Time wounds all heels

The whole time i have been in Peru, i have been dealing with an ingrown toenail. I was hoping to wait till i get back to the USA to take care of it but it has been getting worse and infected. I finally decided i couldn't wait and i had surgery on it this past Wednesday. It wasn't to bad at all, they stabbed my toe with a couple three foot long needles, and then proceeded to rip my toenail off. As bad as it sounds, it didn't hurt at all. What did hurt is today when he changed the wrapping, he was far from gentile, and he took more than the wrapping, and then rubbed it down with alcohol. It was really a different experience than it would have been in the USA i feel like. Fortunately i am done going to the doctor, and i will be able to change the wrapping myself in the future.

Aside from that, we got rain and hail today. I think it is about time for rainy season to start, so i should get used to it! I only have about 40 days left, so i want to study Spanish harder so i can come away having learned a little more. I have grown a lot, and learned a lot being here, and i really appreciate everything my parents have done to allow me to be here. I am truly blessed.

Find the Machu Picchu in you

My trip here has been great! So far, i am not sure what the highlight would be. It is between visiting Machu Picchu and the 53 mile, 3 day trek we took to get there, and the weekend visit to the amazon! Both were pretty incredible. First of all, started with us taking a boat on a branch of the amazon river to arrive to camp. We stayed in tents in a reserve called Manu. We about a 10 minute walk away from the river, and we had running water. No plumbing though. Just a stream of clear water that the guides claimed to be clean. I brought 4 liters of water so i didn't need any water except for washing my hands, but many people drank the water strait from the stream, and no one got sick. We did some hiking in the jungle, saw some cook animals, and did some volunteer work as well.

Machu Picchu on the other hand was a little less relaxing. We got up at 5 every morning and left out camp site by 6. We hiked between 7 and ten hours a day covering, as i said, 53 miles. That doesn't include the fourth day that we actually spent up at Machu Picchu. The hike included going over a mountain, and then through part of the upper jungle. Then we took a train to Aguas Calientes and stayed there the night in a hostel. I will add a couple pictures of my trip, and i would like to thank my mom and dad for giving me this opportunity! It has been a real growing experience, and incredibly beautiful.

Culture and Religion

It is interesting to see the way that Catholicism has merged with the local culture of Peru. Just yesterday i was walking home and i saw in front of a Catholic church a band playing  traditional Peruvian music in front of a crucifix. Also, they have a day for Santa Rosa de Lima when they have parades here in Cusco as well. The people dress traditionally, play traditional music, and do traditional dances. Many people do have a strong devotion to the Virgin Mary as i have heard is true in most of Latin America. I have also gotten to see many Pre-European religious sites. Many Incan religious ruins where their stonework was nearly flawless, and the architecture in general is breathtaking and mysterious. A common question is, “How didd they move huge boulders without even the development of the wheel?” In many of the sites they had very impressive irrigation as a symbol of a water deity.

As for myself, i have not gone to any churches here as of yet. It has been a different experience for me, and i feel that being in a foreign place, with a completely different culture, having very little familiarity has brought me closer to God. I know that living in the United States, often doing the same, or at least similar, things day after day, it is easy to get comfortable. It is easy for me to slip out of a healthy spiritual routine of prayer, but now that i am out of my bubble, it has brought me to reality. With less Internet, less Hollywood, less video games, i am faced with the real world where it is more clear what is important. In regards to religion, traveling has been very good for me, and the anthropologist in me is fascinated by the cultural adaptations that have taken place within the Catholic Church in Peru.

Peruvian Cuisine

The food of Peru is very unique. Before i came to peru, i thought that the food would be pretty similar to Mexican food, but i was very wrong. They eat a lot of rice here with potatoes and bread. Then chicken is very common although they also will eat pork, turkey, alpaca, guinea pig, and beef. It is very different than food in the united states. As most people know, you shouldn’t drink the water here, but you also have to be careful where you buy your food. I usually just eat with the family i stay with, but sometimes i enjoy going out to eat somewhere on the street as well. Even being careful i got sick for a few days.
That being said, after being here for about a month it is nice to be able to find a familiar American style food once a week or so. I am sure that when i get back i will miss the food here a lot! The family i live with opened a restaurant recently and i eat their often for lunch. It is delicious including a lot of dishes with rice, but their most popular dish is chicken cooked over a wood fire, and french fries. It is called Pollo a la Brasa. For beverages, they drink a lot of coffee and tea. A popular tea is made of Coca leaves. They call it mate de coca. Their is a type of Soda here called Inca Cola that is also very popular. I hear that Peruvian dishes are gaining popularity around the world, and their chefs are becoming well known. I definitely can see why!

The dirt washes off, the smiles don't

Today was the first day that we went and helped a small town in Rural Peru by building an adobe building for their guinea pigs to live in. It was great work. They had already made some adobe bricks, so we had to hall them a little ways and then use mud as mortar. It is amazing how they can build whole buildings out of dirt basically. There were dogs everywhere running wild around the town; they were very friendly.

Aside from the service work classes are going well. They seem to all be interesting so far. I walk to class every morning, back for lunch, and then back and forth again for my evening classes. All in all it ends up being 3 and a half hours of walking, which is really good because they feed me a lot here. The food is great, a lot of rice, and chicken is very popular. Potatoes, and alpaca meat. I still haven't gotten to eat that guinea pig. soon.

The Mines and Maray

Well, i have been here now for about one week. It has been really amazing so far. When i walk through Cusco there are remains of the Incan Empire everywhere. The days after my last entry went very fast. I met the group that is here through pro-world and they are very nice. Most notably i met the family that i am staying with here in Peru. There is the parents who are in their mid 30's, and they have a daughter who is around 1 year old. She is very cute, and the parents are very very kind. The food continues to be great. There is a lot of rice, and a lot of chicken. I still look forward to eating Guinea Pig. We have traveled some visiting places such as Moray where the Incas planted crops at different elevations to conduct experiments. It is amazing how intelligent they were. After that we visited some salt mines where native people have been getting salt for thousands of years. No school has started and i am taking a spanish class, biodiversity of Peru, Contemporary Peruvian Society, The History of the Inca's, and Institutions of Peruvian Society. They are very interesting and i think the professors will be good.

Two miles up

After three flights and 16 hours either racing through, or sitting around in airports, I made it from Chicago to Cusco Peru. If i had to summarize my first impression of the city, and the country in one word, i chose different. Everything is different from the food, the people, to the cold showers, and the thin air. The people are so kind though. The people at the program that i am going through (Pro World) were so kind and helpful. they took me to lunch, and the food was fantastic! The thin air hasn't bothered me much aside from being a little short of breath when climb the stairs. When i say that the country is different, it is not at all in a bad way, and i think that it will be very good for me to experience the differences. I even think i want to focus on them because it is so interesting and awesome to me.