The stoves only take five days to dry and are then ready for use, and in a mere 30 days, we can measure huge increases in lung capacity among women and children. How awesome, especially for those of us who like to see the fruits of our labor ASAP! :-)
Anyway, the boys were a great help, and were teamed up with Krysten, a lovely Missouri student who luckily speaks far better Spanish than Andrew and Brian! While they worked at a few houses, Lalo and I were running all over the community supervising the work of various groups and ensuring that there were no major problems with any of the stoves. I'm really happy that we have been able to do so much work at Pinancay because I have begun to establish my presence there, and many of the community members now remember my name, entrust their kids to my care, and joke around with me more freely. It's a wonderful feeling, and it's going to make leaving the community very hard come July!
After our day of work on Friday, we were pretty dirty and pretty exhausted, so the boys went to their hotel to shower and I went to my apartment and we reunited in the Plaza de Armas for dinner. Friday also marked the first day of the Dry Law here in Peru. Because of yesterday's presidential election, it was illegal to buy alcohol from Friday to Sunday. Somehow, Brian, Andrew, and I managed to break that law on all three days, beginning with our trip to The Lost City. The Lost City in this case is not Machu Picchu, but a random, fairly creepy-ish looking underground bar that Brian read about prior to arriving in Cusco. He was insistent on trying it, and won Andrew over by showing him a sign that announced that an NBA game would be playing on the TV (it wasn't). And so it was that we ended up in The Lost City with a fairly creepy bartender, the there of us the only customers in the whole place. I have to admit, though, that it turned out to be a pretty great time, as the bartender gave us happy hour prices and we decided to try some traditional Peruvian drinks, including the pisco sour (yummy), something with pisco and milk (disgusting, in my opinion), something with pisco and mint (Andrew's choice--deliiiicious), and a margarita. We were planning on eating at The Lost City as well, but--surprise!--their oven was malfunctioning, so we only ended up getting drinks, and then headed elsewhere for dinner. When we went to leave The Lost City, the bartender had to unbolt the door for us, and we realized that he was probably trying to make the place seem closed because of the dry law. It looks like the Whitmans are some serious rebel law-breaker sorts! Muahaha.
On Saturday, we went back to the Pinancay community to build more stoves. The boys worked in the morning, but in the afternoon, they took some time to explore the beautiful country, and Andrew (the loco) decided to go for a RUN! He ended up encountering my sweet Analie, who was working in the fields with her mom and some other community members. Andrew also brought along one of his CDs and gave it to Luis, an absolute geme and also Analie's older brother! He was so appreciative, and I'm pretty sure that he'll have the whole community dancing to Andrew Whitman in no time at all! Saturday night, we went to dinner at a tiny little restaurant called Sumaq (which means "very good" in Quechua). There were only four tables in the place, and there was an oven right behind the counter where we could see the cook preparing all of the food. It was pretty neat, and felt almost more like a family kitchen than a restaurant. Andrew got to cross alpaca off his list of things to try, and Brian and I had steak and trout respectively, all quite tasty. Each meal also came with a pisco sour, which resulted in our second active breakage of the dry law!
Yesterday, I intended to go to my normal 11:30 AM mass at La Compania, but the church was padlocked! I guess the service was canceled due to the elections (though it seems to me that prayer would be only more necessary on a day like election day). I met up with the boys around noon, and I introduced them to Dominga, my dear friend who sells the bread made by nuns outside the Monasterio de Santa Catalina. The boys fell just as much in love with her as I have, and we took a picture which I'll share in a future blog when Brian Whitman hasn't absconded to the "real" Lost City with my camera! I took the boys to lunch at Juanito's, a sandwich place that makes a really unique sandwich called the Cuzqueno con Pollo. It's a pretty standard chicken sandwich except that it has two tamales on it, which just bring it to a super high level of awesomeness! Afterwards, I intended to take the boys to the soccer game that I had seen advertised on signs throughout my neighborhood, but it turns out that they were for a game the previous Sunday. I remain rather annoyed at this because if they had just put the numberical date of the game (instead of just SUNDAY), or taken the signs down before the following Sunday came, I wouldn't have been confused. Argh. Luckily, there's a game on Wednesday afternoon, and we're going to go to that. After our trip to the very empty soccer stadium, I took the boys to the San Pedro Market, where we bought some ingredients to make fajitas. We also went to the grocery store, where the boys purchased a six pack of "illegal" Cuzquena beer without any trouble...and so went our third act of law breakage! Then, I headed home and the boys decided to go up to Sacsayhuaman. Andrew obviously made the ridonkulous decision to run, while Brian more sensibly went for the walking route. They apparently agreed to meet at the stairs leading to the monument, but somehow managed to lose each other briefly, and then each returned to the hotel to look for the other, missing each other by no more than five minutes. In the end, Andrew ended up running eight or ten miles, but they made it back in one piece, and then came over to prepare and eat fajitas with Laura and me. We also made attempt numero uno at brownies (THANK YOU, EILEEN WHITMAN, FOR FOUR BOXES OF BROWNIE MIX. YOU ARE EVEN MORE MY HERO THAN YOU WERE BEFORE, IF HUMANLY POSSIBLE!). We managed to have pretty serious success in this venture, and proceeded to eat almost the entire pan in response to our long withdrawal! :-)
Now it's Monday, and the election is over and the boys are on an adventure and I'm here in the office getting some tasks accomplished and writing to all of you! At this point, I'm sure you've heard enough from me, so here are the un-edited comments of my wonderful brothers whom I love so dearly and am so happy to have with me here in Cusco!!!
