Sara and the World: februari 2011

Dear All!
I am sorry for the long silence…It was not meant to be that long, but life has been so busy that I can hardly find time to write a blog…What I did do is upload photos every time I was on a computer, so I got a lot of pictures for you!
Let´s see…where should I start…
Two weeks ago I went to Pisac, a village about an hour from here in the beautiful Valle Sagrado. I went with my flat mate Levana, Jorinde (also from my University) and some of her friends. Pisac is a little village known for its traditional market and impressive Inca ruins and so we decided to go check that out. The way there was already beautiful: first climbing out of Cusco, curve by curve being able to see the whole city from above. Then driving through the green mountains until descending into Valle Sagrado. In Pisac we decided to go straight to the ruins and leave the town for later. Although we were a bit shocked by the price the views were worth it! There were different groups of ruins and you could walk along them on you way back to Pisac. The first hour we had a beautiful sun, but soon there were terrifying dark clouds coming and the last hour we walked in the rain. That prevented us from hanging out much around the rest of the ruins, but it was a spectacular road down to the town and I couldn´t stop looking around marveled (and taking a lot of pictures). Once in town we were so exhausted from walking down a steep hill for an hour, so hungry and so wet that we headed straight to a nice little restaurant, were we had a great lunch and then we went home to sleep 
Besides that we had a party last Monday to celebrate the end of the holidays and that day was also used to celebrate the children´s birthdays, because they don´t get their own birthdayparty. It was a full afternoon. First I went with Levana to the house where I work on Wednesdays (in another barrio) to take the children from there to the house where the party would be. It was a bit of an adventure to take 10 kids in the Peruvian bus system, but we were quite lucky to catch a big bus and it all went very well. When we arrived the party had still not started, but soon it got going, with dancing, a lot of eating and the best part: piñatas!
Piñatas are a Spanish speaking country tradition in which the birthday boy/girl is blindfolded and turned around and then with a stick has to beat a colorful cardboard box that can have all kind of different shapes and that is filled with sweets until it bursts open and then all the guests dive to the floor to get as much candy as possible! We had three piñatas, one for the small children, one for the bigger children and one for the teenagers. It was really nice although the diving turned out to be quite a violent affair with these kids!!!
In the end there was cake, goodbyes and cleaning up. We left very happy and tired…
Furthermore my life revolves about busy weeks in the organization and busy weekends hanging on the main square where I got some friends among the shoe shining boys. Together we climb out of Cusco Valley to admire the city from above, hang around ruins, visit museums (yes, with 13 and 14 year old teenagers – it was their idea), me joke about people walking around and even have some serious conversations some times…With my roommates I go out for dinner and talk for long hours in our now rather busy home. And…today I went to get my new guitar, entirely made to suit my wishes, made by one of the brothers who are supposed to be the best guitar builders in Cusco! I am very happy. To tame that happiness my old enemy sinusitis turned up unexpectedly this night and is literally giving me headache (and other nasty side effects). Ah well, if I manage to rest tomorrow and behave a bit like I am actually ill I might be able to expulse him!
A much nicer visit, and expected with much more anxiety is the one of Lotte and Christoph who are honoring me with their visit in exactly one week!!! I am really looking forward to that! I am going to take a week off and then, finally, I will see Machupicchu…a place that has been on my ´list´ for quite some years now!
So my friends, next news will probably include pictures of that place and of my dear Lotte and Christoph!

Hasta Pronto!
Sara

Surroundings of my work 1

Surroundings of my work 2

The other house where I work

Getting the kids to the party

Cutest bros in town

Bailando

Piñata time

Diving onto the sweets

Pisac - Valle Sagrado

Beautiful Andes

Pisac ruins

The group

Ruins in the shape of a Condor

More ruins

The roas down to Pisac

Dear all,
Two weeks have gone by but somehow it seems much longer! In these two weeks I have settled in, got into some kind of routine, memorized the names of almost all the kids I am working with, got sunburned and soaked with rain, wandered the little cobblestone streets of Cusco and sat in packed (mini)busses on the way to work, felt happy and sad, talked and read a lot of Spanish, strolled over packed markets to buy food, sat on park benches reading the Cusco newspaper, had conversations with shoes shining boys, sneaked into colonial churches and walked past impressive Inca walls, discovered a vegetarian restaurant where, for around €2, you can get a complete meal and well, I have lived the life of an anthropologist!
The place where I work is really nice, the children are friendly and inviting, love painting and drawing and enjoy actually everything you organize for them to do. Of course there are also some setbacks regarding how much of their life I am allowed to witness (restrictions from the organization) and, as expected, things in real life always look different than in your research proposal and so the necessary adjustments to questions/theory have to be made. Nevertheless it is an interesting place to be!
I actually like it to walk around somewhere with the eyes of an anthropologist through which everything is possible data and thus interesting…although it makes you go to bed at 22.00 completely tired it also makes the world a very interesting place, because every little thing can tell you something.
My normal week day looks more or less like this:
7.00 – getting up, shower, breakfast, coffee
8.00 – start writing, reading articles, looking at my data, going to internet, reading the newspaper…
12.15 – lunch
13.15 – take the bus to work
14.00 – start to work (painting, drawing, English, volleyball)
17.00 – clean up
17.20 – take the bus home, shopping, etc
19.00 – dinner
20.00 – typing out field notes and writing diary
22.00 – dive into bed :)

Weekends are different…if it doesn’t rain too much I hang out in the centre all day. Part of that day is past on skype because finally I can call to Europe at a time that people are still awake :) the rest of the time I wander through the streets, hang out on the Plaza de Armas, and try to have conversations with children working on the street (which, especially on Saturday, are quite a lot!).
The weather is crazy sometimes…at one moment you can be sitting in a t-shirt in the sun, getting terribly burned, the next it can start pouring with rain and you need a fleece and a jacket in order not to be cold…however last week it was quite constant with grey clouds and rain (at one time I saw the street literally transform into a river…), so it is great that this weekend finally the sun is out again! I took the opportunity to make some photos of the city so I’ll post them here for you, so that you can have an idea of my weekend ‘working environment’:) I haven’t made pictures in my week ‘working environment’ so those will come maybe next time!
Always happy to hear how you are all doing!
Love

Sara