Proyecto

Okay so I would right this in español and inglés, but I am writing a really, really lengthy diary in español so I figure from this point I´ll just write here in inglés. Also, it takes forever to write in español first and then translate to inglés and I think the people at the San Blas school do not appreciate how much I use their free internet.

Let´s see...yesterday I had my first Spanish lesson with this woman named Nadia. I think the teachers there aren´t used to getting students who have prior Spanish experience, so she seemed pretty taken aback at my level of fluency (hack hack). Our class was scheduled for four hours which is a really, really long time so we left the school and spent the majority of that time walking around Cusco. She took me to the mercado (market) in La Plaza San Pedro where they sell practically everything. But I assure you, it is not in any way similar to a supermarket. There are a lot of textiles as well as other handicrafts, tons of food (meat, cheese, produce, nuts, prepared food, everything) and jewelry. Everything is out in the open and every vendor is yelling one-hundred percent of the time to get you to come over and see what they have for sale. It´s a bit uncomfortable because almost everyone singles me out for being gringa and says "Señorita, ven acá...tengo bolsos y camisas y puedo ofrecerte un precio muy barato" y ya... The same thing happens when I walk in the street. I can´t walk twenty feet without someone offering me some sort of doll or postcard or massage or something. It´s really, really strange. My teacher and the people in the family told me a lot about bricheros, who are young Peruvians who try to take advantage of tourists in order to get money or go to the US or Europe. Apparently the majority of them come from Lima, where racism is extremely pervasive. So they´ve all grown up with the idea that the only way to really be successful is to change their race, so they essentially try to seduce white tourists so they can have more gringo looking children. Naturally they come to Cusco because this is a tourist hot-spot. The whole thing is very, very creepy. But at least I have been sufficiently warned of this and so will definitely be keeping my eyes open.

Anyway, my teacher told me that I should ask my family where to catch a bus near their house to take me to my project, which I did. I went to the "bus stop" (aka any random spot on the street where you flag down a bus) and waited for one labeled Pachacútec. There were several, but they were all overflowing with people, so I decided it would just be easier to walk to La Plaza de Armas (which took an hour) and take a taxi. Since I didn´t really know where I was going anyway, I figured that I could just rely on the taxista to get me there. Except, that´s not at all what happened. He dropped me off the Avenida Grau on the 400 block, but the building I needed to find was nowhere in sight. So I wandered around for awhile, unable to find this location, and stopping people every so often to ask for help. Unfortunately, everyone told me something different and I ended up wandering around for an hour and a half or so, totally disoriented and emotional because I was so embarrassed for being so late. I tried to call the director of my project, but I talked for about thirty seconds before my money ran out at a pay phone. Wonderful. Finally I just decided to take a bus back to my house. The thing is, I am about half a meter taller than your average cuzqueño, so standing on this bus was an absolute nightmare. At this point I was already disoriented and upset, so it didn´t really help that I had no idea what I was doing or where to get off. Luckily I told this woman where I was going and she told me where to get off. Fortunately the bus dropped me off really, really close to my house. When I got there, my señora and her grandson Mauricio were leaving so he could go to math class. I told her what happened and she told me she would come with me to find this place. We took a bus and it dropped us off right in front of the building. If I had walked maybe half a block more, I would have found it. It was really frustrating though because here is this building with the number 433 in the 1000 block. Ugh. Anyway, I was roughly two hours late but luckily the director was still there so she and I took a taxi to the other location. The whole time I was there I felt really, really uncomfortable. First of all, the first thing she said to me was "Be careful with your money" because apparently a lot of the girls have pretty deft fingers. Then, I walk in and they´re all making cards for Mothers´Day...except they´re orphans. The whole thing kind of made me sick to my stomach because I felt like I was taking part in this sick, sadistic joke.

Anyway, today I go back and hopefully it will be better. I´m going to try to see if I can work the boys in the mornings when I don´t have class. At least now I know how to get there...

Take care everyone-
Adrien