Peru and what not

Forgive me as it has been many months since my last blog.   As penance tell of your life in very general terms and say nothing of real significance.

I believe it has been months since I last pecked anything on my blog which has been described to me as having the layout and design of an five year old…so with that in mind I sit here in my bedchambers reflecting on all that has passed over the last number of months….the good, the bad, and the indifferent….but alas what is actually indifferent.  Everything has an outcome whether it be positive or negative…a lesson learned or forgotten so we can repeat it. 

I am now more than half way done with my term here in Peru and with this comes a number of different emotions, thoughts, and the like.  None of which I will indulge you in at the moment.  A few highlights to my last months

As some of you may know I am bald.  Two weeks ago I was invited to what I consider to be a dear friend’s 50^th birthday party.  Here in Peru the 50^th party is a very large gathering and a significant event.  I believe us Americans used to treat the 40^th in that fashion but with advances in science, Chuck Norris, healthcare, wig making, Botox, and the like- 40 is in fact the new 30 or so I will tell myself in a number of years when I reach that milestone.  Regardless during said party they surprised the spry young 50 year old with a mariachi band and during the curse of this they asked her to select three people from the crowd to serenade her.  Inevitably the gringo was a first round draft pick.  I have come to not only tolerate but enjoy embracing anything that comes as firstly there is no avoiding it or if you do avoid it you send a message that is just not what you are here to do.  I am here to help, to integrate, and if part of me bonding with my town is taking the jester hit on occasion I gladly take the blow.  Regardless I was made to wear a vest and a very large sombrero…and given a fake trumpet.  No more than ten seconds after placing this hat on my head did I realize that it smelled like an old bag of wet hair clippings.  So began a fifteen minute dry heave battle in front of a group of no less than 100 people.  I would try to take the cap off only to have one of the band members whisk in to ¨help¨ me fix it.  I have a sensitive gag reflex…this can be verified by my family as during the initial years of my niece and nephew and throughout life I have become the Mozart of the random gag.  I simply swallowed my dry heaves for 15 minutes smiling all along….all the while laughing and gagging simultaneously.  There are few things better in life than realizing the absurdity of a moment while suffering through…. it is those moments that will cause you to laugh years later with just a thought.  I have been blessed to have many moments like that here in Peru and lucky all of them do not involve me.  Regardless it literally took two days for me to be able to wash the smell off my pristine dome.  It may have been simply in my mind but every now and then I would take a step and create a wind drift of what seemed to be an old bag of garbage.

Work related :::::who cares right;;;;;;;;.   I have been having a surprising amount of success which culminated in my group from my humble pueblo winning or tying I should say for  first place in a national business contest that the Peace Corps sponsored.  In turn what that means is that five young ladies now have money to start a small business here in town.  Truth be told it was I, my co teacher Lydia, a student, and her mom who went to the Embassy of the United States for the contest.  I was amped the day this girl presented, to the point that she told me to calm down….and after falling short practice after practice before this girl just stunned me.  I knew her work ethic was excellent but I was afraid it would not translate but when she finished the last question the judge said to her was something along the lines of ¨This business seems to have a lot of risk¨ and she simply responded ¨any business or thing we do has risk, that is why we are here….to take risks¨  I leaned over and saw one of my former trainers nodding her head and smiling and I wanted to jump up and head butt my student….in a positive way.  This is a hardworking, smart girl that has no other family beyond her mother.  They are excellent people….the next day as we waited for the winners to be announced I said in my mind ¨give this mother this moment, give  this girl what she deserves¨ I also love winning….but when we were announced and I looked over at her mother crying I simply forgot any hard times, boring times, awkward times that have transpired and  felt completely whole for that moment.  I am a pretty happy human being but moments such as those are never to be forgotten. 

During the last month I have gotten to reunite with my fellow trainees for two weeks in Lima and have realized they are a large group of peckerheads….as am I.  But I also have realized  that these are not the people who sign the back of your year book call me this summer and lets hang out…these are people who I will confide in for years after our experience is over and for that I am lucky.  Beyond that I have affection for a girl…..am exercising regularly but maintaining my small rice belly, enjoying my host family more and more and will be a judge in this years Mrs Illimo pageant. So life progresses but stays the same….I miss my family and friends but as to be expected.  I wonder what life will be like upon return and what I will do that will keep my interest….I do have that Mariachi experience.