unrest in cajamarca: CONGA NO VA!

UPDATE!!!! there is unrest in cajamarca!!

 sorry i dont have fun stuff for you guys, but this is exciting! 

so the mines, the conga no va- graffitied all over the place in cajamarca... ill explain.

there is a new mine called CONGA that was was going to be opened in dec. but the ppl went on strike bc they were going to blow up 4 of the lakes to open the mine, but cajamarca is an agricultural town- the economy, everything. so the ppl need the water from the lakes to live off of, go figure. so the strike in dec lasted for 11 days. there was NO transportation at all. no busses, no combis, no taxis. no food came in or out, and thats how these ppl live. food prices escalated and all the stores were empty. liz and miguel (my current host fam) had to go somewhere so they hiked for forever past cajamarca into the mountains to some secret place w a car, and the guy took all sorts of back roads and when they got out they had to jump out of the car! baha! so anyways, during a strike its not so safe for the white ppl bc if you are white here it means you work in the mines. and they throw rocks at you. (which to me seems kind of ironic.. baha bc like ppl that work in the mines are covered in black soot or dirt or whatever it is...) anyways, there is supposed to be a HUGE strike in cajamarca starting tomorrow. 

this one is hard to see, but its a cool pic. it says CONGA NO VA with a fist. pretty cool...

so the strike.... no busses, no taxis, etc. so hecka good thing im in banos for the week (the other interns are on their way back from cuzco right now). the busses wont be running but i wont need to go anywhere (on strike days there is no bichito). this strike is for an indefinite amount of time, so nobody knows how long it will last. could be super long, quien sabe? basically until there is no food and ppl are getting hurt... or until the gov cracks. which will be nearly impossible this time bc apparently when ollanta (the prez of peru) was elected he said he would protect the lakes, but he has gone back on his word and the people are furious. this is why: the mine makes 5.5 million daily (errrday- tanner) and theyve given a huge amount, maybe like 19 million to the prez as a gift, and apparently hes already spent it. so he is now siding with the mines. neither side will budge, so it could get pretty dangerous. im heading back to cajamarca shortly to go get all of our stuff (even if the strike ends soon, its not going to be safe for us gringos. especially if the mines win) and we are just going to hunker down in banos until we can get out. then im planning on finishing out my internship in trujillo. it just seems like a good idea to leave. liz said if im registered w the US state department of travel (i dont remember what its called), if worst comes to worst and we cant get out, the US can fly in w helicopters and can come pick me up! baha, i dont think it will get that bad, but how cool would that be??! anyways, no need to worry, i should be fine and i feel safe w miguel here. he can protect us. im not worried. 

i just heard a radio or something blasting out the window, obviously protesting. i heard something about ollanta, water, CONGA NO VA! sounds about right. ill keep you guys posted! 

also, there is no internet in banos unless we go to mamitas, so yall might not hear from me in a while. who knows how long this strike will last... keep me in your prayers! love you guys!

besitos!

jilly :)

5/9 wednesday

today (well last night i fell asleep w my headphones in, which happened to be plugged into my computer.) so i woke up to the sound of skype messages and to my pleasant surprise it was JULIA!!! so i went up on the roof and we skyped and it was awesome!!! and i love her!! best way to wake up ever!

then, i braved another cold shower. i decided to jump rope first to get the blood pumping, so you know, maybe it wouldnt be as cold. yeah that helped for maybe a split second! baha, then it felt especially cold this morning. but i didnt get hypothermia, so today will be a good day! and i started off skyping w julia, so its already a wonderful day!!also, i never thought i would be so happy to use deodorant, but i pulled it out today and i was like, hello my love! bahaaa, im so pathetic!

the bichito was good today! milagros was lovin on me like crazy and it was fun! also, for donde esta, the ppl out here, they say don-ta? and they pronounce the double l sound weirdly. like for the word ella, they pronounce it like eL-ya. and amarillo is amariLL-yo. super weird. anyways, i read with diego today, then we did a puzzle. then i read with esmerelda! after most of the kids left, there were about 4 lil girls left and 1 lil boy.  we tickled and chased the kids around and it was a blast!!

after el bichito we went to the supermercado in banos to get some stuff (i got PRINGLES! and laundry detergent, haha) and we saw inca kola zero!! ----------->

crazy! i thought about trying it, but i figured all the flavor prob comes f the sugar, so i decided not to risk it! haha! then we passed by some artesanias and i bought some cool earrings and a couple of cool souvenirs for ppl :). 

its not safe at night in cajamarca (two white girls...), so we try to be in by dark. haha today it was like a race to make it home before the sun went down! i legit felt like will smith on i am legend!! haha!

