What I See Walking Around Cusco

I walk a lot here. I walk to my project. I walk from my project to class. I walk from class to the house. Here are some of the things I see:

Stray Dogs. I actually play a weird little game - guessing what breeds were mixed to yield each creature. Not that I like them. At all. They poop everywhere and growl at people.

Kids Playing Soccer. The kids are bizarrely obsessed with soccer and will play in the streets in groups with a ball or wadded up bags, or they will play alone walking down the sidewalk kicking a plastic bottle. They're always kicking things.

Raw Unrefrigerated Meat. I walk by stands selling meat quite often. Most of it isn't bad enough to make me gag, however it is incredibly unpleasant.

Little Old Peruvian People. They're usually dressed in traditional clothes and selling fruit, vegetables, bread, popcorn, or random odds and ends like mirrors or spray bottles or fingernail clippers. Not all of them have stuff to sell though; some of them are just begging.

Women With Neon Yellow Lanyards. The neon yellow lanyard means she has a cell phone that you can pay her to use. They're everywhere in the plazas and along the main street. They yell "llamadas, LLamadas, LLAMADAS!!!!" and swing their lanyards, usually while bouncing a small child on their hip.

Tour Groups. There are basically two kinds of tour groups. The Old White People and The Japanese. They are equally conspicuous. Whenever you're running late, you can count on having a tour group very effectively blocking sidewalk traffic. Oh, and one must never make eye contact with these people as this is typically translated as "Why of course I'd be willing to take as many photos of you as you'd like in front of this building/statue/rock"

Lost Gringos. I've become fairly adept at spotting lost gringos. If there is more than one, they are usually pointing in different directions. Usually they are on a street corner and looking at the Free From The Airport Map. The Free From The Airport Map is a dead giveaway that they just got here and are probably lost. If they are not only looking at it, but also turning it in circles while they look at it, they are most definitely lost. I give directions fairly often. I have drawn several maps for such people. If where they're going (trying to go) is on my way, I'll take them. I often end up pointing out notable buildings, good places to eat, important streets, etc during our walk. I might enjoy finding the Lost Ones a little too much. A couple weeks ago, I was on my way home, but I was taking a semi-sketchy way that I wouldn't have taken after dark. I happened to glance down a side street and I saw a little old couple - could have been my great grandparents - standing on a corner, turning the telltale Free From The Airport Map in circles. They were far enough away from downtown that where they were wasn't even on the Free From The Airport Map. I decided to rescue them. I walked up to them and confirmed that they were indeed lost, and ask them where they were staying. They couldn't remember the name of their hotel. I ask if it was close to the Plaza. They weren't sure. They had thought so, but had ventured out to find it that afternoon and had gotten horribly lost. I spent the next two hours walking them back to the downtown area and looking around for their hotel. We finally found it, but for a while I thought we might not. They invited me to eat dinner with them, but I politely declined after drawing them a map. I was exhausted and took a taxi to the house, getting there just in time for dinner.

Young Well-Dressed Peruvian Girls Trying To Hand Me Brochures/Cards/Fliers. You can't take more than 5 steps around the Plaza De Armas (the main square) without having one of these girls try to get you to take one of their handouts. They repeat "Massage? Manicure? Pedicure? Waxing?" over and over again.

Small Children Selling Things. They are everywhere in the touristy part of town. They sell finger puppets, hats, postcards, cards, cigarettes, gum, coca leaves, anything a tourist might want to buy. They are excellent salesmen, especially the kids with puppets and hats. Basically if they get you talking, they've made the sale. I have had several kids - like young kids- 6-9? - ask me where I'm from and then start this shpiel about the US in English that goes something like this: "OH! The United States! Very good country! Capital Washington D.C., President Barack Obama. Barack Obama very good President! George Bush very bad. Barack Obama very good. Washington D.C. maybe good maybe bad. You want buy puppets?"

Traditionally Costumed Girls Toting Baby Llamas. They're cute the first time you see them. They hang out in front of old pretty buildings smiling and petting their llamas... and asking you for money to take their picture.

Honking Taxis. The taxis are ridiculous. They honk all the time and all their horns sound different.

Men With Menus. Outside almost every restaurant is a guy trying to get you to look at the menu. I walk by the same guys every day and every day they try to get me to look at their menus and every day I decline. You'd think they'd start to recognize me after six weeks of this, but no. Every day, "Excuse me Miss, ... " ugh.

Hmmm.... that's all I got for now. More soon. Promise.

Weekends

Hey, who's for an upbeat, light-hearted post?  

So, I blogged about my first weekend, when we went to Sacsayhuaman.

People in the house go on weekend trips all the time. They go to Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu, Arequipa, various villages in the Sacred Valley, random ruins near the city, etc. The list is long, but I'll tell you about where all I've been. 

