Easter weekend in Arequipa

Some highlights from our Easter weekend here in Arequipa, Peru.  Thursday and Friday are national holidays and so we all enjoyed a four day weekend. Thursday we went to the Plaza de Armas to take in the sights and sounds from the catholic culture, which included a reenactment of the crucifixion in the main plaza with thousands of people watching. 

 

Afterword the people walk from church to church in the downtown area stopping at each church to remember an element of the passion and to recite prayers. Outside of each church are many food venders cooking on the streets and people selling cotton candy outside the church entrances. 

Henry enjoyed the candy apples people were selling. They were good but dipped in hard cinnamon candy and difficult to bite. 

We also watched this awesome street performer working during the red lights.

On Friday we spent an evening with two other American families playing games, talking, and watching movies. 

On Saturday we went to a big mall on the other side of town to play glow in the dark pirate putt putt golf and take our picture with the Easter bunny.

The best part of the weekend was worship Easter morning at our church, Cristianos en Accion.  Followed by lunch and fellowship. Here is a sample of the worship, the video is poor but do you recognize the audio?

Chicken feet and poopy grass

It is amazing how quickly we adjust to our surroundings. Things that were strange to us seven weeks ago are now normal and we don’t even notice them. I was so proud of my wife the other night at a restaurant. We were eating a chicken soup and she spooned up a whole chicken foot out of her bowl. She quietly pulled it out, set it aside, and continued eating the soup. I became nervous at the sight and went digging around in my bowl and found a foot as well. I also set it aside and continued to eat. It was good soup. 

The children have adjusted to the new normal very quickly. I have been a little slower because I am old and stuck in my ways but also because I tend to question everything. It is fun to ask why we do what we do. Why do we wash our dishes in warm water? Why is that man selling pieces of toilet paper on the street? Why are there five dogs on the roof of that house? Why don’t we have any water when it rains? Why are there guinea pigs grazing in that person’s yard? Why are the parks watered with sewer water? Why is there a foot in my soup?

But the questions are good. They lead to some interesting answers. For example, why do we wash our dishes in warm water? In Peru we always use cold water to wash the dishes, or the laundry, or sometimes ourselves. What does the warm water do? It doesn’t sanitize. It has to be over 180 degrees for that. It really doesn’t help get things cleaner as I have found out. In reality it is a waste of water, energy, and money.

Now I am not saying that the way you wash your dishes is wrong, what I am saying is maybe we should rethink things. Why do we do what we do? It is a healthy question to ask but sometimes difficult because usually the answer is “because that is how I have always done it.”

Arequipa is basically a desert. So I wondered how all the parks are so green. I asked my professor and he explained. (All was in Spanish so I am fairly certain this is correct but only about 90%) Well all the parks are watered with sewer water using gravity. The ground has a natural slope and each park has an entrance and exit from the sewer. Workers open the entrance and plug the exit with rocks or trash or whatever and the entire park floods. The sidewalks are built about a foot higher than the grass so you can still walk through the park. Once the park is flooded the worker opens the drain and plugs the entrance and presto! green grass. 

At first I was appalled by this but the more I think about it the more sense it makes. It is water and natural fertilizer for the grass; it is less wear and tear on the sewer treatment plants; and it is free. It also keeps people off the grass. (except our children of course)

In general we are adjusting but I continue to ask why. I continue to reexamine what i am doing and why. We should not only reexamine our lives but also our faith. Why do we do what we do? Why do we go to church on Sunday? We do we celebrate Easter? Why do we carry on traditions? Jesus himself condemned the Pharisees for this saying “you have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions” Mark 7:9

Again I am not saying any of this is right or wrong just I believe it is healthy to ask why and search out the truth. The truth is in God’s word not in our traditions. 

                                                                                                                     Josh

Back to School Shopping

I should start with the disclaimer that I have not gone back to school shopping in the states since I was in school.  However, I think even if I had, this experience would still be at the top of my list of must culturally different experiences thus far.