5/10 thursday

so alyson was super sick today. she woke up w just kind of a cold, but then like an hour later she threw up and felt like she was going to pass out. she was getting worse so sandro gave her a blessing. i decided to stay home w her today bc she cant even process spanish right now, to be honest she cant really do anything at all, not to mention she looks terrible and im not about to leave her here by herself. even if sandro is here, bc she had no idea what he was saying and if she needs anything im not about to let her try and climb any stairs. so i got to play doctor for the day. porecita! which is also a bummer bc it was a super important day for us to be at el bichito bc we are going to start teaching english and computer classes at the school in puylucana, so we were supposed to meet up w the director to discuss lesson plans, etc. but i wasnt about to leave alyson alone. not when she looked this terrible. so thats what i did all day. basically we cant go anywhere alone, but i went to get us some bread on the corner in the morning and it was super liberating just being on my own! i loved it!

haha, then i made avena (oatmeal) for alyson and that was somethin else! its way different here, lemme tell ya! and it did not look like oatmeal when i got done w it! baha! alyson liked it tho, and i told her she must be sick!!

later we watched some movie w brad pitt in it, but it was from the 90's and his hair looked awful, so i lost interest and fell asleep. haha! at some point during the day i went upstairs and the fam was having some green rice stuff for lunch and invited us up! so we ate some soggy rice soup stuff (it was actually pretty good) and some green rice stuff. then, since molly's bday was the next day, we had some dulce thats super traditional in peru. it was super sweet but good. they eat SO MUCH here. they just always give us SO much food!

so night rolls around and the ninos, molly and kent, want to play. haha they are so much fun!    

so i play w them, then when its time for them to leave i basically have to shove them out of our room bc they never leave. like we tell them like 30 times and they just flop on the floor and wont budge. i am learning how to be more authoritative with children. you know, and just lay down the law. so we finally get the kids out and sandro yells up to me and tells me i have to call the other interns and get annalees passport info from her, then email eduardo about it. which isnt a big deal, but things like this are tricky down here. so i try to call the other interns (they dont have internet) and i cant figure out how to use the phone. im puting in the right numbers, but some peruvian operator lady was not havin it, so then i ask sandro and he says you cant call a cell phone # from a landline here. at least not his. go figure. and thanks for letting me know. so he says i have to use a payphone. so we go to the panaderia and hit up the payphone and i get the info that i need, then i send an email to eduardo. gah, it was quite a process!

5/11 friday!

we went to banos today for my first HOT SHOWER in a week!!!!! it was awesome! i even washed my hair twice :D. ok banos is (banos del inca) is a small town between cajamarca and el bichito. its where the other interns live (with liz and miguel). it has natural hot springs which have been turned into concrete pools (but they still pour in the natural hot water) and they are fantastic! but basically atahualpa (the incan emperor) would come down to banos to bathe in the hot springs. how cool is that? so we chilled in the hot tub pool things then showered and it was wonderful!

as we were leaving we saw like 40 ppl w ice cream, and the sun was shining, so we figured we should get some too. and they had UVA ICE CREAM!!!! (ALISON!!!) AND COCO!! (mexican coco. like coconut!!) the uva was better in mexico, but it was still sooo good! i closed my eyes and imagined i was in mexico! it was amazing! haha idk what is going on with my hair, but this was a happy moment for me :)

 there was no bichito today bc they were doing mothers day program/presentation things at school! so we got the day off!! :) we went to Santa Apolonia with the other interns!

 its super bomb bc you go up this super steep hill and it looks really european! then there are these really cool circular stairs, which there are alternating sets of concave and convex steps, that lead to a cool looking chapel. off to the right is this beautiful hike thing which leads up to atahualpas throne!!!! atahualpas throne!! so cool! so sooo cool! dude if i was atahualpa, i would have sat up there too! it overlooks all of cajamarca! and it has a sun etched into it. which is cool bc he was like the sun-god emperor or something. 

           

 <---- atahualpas throne! so so cool!

 

so then, oooh i bought some super cute headbands and a cool purse too! i LOVE love love the textiles here (its probably not healthy). i just freak out when i see them!! bahaa!! anyways, so there is this like window restaurant (literally it is a window and its really cool) on that steep hill street and we got burgers there. and inca kola!! and it was delish!! we went and ate in some park thing, then headed home :). 

once we got home, we basically had to leave for what we thought was a ward talent show. (and we were told that molly and kent were performing) so we go down to sandros shop and ricardo showed up for his english lesson! so we got to speak w him in english and teach him some stuff. it was actually kind of cool bc we kind of got to know him in english!

so then we head to the church totally expecting it to be a talent show. baha not on your life! it was this (SUPER) weird mothers day program. that lasted for hours and hours. the kids got up and sang, then the ym/yw got up and did a super long (but cute) skit. then the moms got up and by that time my brain was fried and i could not tell what the heck was going on. 