[Written last night (Sunday)]
Hey Everybody!
It’s Andrew. I’m excited to provide you with a new perspective of Peru from a man’s eyes! I just finished a two and a half hour run and walk up to Sacsaywaman, an Incan Ruin right outside of Cusco. It usually would take me about 15 minutes, but unfortunately Brian got lost and I went on a running rampage to find him. Fortunately, we ended up back at our Hostel with Sonya, our host, and neither of us were too worse off.
Our trip to date has been amazing. Let me fill you in on what we’ve done and what we’re doing. We are staying at a small house on avenida alta with our awesome host Sonya, who has a daughter Isabel, and a helper Maria. They are all amazing. Sonya makes us breakfast every day, and each day it’s been crazy delicious. My favorite was an omelet with peppers and garlic. We’ve been eating amazing food every day and been having amazing adventures too. One of my new favorite things to do is haggle with taxi drivers, which has been a blast. Brian and I left a few taxis on the spot when they tried charging us more than 3 soles, which is ridiculous.
The best trip we’ve had yet is visiting the small village of Pinyankay, where we built ovens for Native Peruvians. I’m pretty sure I can say it’s the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Building the ovens was very rewarding, and I learned a couple Qechua phrases to talk to the families too (only two, what is your name and how are you, but I got some respect for them). Brian and I also made a new friend, Christine from Mizzou, who was really cool and a beast at Spanish (props to her for a Lord of the Rings reference, saying the village reminded her of Hobbiton). I was constantly on the prowl for some chicha, the corn beer of South America, but unfortunately didn’t get any. Still got a few days though!
The coolest part of the trip by far was when I went on a run in the village. It was very humbling when I got to ten minutes in my run and had to stop and dry heave for a while. But anyway, on the walk back with Brian, we ran into a ton of people from the village taking a break from the fields and they invited us to share some potatoes with them. I did most of the conversing, although I probably didn’t make sense, but in the end we found out that one of the little girls was the one and only Ana-Lie, Sarah’s favorite village kid! It was awesome to explain that we we’re Sarah’s brothers and she immediately became crazy attached, even crying when we had to leave. It was just awesome to see these people be so welcoming and nice and still be able to share a few laughs and potatoes with people who are from a totally different world.
The food has been incredible as well, and super cheap! But I’m going to let Brian take over for me and hopefully he can describe a bit to you.
Hey everybody! Missing you in the U.S but we’re having an incredible time over here in Peru. Andrew covered most of the big events thus far, but everything has been great from the people to the food to the sights. The people that we built stoves for so were so incredibly grateful and some of the nicest people we’ve encountered (at least I think so, we couldn’t really understand what they were saying and our Spanish is quite subpar). Andrew told me that the other night I spoke in my sleep and said “mucho gusto” which means nice to meet you, which I think says a lot about the people I’ve met here so far.
Tomorrow Andrew and I are getting up at 6:00am to head over to Machu Picchu for the day! We’re very excited and we’ll try to take some awesome pictures so that everyone can feel as if they were there too. We’ve also been considering white water rafting trips and bungee jumping at some point, but Sarah remains adamant that she’ll only watch if we go bungee jumping. There are so many things to do but so little time! On Wednesday we’re going to see the Cusco soccer team play, which I’m pretty excited for, although I’m still hoping to play in a pick-up game with some Peruvians.
At all the plazas here we are constantly offered massages and entry to various restaurants. Sarah told me there’s a shirt that says “no gracias” on it, so I’m definitely plan on getting one before I leave so that I can get my point across. The second day here we went to a little market to try and find some Peruvian deals. A woman was offering Andrew a scarf to which he responded “ No gracias, muy caliente”. Andrew thought that he was saying “No thanks, I’m very hot”, but apparently in that context it meant that he was aroused. The woman, Sarah, Andrew, and I all got a great laugh out of it. That’s all I’ve got for now, but here’s Sarah who plans to proofread all of Andrew and I’s work! Chao!
Friday, June 3, 2011
La Eleccion
I'm off to meet my brothers for some dinner after a long day of clean-burning stove building, but I wanted to share a quick bit of information regarding the presidential election taking place in Peru this weekend Here in Peru, voting is required unless you want to pay a fine, and it's illegal to purchase alcohol 48 hours before or after the election (even for Americans--pobrecitos Andrew and Brian!). Anyway, check out the article--it's short and informative--and have a wonderful weekend!
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/06/03/peru.elections/
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/americas/06/03/peru.elections/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)