jueves, 10 de febrero de 2011

Top 5 Reasons I’m Made for Maca, Peru and Top 5 I’m Portland, Oregon (All American) Baby

Okay, you are not supposed to compare cultures. You are supposed to be sensitive and acknowledge that one is not “better” but rather, simply “different”. This ísn´t a comparison...it´s simply the top 5 things I was just tickled pink with about my town and the things I really miss in Portland. These things are not universal to all of the US or all of Peru but are more town and city specific.

Side Peruvian:

1. We eat soup for breakfast. This is something as I kid I always did and my family treated me as if this behavior was weird. When other kids were searching for the box of cereal that sounded appetizing, I was reading the Campbell’s soup labels to decide if it would be vegetable or chicken noodle. Well, years later I now know it’s completely normal and eat soup almost every day. It’s like my host family and I were meant to eat soup together.

2. Dancing…Sorry fellow Americans but most people over yonder act as if going dancing requires a lot of motivation and effort and say they like it but never usually seem like they are in the mood to go (except me of course). This is probably exacerbated by the fact in Portland people love their microbrews, their pubs, their chill scenes…which are nice as well too. But, I love dancing and I love dancing all night long- whether it’s in my little town or in the city. It just makes me feel so good. So being expected to a cut some rug EVERY time you have any sort of social reunion is like a breath of fresh air to me.

3. Fresh food- That’s right. It doesn’t come in a can. It takes time to make and the ingredients are fresh. This fresh food can come in the form of my breakfast soup, or my homemade, picked from our farm, peas or beans or corn, or our family’s homemade quinoa bread. I also pick fresh mint from a stream by one of our farms and then make tea out of it. How cool is that?! But the other cool thing is you can head into the city and the food there is not processed or heavy either.

4. People not being so uptight- In the US that you can offend anyone with potentially anything you say. And you can sue for almost about the same. It is good to a certain point but we take it to a new level of silliness and unnecessarily tiptoeing. Bureaucracy Peru has but thankfully the political correctness wave has yet to hit.

5. Traditions and history- How cool to have a bit of history in present day?! My family still cooks over wood sometimes (I baked three cakes in a wood burning oven even!), they wear traditional dress, they dance traditional dances, they speak Quechua. People are proud of their heritage and it’s easy to see why- it’s beautiful and they are still living part of it. Everyone who gets to experience this thinks it’s breathtaking!

Side American:

1. Beer and wine- Two things I absolutely love and I love these American style. Wine isn’t as common here and you have to watch out because it’s not terribly uncommon to get the semi-sweet kind (blah if you are a purist wine lover!). Beer to me seems expensive (I make a Peruvian salary) and never is cold and isn’t all that great. Forget microbrews…I went to the only one in the country and I give it bad at best. The other volunteers seemed somewhat pleased and I knew they must be accustomed to Coors Light or Natty Ice…definitely not from the finest microbrew city that would be just downright offended by that beer. Can someone please pour a pint of Amnesia and cheers in my behalf?

2. The Peruvian hour- I know I am American because an hour is a set time to me. Here in the city an hour for a social event usually means the other person might arrive 30 minutes late but it could be up to an hour if they are running a little behind. For meetings in my town, they are set to often start at six and then sometimes don’t start until 8:30. Whoa people…that’s my bed time! The only thing that seems to be a real set time is for bus transportation between cities…they will leave you in the dust if you are five minutes late.

3. Heat- I miss heat a lot. I never knew how amazing heat was. I just thought that it was normal. Every night I get into a sleeping bag and then put five heavy blankets on me to duplicate the feeling of heat. For now I am good but I am scared of when dry season (warm days/freezing nights) comes around that I’m going to freeze.

4. Hot water- Okay, most Peruvians do have this but I don’t. I miss this possibly more than heat. Have you thought about how many minutes per day you spend in the shower? What would you do if you no longer have hot water? How long could you go without bathing? Would you rather not bath or would you rather bath in cold water (note point 3 as well)? My minimum is two times per week. A lot of the volunteers only shower once per week. I knew I was going to be dirty in Peace Corps!

5. Internet. I had to wait for transportation (1 hour and 15 minutes) to take a bus ( hour) to walk to the internet (5 minutes) to wait for this page to load (5 minutes) to post this. Tell me that wouldn’t get old…

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