                (oh yeah, i forgot! before this fiasco started, we met mercedes. she is probably the coolest lady we have met here. besides mamita. her husband speaks quetchua and her kids can sing the national anthem in quetchua. she told us her whole life story (thats the thing about ppl here. they are like, if you need anything, let me know. then they give you their address and tell you anything and everything there is to know about themselves) so she was telling us about these cool museums in cajamarca and these ppl that can give us the hookup. it was awesome...)

                so yeah, back to the show, thing, so the mothers do some sort of presentation and im like, ok finally its over. nope. they are forced to stand there while the mic goes around and the kids say nice things to their mom. meanwhile there is some obnoxious (and loud) strange latino music in the background being played on a tv right beside the kids (sometimes i do not understand these people). so that FINALLY ends and im like hallelujah lets get outta here! wrong. then its the husbands turn to get up and say something about their wives. SUPER awkward. im like, shouldnt this be done in private? nope. so when that FINALLY ends, we are hoping to leave but, wrong again. everyone had to go up and hug/kiss all of the moms on stage (you know, the besitos on the cheek..). so we are like aww, thats sweet... then sandro tells us we have to get up there. one of the most awkward experiences of my life. hands down. i just give them a kiss and say feliz dia. and it was weird to say the least. i gave patty a big hug bc she is sandros wife, but yeah. so then we are like, ok time to head out right?  wrong again. they brought out chica morada and started passing it out. and we are just sitting their awkwardly and ask sandro if we should help. so we go in the kitchen and start filling up cups full of chicha morada till its gone. we are forced to eat some rolls filled w chicken salad (yes, the church is the same everywhere) and then we have to help serve the cake. and FINALLY we have a closing prayer! FINALLY! then, it was the fastest clean up ive ever seen in my life! all the chairs were put away in probably literally 3 mins and ppl were sweeping instantly. then we FINALLY left!! what a night!

ill have more for you guys soon. sorry, the internet here cant handle much so everything takes like 30 years to upload! miss yall!

besitos, 

jilly :)

se quema el papa!

 5/4 friday!

 HIIIII!! 

what a day!!! so i woke up at like 5 somethin on this never ending bus ride. the mountains were gorgeous and we just kept going up and up for forever! so we arrive in cajamarca at 8am (longest bus ride of my life) and we go straight to Sandro's place (my new home!) Peru is absolutely beautiful and i love it already!

i live in an apt type building on a super busy street. we have a lil midget door, which is fun and we live on the second floor while the rest of the family lives on the third and fourth floors (the fourth floor is also the roof). Sandro was giving us a tour of the place. 

this is the bano (well part of it). no hot water. ever. so you can eliminate the hope of me ever smelling good here. maybe it will ward off creeps. haha! so in the bathroom there is also a sink where we do our laundry. yeppp, its going to be quite the experience. and there is a "window" (hole in the wall) in the bathroom above the sink and you can hear everything thats going on outside, so thats fun too. we hang our laundry on clotheslines on the roof. which is pretty awesome. and the view is spectacular! there is a soccer field below and the mountains are gorgeous!

so we "unpack" and head over to the bichito! i LOVE the ninos!!! we started a library/rewards system with the books we brought down to peru. it was super chaotic! we had books and kids everywhere, but it was good to see their enthusiasm and get them excited about reading! i read books w a few of the kids, including the sweetest girl ever named Aurora!

 

Sandro's brother in law came to the bichito and told us he can basically get us to MACHU PICCHU for like less than half the price! hes got connections all over cuzco!! and it was interesting bc it was my first day and the other interns used me as a translator for them. alyson (my awesome roommate) has never been out of the country before and hasnt had a million spanish classes, neither have the other interns, so they totally used me as a translator. which was kind of awesome and it actually asnt that bad. ive kind of taken alyson under my wing. its good bc it kind of makes me take more initiative in making sure im paying attention and doing my best to kind of take care of her and stuff. and i feel like it makes me more responsible, which is good.

so then we go home and ricardo (one of Sandro's friends) is moving to australia and wants to practice english w us! so we are going do lessons w him every week. we keep getting opportunities like crazy to help people. they just keep popping up left and right, and i am trying to be selfless and more service oriented, so this is good.

