It’s 10:30am on Friday morning, and I’m sitting in bed drinking a cup of earthy Ancash brew. Iron and Wine in my headphones draining out the constantly blaring huaino playing in my house. If you’ve never heard huaino, it’s the music of this region of the Andes, and it’s something like nails on a chalkboard. I digress.
It’s been a very busy, very sunny week. For late December, I'm enjoying this “rainy season,” which apparently started in September. It rains every now and then, just enough for the landscape to turn greener, for the dust settle, and to allow for an occasional afternoon nap. But the past two weeks have nothing but sunshine... And we finished the World Map!
The early stages were intense – drawing grid lines and grid lines and grid lines with Rabbit over an entire weekend was far more enjoyable than it could have been. I definitely owe that guy a beer. Then came Day One of my World Map Project… where, as described in a previous post, I sat in the rain and waited and waited and waited for the kids to show. Just two weeks later, with over 20 participants between ages 11 and 17, we drew and painted the whole wide world! It’s not the most perfect World Map I’ve seen, but it’s ours – Tumpa’s – and I love it. The completion of the map falls on graduation week, an inevitable transition time that I’ve been semi-dreading. School’s out for the summer! I always loved that… but now I’m on the flip side, living in a small Andean village where all the descendants of the Incas are about to skip town for Lima or the coast. Oh… how times have changed for us all.
I’ve set up a summer camp schedule, which would be a lot of fun if anyone signed up. I’m offering a yoga and exercise club, a movie and popcorn night, an English club, a social theater group, and youth groups using games and art as informal learning tools. I’ve advertised at the school, I've used the town’s megaphone PA system, and of course word of mouth. And three kids have signed up. Count ‘em. Think: structure in an unstructured environment… oil and water, baby. I think I’ll probably end up standing in the middle of the Plaza, bag of candy in hand, yelling “If anyone’s out there, Come play with me!!!” I’m optimistic.
Things to look forward to: Christmas is just around the corner. This is bittersweet for me. This will be my first Christmas spent without one single family member. My parents and siblings will spend the holiday together in Montreal – one night at Kay’s and one night at my Mom’s. It’s very sweet - bittersweet - for me to know that everyone will be together while I’m away. My plans aren’t so bad though… I’ll spend Christmas 2008 with Angelica, Alberto, Maria and Juan Carlos – my Peruvian family - eating pachamanca, a coveted and delicious Peruvian meal that entails cooking spiced chicken, pork, beef, beans, camote and potatoes in a giant hole in the ground for hours. We’ll eat lots of chocolate this Christmas, as goes the tradition in Peru. Mine will be bittersweet.
Other things to look forward to: My dad’s visit on January 2nd… the perfect way to celebrate the New Year! I literally cannot believe that in two weeks from today, I will be in the presence of my dad. And just one month later, I’ll be lying on a beach with my mom celebrating our birthdays. It seems like light-years ago when I said goodbye to my parents at Newark airport in the wee-hours of the morning. Saying goodbye to friends and family (once, twice, maybe three times!) without knowing exactly the next time you’ll see each other is quite the sacrifice. So when I say I’m excited to see my parents, it’s a level of excitement that I’ve never experienced before. I’m so excited it almost hurts… like I can barely think about it… so at risk of shedding a tear on my precious MacBook, I’m changing the subject!
My little friend Gianella, 11, invited me to come to her lower school graduation this afternoon to eat cuy and dance huaino. Nothing like a little mid-afternoon guinea pig feast, complete with dancing with kids and parents. On Sunday the girls want make pancakes to celebrate their graduation. I’ll show them how to make paper snowflakes so we can decorate the house a-la-Rowayton. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, the holidays can be especially difficult and lonely. Tumpa is the farthest thing from New England, Connecticut. But this holiday season I’m lucky enough to be included, as a part of the family, in the Christmas traditions of my new Peruvian family. There’s a lot to be thankful for in this big wide world.
Sending Love.
Sophie
The beginning stages...
The completed World Map! Not the most beautiful color scheme, but it's mine and I love it.
The group of girls who finished the map.
Guinea Pig. It was good.
Gianella and me, at her lower school graduation, with her diploma.
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