Everyone said to go shopping at San Camilo, the main market in Arequipa, for back to school supplies because they are the cheapest.  Everyone also said not to be there past 5pm as it is not safe for foreigners.  One friend had mentioned it took her 5 hours to get the supplies on the list.  That alone should have made us wait until another day but we were in the area (which is a taxi ride from home) so we went.

First, the list was quite long - the front and back of a piece of paper per child.  I had gone over the list with my dictionary at home first and still there were many things I didn't understand.  I had also revisited the school and asked if all of this was required since my children will only be in school part of the year.  She graciously crossed several things off the list.  Later, after going through everything I bought, I realized that when you send your child to school here, you are required to provided ALL the supplies.  A back to school list in the states for a preschooler might contain some pencils and crayons but you largely expect that your tuition covers the supplies (copy paper, toilet paper, craft supplies, etc).  That is NOT the case here.  Your tuition must cover only salaries and facilities.  You provide EVERYTHING else.  That alone was one huge and unexpected difference.

Secondly, the shopping experience was SO different.  The store is pictured above.  It is 2 aisles that you can barely stand 2 people wide in.  Behind the counter are the employees and all the majority of the school supplies.  I took my list to the counter and she began to look things up in the computer and create my "order".  We discussed what some items were, how life is different here, the young gals life story, etc while she entered the items into the computer and advised me what additional things she thought could be crossed off the list.  Nothing was priced and no prices were mentioned although I'm sure if I had asked the price of each item she would have told me.  That would have only extended the 1.5 to 2 hours I was already at the counter.  And I would have had no idea if those prices were fair or not here.  A package of 12 markers costs about $6 here - outrageous to me but I have asked in several stores since and it's the same everywhere! 

Meanwhile, Josh is standing outside the store with the 3 kids because there isn't room inside.  We were obviously an anomaly as many people stopped to look, chat, or take pictures.  Josh got to practice his Spanish with the security guard who was shocked that we lived here and were not tourists.  Josh got the impression that if we were tourists he would have told us that we should be leaving the area as it was approaching 5pm.  Josh and the kids also explored the market.

After completing my order, she sends me to the cashier to pay and says that it will be ready in about 1.5 hours.  Not expecting this but not wanting to have wasted all that time and have to do it again another day, we agreed and went to find some dinner while she proceeded to gather all the things we'd ordered from behind the counter.

We returned about an hour or so later just as she was finishing up.  Then they called me to the pick up counter where the woman proceeded to go through my ticket and put items into boxes for me as she checked to see that they were all there.  This process took another 45 minutes at least.  Finally with 2 large cardboard boxes, a large roll of poster board, a stroller, and 3 kids, we head to the street (with the help of 2 ladies from the store - bless them) to get a taxi home.  By this time it is well past the safe hour to be there and the women (and God) were looking out for us.  They helped us hail a safe cab and get loaded up.  

Once home, Josh carried the boxes up 4 flights of stairs to our apartment.  I then had to go through the material and label everything with the kids names.  The following day, Josh had to carry everything back down, and then we had to get a taxi to take us to the kids school (about a 5 minute walk) because there was so much to carry there was no way we'd make it walking with 3 kids!

The adventure continued when we arrived at school and they sat down with us and the list they'd given us to make sure we'd bought everything we were supposed to and they made a list of whatever was missing that we needed (some things had not been available at that store and I thought others were excessive).  God was gracious and so was the director of the school as she crossed off many of our missing supplies that the poor teacher spend 45 minutes making because the kids will only attend until we move to Yurimaguas.  That only left about 4 items I had to go to other stores yet to find.  The director of the school is a lovely woman whom we're grateful to have met and has been so gracious in working with us through this oh so new experience!

While back to school shopping was not what we'd expected, we survived, and we're all excited for the kids to start school tomorrow and be immersed in the Spanish language.  

~ My God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:19 ~

                                                                                                                               ~ Jennifer