the volunteer haps and tuesday aftermath in peru.

hola, que tal?

i am enjoying a well deserved lazy morning at the hostel. a few coworkers and i were going to try and get off work, pack packs and get picked up by a bus at 1am to be shuttled to a three day trek to colca canyon. the second deepest canyon in the world, next to the one that is right next to it. we decided we would do it next week, as it was a complete rush and stressing us all out.

so instead we all got to gether for a girls birthday from the house. played drinking games around a big table. about 80 percent brits. they are so entertaining to listen to. i love it.

so now i pulled a jess and slept till 11 and am drinking coffee at my leisure and going to go see one of the tourist destinations in town. a slow weekend up ahead, maybe a day hike somewhere tomorrow.

as for my day to day. it is wonderful i am going to easily see these couple or few weeks as the best part of my trip. i dont care where i go or what we see. this just feels great. it feels so good to have a purpose. traveling is often aimless, which is wonderful also, but to have such a defined purpose obviously is great. and to know where i am at, to take left hand turns through ally ways with purpose and with out consulting the map in the travel book..etc...
so, i officially have two crushes. or i should say i am the focus of two crushes. two 9 year old peruvian girls, stephanie and something like marliana or the like... it is "teacher" this, and "teacher" that.

i have to hold both of their hands on the way from the school to the playground. we were all dividing up for our daily soccer match. they walked up to one of the captains and explained in spanish to them that if they pick me they are picking all three of us. so i come as a package deal on the soccer field now.

i was goalie because i have been beating the hell out of myself everyday trying to keep up with these little peruvian kids at 9000 feet. (though, for a huge gringo, i think i hold my own). but, i was sitting in goal and they just stood back there and talked to me, asked me questions. kinda good for my spanish really. it is funny.

the kids in general are really taking to me. jess told me to be goofy. that they would love it. well it worked...

the word, "piscado" is fish. and we were playing word bingo and my terets syndrome (i dont really have terrets for those that dont know) kicked in and i kept singing this soulful version of piscado. you would have to be there. but they had me keep doing it...piscado...yeah...

what else. i taught them to hit the rock and yell bamm when they do it. i feel like i have already written this, but it is worth mentioning again. our friend, wes would be proud. that is one of his trade marks, in missoula.

so, when we score a goal, they all run back to me and hit my rock and we yell bamm. they ask me what in the world it means and i have to explain in terrible spanish that it is not even a "polabra" or word. they dont understand, but they still like it.

they also are completely taken by my bald head. keeping in mind that we have 9 year olds and we have 2 year olds. little kids have no issue with just walking up to you and rubbing your bald head. it is quite easy for them as i have to pile my entire 6 foot 4 frame onto a 12 inch high wooded childrens stool while we teach.

but in the world of everyone having dense, thick, never ending black hair. a huge, bald, white guy is an attraction that is not to be missed. one needs to reach up and just wrench on my head to touch it in wonder.

so in turn i taught them bald is beautiful. they think that is funny. "calvo es bonito". that one gets me pretty far.

the way to the school is about a 45 minute combi ride. the classic chicken bus, although in the city we have yet to have chickens...but in concept it is absolutly the same. i have gotten stuck standing a few times and the top of the bus is probably 2 feet shorter than i am so i am this enormous bent over gringo. they feel bad for me and try and find a spot to stash me. at least they tend to try.

what an experience the transit is in this country. the taxis are nuts and so are the busses. five minutes in the streets of a peruvian city is like a life time of bad driving in the states. it is not bad, it is just completely and utterly without rules. and what rules there are, certainly do not favor the pedestrian.

jess and i were writing each other about the concept of just blanking on our spanish. during class, my teacher and i are back and forth and i try to force myself out of my comfort level. tell a story in spanish and allow her to critique it. she laughs as i am animated with my attempts. but it helps. but when, i get out of the house and dont have a thousand note books and pieces of paper around me...i blank on the most basic things. but it is coming along. we are working on verbs and they just blew my mind yesterday with the most important 10 or so irregular verbs. i can work with rules but just memorizing every single version as they follow no rules is hard. welcome to english, we make language rules and shatter them within the same sentance. the kids tell me that espanal is "mui facile" but to me "es mui difficile". i am sure jess would agree.

on a completly different note. every american i have met has been floating along on a cloud of pride for the last few days. not even just americans as i have had 100 conversations or interactions with people from around the world who feel as for the first time in 8 years we have something absolutly good to look forward to. i would have loved to be in the states to celebrate with my peers, but that was not to be. i even have a friend who was at obamas acceptance speech in chicago,...what a moment that would have been.

i would also like to give a unexpected lot of credit.
john mccains speech was everything i could have asked for. he stepped out of his parties bias and anger and pleeded for his contingent to melt with the rest of america and make it whole again. he expounded upon obamas accolaids and asked for respect to be shown to a man who undoubtedly deserves it. for that he gained my respect. dont get me wrong, i am beside my self with happiness that the man did not win, but that was a respectful plea for bipartisan politics.

so, i will continue to explain our pride as a country to those from around the world who ask for my insight into the situation and there are many who do.

i am proud of all of you who changed the world on tuesday. we should be proud of ourselves as a country. we made truth and good prevail,..that is all we can ask for in this world.

to brighter days,
be well,
marc