so that night, we went to the quinde (not kinder, or kinde... baha) to buy an adaptor so i can charge my computer. and also my hairdryer wont work here either, even w the adaptor... go figure. shouldnt have even brought it...anyways so i bought an adaptor, a 3 Liter bottle of INCA KOLA (of course), peanut butter, and yogurt (comes in a half gallon milk carton...). and we were STARVING at this point, so alyson and i treated Sandro to dinner bc he is just the sweetest ever. we went to a place in the quinde (its like a mall) called SUPER CHICKEN. bahaa! and we ate pollo a la brasa w chicha morada. ahhhhh soooo gooood!

so we get back home and there is no water in the bathroom (come to find out later that that is a daily occurance. so we have to store water if we want to wash our face or brush our teeth at night). so im like, ok, whatever. im exhausted at this point (havent slept in like 2 days and im running on pure excitement and adrenaline) so im just like, whatever and go to bed. and i basically passed out.

its surprising what i can live without. like i brought only ONLY 3 pairs of shoes (and flip flops, but they broke, so the are useless to me now except for i can use them for killing flies, baha eww) and i dont have very many clothes or anything. we hardly use much of anything, to be honest. this is going to be a super humbling experience, i can tell already.

5/5 Saturday

i woke up and headed to the shower. keep in mind there is no hot water here. and its "winter" and it actually gets pretty cold at night, so you can imagine how FRIGID the water is in the morning. so im showering and trying to be positive, but the whole time im chanting pep talks to myself. as in "im thankful for water. im thankful for water..." over and over. and that wasnt helping. so i started thinkng about ok, i can do hard things. at this point my head feels frozen and im like, i just gotta get thru this shower. i literally told myself, if i can write a 15 page senior thesis, i can take a cold shower. baha!

we went and bought delicious pan on our way to have some fun adventures, and the lady didnt give me all my change. 2 people hunted me down and told me to go back to the panaderia!!! for like 20 cents!!!! that says a lot about the people here. so cool . also this lady came up to me and told me to put my camera away so it wouldnt get stolen.

then we went to Otuzco and Llancanora!!

Otuzco

ventanillas (windows) de otuzco. this place was really cool! its basically like where they kept dead people... i dont really know. but we go and there are like tiny kids who beg for the chance to explain the historical significance, etc for money. they beg and beg. we ended up giving them candy tho. 

and ok, this was really cool bc pedro is from around here, and he was showing us this cool purple dye stuff that you squeeze out of these lil powdered jelly donut looking things. he said they used them to paint their lips, etc, and we found out later that they are bugs. after i squeezed one on my lip. 

baha then these ladies were like, SUPER adamant about selling "tuna" to us. they were like yelling at us. tuna is like a fruit that grows on the cactus, and apparently flowers grow out of that. and it was really tasty. so i guess ive eaten cactus...flower...

and also, baha i guess you are what you eat! because we were crouching down to take a pic by this plant and i totally didnt see this one cactus.... and i got CACTUS BUTT!! (lion king anyone?) bahaaa it was HILARIOUS!! bahaaa!

so then we go get some declious food!! yaaaa! and chicha morada!! (this purple drink that they get from purple corn. sounds gross but its phenomenal). 

speaking of sounds gross, we were just outside the restaurant and (yes, they do in fact eat 

plenty of guinea pig here) we saw the lady killing the ginuea pigs!!! right in front of the restaurant!! she had a machete and picked up the guinea pigs. they squealed and squealed and im sure you can imagine what happened next! it was CRAZY! so then we are sitting down to eat, and we can see them skin the guinea pigs from where we are sitting! baha!! so gross! anyways, my lunch was delicious tho! we eat rice 24/7 and a lot of potatoes and chicken.

Llancaora

so then we head to llancanora, which is this beautiful hike which leads to this HUGE waterfall!! (getting excited for iguazu!!!). these pics dont do it justice. 

they have these awesome flowers called zapatas bc they look like shoes!! (check fb for those... someday...). the hike was gorgeous and the pics of the waterfall dont do it justice. oh also i got like 3,000 mosquito bites on my legs and oh yeah i cut my leg open on the bus that morning. it wasnt too bad, i just have a huge scrape on the back of my calf now... (its ok, mom, its not that bad).

this butterfly pic is by far one of my very favorites!!

so then we got home and chilled on the roof (the view is awesome at night) and we met harold (our new brother)!! hes awesome too! the whole fam is! they are so much fun and quite a riot! 

also, that night we realized that we live off of pb and inca kola. oh and pan (bread). bc there is a panaderia across the street. and we are obsessed) 

5/6 SUNDAY

we woke up and were afraid to brave the shower, but alyson and i pep talked each other!

church!

