Chicha

Hola Amigos,

Sorry for the serious slack in an update, I´ve had a busy & interesting week.

Monday was the start of English classes at the school, Virgin de Fatima. I have a total of five classes with Julie between Monday & Wednesday so it´s a relatively easy schedule. It´s grades third through sixth and the kids have been fairly excited to learn English. Classes thus far have been OK....Julie and I decided prior to the start of the week that we would do the majority of the class in English with some instruction in Spanish. But it ended up that she spoke in Spanish 98% of the class and I felt like her assistant. I´ve been a little frustrated about it but I´m trying to keep in mind that it was the first week and possibly necessary. More to come on that later this week.

Thursday and Friday were a bit more relaxing & I hiked up to a cross on a mountain near my house. On my way back down I managed to get into the back of the main Inca ruins here that cost tourists 70 soles to get in. Cha-ching. I didn´t do much walking around since I get in for free with Awamaki anyway.

Thursday evening, I managed to narrowly escape eating cow stomach for dinner and went to dinner with Julia. I ordered a ridiculiously delicious vegetarian burrito and couldn´t get over how fantastic vegetables tasted. Side note-I literally eat rice, potatoes & meat for every meal, it´s gotten reallllllly old.

Friday night I watched a Japanese horror movied dubbed over in Spanish with Jesus. It was quite terrible but entertaining none the less. After, Janet asked me if I would be Micaela´s Godmother...I couldn´t figure out if she was serious but I accepted anyway. Now Mica refers to me as ¨Mi Madrina¨....I´m still not sure if it was serious but sweet none-the-less.

Saturday, Jesus and I went for a run in the morning which was the first good run I´ve had since I´ve been here (first of three....). I need to start busting ass. Later in the day, there was a ceremony in the soccer arena in our neighborhood for my host family´s cousin, Elvis. He´s the new mayor of Ollantaytambo. And of course it involved drinking cerveza allllllll day long. Also in alcoholic form, was a traditional Peruvian beverage called Chicha. I´m still unclear on how it is created but it´s basically a homemade corn beer that is gauranteed to put in you in bed for a couple days if not accustomed to it. Although not practiced much anymore, I believe the original way it was created was by chewing corn kernals & spitting them into the beverage. There were multiple Qechua women selling it in barrels & I tried a sip...not sure what the frenzie is about, I would much prefer beer. Later in the evening, I went to another pizza party for the new volunteer followed by Pub Inglais & the very classy Ollanto discotech until 3 am. The discotech was like a 7th grade dance with the girls seperated from the boys. It was quite comical.

Time for an intense game of Monopolio. Wish me luck.

Caio