Random Events of August

The final weekend of July in Chaclacayo.

August is the month where things transition back to normal. July, the patriotic month of winter vacation, departed and Carted started 2nd grade with his new teacher. Traffic is all snarled again and September holds no big plans for us. But in many small things, our lives here continue to be interesting.

Santa Rosa de Lima...on the 200 sole bill that doesn't
really seem to circulate.

The Hogar where we go out and visit the kids continues to be a big part of our weekends. Recently, it was the holiday for Santa Rosa de Lima, the first South American saint, in which people traditionally go to her home in Lima and throw wishes into her well. The Hogar kids were all invited to a rich lady's house in Chaclacayo for a lunch and play. The kids love the lunch and, even better, love the giant trampoline and little wading pools the lady sets up. I noticed a couple of the long-term volunteers savoring a rare can of beer. Victor, 13yrs old, sat happily in a tiny wading pool for over an hour...like a pigeon in a bath. Even though the hostess suffers Parkinson's tremors, she insisted on doling out the ice cream afterwards.

Archery

In a strange moment that day, as we were on the van heading over to the lunch, we saw Jimena out on the sidewalk, not coming with us. Oh, said the doctor, she is going home today. We struggled to the window for a futile farewell wave as the van drove off. Jimena was one of the very special ones, a handful, a pain in the ass sometimes, but energetic and engaged and loving despite being a 9yr old covered in burn scars and a fused hand. I know we should be happy, she is going back to her family, her treatment is going well. Blah blah blah. Just this last week we learned that Jenny is going home soon...she is the cerebral palsy girl in the wheelchair in the first photo up top. This feels a little different...we are certain that going back to Jenny's family simply means she will be parked in a corner and ignored. We could be wrong, but we've met the mother and I doubt we are wrong.

Other little things: Marcela, Carter's Spanish tutor, rewarded him with an Archery class...one that I was able to take part in as well. The lovely little fruit aguaymanto has come into season just in time for me to experiment with pisco infusions. These infusions are great in a couple of the signature Peruvian cocktails: the pisco sour (1pt lime, 1pt simple syrup, 1 egg white, 3pt pisco, shake with ice, dash of bitters) and the chilcano (pisco & ginger ale & a bit of lime).

Jennifer and I went late one night to Brisas de Titicaca, a exhibition dancehall that alternates displays of traditional Peruvian dances with opening the floor for guests to dance. Jen and I had a hard time finding it, a few times incorrectly turning down the dark street where hookers were loitering in their skimpy dress. The native costumes in the hall, though, were fun to see. Brightly colored, modeled from different regions, with accompanying group dances. Also, I have mentioned the marinera before, the dance where a barefoot lady twirls her handkerchief and the man twirls his sombrero. Finally I got to see it. It was elegant, as expected, but also athletic and subtly erotic in the same way that the Argentine tango is. The footwork is forceful and the dancers circle around each other like cranes doing a mating dance, but then quietly come together and hide behind the hat for a beat or two.

Marinera

We had met up with Sanjay and Garima. They are in their final months in Lima as Sanjay prepares to take over the Country Director position in Mozambique. The new Country Director is coming in from his post in Ecuador and we hear good things about him.

We also went to a circus. Apparently, winter is circus time in Lima. We went with several people from Peace Corps to a special charity show in which all proceeds and the performance are all donated to a local child-welfare organization. A street-wise priest runs a program in one of the poorest areas out on the outskirts of town. Many of the kids from the neighborhood attended as well and we were amused to overhear "Mirá, gringos!" and watch as Carter's fair curls earned him a few new girlfriends. Central Lima is so cosmopolitan and the conquistador blood still so in evidence that gringos like us don't usually garner more than a glance or two. The show was good, intimate, with acrobatics and trapeze and horses and clowns. At the end, the performers all came out for a farewell and a speech about the charity. One of the acrobats, dressed for her role as a tough, scowling gladiator broke down weeping and kind of hid behind the others. I guess there is some overlap between what the kids in this program experience on the streets and what Peruvian circus performers experience. 

Finally, I posted this on Facebook, but for those of you who haven't seen it, here is a picture of Carter's note from when he and a school friend had to apologize to each other.