 there are not very many people in our ward! haha! but we love it already! it was fast sunday, so alyson and i bore our testimonies! we met the missionaries and one of them was born in claremore! random!! the RS prez was super excited to give us visiting teachees too! haha! she got us right away! and alyson plays the piano, so one lady named eda and her daughter louisa wants to learn how to play the piano, so alyson is going to give her lessons. i like louisa alot, shes 16 and a lil shy. we are excited to become friends w her! we also feel like we can really help and make a diff here.

so after church we go upstairs to help w almuerzo (lunch, which is their big meal of the day) (which was also delish, btw) and we meet the extended fam (they come over every sunday) and it was awesome! the kids wanted me to teach them english, so we were chillin and i was teaching them words, then we started playing and (alyson passed out on the couch) and i was chasing them around and tickling them and throwing them around in the air, etc. i just love these lil kids!! they are so much fun! and hilarious too! baha :)

so then our family does (oh i should tell you about them). Sandro is the dad. he has a shoe shop underneath our apt, on the first floor, around the corner. Patty is the mom and she is pretty and super funny! Harold, Kent, and Molly are the kids. our adopted hermanos. Harold is 17, Kent is 9, and Molly is turning 8 this week!! exciting!! they are all hilarious! and i love them!!

we had FHE (noche de hogar) bc harold cant be there monday nights. so basically they are just like us! and they have a million copies of the book of Mornon, so yeah, its awesome. so fhe was way good, then molly had the activity. she said she wanted to play "se quema papa" (which quemar means to burn) and kind of patted her dad on the shoulder when she said it. i started crackin up and i was like, WHAAT? and everyone else was just like, ok, lets play. then i realize she said papa, as in potato, not papa, as in father! and i realized we were about to play hot potato, and not something about burning her dad... baha i explained that to everyone and they started crackin up! i had no idea!! the game was hilarious and so much fun! i love this family!

im exhausted and i dont want to get ready for bed bc honestly no vale la pena (oh we dont have water at night) so i have some stashed away, but it takes a TON of work getting ready for bed in my concrete bathroom. and then i have to wake up and brave the frigid (understatement) shower. i shouldnt complain tho...

5/7 Monday!!!

i have now mastered the art of the cold shower. it still sucks but i have a more positive outlook now. (although i still hate it...)

we head back to el bichito and start separating lentejas. then we have lunch (rice and lentils. which was  actually really good, believe it or not). we had a station for reading, homework, and the activity. which was coloring. and i got to be in charge of coloring for the day! which was fun and nice bc i was super tired! haha one of the little boys (Elmer) was telling Milagros (her name means miracles. shes the lil girl who helped me color a few pics) not to talk to the gringos because we are japanese. she was like, no theyre not, theyre from the US, and hes like, no they are from japan and those are the bad gringos! i couldnt even believe he said that!!! haha im like, where are you learning this stuff?!

baha, then Milagros had me read a book about clifford and it was talking about how he didnt want to take a bath. i felt like i related ALL too well, so i HAD to take a pic! it was just too ironic. baha bc alyson and i hate showering here!! haha, we dread it! we are learning to be humble.

so after el bichito alyson and i were dying of thirst and we got some delish pina drinks!! 

then we went to el quinde (we figured out how to get there and went all by ourselves!!). we got some DELISH ice cream!! baha they had one flavor called "pushgay". BAHAHAAA! and we ate it!!! it was way good! and we had some pizza hut and tried some weird donut cracker things... and we saw the avengers!!! in spanish! haha that was quite the experience!

5/8 Tuesday

Alyson was sick today, so we didnt go to el bichito. i stayed here bc we didnt really think it was a good idea for me to go alone. i have to pass through the busy market on my way to the bus stop and its kind of far, so we just figured we probably shoudnt risk anything. so i got the day off and basically slept for most of the day, which was desperately needed!!  haha i guess i fell asleep w my headphones in, which were connected to my laptop, and i woke up to some skype call from some person named "i want to talk to you". if thats not a creepy way to wake up from a nap, i dont know what is...

i also helped molly study english bc she has a test tomorrow! baha and we played w molly and kent agin and we were crackin up!! i love these kids! oh, and we went to the panaderia. twice... :) this pic = heaven. cant get enough of either.

i forgot to fill up my water (in the bathroom) so i only had enough water tonight to either brush my teeth or wash my face. i chose teeth, hands down. but i feel gross. dont judge me.

aside from the concrete bano situation, im loving peru and im learning tons! i love the people and my bichitos and the busses and the food and everything!! it takes like 5-10 mins, no joke to upload 1 pic because the internet is so slow, but someday i will add more to fb!! miss you guys!!

besos!!

jill :)