My second weekend here, Holly, Katie, Audrey and I (the same group as my first weekend adventure) went to Pisaq. Pisaq is a town in the Sacred Valley, about an hour from here. We took the bus which was horribly interesting. Audrey was vomiting on by a small motion sick peruvian child. On, Sundays in Pisaq, there is a huge market set up for the tourists that sells all the same touristy stuff that is sold in Cusco plus maybe a little more for about the same price as stuff in Cusco, or maybe a little more. We perused the market for a while and then had lunch at a cute little restaurant. After lunch we went to climb up to the ruins. It was absolutely gorgeous. Check out my pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/elliemae27 ! We were climbing in the heat of the day and Holly and Katie are in better shape than me and soon left me behind. The climb was really hard and I thought I was going to die. Actually, funny story, the patrol guy thought so too! I was really really tired and so when I found a match of shade, I sat down for a minute. Well, a minute turned into several and I fell asleep. I was woken up by a near frantic Peruvian patrol man, who was sure something horrible had happened to me. Possibly his worse nightmare - finding a dead american teenager. Poor guy. Anyway, I survived the hike, but decided I have seen enough mountain top ruins for this trip.

There are a lot of parties here. Birthday Parties, Graduation Parties, Last Night in Cusco Parties, First Night in Cusco Parties, Haven't Been to a Party in a While Parties... the list goes on... anyway... parties can be fun, in moderation. There is always a party you can go to on the weekends. Or during the week, actually.

I've gone to several museums in town. They're interesting. There's an unfortunate amount of broken pottery on display, but a sizable collection of mummies and skulls makes up for it, in my opinion.

I've also been to Ollantaytambo. Its very similar to Pisaq. Forgot my camera though, so no pictures. Sorry.

My Average Week

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't been blogging. I have a very long list of excuses... but I'll spare you those. Please just accept my sincerest apology and keep reading! Ok, I've been in Peru for six weeks now. Crazy, huh? Half of my time here is gone. Well, anyway, I've settled into a pretty sweet routine here and its gonna be pretty boring for me to blog about and for you to read, but the masses are curious, so here we go... During the week I get up at eight and take a shower, get dressed, put on sunscreen, grab a quick breakfast if I have time, and leave the house by nine. I get to my project and attempt to have English Class with the girls. Unfortunately they have become more and more comfortable with me to the point that they fine with telling me they're not interested in what I'm trying to teach them and that they'd rather go knit. I tried bribing them with the hard candy from my lunch but that ultimately failed. Class deteriorated little by little over the weeks until this last week we didn't even try since it was Katie's last week and we didn't feel like fighting them. After class we would usually play a game or talk while the girls knitted or help out in the kitchen, so yeah, that's all we did last week. Honestly, I feel completely useless here and its horribly depressing. For the first time in a long time I am not needed at all. No one here needs me for anything or will be in the least bit affected by my departure. I've never realized how much I need to feel needed to be happy. It's such a horrible conclusion to come to; I'm crying as I type this. How can I be so shallow as to find such little meaning in my day to day? I hate that I can't just be happy being me, just living. Why do I feel I must have someone or something depending on me to be fulfilled? I've been looking back on all the people I've ever help. All the good things I've ever done. Was I only motivated by some messed up scheme to feel needed? How can my self worth be so wrapped up in how many people need me? How has my self image depreciated so much in the last six weeks, just from not being needed? I've been questioning why I even decided to come here. Was my motivation to find a place where I'd be intensely needed? Is that my goal in wanting to work with a relief and development organization after college? Being the shiny glowing answer to everyone's prayers? Am I going into this field because I feel called to service in third world countries and God has laid many development based issues on my heart or because it's a way to make sure I'll always feel needed? I've been so ridiculously excited the last few months about going to college and following God's will and everything felt so right, so perfect, so meant to be. I was so happy that I had finally got it all right. But now I'm so horribly discouraged. I've been reading my bible until it's soaked with tears. I get back to the house after class and say I'm going to take a nap, but I really just lay down and sob into my pillow until I fall asleep. Last Friday was horrible. I said I had a headache and went home early and skipped class so I could curl up in a little ball and cry myself to sleep again. I've been really anti-social and standoffish the last week or so and I've been trying to force myself to keep smiling and not turn down every activity offer, but its hard.

Yesturday I went out for coffee with a lady who is a missionary here with her husband. She was very nice and invited me to have dinner with her and her family at her house next Friday. I'm looking forward to it.

Wow, this blog post did not go in the direction I was expecting. Hmmm. I'm going to go ahead and post it. I'll blog some cute funny happy stories soon. Promise.